Charlotte 49ers pummeled again, this time by American foe Army. What we learned

Before the season, Tim Albin said the Charlotte 49ers could be a good football team — he just didn’t know when.

Now midway through the season, coming off their fifth double-digit loss in six games, 24-7 at the hands of Army, chances are becoming slim that Charlotte (1-5, 0-3 American) fans will see a winning product again in 2025.

Saturday’s matchup at West Point showed more of the same from the first three American Conference games — minor glimpses of success, overshadowed by lack of execution, self-inflicted mistakes, and better teams handling business.

Despite the second-half resurgence last week, scoring a season-high 24 points against an FBS program with third-string quarterback Zach Wilcke at the helm, the 49ers looked more like themselves on Saturday afternoon against the Black Knights.

Army’s (3-3, 2-2 American) offense wasted no time scoring the game’s first points, taking its opening drive 80 yards in just nine plays to kick off the onslaught. Black Knights quarterback Cale Hellums wasn’t effective through the air but shredded the 49ers’ defense for 143 yards and two touchdowns with his legs. Hellums wasted no time putting Army in scoring position on its opening drive, scampering 50 yards and scoring the game’s first points on the subsequent play.

Charlotte’s lone touchdown of the game came with eight seconds left on the clock, preventing what would have been its first time being shut out since 2023 under Biff Poggi.

Here is what we learned from Charlotte’s fifth loss in six games.

Albin aggressive on fourth down but not enough

Understanding that possessions were limited against Army’s triple-option offense, Albin showed an aggressive fourth-down mentality, which we hadn’t seen prior in his first five games at Charlotte. Despite multiple fourth-and-short situations early in the action, the 49ers’ play calls didn’t match the situations, failing to convert — and Army continued to capitalize.

Charlotte’s offense posted two drives of 11 or more plays, both of which resulted in less than 30 yards gained and zero points. The 49ers totaled 178 yards (110 passing and 68 rushing), continued their trend of turning the ball over in every game this season (Rod Gainey Jr. fumble), and converted just five of their 14 third-down attempts.

It’s just bad offense, and while Charlotte certainly has a talent deficit against much of the American Conference, the play calling is not doing the team any favors.

But Albin doesn’t plan on making any changes in that department, and Todd Fitch will continue calling the offense.

“No, absolutely not,” Albin said with a laugh when asked about a potential play-calling change. “Absolutely not.”

Charlotte 49ers riddled with injuries

Entering Saturday’s game, Charlotte was missing 18 players, with 13 of those missing the remainder of the season because of injury. Injuries at the quarterback position have been common for Charlotte through the years, and you can’t forget the infamous “eight or nine starters missing” line ahead of the 2024 season opener.

But this year is different, leading to the question: How is this happening so frequently? Is it the training staff, offseason training program, practice-to-rest ratio, or just bad luck?

Albin says the 49ers are doing everything they can to keep their players healthy.

“As the coach, you’re always looking at the injuries and what might be the cause. Sometimes it’s as simple as someone falling on someone. I’ve been through this before, where you look at how you’re training in the offseason,” said Albin. “We’ll look at everything, as we always do. There’s nothing right now that stands out with the injuries that we got. We certainly have eyes on it, and if there’s something we have to do differently, we certainly will to give the best chances to our athletes.”

Will the Charlotte 49ers win another game?

Regardless of who is playing quarterback, the Charlotte 49ers’ offense has been lifeless against FBS competition this season. It doesn’t help that Albin is missing his starting quarterback Conner Harrell for the year, as well as other key players on the offense.

Last week, Wilcke’s performance against South Florida provided optimism. But after five drives, 72 total yards, two turnovers on downs, and three punts, Albin put Grayson Loftis in after benching him last week — to no avail.

Wilcke finished the action 8 of 14 for 42 yards, and Loftis (mainly garbage time) finished the game, completing eight of his 12 passes for 68 yards and a touchdown — scoring with eight seconds left in the game. There will be a quarterback battle again moving forward, according to Albin.

“We’ll see who practices better. We’ll see where the game plan takes us,” Albin said of the quarterbacks. “I know we’re going to have to try to simplify some things, so there’s less thinking. We had a couple of missed assignments that we weren’t making in practice. They did it right in practice all week. We’ve got to figure out how to teach them better, so they retain it. I’m certainly not frustrated with their effort. I’m proud of their effort.”

Looking ahead, Charlotte’s remaining opponents include Temple (3-2), North Texas (5-1), at East Carolina (3-3), UTSA (2-3), at No. 10 Georgia (4-1), and at Tulane (5-1).

Getting Temple and UTSA at home, as well as a trip to Greenville, where Charlotte has never lost, keeps hopes of another win alive. But North Texas, Georgia and Tulane will likely be 20-, even 30-plus-point favorites against the 49ers.

Bright spots for Charlotte 49ers

The positives moving forward for Tim Albin and Charlotte:

After forcing four takeaways against South Florida last week, Charlotte’s defense continued to be opportunistic against the Black Knights, with linebacker Kadin Schmitz forcing a first-quarter fumble to set up the offense in plus territory.

Entering Saturday’s game, Charlotte had been penalized nearly eight times (7.8) for over 65 yards per game. The 49ers were penalized just twice — a false start on Kristos Fernandez, who was immediately subbed out of the game, and a facemask on linebacker Gavin Shipman. There were three total penalties accepted in the game.

Charlotte blocked a field goal attempt (down 24-0 with two minutes left) for the first time since Nov. 19, 2022, against Louisiana Tech.

Wideout Kaemen Hunter-Gibson caught the first FBS touchdown of his career in the fourth quarter, on a 16-yard pass from Loftis.

This story was originally published October 11, 2025 at 4:25 PM.