What’s next for Charlotte 49ers’ football program? Five key offseason questions

The 2025 season was one to forget for the Charlotte 49ers.

Head coach Tim Albin is slated to return for his second season in 2026, when the 49ers’ football program will be making wholesale changes across the board.

Charlotte scored just one win on the season, failing to beat an FBS opponent, going winless in the American Conference, and suffering double-digit defeats in all 11 of its losses. This program is in desperate need of a talent influx, and amid an ongoing search for a new athletic director, the 49ers are hopeful that Albin can get this team back in contention for a bowl game for the first time since 2019.

Here are five burning questions entering Albin’s first full offseason with the program.

Can Albin turn Charlotte around?

Albin has engineered two program turnarounds in his head coaching career, starting with Northwestern Oklahoma State (1997-99) and most recently with Ohio (2021-24). In his first season at both stops, Albin posted 5-5 and 3-9 records, respectively. While his 1-11 start at Charlotte poses undoubtedly a bigger challenge for the 60-year-old coach, the results that follow make him the most qualified coach Charlotte has had in the program’s sub-14-year tenure.

After the first season struggles, Albin posted a combined 50-13 record spanning both previous stops. Those seasons include a 1999 NAIA football national championship (NW Oklahoma State), a 2024 MAC championship, and three coach of the year awards.

And he’ll be relying on those experiences in year two with the 49ers.

“I’m going to trust what I’ve done in the past. That’s hard work. We’ve got to find talent, I’m just going to say it,” Albin said. “We’re all good coaches. You’re going to have some bad calls, but at the end of the day, talent wins games.”

While injuries plagued this season’s team (starting quarterback Conner Harrell, center Jonny King, edge DJ Burgess, running back Henry Rutledge, among others), this roster was not talented enough to compete in the conference.

And it didn’t help that Charlotte faced the toughest schedule in the program’s history.

Needing an influx of talent, the 49ers must shell out the cash when the transfer portal window opens on Jan. 2, 2026, leading to the most important question surrounding Charlotte’s football program.

How much NIL does Charlotte have?

In a positive turn of events, the 49ers have decided to go public with their NIL funding goals. As of Tuesday, Charlotte had raised upwards of $3.3 million toward its $5 million goal, which it hopes to reach by Jan. 1, 2026.

But the $5 million goal isn’t just for roster construction; it also includes “program upgrades,” which include such items as staff salaries, Albin told The Charlotte Observer.

Approaching two months since firing athletic director Mike Hill, without a clear timeline for the next hire, the 49ers have been full speed ahead on the fundraising trail. And next season’s roster valuation will double and potentially triple the 2025 total of $1.4 million.

While some quarterbacks in the Power Four make upwards of $1.4 million individually, Charlotte now must sift through its exit meetings, evaluate the transfer portal entries, and decide on the most important position on the field — quarterback.

Is next season’s quarterback on the roster?

Injuries and inconsistencies forced Albin to start three different quarterbacks in 2025. Conner Harrell started the first four games before being sidelined for the remainder of the season with a knee injury, forcing Grayson Loftis and Zach Wilcke into the lineup for much of American Conference play. All three quarterbacks, plus true freshman Luke McNulty, have eligibility remaining. The question is — does Albin want them back?

Harrell was the most efficient of the three QBs, completing 66.7% of his passes for 737 yards and six touchdowns. However, he was turnover-prone in the 14 quarters of football before his injury. Harrell was the 49ers’ best option, despite the play-calling failing to capitalize on his strengths.

Loftis was up and down in relief of Harrell, playing his best game of the season against North Texas. But the turnovers, bad play-calling (more on that later), lack of a running game (81.8 rushing yards per game; worst in American), and troublesome offensive line amounted to a 49ers’ offense that scored just 14.3 points per game.

When asked if Albin would address the signal-caller position in the portal, he said every position would be evaluated.

“That will be a question for later. I’m going to talk to the offensive staff. We know we have a lot of work to do on the offense,” said Albin. “It was tough to evaluate some things with so many new faces in there. I’ve gone through seasons with injuries, but probably nothing like I’ve gone through here coming down the stretch. We’re going to look at all positions.”

Will there be an offensive play-caller change?

Charlotte’s offense was among the worst in the FBS in 2025, with the team averaging just 14.3 points and 285.8 yards per game. Both statistics place the 49ers in the bottom five nationally among FBS schools.

And while injuries plagued the offense’s productivity, the play-calling from Todd Fitch didn’t help.

The 49ers scored on their opening drive just once all season (a field goal against Rice). Against FBS competition, the 49ers failed to score a touchdown on a scripted drive (opening drive or first drive out of the half) all season. And three-and-outs were extremely common, happening on 31% of Charlotte’s drives — meaning that nearly 1/3 of the 49ers’ drives ended in three plays.

Even when the 49ers were able to sustain a drive and enter the red zone, the production in scoring position was the worst in the American. Charlotte scored touchdowns on just 13 of its 29 red-zone drives (44.8%) and led the Conference in red-zone turnovers (9).

Despite engineering the worst offensive season in the program’s history, Albin hopes the improved talent will cure the struggles on offense under Fitch.

“We took steps, but not enough to overcome some areas we’re deficient in,” Albin said. “Going through this, I’m going to keep an open mind on some things we need to do differently. But I don’t think we’ve got to do a lot of things, other than find some talent and get them in here with our guys who return.”

The last time Fitch called the plays (2020 as offensive coordinator at Vanderbilt), the Commodores averaged 14.6 points per game, .2 points per game better than the 2025 season with the 49ers.

If Fitch does return next season, Charlotte’s offense must take a major jump in the creativity department after watching a stale product against FBS competition.

Recruiting & returnees to prioritize?

With 26 seniors graduating and an exodus expcted through the transfer portal, Charlotte’s roster is going to look completely different in 2026. After the on-field product resulting in just one win in 2025, that’s a good thing.

But there are a few players on both sides of the ball that the 49ers should prioritize retaining.

Offense: WR Javen Nicholas (led the team with 60 catches for 740 yards and five touchdowns), WR Derrick Eley (promising young receiver with a ton of upside), OG Mo Clipper Jr. (consistently praised by Albin in 2025).

Defense: LB Kadin Schmitz (second on team with 65 total tackles, 2 interceptions), S Ja’Qurious Conley (third on the team with 64 tackles, led team with 3 interceptions), edge Curtis Simpson (2.5 sacks as a freshman), DL Yamil Talib (freshman linemen with high upside).

There are a handful of other players who performed well in spurts and showed flashes, but the inconsistent lineups impact evaluations.

Albin conducted exit meetings with his players and staff on Monday, and detailed how he’ll move forward with roster construction over the next six weeks (until the portal closes on Jan. 16, 2026.

“As a staff, we recruit every day. We have our 18 kids committed and now we’re looking at (junior college). Then we’ll focus on the portal. FCS players will get in, and you can’t contact them until (the portal) opens. We’ll have exit meetings with our players and position coaches on Monday. We’ll be full speed on the recruiting piece of this,” Albin said. “We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to work on. This is going to be the most important six weeks of my career. This roster piece. With one (transfer portal) window.

“As a program, you want to be 60% developmental and 40% (junior college) or transfer portal. I want to be a developmental program, but if you lose a bunch of guys in the portal, you can’t replace them with just high school kids,” Albin continued. “It will be an important eight weeks when we get back in the second semester, with changing some body types. We want to get to where UTSA is, we want to get to where Tulane is. They’re just bigger bodies. We’ve got to start there.”

After three straight winning seasons at Ohio, it was clear that this year was tough on Albin — especially with Hill being fired mid-season. But as Charlotte searches for its next athletic director, Albin plans to return next season.

“Absolutely, as long as they’ll have me. My wife and I, we love Charlotte. I believe in this university and its leadership. We have the best fan base in our league. I believe that,” said Albin. “It’s my job, and I haven’t done a very good job. We have got to get (the fans) something to cheer for.”