Win and they’re in? Charlotte 49ers bowl situation isn’t as simple as 6 victories

There are plenty of potential distractions this week for the Charlotte 49ers and coach Will Healy elected to meet them head on.

At a team meeting Monday morning, Healy asked this of his team, which faces Marshall on Saturday at Richardson Stadium: “What have you heard? What are you hearing from the outside?”

The answers were plentiful.

▪ Going for a fourth consecutive victory, the 49ers (5-5, 3-3 Conference USA) can become bowl eligible for the first time in program history with a victory over the Thundering Herd (7-3, 5-1). That would give Charlotte the six victories required to become eligible for the post season.

▪ It will be Senior Day, the emotional final home game for Charlotte’s most experienced players, in front of a stadium that might well be filled to capacity.

▪ Charlotte will be facing Marshall defensive coordinator and former 49ers head coach Brad Lambert, who was fired last season after guiding Charlotte’s program for its first six years of existence.

“There are so many positives to the things we talked about,” Healy said. “It was a great conversation to have. We’re not running away from them. But we want to keep in the forefront of our minds that if we don’t get better, we won’t have a shot Saturday.

“But don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about these things; get there and figure out how to answer them. The focus has been good.”

Conference USA has primary tie-ins with five bowls: Bahamas (Dec. 20), New Mexico (Dec. 21), New Orleans (Dec. 21), Tampa’s Bad Boys Mowers Gasparilla (Dec. 23) and Dallas’ SERVPRO First Reminders (Dec. 30). The league has secondary agreements with the Frisco Bowl (Dec. 20) and Independence (Dec. 26).

The league has no shortage of teams that are, and that might become, bowl eligible. Louisiana Tech (8-2), Southern Mississippi (7-3), Ala.-Birmingham (7-3), Florida Atlantic (7-3), Marshall (7-3) and Western Kentucky (6-4) are already there. Charlotte, Florida International (5-5), Texas-San Antonio (4-6) and North Texas (4-6) are close.

So if there are more eligible teams than available bowls, C-USA might have to rely on other conferences not filling their quotas of bowl-eligible teams and providing replacement teams. One national website, for what it’s worth, projects Charlotte playing in the Birmingham Bowl as a replacement for an SEC team.

The 49ers actually have two chances to get to six victories -- they play at Old Dominion (1-9) on Nov. 30 in their regular-season finale.

“We’re very excited,” said 49ers senior linebacker Jeff Gemmell. “We’ve talked about how we’ve got to turn things around and how we can choose to roll over or finish strong. I think we’ve been finishing, but at the end of the season you’ve still got to finish. It’s a constant process.”

LeMay ‘doubtful’ for Marshall

Healy said it’s “doubtful” senior running back Benny LeMay will play against Marshall. LeMay, C-USA’s second-leading rusher (102.8 yards per game), has missed the last two games with an Achilles tendon injury.

“I wish I felt better about it,” Healy said. “I would say it’s doubtful, based on what’s happened the last few days. Maybe I”m being pessimistic about it today so I can be optimistic Saturday. But I wouldn’t expect him to play.”

LeMay didn’t play in victories against Middle Tennessee and Texas-El Paso. He would be replaced Saturday by junior Aaron McAllister, who rushed for 104 yards against Middle Tennessee and 31 against UTEP.

“(LeMay) was progressing going into the UTEP game,” Healy said. “We gave him a bunch of time off during the off week. But I don’t know how quickly that thing’s healing and he doesn’t feel great moving around on it. Our mentality is that Aaron McAllister had better be ready to play. If Benny plays, it’s a bonus. But I’m not counting on it.”

▪ 49ers athletics director Mike Hill said Tuesday that Charlotte’s football game next season at Duke has been moved from Saturday, Sept. 19 to Thursday, Sept. 17.

Scouting Marshall

▪ The Thundering Herd has won five in a row and is tied with Florida Atlantic for the East Division lead. Marshall’s only conference loss came at Middle Tennessee, a team that 49ers beat 34-20. The Herd pounded Louisiana Tech 31-10 last Friday, although the Bulldogs were without three suspended players, including quarterback J’Mar Smith.

▪ Two former members of Lambert’s staff at Charlotte are also at Marshall: offensive line coach Greg Adkins and cornerbacks coach Chip West.

▪ The game matches Charlotte’s C-USA-leading rushing offense (202.8 yards per game) against Marshall’s rush defense, which allows 127.6 yards per game.

▪ Marshall’s Brenden Knox leads the league in rushing ahead of LeMay (104.6 yards per game). He’s scored 10 touchdowns and averages 5.5 yards per carry. The Herd is second only to Charlotte in the league in rushing offense (200.3 yards per game).

Soccer update

The 49ers men’s soccer team will face Mercer in a first round NCAA tournament game Thursday at Transamerica Field. Charlotte (11-3-4), playing in the tournament for a 14th time, lost to Marshall 1-0 in double overtime in the C-USA tournament final on Sunday. Mercer (14-6) won the Southern Conference championship. The 49ers-Bears winner will travel to face second-seed Clemson in the second round Sunday.

This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 5:20 PM.