‘Is that for me?’ Charlotte 49ers coach Will Healy dunking his team to new heights
There’s some big-time football being played by a team located right here in Charlotte, with players and coaches putting together the sort of season that will inspire a glorious reunion in 20 years. You probably guessed already that it’s not being played by the Carolina Panthers.
Instead, it’s the Charlotte 49ers, who can win their seventh game of 2019 at 2 p.m. Saturday at Old Dominion and lock in their first-ever college bowl berth — and a winning season.
Already bowl-eligible, Charlotte once had a 2-5 record but sits at 6-5 and is rolling. Led by dynamic first-year coach Will Healy, the 49ers have finally turned a corner that took six years to navigate.
Maybe there has been a college football coach more anxious to get a massive power-drink bath than Healy was last Saturday night, but I doubt it. As the final seconds ticked off of the 49ers’ 24-13 win over Marshall, Healy got dunked.
It was rainy and cold that night, but Healy was already numb and wanting more.
“I got doused the first time,” Healy said. “I turned around and looked, and there was another one of our players standing there with another bucket. I was like, ‘Is that for me?’ Then I just grabbed it and dunked it on myself. I would have taken about four buckets worth by then.”
Under head coach Brad Lambert in their first six seasons, there weren’t a lot of moments like that after the first victory. The 49ers had a losing record every year since beginning their program in 2013. It was fine at first, and then it got tiring for everyone. Charlotte ended up 22-48 in Lambert’s six seasons (playing the last four at college football’s highest level).
After an initial honeymoon period in Charlotte, attendance lagged — and lagging attendance is the kiss of death for many college coaches. Lambert did recruit a number of good players, though. Charlotte had a third-round pick in each of the past two NFL drafts and most of the current starters were recruited by Lambert and his staff.
But it didn’t translate to winning, or much excitement. A year ago, 49ers athletic director Mike Hill fired Lambert and hired Healy.
The only problem I can now see with that hire is that Healy may end up doing too well to stick around for too many years.
Healy, 34, has taken Lambert’s players and squeezed just a little more out of them while injecting his own personality into the program — like when he pulled his shirt off after Charlotte’s first win this season in a raucous locker room.
Standouts such as running back Benny LeMay, former walk-on defensive end Alex Highsmith and offensive lineman Cam Clark all have a chance to be drafted in April. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Reynolds — another former walk-on who was barely looked at by anybody — is now a dual-threat QB who the offense can be built around for two more seasons.
Healy hasn’t fixed everything: The 49ers had a four-game losing streak earlier this year. And the attendance, while improved, still needs some work.
Charlotte’s 15,000-seat stadium is modestly sized for a team trying to compete at college football’s highest level, but the 49ers don’t regularly fill it to capacity. Three of the team’s six games this year have drawn fewer than 13,000 fans.
This last regular-season game will be on the road, as the 49ers travel to Norfolk, Va., Saturday to face 1-10 Old Dominion.
What’s at stake?
“For me, it’s about we guarantee we have a winning season by winning this week,” Healy said. “I don’t want to be 6-6. I want to be 7-5. That sounds a lot better.”
It does sound a lot better. And Healy said he has heard that while six wins may or may not put the 49ers in a bowl game, seven would be different.
“I’ve been told that if we got to six wins we’re in good shape,” Healy said, “but who knows? I’ve been told things before that didn’t pan out. We need to make sure we eliminate any doubt, because I guarantee you that you aren’t left out at seven wins.”
Bowl-game possibilities are all over the map for the 49ers, who could play in Tampa, the Bahamas, Detroit, New Mexico or a couple of other places. The bowl matchups will be announced Dec. 8, and 49ers fans will then face an unfamiliar decision: How much are they willing to spend, in money and time, to follow their favorite college football team?
Still, what a nice quandary for Charlotte fans to have. These are the sorts of steps the 49ers have wanted to take for a long time: First winning season. First bowl game.
“We want everyone to know it’s cool to play football in Charlotte,” Healy said.
So far, so good.
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
