There is a saying in coaching circles that Paul Johnson liked to recall occasionally: If you can't be better, be different. His point was that he can't out-recruit Stanford and Vanderbilt, so he isn't going to beat them by running the same offense with lesser players. Running something different made it so his players weren't necessarily "lesser;" they might actually be just as good at what they were being asked to do. It's actually good advice for a wide range of endeavors.
Indeed, just as some coaches use that idea to help guide their programs, there is a minor trend developing where some athletic directors have taken the same approach to hiring their coaches. Most coaching searches end up with big budget schools hiring head coaches from mid-budget schools, mid-budget schools hiring hotshot coordinators, and low-budget schools hiring young assistants looking to skip the line. The more money you have, the more you can afford proven commodities. The less money you have, the more it's a crap shoot. Recently, some ADs have shown a willingness to think outside of that paradigm in the hopes of catching lightning in a bottle.
The most famous example of this outside-the-box thinking was Jackson State's hiring of Deion Sanders, whose previous coaching experience consisted of two stops at dubious prep schools (including his own Prime Prep Academy) and as offensive coordinator at a small private school in Texas. Bethune-Cookman considered hiring Ed Reed, but that fell apart. Trent Dilfer's coaching experience prior the being hired by UAB consisted of four years at Lipscomb Academy, a small private school in Nashville. And then there's the curious case of Biff Poggi at Charlotte.
The argument for Sanders and Dilfer is mostly rooted in recruiting. Sanders was a Hall of Fame player. Regardless of whether they have a realistic shot at the NFL or not, every player thinks they do. Sanders has the credentials to make players believe he can get them there. Sanders is also a genuine celebrity, and in the NIL era, being in that kind of a spotlight can have tangible financial benefits for a player. Dilfer doesn't have nearly the name-brand of Sanders, but he is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. What high school quarterback wouldn't want to play for someone like that?
Poggi doesn't have that kind of cachet. He did play some college football, starting at Pitt his freshman year before finishing at Duke. After graduation, he had brief stints at Brown, Temple, and The Citadel before returning home to Baltimore where he took a job teaching at his alma mater, the Gilman School. While there, he learned about investing from his father in law and started a hedge fund that would eventually be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He also coached at the school, first as an assistant, then as head coach from 1996-2015. He won 13 MIAA titles in those 19 seasons. He's most famous, though, for his work as Saint Frances Academy. Poggi poured his own money into the school and the football program, funding new facilities and dozens of scholarships. Along with Naval Academy grad Henry Russell, he became co-head coach of the football team. His intentions were noble; St. Frances is in about as poor a neighborhood as you'll find, and Poggi's resources changed kids' lives. But the team actually became too good, and it reached the point where other MIAA schools refused to play them.
In 2021, Poggi joined the staff of his friend Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. He didn't have an on-field role; instead, he acted as something akin to a chief of staff. He was a big part of setting Michigan's culture, and it isn't a coincidence that his two seasons in Ann Arbor were the two best of Jim Harbaugh's tenure there. UConn considered hiring Poggi before ultimately picking Jim Mora Jr. But it's Charlotte that finally took the leap.
Poggi inherited a team that went 3-9 last year and has only one winning season in eight years of FBS football. Unsurprisingly, one of the first things Poggi did when he arrived was overhaul the roster. The 49ers brought in a staggering 65 transfers, including several who played for Poggi at St. Frances. There are 23 transfers from Power Five schools, with ten having previously played at Michigan and Maryland. They are making an impact. Quarterback Jalon Jones, who came to Charlotte from Bethune-Cookman, leads the team in both rushing and passing. Wide receiver Jack Hestera, a transfer from Colorado, is the team’s leading receiver. Michigan transfer Nikhai Hill-Green, a linebacker, leads the team in tackles. Georgia Tech transfer Demetrius Knight II is right behind him. Eyabe Okie-Anoma, a former Michigan Wolverine, is second in the American with four sacks.
Despite the influx of talent— or maybe because of it— Charlotte hasn’t seen much success on the field. The 49ers enter tomorrow’s game with a 1-4 record, with their only win being the season opener against South Carolina State. We talked about this before the USF game, but one of the problems with taking in a boatload of transfers is that it can take time to figure out how to best use them. Charlotte has had a bit of an identity crisis on offense, which led Poggi to ponder firing his offensive staff after only three games. The 49ers are last in the conference in scoring offense (18.4 points per game) and second to last in total offense (311.2 ypg).
To be fair, the schedule hasn’t done the team any favors. After opening against an FCS opponent, Poggi’s squad has faced a resurgent Maryland team, 4-1 Georgia State, Florida, and AAC contender SMU. There are plenty of teams that would be 1-4 after that slate. The 49er defense has also shown some life. Against Maryland, Charlotte had three TFLs and an interception in the game’s first seven plays. They limited Florida to only one touchdown while forcing two turnovers and three sacks. They’ve shown glimpses of how good they can be.
Before the SMU game, it seemed that the Charlotte offense had decided to settle on Jones at quarterback and to lean into their running game. Early on, Jones rewarded them with a 52-yard run and a 10-play 66-yard drive that ended with a field goal. That was the only points they were able to muster, though, and Jones was replaced by redshirt sophomore Trexler Ivey, who led two touchdown drives to get the 49ers back into the game. The Mids will likely see both tomorrow.
Charlotte runs a 4-3 defense under coordinator Ryan Osborn, who had previously been an assistant for the Baltimore Ravens. It’s always tough to figure out what NFL guys will do against the option, which puts pressure on the Navy offense. After the Wagner game, Coach Newberry talked about how you have to rely on your fundamentals— the “option bible” as he called it— when you face a game plan different from what you prepared for. While the Mids have definitely improved along those lines, there’s a good chance they’ll be put to the test against something unexpected again tomorrow. That might also make it a little harder to work Braxton Woodson into the game if the package designed for him wasn’t put together with the right defense in mind.
In a lot of ways, tomorrow’s game is the opposite of what the Mids faced last week. North Texas had an established system in an offense that led the conference. Their defense, on the other hand, has struggled all season. Charlotte has a defense that has shown moments of brilliance, but their offense hasn’t inspired the same confidence. This is a game that the Navy defense should dominate. The question is whether the offense can sustain the drives that will take advantage of it. If they can, a 3-3 record and a two-game winning streak would be great things to take into the Air Force game.
