There is no reason to dress it up.

Charlotte was one of the worst teams in college football last season.

The 49ers went 1-11, finished 0-8 in the American, and their only win came against Monmouth, an FCS opponent. The offense was bad. The run game was almost nonexistent. The defense was not good enough to keep games close.

So now Tim Albin has a real rebuild on his hands.

And that is the interesting part.

Albin has done this before. Before coming to Charlotte, he went 33-19 at Ohio, won a MAC championship, and helped put together three straight 10-win seasons. He was a two-time MAC Coach of the Year and the head coach of Ohio’s 2024 MAC title team.

Now he has to prove he can bring that same kind of stability to a Charlotte program that badly needs it.

HEAD COACH:

• Tim Albin, entering year two at Charlotte
• Charlotte went 1-11 last season.
• The 49ers went 0-8 in the American.
• Albin previously went 33-19 at Ohio.

This is going to take time.

Charlotte is not one player away. It is not one coordinator change away. This is a roster that needs improvement almost everywhere.

The 49ers averaged only 260.6 yards per game last season, which ranked near the very bottom of the country. They also averaged just 2.5 yards per carry, which was basically dead last nationally.

That is the number that tells the story.

You cannot win consistently when you cannot run the football at all.

Charlotte threw the ball on 54% of its plays last season, and that was probably not because the 49ers wanted to be some high-flying passing team. It was because they had to throw. They were behind. They could not run it. They could not control games.

That has to change first.

QUARTERBACK:

The quarterback room is crowded, but not settled.

Grayson Loftis is back after throwing for 1,415 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions last season. Conner Harrell is also in the mix after throwing for 747 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions, though he dealt with a brutal knee injury situation involving his ACL, meniscus and MCL.

Then there is Cole Gonzales, who comes in after stops at Western Carolina and Pittsburgh. Charlotte’s official roster lists the quarterback group with Grayson Loftis, Conner Harrell, Cole Gonzales, Jaylen White and Luke McNulty.

Gonzales is interesting because he put up huge numbers at Western Carolina before his brief stop at Pitt. He threw for more than 6,000 yards, 51 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in three years there.

So there are options.

But somebody has to separate.

Charlotte cannot go into the season still guessing at quarterback. Whether it is Loftis, Harrell, Gonzales or someone else, the 49ers need one guy to take control of the offense.

And whoever wins the job needs help.

A lot of help.

THE REST OF THE OFFENSE

The run game has to be the first fix.

Charlotte brings back Jariel Cobb and Henry Rutledge, and the 49ers added more bodies to the room. Khamani Alexander comes in from Appalachian State, D’Mariun Perteet comes in at running back, and Chance Williams is also on the roster.  

That does not automatically mean the run game is fixed.

But at least there are options.

The offensive line also got a major transfer addition with J’Ven Williams from Penn State. Charlotte lists Williams as a 6-foot-5, 315-pound redshirt junior offensive lineman from Penn State.

He joins a group that includes Kristos Fernandez, who is back up front.

That offensive line is probably the most important unit on the team.

If Charlotte cannot block better, it will not matter who plays quarterback. It will not matter how many running backs are in the room. It will not matter what Albin wants the offense to look like.

The 49ers have to get more physical.

They have to create easier downs.

They have to stop living in obvious passing situations.

That is step one of the rebuild.

DEFENSE

The defense was not good enough either.

Opponents ran the ball on 56% of their plays against Charlotte last season, and they completed 67% of their passes. That is a bad combination.

When teams can run on you and complete passes that easily, they get to play the game however they want.

That is exactly what happened to Charlotte too often.

The key returning names are Jamarrion Solomon, Jaylon Johnson, Kadin Schmitz and CJ Clinkscales Jr. Solomon and Johnson are on the defensive line, Schmitz is at linebacker and Clinkscales is in the secondary.

That group gives the defense a few pieces to build around.

But this unit needs a much bigger jump than just “a few guys are back.”

Charlotte gave up too many easy drives. It could not consistently stop the run. It could not make opponents uncomfortable enough in the passing game.

The 49ers do not need to become elite overnight.

But they have to become competitive.

SCHEDULE

The schedule lets us know pretty quickly whether Charlotte is better.

The 49ers open with The Citadel, and that is a game they need to win.

Then things get real fast.

Charlotte goes to Ole Miss on Sept. 12, then goes to Appalachian State on Sept. 19. After that, the 49ers host Louisiana and Memphis. Charlotte’s 2026 schedule has that opening stretch, followed by road games at North Texas and Temple, then Tulane, UAB, East Carolina, Tulsa and Navy to close the year.

That is not easy for a team coming off a 1-11 season.

The Ole Miss game is probably too much. The App State game is a measuring stick. The American schedule gives Charlotte some chances, but not many freebies.

The biggest thing is the start.

If Charlotte beats The Citadel and looks more competent against Ole Miss and App State, maybe there is something to build on.

If the offense still cannot move the ball, it could be another long season.

OUTLOOK

I think Charlotte will be better.

It would be hard not to be.

But the question is how much better.

The 49ers need a quarterback to win the job. They need the offensive line to be dramatically better. They need one of the running backs to become a real answer. They need the defense to stop letting opponents control the game.

That is a lot.

The best-case scenario is that Gonzales, Loftis or Harrell settles the quarterback job, J’Ven Williams helps change the offensive line, the run game becomes at least respectable, and the defense improves enough to keep Charlotte in games.

If that happens, maybe Charlotte can find a path toward a few wins and start building real momentum under Albin.

The worst-case scenario is that the offense still cannot run the ball, the quarterback battle never gets settled, and the defense remains one of the weaker units in the American.

Full disclosure: I use AI tools to format my research into an article encompassing all of the information.