PHOTO | CURTIS WILSON

The Charlotte 49ers are remaking their schedule, which includes seven road games on their 11-contest docket. Two additions are dates at in-state rivals North Carolina and Appalachian State.

The Charlotte 49ers are preparing for a road-heavy football season.

Playing is a luxury the 49ers are not taking lightly as programs across the country have chosen to forgo the fall season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of now, the 49ers will play 11 games – seven on the road – starting at Appalachian State on Sept. 12, followed by a trip to North Carolina a week later. Neither game was originally on their 2020 schedule, but cancellations by non-conference opponents Tennessee and Norfolk State and Conference USA’s Old Dominion left a void in the schedule. Charlotte is scheduled to play one home game in September, against Georgia State on Sept. 26. They have two in October, with Florida International and Texas El Paso heading to Charlotte on Oct. 17 and Oct. 24 respectively. The home schedule and regular season finale is Nov. 28 against Western Kentucky.

Coach Will Healy would ideally like to add another home date, or another game for that matter, on Nov. 14. Yet the nature of the college athletics this season means everything is subject to change.

“You may need to reschedule a game that was cancelled or postponed during the year, or say, ‘look, this team has an open week here—we’re in October. We feel really good about how things are going. We’d like to have another home game,’” Healy said. “That’s a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish right now. Right now we have seven away games and four home games. I would like to play here a couple more times. If we have that ability, whether somebody has had some games canceled, and we end up needing [Nov. 14] to play another one that we weren’t able to play earlier, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have that week open. I think the crazy thing about it is it may be October and we announce another game. There’s not really a timetable. We need to be prepared to wait as late as we need to, to get the right matchup.”

Charlotte struggled on the road last season, losing their first four away games. They went 2-4 away from Charlotte, including a 56-41 loss at App State.

“It’s going to be a tremendous challenge, whether we played those guys at home or on the road,” Healy said. “Right now, it’s just making sure that for camp we keep these guys safe, and then how do we prepare, and can we get our mind right and be focused enough to win games on the road, which learned last year is extremely difficult. It took us the fifth game to finally win a road game. It’s hard enough with the teams we’re playing. It will be that much more difficult on the road, and I hope our team is ready to accept that challenge.”

Comments