Charlotte shows promise in loss to North Carolina

CHARLOTTE ATHLETICS

The Charlotte 49ers showed fight in a 38-20 loss at in-state opponent North Carolina despite losing several starters to injury.

CHAPEL HILL – The Charlotte 49ers lost 38-20 to North Carolina but established some rhythm.

“What I know is this: this football team got better from the first week,” Charlotte coach Biff Poggi said. “This is a significantly better football team than we had last year. We are moving in the right direction, and I am so proud of them. They fought their tails off.”

Although the 49ers fell to 0-2, there was plenty to take away from the game. Here are three of them:

1. Charlotte’s playbook contains more than runs and short passes

In the season opener against James Madison, the 49ers’ offense consisted of short pass completions and runs. In contrast, offensive coordinator Mike Miller dug into the playbook for deep passes by both Max Brown and freshman Deshawn Purdie. Brown, who was 8-for-12 passing and 175 yards, went out with an injury.

“I found out Max wasn’t going to play in the second half, and I went to Purdie and said, ‘OK, it’s your show,’” Poggi said. “He looks at me and with no concede or anything goes, ‘I was built for this,’ and, in the first series I think we go down and score.”

Purdie connected on several deep passes before finding tight end Bryce Kennon on a 5-yard touchdown connection for the first 49ers’ touchdown. His second came in the fourth quarter when he found Henry Rutledge out of the backfield for a 28-yard score.

A lot of the deep shots Purdie and Brown threw were to Jarius Mack, who didn’t have a catch against James Madison in week one. Mack rebounded with a five catch, 118-yard performance.

2. Despite injuries, Charlotte was resilient

Purdie came on in the second quarter after Brown sustained what looked like a wrist injury. He was wearing a cast on the sideline.

“Your starting quarterback goes down in the first half, on the road at North Carolina, who’s a really good football team,” Poggi said. “These kids didn’t miss a beat. Everybody picks it up and does what they have to do. We found out a lot of guys can play and there are some really tough kids that made great efforts.”

Several 49ers were injured, with running back Terron Kellman, defensive end Stone Handy, defensive tackle Dez Morgan, defensive back Dontae Balfour in addition to Brown going down.

Poggi was unsure when Brown will return.

“We are going to get back (to Charlotte) and evaluate it,” Poggi said. “But it looks like it’s a fairly serious injury and he definitely won’t play next week. We’ve got our doctors who are great, and we’ll find out exactly what it is. Does he need surgery? What’s the recovery? All of that kind of stuff. So, next week we will go Purdie and Trexler (Ivey).”

3. Charlotte has talented depth

Being able to stay within striking distance of the Tar Heels despite injuries speaks to the depth of this year’s roster. Poggi was happy with how well his players performed when their number was called.

Good news for the 49er is that more players will become available next week when they welcome Gardner-Webb to Jerry Richardson Stadium.

“We have good depth,” Poggi said. “We have guys who just fought and fought and fought. Next week we will get some guys back, which is really big. We get a couple big, strong, monster interior defensive linemen back. We get two strong offensive linemen back. You saw (running back) C.J. Stokes in there a little bit today. He will be full go next week.”

Outlook

An 0-2 record isn’t great, but progress is being made. The 49ers host 0-2 Gardner-Webb on Sept. 14. The Bulldogs and Charlotte have a common foe in James Madison, who beat Gardner-Webb 13-6 on Saturday. Charlotte won’t be taking the Bulldogs lightly.

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