College football has its sixth Football Bowls Subdivision opening after Charlotte’s Sunday firing of fourth-year head coach Will Healy, and, while not one of the premium Power 5 openings, the Charlotte position is one already generating considerable interest and intrigue across the college football landscape.
The 49ers are scheduled as an entire athletics department to shift from Conference-USA membership into the American Athletic Conference in July 2023; this is both reflection of the shape-shifting nature of modern college athletics but also strikes at the brand-value of Charlotte athletics.
“That’s a really good job that’s going to get a lot of interest,” a Power-5 assistant told FootballScoop. “There will be a lot of big-time guys who go after that one.”
Sources tell FootballScoop that some early names to pay attention to surrounding the 49ers’ vacancy include Campbell University head coach Mike Minter, a former Carolina Panthers star and among that Charlotte-based franchise’s most decorated players; North Carolina running backs coach Larry Porter, a former Memphis head coach who’s been incredibly vital in the Tar Heels’ resurgence under Mack Brown; Jerry Mack, running backs coach for undefeated and third-ranked Tennessee and a former three-time HBCU Head Coach of the Year who already last year generated interest from MAC schools about head-coaching vacancies; Davidson head coach Scott Abell, who’s guided that FCS program to unprecedented heights; Notre Dame tight ends coach Gerad Parker, who served briefly as Purdue’s interim head coach in 2016, has been a Power 5 offensive coordinator and passing game coordinator at both Penn State and West Virginia, plus already has strong traction in the Charlotte, N.C., area as it is his recruiting territory for the Fighting Irish; and Miami offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, though the Hurricanes’ struggles this season have been surprising; Houston defensive coordinator Doug Belk, who’s turned multiple P-5 defensive coordinator opportunities and has been tabbed by industry insiders as an expected head coach much sooner than later; veteran coaches Skip Holtz and Phil Longo likewise are names to monitor in a search that again, as noted, is going to elicit extremely high interest.
While it remains to be seen in 2023 who the 49ers’ conference foes will be on the football field in their first year as an AAC member, the program does have games secured against Florida, Georgia State, Maryland and South Carolina State.
Jerry Richardson Stadium, the program’s quaint home that’s just 10 years old, is set for expansion to an approximate capacity of 30,000 and to include luxury seating options in the near future.
Metropolitan Charlotte is among both the nation’s fastest-growing city centers in population increase as well as economic prosperity. As part of its American Growth Project, a University of North Carolina research team just earlier this month showed that Charlotte has emerged as the nation’s eighth-fastest growing city – a trend that continued from the previous decade, when Charlotte also was among cities to see the most population growth in the 2010s.
The program’s athletics director, Mike Hill, has deep Southeastern Conference roots, specifically in Florida, and has been aggressive in implementing his vision for 49ers athletics across numerous sports and earlier this year launched his “EverGreen” master plan for Charlotte’s athletics facilities.
Too, Hill has a strong staff that understands major-college athletics with deputy athletics director Chris Fuller – he spent more than a decade at the University of Tennessee, worked also at Syracuse and previously was an executive in the ACC – as well as executive associate athletics director Ragean Hill who’s worked at Power-5 programs Arkansas, Kansas State and Wisconsin.
Healy had been under contract through 2026 but had a relatively school-friendly pact; he had originally signed a deal worth $700,000 annually plus an incentive package but was rewarded after that breakthrough ’19 campaign. Healy had collected $50,000 retention bonuses each of the past two winters.
Healy went to a bowl game in Year 1 but regressed each following season while the Charlotte administration saw the school’s new stadium come to fruition, punctuated by an upset-win against Duke, and Healy also guided the program to its first-ever bowl game.
But after that seven-win debut campaign in 2019, Healy guided the 49ers to just an 8-18 mark and saw their seventh loss of this season again eliminate Charlotte from postseason contention.
Per Healy’s contract, which was reviewed by FootballScoop, Charlotte owes its fired coach approximately $1.650 million. Healy’s buyout is $1.515 million beginning in 2023, plus Healy’s salary across the final two-plus months of 2022 comprises the approximate sum. His contract does contain an offset clause, thus if Healy joins another coaching staff his payment from Charlotte decreases by the amount of Healy’s new salary.
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