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October 21, 2025 13 mins

The guys are joined by Hunter Bailey, Charlotte 49ers beat writer for the Charlotte Observer and co-host of the Highway 49 Podcast, as they discuss the future of the football team after Mike Hill's firing.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Charlotte forty nine ers. Well, they're not doing a
whole lot of winning these days. It's unfortunate I had
them going bowling. A little bit of bias baked into
that prediction, but I did think they were going to
win at least five games. They're not going to win
five games, Wes. I'm glad they got one, and we'll
see exactly how the season plays out that you play
again on Friday. By the way, they'll be out there

(00:20):
at Jerry Richardson Stadium, So another home game. I'll be
out there tailgating at four point thirty. I'm going to
try to get out there. It's the environment, like well,
at the beginning, it's pretty fun, dranks, the flowing you optimism. Yeah,
tailgates are the couds and shoulds classic undefeated.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
So we're seeing bear stands, right, we're seeing bear sections
in the stands. Has Charlotte had the moment that these
other schools that are just downright terrible have had where
you get a bunch of bros in the section, take
their shirts off and start swinging them around their heads.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, I don't know if I've seen a lot of
that where I am okay, perhaps Hunter can answer that
question more so than I can. When I was tailgating
this past game, say, there wasn't as many cars in
the parking lot the west deck was. It was not
a lot of people out there, man, at least not
for me. So anyways, let's go to the man that
knows a lot about Charlotte. Fooball right now, Hunter Bailey,

(01:11):
Charlotte Observer Highway forty nine podcast. He joined us now
on the phone line, Hunter, how are you doing man.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Good fellas and so to answer your question, yes, actually,
starting the fourth quarter of this last game, there were
a bunch of shirtless dudes in the student section, singing
the shirt like some terrible towels watch some some terrible football. Yeah, yeah,
it's made its way to Charlotte.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, we're going to be a part of this. When
we're getting blown out, by the way on Saturday against Virginia,
We're going to find that section. Me and fitty shirts
just harpso off, going crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Is this a thing that's happening in college football all
around college football? Okay, I wonder if this is a
I'm too old thing. Yeah, North Texas is who they play,
by the way. North Texas is six and one on
the year. They're a very good football team, so it
might be rough. I wanted to go back with the
Mike Hill stuff, though, Hunter, because we had you on
right away and I appreciate you being so flexible with
your time. A few days have passed since Mike Hill

(02:06):
was relieved of his athletic director duties, and it looks like,
even if the timing was weird, Hunter, it feels like
a lot of this comes down to money, lack of funds.
Is that how you see it based on some of
the information that's coming out that Mike Hill is no
longer ad. Yeah, because the football program has not been
winning football games. That's a real issue. But is it
really just because there was a disagreement on how they

(02:29):
were going to increase their funds as this year went on.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
I think that's the best way encapsulated what you just
said there. That's how I understand it. Like you said,
it was kind of a shockwave when it happened. It
just felt random to extend them through twenty thirty literally
thirteen months ago, and then you know, midway through six
games through the season with his is a third football

(02:54):
higher say, Okay, appreciate it here's two million, get out
the door basically. So the nil side of things has
been the number one focus for Charlotte and this year's team.
I finally got a number on it, right around one
point four million. And to put that in perspective in
the conference, I don't have every school, but just take
a look at South Florida at the top of the league,

(03:18):
Charlotte all the way at the bottom. South Florida's up
around eight million, So you know, almost seven million dollar
difference there in roster construction, and you see it on
the field. I mean I talked to Reed Williford, Charlotte's
leading tractler from last year, after the South Florida game,
and I just asked him about the speed of that
Bulls team and he just busted out laughing. And it's

(03:40):
Charlotte kind of knew going in they couldn't compete. Whether
it's Schmatic to whatever. The talent is just so much different,
and I think, I mean, you've seen in the NFL
the talent. There are some star players, there's a lot
of big names, but the coaching is really what separates
in the NFL. But in college, you've got a former
NFL draft pick getting guarded. I have future insurance salesman

(04:01):
in the slot. You know who's gonna win that match
up matters a ton, whereas the coaching, I think is
a little lesser on that front. And Charlotte just top
to bottom. They don't have the talent to compete in
this league. And I asked him straight up, what's the
valuation of this team? What do you need moving forward?
And he didn't necessarily provide clarification on the exact total

(04:24):
or who's making what, but he did talk about the
transfer portal window which is now changing, meaning that there's
only one window now. So where's past Who's been one
in the spring. So it's like, as soon as the
spring game's over, there's fifty sixty players coming from your
school in the portal to now it's just one window
and it's in January. But what that means for Charlotte

(04:46):
is the time to raise that money to you know,
shell it out for future recruits, whether it's high school,
whether it's guys through the portal. You've got one window
to raise that money now. So that window is now
in January for Charlotte. Whe before they had an opportunity
in December they could go back to the well, come
back out around springtime and add to the team. So

(05:07):
a lot is changing for them, and I think ramping
up that NIL process is top, top priority right now.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Hunter Bailey joins us on a body Works Plus guest hotline. Hunter,
what is the spirit of the collective at Charlotte? How
much do they want to donate? Is this you know,
a collector that's sitting there just itching to win and
willing to do whatever, or are they kind of lse
failed about it.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I think it goes back and forth, because I mean,
when I think football, they haven't really had this level
of success during the NIL era. You think the last
winning record, winning season they've had, and the only one
is in twenty nineteen, kind of prior to NIL kicking off.
But then you look say men's basketball, for example, just
two seasons ago, they're beating ranked teams at home, their

(05:50):
top of the league, hanging out in the top three
in the American on the men's basketball side of things,
and you see like that fan base start rushing back.
You can tell that the NIL is import at Charlotte,
and they made efforts to keep some of those guys
like Nick Gray's, like the Todd Patterson like Igor Milicic,
and ultimately bigger schools favored to get out bigger chunks
of change. I think where they are now, I think

(06:14):
the buying is there. Like with football, they're trying to
get up to this four million dollar kind of eschelon,
which still isn't in that realm or South Florida, but
is making leaves and bounds from where they are now.
So I think the downership is definitely eager. But I
mean I've seen stuff on Twitter with crowdsourcing, with fans
putting it together like people Tim Ovin talked about it today.

(06:36):
There's one hundred and ninety thousand living alumni within an
hour and a half of the school, and you want
them to want to give back. But I think whether
it's the Chicken in the g situation or whatever, they
need to see some commitment, and I think that's part
of the reason on the Mike Hill side of things,
why they made that move.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Hanna.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Does Tim Albin have an even bigger job in front
of him than you even first envisioned he would?

Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think so, And I don't think, like we talked
about it on our podcast, like Fly on the Wall,
when that might kill news comes out. I wonder what
Tim Abbott's thinking. You go from twenty years on the
job at Ohio, three straight winning seasons, a couple of
Coach of the Years, Matt title, you take this job
in Charlotte, you make the move making a couple hundred

(07:20):
thousand dollars more a year, and a lot of that
was Mike Hill being the primary guy working with them,
works on this decision. They had a handshake decision behind
the scenes. When that coaching search just felt like it
continued to go on to know, you know, six games in,
now your ad is gone, and does that tighten his

(07:41):
leash when there's a new ad that's put in. I
just I think how they handled that as key. But
when I look at this program itself, it felt like
the Biff Foji era was interesting. I mean he had
grabbed all the headlines, like anytime Biff spoke it was
like must see TV. The product on the field didn't
And that was with more nil and with higher level

(08:03):
talented players. And I think when I look at this
team now, it's okay, where do you go from here?
What is that fundraising going to be like? Because that
they're going to compete in the American which we see
this league feels like just gets better every year. Right now,
they're gonna need a lot more. So yeah, I think
I think Tim's job is even harder, and I think
it starts. I mean, guys, he gave his full he

(08:24):
put the bat signal today. He said, if you're an
offensive or defensive lineman and you want playing time, come
to Charlotte. He gave his email, said t Alban at
UNCC dot eu reach out to him with the film
The Bat Signals out. Guys, I think he knows that
this team needs a massive overhaul to get to where
he wants.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
To take him. All right, So, Hunter, how warried are
you about the future, because I think we both like
Tim Albin. I've said it a million times. It's hard
to look at that resume and argue against it. What
are you going to do? Find somebody that has more
ten win seasons in a row? Good luck? Those guys
aren't available. And yet we got one, even with us
having one vict and that one victory has come against Monmouth.

(09:02):
So yeah, it's tough for me. I don't want Tim
Albn to go anywhere, and yet we talk about all
of the things surrounding this program, and it is kind
of hard to find the hope. How much hope do
you have if I'm having a hard time finding it.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, So admittedly I'm shocked that we were, like we're
having this conversation so early in his tenure, just based
on I mean, and I think the might kill firing
accelerates that topic because I don't know, when you look
at Tim, you look across the conference, right, Temple, a
team that had won more than three games, had won
a conference road game since twenty nineteen, just came in

(09:40):
on homecoming and boat raced dude. Right, So it's like
teams can do it right. They can go from a
struggling team like South Florida winning one or two games
a year to go and bowling three straight times nationally ranked,
Like it can be done in this league if you
have the support the resources. So I think why it

(10:00):
is concerning that it's early that we're having this conversation
and Tim is saying any things, It might be good
in the long term to maybe get out of that
shell of saying no, I've got the resources I need.
It's no, it's we need all the help we can get,
because if you're not I guess if you're not going
out there and saying this is what we're trying to do,
we're putting that commitment towards accelerating the football program, which

(10:23):
is still just thirteen years old. I think it's going
to continue in this kind of middling section of the
bottom third of the American and that's what we've seen
even in the first two years under pog They had
some success. Last year they won five games, but even then,
I mean two of those were without this. So while,
like I say, while it is early to be talking

(10:43):
about these things, it might pay offered Tim in the
long term, because I do think he wants to be here,
because I just can't understand why you make that move,
like I say, leaving a twenty year job to come
to Charlotte knowing that the NIL isn't in a great place.
So maybe good that they're having the conversations now that
that benefits them in the long run.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
Hana, looking at the positive, I mean, who is one
player on offense and defense that they must keep for
next season in your opinion?

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, on defense, I just keep looking in the linebacker room.
Caden Schmidtz. He's a guy man, He's a dude's a
stud at Ohio, played a little bit. Shay Taylor is
another guy. I think he's going to be on this
kind of eligibility fence. I'm not one hundred percent sure
if you'll be able to play next year or not.
It kind of feels like anyone can get an extra

(11:32):
year in today's college football. On offense, you're looking around
for that guy because they've got so many. The receivers
are older. Sean Brown, you, j Mason, Javin Nicholas are
going to be out of eligibility. So now you're looking
back at Connor Harrel. I think he's probably priority number
one right now, unless they're going to go out with

(11:53):
this new founded eye on money and snag a big
fish at quarterback. But I think Harrow, at least from
what we saw, the most dynamic player at the position,
gives them the most promised So if they're going to
keep building, I'd say, yeah, look at quarterback for now.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Our last question when it comes to looking for the
new athletic director, where are we in that process?

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Now?

Speaker 1 (12:14):
How soon do you expect an athletic director to be named?
I guess outside of the interim with Josh Humphrey, what
can you tell us about that search?

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, the main answer that I've gotten is there is
no timeline. It's too early, which I think is kind
of puzzling to me, because if you know you're going
to make this move and you're going to put someone
with no athletics experience in that scene, you have to
have maybe an accelerated timeline, accelerated search, or already have

(12:44):
a plan in place. You're just waiting to make that higher.
So I'll be interested to see that I've been able
to get any information. No one will budge on that,
but everything I've heard from the conversation with Gabor Chancellor
Gabor is no timeline as of now. But where the
ball is at least rolling is what I'm told.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Hunter Bailey Charlotte Observer Highway forty nine podcast. Follow him
on Twitter at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. He covers
the Charlotte forty nine ers as well and better than
anybody out there, and we appreciate his time with us
every single week right here on Western Walker Sports rated
ninety two seven WFNZ. Hunter, We appreciate it, man. I'll
see you out there Friday.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
That fair see you then.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
I appreciate you,
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