December 2, 2025 • 11 mins
Hunter Bailey, Charlotte 49ers beat writer for the Charlotte Observer and co-host of the Highway 49 Podcast, joins the show to discuss the ending to the Niners first season under Tim Albin and where the football program goes this offseason.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks to Flounder for helping me out today and thanks
to Hunter Bailey for doing the same. He's actually on
the phone lines right now to discuss the Charlotte forty
nine ers past season.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Only one victory, but we got the one. Baby.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm just glad we didn't go defeat it all right
where we didn't get a single victory, we did get one.
And I do believe in Tim Albin. I believe a
lot of Charlotte forty nin ers fans still believe in
Tim Albin with the impressive resume he brings with him
with what he did at Ohio. Hopefully we get more
than the one victory next season and they're fundraising over
there at Charlotte to ensure that. Let's talk more about
(00:34):
it with Hunter Bailey, Charlotte Observer, also the host of
the Highway forty nine podcast. Follow Hunter on Twitter at
Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. Hunter, I got to ask you, man,
how are you feeling out that the Charlotte football season
is over? Are you happy about it?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Like? How are your feelings today about it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Man, definitely glad that one is over. Definitely. So I
started covering the team, as you know, back in twenty
eighteen had some ups and downs. So this was definitely
the worst season I've covered as far as the on
field product. So yeah, Man had a couple of beers
after that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Game into So you deserve them, buddy, You deserve them
with all the different ways that you cover Charlotte. And
I hate even talking about the program like that. I
know you do too, because it again, I don't think
it's necessarily a reflection on Tim Albin's coaching ability. I
still believe him. I mean in him every sense of
the word. I do believe that he can turn this around.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Hunter.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You know it, Man, anytime we talk with anybody over there,
it's all about money. It's like, I know this is
a stupid question, but just to have a couple of
people stress the importance of it. Do you think that
this is the biggest thing holding Charlotte back right now?
Is it the money compared to every other program in
(01:49):
the conference.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And we'll get to the fundraising aspects of all of it.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
But every time I talk to anybody, everybody in power,
a decision maker over there, to me, the biggest thing
that they focus on is fundraising and money being the
most important thing they need to do.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, one, I mean we've talked about it someone here.
When you look around the conference, the top end spenders
in the league, you're looking at schools like Memphis, Tulane,
South Florida, that's just been kind of unrealistic for what
Charlotte's had from a budgetary standpoint, Like this season, right
around one point four million on the roster. The seasons
(02:26):
under pog weren't much higher than that are kind of
in that same ballpark. And like I said, when you
look across the league, there are some teams that you
want to emulate. I think North Texas, who's playing Saturday
playing Tulane on Saturday for the conference championship.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Is one of those schools.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Knowing that their budget is in that around the two
to three million dollar mark, So that's closer to the
waterline for Charlotte. So absolutely, to go back to your question,
money's the biggest deal for the program. I think my
favorite thing that they're doing right now is there being
transparent Walker. They're finally putting out this is what we've got,
this is the goal we're working towards. Help us out
(03:04):
because when you look at a school like Charlotte, we
talk about one hundred and sixty thousand plus living alumni,
a lot of them in the area.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
A lot of.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
People want to see this program succeed. And when you
go from a five win season where it felt like
there was some hope in Spurts. You look last year
beating ECU the way that they did, winning a few
games from the American to now, Okay, you're back to
square one. You don't have an athletic director in the
seat right now, a permanent one. You've got a head
(03:32):
coach that's the most proven that they've had, but you're
also coming off of one of the worst seasons that
they've had. So what is it to believe in? And
I guess how do you kind of funnel that into
the pocket to a program and be able to put
a quality product on the field. Man. There's a lot
of movement pieces, but definitely I agree with you the
money is the biggest thing right now.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Talking about the fundraising of all of it. Tim Albin
and the forty nine ers posted a fundraising video discussing
their Fuel the Future initiative. They have a goal to
raise five million dollars, and you reported that Charlotte had
already report raised excuse me, three point three million towards
their goal, which is significant. Now, the five million you
also reported isn't just going towards roster construction, but it
(04:14):
will fund program upgrades. Can you tell us a little
bit more on how they'll be using this five million
dollars hopefully assuming I'll knock on one, assuming that they
actually raise it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yees.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So it's going to span a few things I mentioned.
You mentioned the roster construction. I think that'll be the
biggest slice of the pie, putting being able to go
out and pay players in this singular transfer portal window
which opens on January second, So that's full speed ahead
towards that right now. It's a month from today, So
the biggest slice of that pie will go to that.
(04:48):
Outside of there, there's program upgrades. I don't have all
the specifics. I actually talked with Tim Alvin this morning
and he talked through a little bit of what it
would be, whether it's the coaching salaries, whether it's upgrades
to the stack with the nutrition side of things, the
training side. They're trying to find utilize this money to
do everything they can to make the program better. Because
(05:08):
we talked about, Hey, it's just the money for the
on field product, the NIO, what's going in the player's pockets.
But that goes directly back to the nutrition, the way
that they're feeding the athletes, the way that they're training,
and you're seeing, in comparison to the other schools in
the league, the injuries continuing to stack up, and a
lot of those things point right back towards what I mentioned,
(05:29):
the nutrition the training aspects. So it's good to see
that they've got, like I say, they're being transparent about, Hey,
this is what we need to get to where we
want to be. Because you look at Tim Alvin, He's
had two head coaching stops prior Northwestern Oklahoma State in
the nineties. His first season there he went five and five,
Then Not Ohio in twenty twenty one. His first season there,
(05:51):
he goes three and nine. In the season's following that,
he's fifty and thirteen, the Matt Championship, a few Coaching
Coaching the Year awards along the way. So we've, like
I said, we've seen that he can do it, and
I think it's good that they're being proactive and saying
exactly what they need to get there.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Hunter.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You also reported this season's roster valuation was around one
point four million dollars. Like, I know you're a journalist.
I don't want you to speculate too much on this,
but would it be safe to assume that that roster
valuation for twenty twenty six would be double the one
point four Like? Are we getting to three million? Do
you have any ideas on how you think this money
(06:29):
would be spread around?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I think it's got It's definitely has to double,
you know, if they want to compete, I think that
they should get closer to the triple. If you can
get around four million, you're going to feel pretty good
about the players that they're gonna put on the field
here at Charlotte, and I mean Tim Album's talked about it.
They've got to schedule differently in the future. There's no
reason they should be playing Georgia in November. Although one
(06:52):
point nine millions that has help out a program like this.
But next year they've got Ole Miss, they go to Louisville.
They've got some big opportunities. In the American Conference itself
is about some completely reshape. Knowing that four of the
top coaches just left the league. Two I mean the
two coaches coaching in the Conference championship game on Saturday
(07:13):
won't be in the Conference sexture, So there's going to
be a large turnover and you hope, hey, Charlotte can
get back in the race. And I think that starts
obviously with, like I say, the players that put on
the field, they're going to have to address the quarterback
position both sides of the line of scrimmage, and then
potentially even a play caller. Man, it's a lot up
in the air right now.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, well, that's what I wanted to ask you about most.
I mean, following you at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five
and the must follow that it is for all Charlotte
forty nine ers fans. I think that's the thing I
saw you complained about the most along with other forty
nine ers fans. It was play calling. It seemed like
you were pretty beside yourself there. What do you expect
to happen there going into next season?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, so it doesn't sound like it's going to be
a change here. I think Tim Alviman is pretty solid
in the camp of they've got to upgrade the talent
and the entries, the evaluation they weren't able to get
I guess as a bunch of an evaluation, as they
truly wanted only having their starting quarterback for three three
and a half games this year, so obviously a ton
(08:13):
of injuries. We detailed that on this show. But yeah,
the play calling this season, Walker just hurt my brain
a lot of times. They averaged fourteen point three points
per game this year. That's bottom five in the country.
That's statistically the worst offense that Charlotte's ever had in
their thirteen years. You look at that and say, Okay,
(08:35):
so many details go into this, so many different variables,
but what is the same And you look at ty Fitch.
The last time he called an offense with twenty twenty
at Vanderbilt, they averaged fourteen point six points per game.
Not much better, very similar results, very similar issues. Now,
he's been in oc span in seven or eight schools.
He's made a ton of stops along the way, and
(08:57):
before he came to Charlotte, he had spent time as
an analysts with Ohio State and then LSU. But watching
some of the lack of creativity, the struggles, their inability
to run the ball right out eighty yards per game,
which is the worst in the American among the bottom
three in the entire FBS. It's frustrating to watch knowing
(09:19):
that they're not maximizing on what they've got. And analysts
that cover the games, the play by players, they're all
picking up on the fact that Charlotte much of the
time does not get the ball to their best players.
Now we saw Javin Nicholas have a huge line share
of the targets. We saw Sean Brown, who led the
team and receiving last year receptions, at least kind of
(09:42):
come on towards the end of the season. But it
took them the entire non conference to figure out that
Sean Brown was a good football player and he should play.
It's interesting to watch kind of how all of that
came together. But yeah, the play falling, you saw the
defense kind of take a turn, in my opinion, improving
at least a little, taking the ball away from some
of the best teams in the league with the inability
(10:04):
to score and like I say, I mean the three
and out rates over thirty percent. The biggest thing to me,
if you're an offensive coordinator and you're you have scripted
drives right opening game scripts the first drive out of
the half against FGS competition this year. Walker, Charlotte did
not score a touchdown in any of those scenarios all year.
(10:25):
They only had three points all. He's on the opening
drives and to me, that points directly to the guy
calling the plays, and that's Todd Fitch.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Hunter Bailey joining us here on WESON Walker talking about
the Charlotte forty nine Ers football season and what is
expected of them moving forward. Follow him on Twitter at
Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. Also follow his work on
The Charlotte Observer and listen to his podcast, The Highway
forty nine Podcast. There's still a lot to get to here,
so we'll have you on certainly a few more times
(10:55):
basketball updates as well as we move on. Hunter, you
do a great job as always, Man, Appreciate you and
go have a few more beers after covering this season.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I appreciate it man, Thanks Gus.
Thanks to Flounder for helping me out today and thanks
to Hunter Bailey for doing the same. He's actually on
the phone lines right now to discuss the Charlotte forty
nine ers past season.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Only one victory, but we got the one. Baby.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm just glad we didn't go defeat it all right
where we didn't get a single victory, we did get one.
And I do believe in Tim Albin. I believe a
lot of Charlotte forty nin ers fans still believe in
Tim Albin with the impressive resume he brings with him
with what he did at Ohio. Hopefully we get more
than the one victory next season and they're fundraising over
there at Charlotte to ensure that. Let's talk more about
(00:34):
it with Hunter Bailey, Charlotte Observer, also the host of
the Highway forty nine podcast. Follow Hunter on Twitter at
Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. Hunter, I got to ask you, man,
how are you feeling out that the Charlotte football season
is over? Are you happy about it?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Like? How are your feelings today about it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Man, definitely glad that one is over. Definitely. So I
started covering the team, as you know, back in twenty
eighteen had some ups and downs. So this was definitely
the worst season I've covered as far as the on
field product. So yeah, Man had a couple of beers
after that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Game into So you deserve them, buddy, You deserve them
with all the different ways that you cover Charlotte. And
I hate even talking about the program like that. I
know you do too, because it again, I don't think
it's necessarily a reflection on Tim Albin's coaching ability. I
still believe him. I mean in him every sense of
the word. I do believe that he can turn this around.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Hunter.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You know it, Man, anytime we talk with anybody over there,
it's all about money. It's like, I know this is
a stupid question, but just to have a couple of
people stress the importance of it. Do you think that
this is the biggest thing holding Charlotte back right now?
Is it the money compared to every other program in
(01:49):
the conference.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And we'll get to the fundraising aspects of all of it.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
But every time I talk to anybody, everybody in power,
a decision maker over there, to me, the biggest thing
that they focus on is fundraising and money being the
most important thing they need to do.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, one, I mean we've talked about it someone here.
When you look around the conference, the top end spenders
in the league, you're looking at schools like Memphis, Tulane,
South Florida, that's just been kind of unrealistic for what
Charlotte's had from a budgetary standpoint, Like this season, right
around one point four million on the roster. The seasons
(02:26):
under pog weren't much higher than that are kind of
in that same ballpark. And like I said, when you
look across the league, there are some teams that you
want to emulate. I think North Texas, who's playing Saturday
playing Tulane on Saturday for the conference championship.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Is one of those schools.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Knowing that their budget is in that around the two
to three million dollar mark, So that's closer to the
waterline for Charlotte. So absolutely, to go back to your question,
money's the biggest deal for the program. I think my
favorite thing that they're doing right now is there being
transparent Walker. They're finally putting out this is what we've got,
this is the goal we're working towards. Help us out
(03:04):
because when you look at a school like Charlotte, we
talk about one hundred and sixty thousand plus living alumni,
a lot of them in the area.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
A lot of.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
People want to see this program succeed. And when you
go from a five win season where it felt like
there was some hope in Spurts. You look last year
beating ECU the way that they did, winning a few
games from the American to now, Okay, you're back to
square one. You don't have an athletic director in the
seat right now, a permanent one. You've got a head
(03:32):
coach that's the most proven that they've had, but you're
also coming off of one of the worst seasons that
they've had. So what is it to believe in? And
I guess how do you kind of funnel that into
the pocket to a program and be able to put
a quality product on the field. Man. There's a lot
of movement pieces, but definitely I agree with you the
money is the biggest thing right now.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Talking about the fundraising of all of it. Tim Albin
and the forty nine ers posted a fundraising video discussing
their Fuel the Future initiative. They have a goal to
raise five million dollars, and you reported that Charlotte had
already report raised excuse me, three point three million towards
their goal, which is significant. Now, the five million you
also reported isn't just going towards roster construction, but it
(04:14):
will fund program upgrades. Can you tell us a little
bit more on how they'll be using this five million
dollars hopefully assuming I'll knock on one, assuming that they
actually raise it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yees.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
So it's going to span a few things I mentioned.
You mentioned the roster construction. I think that'll be the
biggest slice of the pie, putting being able to go
out and pay players in this singular transfer portal window
which opens on January second, So that's full speed ahead
towards that right now. It's a month from today, So
the biggest slice of that pie will go to that.
(04:48):
Outside of there, there's program upgrades. I don't have all
the specifics. I actually talked with Tim Alvin this morning
and he talked through a little bit of what it
would be, whether it's the coaching salaries, whether it's upgrades
to the stack with the nutrition side of things, the
training side. They're trying to find utilize this money to
do everything they can to make the program better. Because
(05:08):
we talked about, Hey, it's just the money for the
on field product, the NIO, what's going in the player's pockets.
But that goes directly back to the nutrition, the way
that they're feeding the athletes, the way that they're training,
and you're seeing, in comparison to the other schools in
the league, the injuries continuing to stack up, and a
lot of those things point right back towards what I mentioned,
(05:29):
the nutrition the training aspects. So it's good to see
that they've got, like I say, they're being transparent about, Hey,
this is what we need to get to where we
want to be. Because you look at Tim Alvin, He's
had two head coaching stops prior Northwestern Oklahoma State in
the nineties. His first season there he went five and five,
Then Not Ohio in twenty twenty one. His first season there,
(05:51):
he goes three and nine. In the season's following that,
he's fifty and thirteen, the Matt Championship, a few Coaching
Coaching the Year awards along the way. So we've, like
I said, we've seen that he can do it, and
I think it's good that they're being proactive and saying
exactly what they need to get there.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Hunter.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You also reported this season's roster valuation was around one
point four million dollars. Like, I know you're a journalist.
I don't want you to speculate too much on this,
but would it be safe to assume that that roster
valuation for twenty twenty six would be double the one
point four Like? Are we getting to three million? Do
you have any ideas on how you think this money
(06:29):
would be spread around?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I think it's got It's definitely has to double,
you know, if they want to compete, I think that
they should get closer to the triple. If you can
get around four million, you're going to feel pretty good
about the players that they're gonna put on the field
here at Charlotte, and I mean Tim Album's talked about it.
They've got to schedule differently in the future. There's no
reason they should be playing Georgia in November. Although one
(06:52):
point nine millions that has help out a program like this.
But next year they've got Ole Miss, they go to Louisville.
They've got some big opportunities. In the American Conference itself
is about some completely reshape. Knowing that four of the
top coaches just left the league. Two I mean the
two coaches coaching in the Conference championship game on Saturday
(07:13):
won't be in the Conference sexture, So there's going to
be a large turnover and you hope, hey, Charlotte can
get back in the race. And I think that starts
obviously with, like I say, the players that put on
the field, they're going to have to address the quarterback
position both sides of the line of scrimmage, and then
potentially even a play caller. Man, it's a lot up
in the air right now.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, well, that's what I wanted to ask you about most.
I mean, following you at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five
and the must follow that it is for all Charlotte
forty nine ers fans. I think that's the thing I
saw you complained about the most along with other forty
nine ers fans. It was play calling. It seemed like
you were pretty beside yourself there. What do you expect
to happen there going into next season?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, so it doesn't sound like it's going to be
a change here. I think Tim Alviman is pretty solid
in the camp of they've got to upgrade the talent
and the entries, the evaluation they weren't able to get
I guess as a bunch of an evaluation, as they
truly wanted only having their starting quarterback for three three
and a half games this year, so obviously a ton
(08:13):
of injuries. We detailed that on this show. But yeah,
the play calling this season, Walker just hurt my brain
a lot of times. They averaged fourteen point three points
per game this year. That's bottom five in the country.
That's statistically the worst offense that Charlotte's ever had in
their thirteen years. You look at that and say, Okay,
(08:35):
so many details go into this, so many different variables,
but what is the same And you look at ty Fitch.
The last time he called an offense with twenty twenty
at Vanderbilt, they averaged fourteen point six points per game.
Not much better, very similar results, very similar issues. Now,
he's been in oc span in seven or eight schools.
He's made a ton of stops along the way, and
(08:57):
before he came to Charlotte, he had spent time as
an analysts with Ohio State and then LSU. But watching
some of the lack of creativity, the struggles, their inability
to run the ball right out eighty yards per game,
which is the worst in the American among the bottom
three in the entire FBS. It's frustrating to watch knowing
(09:19):
that they're not maximizing on what they've got. And analysts
that cover the games, the play by players, they're all
picking up on the fact that Charlotte much of the
time does not get the ball to their best players.
Now we saw Javin Nicholas have a huge line share
of the targets. We saw Sean Brown, who led the
team and receiving last year receptions, at least kind of
(09:42):
come on towards the end of the season. But it
took them the entire non conference to figure out that
Sean Brown was a good football player and he should play.
It's interesting to watch kind of how all of that
came together. But yeah, the play falling, you saw the
defense kind of take a turn, in my opinion, improving
at least a little, taking the ball away from some
of the best teams in the league with the inability
(10:04):
to score and like I say, I mean the three
and out rates over thirty percent. The biggest thing to me,
if you're an offensive coordinator and you're you have scripted
drives right opening game scripts the first drive out of
the half against FGS competition this year. Walker, Charlotte did
not score a touchdown in any of those scenarios all year.
(10:25):
They only had three points all. He's on the opening
drives and to me, that points directly to the guy
calling the plays, and that's Todd Fitch.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Hunter Bailey joining us here on WESON Walker talking about
the Charlotte forty nine Ers football season and what is
expected of them moving forward. Follow him on Twitter at
Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. Also follow his work on
The Charlotte Observer and listen to his podcast, The Highway
forty nine Podcast. There's still a lot to get to here,
so we'll have you on certainly a few more times
(10:55):
basketball updates as well as we move on. Hunter, you
do a great job as always, Man, Appreciate you and
go have a few more beers after covering this season.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I appreciate it man, Thanks Gus.
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