The VSiN college football experts have been hard at work this summer, writing up team previews and predictions for all 131 FBS teams, including their favorite individual season win total and College Football Playoff bets.
Here are the team previews for Conference USA:
CHARLOTTE
It really felt like the Charlotte 49ers were ready to take off after a 7-6 season in Will Healy’s first season in 2019. Healy came over from Austin Peay, where he took a team that was 1-45 from 2013-16 and got them to an 8-4 record in 2017. By 2019, the Governors were in the FCS playoffs based on what Healy built, but the momentum at Charlotte has slowed to a crawl and expectations for this season are on the lower end.
Offense
The offense is in good hand with quarterback Chris Reynolds, who has already started 35 games with the 49ers. He posted a 26-9 TD-INT ratio last season and has a good grasp of Mark Carney’s offense. The 49ers couldn’t match the 6.4 yards per play they had in 2019 but also didn’t have Benny LeMay, the second-leading rusher in program history, last season. Reynolds has all of his wide receiver and tight end targets back and both running backs return as well. Calvin Camp averaged 5.6 yards per carry and led the team in rushing, even though Shadrick Byrd got more carries. The 49ers only had 13 rushing touchdowns and four were from Reynolds, so this group needs to be more potent. The offensive line is a hodgepodge of recruits and…
