Charlotte 49ers open spring practice with focus on ‘physical, fundamental football’

New Charlotte 49ers head football coach Francis “Biff” Poggi recently saw a story that made him want to pull his car over.

The article proclaimed Poggi is one of six new head coaches with a particularly tough schedule to navigate in his first season at the helm, citing Charlotte’s first five opponents in 2023.

“I wanted to pull the car over and call the (writer) and say, ‘You don’t understand. We’re expecting to win them all,’” Poggi said. “We really practice and lift and go to school and eat and go to sleep and get up thinking about running the table. And I mean that... Honestly. I can’t get that thought in my mind.”

Winning will take more than speaking it into existence for the 49ers. The team has road games against Florida and Maryland, and is starting its inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference.

But success is all Poggi knows. He spent more than two decades molding a high school football powerhouse in his hometown of Baltimore. He led his alma mater Gilman High School to 13 state titles in 19 years, then rebuilt St. Frances Academy into a national champion. He spent the past two seasons at the University of Michigan as associate head coach — and as Jim Harbaugh’s most trusted advisor.

Charlotte athletic director Mike Hill hired Poggi after the team went 3-9 this past season. The team finished 130th (out of 131 teams) on defense, and plays in the smallest football stadium in the Football Bowl Subdivision with a capacity of 15,314.

Poggi has never been a head coach at any collegiate level, but the 62-year-old football lifer knows how to build a program. Tuesday, the 49ers held their first spring practice. The 49ers’ official roster lists more than 100 players. Poggi said the team will have a full “green versus white” contest on April 22 for its annual spring game.

A new culture

Poggi started hiring his new coaching staff as soon as his season at Michigan was over. He has 39 staffers, including coordinators, position coaches, assistants, and analysts. Each one plays an equally important part in what Poggi is building.

“(The culture) is building authentic relationships between men,” Poggi said. “Culture is, ‘Are you going to let me really know who you are? And am I going to let you know who I am? And are you going to permit me to be me, and without criticizing or ridiculing me, or judging me?’ If you can do that with a bunch of 20-year-olds then it’d be dangerous.”

Authenticity, empathy, and love are more important to Poggi than running fast, hitting hard, and jumping high. He believes talent tends to find the field, but developing a culture is about forging trust equally between coaches and players.

“You have to let them know that you truly love them. If you don’t, then it’s just a transactional relationship. And many of these kids have been transacted their entire lives. And they have unbelievable EQ. And they can tell right away when you’re just full of crap or not,” Poggi said. “So you have to earn it. And you have to be consistent. The one thing you can’t do is not be there (for them). You have to keep your word.”

Finding quarterback(s)

The 49ers have a lot to figure out on offense. The team lost six starters from last season, including the school’s all-time leading passer in Chris Reynolds, and its second all-time leading receiver Victor Tucker.

But Poggi is using the transfer portal to the 49ers’ advantage. The 49ers have 15 incoming players from the Power 5. Five of those players are on offense. Quarterback Jalon Jones is a former Flordia recruit who played at Jackson State University. He was a four-star high school quarterback who will compete for the starting job with Xavier Williams, who played in six games last season and started one.

Poggi will bring a pro-style offense to the 49ers, similar to what worked for him and Harbaugh at Michigan. He wants to run the ball with a smash-mouth style. The running game will focus on gap schemes with power runs up the “A” and “B” gaps. Expect outside runs and counters that can also set up play-action deep shots for whomever is quarterbacking.

As for who will start, Poggi does not think he needs to commit or deploy just one signal-caller.

“I’m a little different on quarterback position than most. I want to play quarterbacks like you play running backs,” Poggi said. “If they’re good enough then we’ll play who is good enough... Football is too hard of a game not to play. It’s too much work to not play in some capacity.”

Starting fast

Before any plays were drawn up or film sessions scheduled, Poggi spent his first team meeting sharing his life story with his players. His football life is filled with championship success and consistent tragedy, mostly centered around being both the financial and emotional support for a generation of Baltimore student-athletes.

“Some things I am really not proud of, and (some) things I am proud of, but I let them know it all,” Poggi said. “I told them my greatest fears and my greatest regrets. And I bet I had at least 85 text messages that night. Guys telling me they appreciate that. And they wanted to tell me their story. (That) has been very moving to me.”

By being himself and letting all his players know his story, Poggi fast-tracked his cultural rebuild. Players bought in by participating in morning workouts and weight room sessions in anticipation of spring practices. For the next four weeks, they’ll all gather at Jerry Richardson Stadium for 8 a.m. practices.

The team is excited about the spring game.

“To be a very physically dominant football team on both sides of the ball and on special teams. That’s the only goal,” Poggi said. “Don’t come here expecting to see a Pac-12 kind of game where (the score) is 55 to 48. Come here expecting to see a Big-10 game where it’s 17-13, and there’s a lot of really old-fashioned, physical, fundamental football. That’s how we’ll win it.”