A team that just won 12 games and lost basically everyone hosts a team that won 1 game and still hasn't settled on a quarterback. Somebody has to win this one.
Bush’s Picks
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Best BetNorth Texas
North Texas is a year removed from a 12-win, AP-ranked season, and even with the roster overhaul, that level of recent success and a new-but-experienced head coach in Neal Brown should still translate to more baseline talent than a Charlotte team coming off 1-11. The value case for the Mean Green isn't complicated — it's still more program than opponent, home field included. The risk is that zero returning starters is zero returning starters, and Charlotte's floor might be higher than its 2025 record suggests if Harrell is healthy.
Charlotte
+Year 2 continuity in Albin's system
+Harrell efficient (66.7% comp) when healthy
+facing a North Texas roster with zero starters back
−Coming off a 1-11 debut season
−Loftis threw 8 INTs in relief duty
−unresolved QB competition into the fall
North Texas
+Coming off historic 12-2, AP-ranked season
+Jahiem White transfer adds proven RB juice
+home game under a new, experienced head coach
−Zero returning starters, tied for fewest in FBS
−lost entire winning staff, including OC, to Oklahoma State
−brutal opening slate vs Indiana, UNLV, Texas State
This is a strange one to preview months out because both rosters are basically being rebuilt from scratch. Charlotte is in year 2 under Tim Albin after a 1-11 debut season, and the quarterback room is still unsettled between Conner Harrell, who completed 66.7% of his passes before a season-ending knee injury cut his year short, and Grayson Loftis, who threw for 1,415 yards but also tossed 8 interceptions once he took over. North Texas, meanwhile, is dealing with the opposite problem: too much success, not enough of it sticking around. The Mean Green went 12-2, made the AP Poll for the first time since 1959, and played in the American Conference title game — and then watched head coach Eric Morris walk to Oklahoma State and take a chunk of that magic with him.
New head coach Neal Brown, a veteran of stops at Troy and West Virginia, inherits a North Texas program that returns zero starters, tied with Iowa State for the fewest in the FBS. That's about as close to starting over as a program coming off a historic season can get. The one name to know is running back Jahiem White, a West Virginia transfer who's been pegged as the Mean Green's most likely impact player, giving Brown a plug-and-play piece while everything else around him gets sorted out.
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CLT Charlotte
UNT North Texas
North Texas didn't get an easy runway into this one either. The non-conference slate opens with a trip to face reigning national champion Indiana, followed by matchups with UNLV and Texas State — hardly a get-right schedule for a team replacing this much talent and installing a new staff on the fly. By the time Charlotte comes to Denton, we'll have a much clearer read on whether Brown's group has found its footing or is still figuring out who its playmakers even are.
Charlotte 49ers
Oct 2?vs Memphis—
Sep 25?vs Louisiana—
Sep 19?@ App State—
Sep 12?@ Ole Miss—
Sep 5?vs The Citadel—
North Texas Mean Green
Oct 1?@ Tulsa—
Sep 26?vs Houston Christian—
Sep 19?@ Texas State—
Sep 12?vs UNLV—
Sep 5?@ Indiana—
Recent form.
Charlotte's path back from 1-11 runs through whichever quarterback gives Albin and offensive coordinator Todd Fitch the most consistency. Harrell's efficiency when healthy was the best version of this offense last year, but health is exactly the issue — he didn't make it out of September. If Loftis is the answer again, the turnover numbers have to come down, because an 8-interception stretch against a rebuilding but still more talented North Texas roster is a quick way to get run out of Denton.
Charlotte 49ers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
North Texas Mean Green
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Neither program looks anything like it did a year ago, which is what makes this one interesting instead of predictable. North Texas has the residual talent and the recent winning habits, but it's also the more unfamiliar team to itself — a new coach, a new system, and a roster largely built through the portal. Charlotte knows exactly what it is: a team still hunting for its quarterback answer. By Friday, October 9, both programs should have a much better sense of who they actually are.
