Photo credit: Charlotte 49ers
Coach Poggi clearly defined his expectations for the program
Biff Poggi didn’t agree to terms with the Charlotte 49ers to leave the Michigan Wolverines program to mess around. Poggi on his goal as a program:
“Our goal is very simple. We want to win the AAC and we want to win it repeatedly. And we want to get to the college football playoff. That's why I left Michigan. And that's what I'm expecting to do here, and you should be asking, what's your timetable. My timetable is now.”Poggi
— Ashley Mahoney (@m_a_h_o_n_e_y) November 21, 2022
That’s about as straightforward an answer as you can get, and on top of that, he mentions the job being a “reshaping”, not a rebuild and expects to be competitive. They have 283 days to button things up to get ready for the South Carolina State Bulldogs on September 2nd. When assessing the team from this past season, Poggi clearly called out the defense and their poor performance/ranking, and mentioned you can’t win that way. He’s right, and you have to imagine that the roster on that side see’s a good bit of portal addition, and possible attrition.
Another thing of note that I felt telling with Poggi’s reference to discipline and being on time, which in his eyes is 10 minutes early. If players aren’t on time, are missing class, etc, the culture of the program simply isn’t where it needs to be.
When asked about his style of play, Poggi leans in hard on what we can call the “Michigan way.” Pro-style offense and a 3-4 base defense is coming to Jerry Richardson Stadium, both are very different from what Healy’s staff ran, though Healy always mentioned he wanted an emphasis on running the ball. I think Charlotte has a long ways to go to have the players up front to execute this scheme, so I’m anxious to see the roster evolution at the defensive line spot.
Please stop reading this post and go read Richard Johnson’s piece from earlier today. Johnson reports that Biff Poggi will be donating $500,000 (half his salary) to the Athletic Department to help strengthen the assistant pool resources, which was listed at $1,625,000 for 10 assistants + lead S&C position in the initial agreement with Poggi. Based on the names I’ve heard, the staff will likely command more than the $500k + $1.625k, so could more funds be coming from Poggi or will he be able to lean on local corporations — like Honeywell — to shoulder the burden?
If you’re interested in learning more about potential/probable assistants for the staff, be sure to get signed up and join us on Discord in the premium area to see the possible additions.
Biff’s bravado while being selfless (the charity efforts that he and Amy have speak for themselves) has me ready to line up for him (just kidding, it would not be pretty). I can’t wait to see how the staff shakes out, I’m pretty optimistic at the moment, and I keep hearing that the portal plans are big-time. Ultimately we’re going to find out a lot more about Biff’s ability to delivery in the short term over the next few weeks. December 5th marks when FBS players can officially enter the portal (if they aren’t graduate transfers) and the FCS portal has opened already with several of offers being extended already.