Charlotte 49ers held out hope for a bowl game until Wednesday morning news changed things for good

By Richard Walker

In many ways, of course this is how the Charlotte 49ers 2020 football season would end.

For the ninth time since the season began, a scheduled game has been postponed or cancelled after Friday’s 6:30 p.m. game at Marshall has been cancelled “due to medical concerns within the Marshall program,” according to a Charlotte news release on Wednesday morning.

The news release continued by stating “This cancellation will complete the 49ers 2020 football season.”

Charlotte’s distraction-filled year ends with a 2-4 overall record and 2-2 Conference USA mark.

On Tuesday, 49ers head coach Will Healy held out hope in a zoom news conference that a victory over division-leading Marshall might give his team a chance to play in a second straight postseason bowl game.

Instead, a season whose schedule was first altered during the summer ends with a sixth game cancellation.

Charlotte next game is Sept. 4, 2021 against Duke in the school’s first-ever home game against an ACC school.

Other scheduled 2021 games for the 49ers are a Sept. 11 home game against Gardner-Webb, a Sept. 18 road game at Georgia State and an Oct. 2 road game at Illinois.

Conference USA will announce the school’s eight-game 2021 league schedule in the coming months. The 49ers would likely host Middle Tennessee, Marshall and Florida Atlantic of the Eastern Division of which they are a member and an undetermined Western Division opponent and travel to play Eastern Division rivals Florida International, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky and an undetermined Western Division opponent.