Charlotte dismisses Healy after 1-7 start
Charlotte fired coach Will Healy on Sunday after the 49ers fell to 1-7 in their final season as a member of Conference USA.
“We are grateful to Will Healy for the incredible energy and enthusiasm he brought to our program,” said Charlotte 49ers athletic director Mike Hill. “He made an impact here that will never be forgotten. Sadly, however, our on-field results have not met expectations. Will and his family are special people and we wish them the best.”
Healy, one of the youngest head coaches in major college football at 37, fell to 15-24 in four seasons at Charlotte after losing 34-15 to Florida International on Saturday. That dropped the 49ers into last place in C-USA.
Offensive line coach Pete Rossomando was elevated to interim head coach. Rossomando is in his second season with the 49ers.
He has previous head coaching experience at New Haven and Central Connecticut State and was named the NCAA Div. II National Coach of the Year following the 2012 season at New Haven.
He was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson FCS Coach of the Year Award in 2017 while at Central Connecticut State.
Charlotte is set to make a jump up in competition next season when it joins the American Athletic Conference along with five other C-USA schools.
Healy was the youngest head coach in FBS when he was hired by Charlotte in 2019 after three years at Austin Peay.
His tenure at Charlotte included an FCS playoff appearance in 2017.
He led Charlotte to a bowl game in his first season, finishing 7- 6. The 49ers are 8-18 since.
Healy is the sixth major college coach fired this season, but first outside the Power Five conferences.
SEC fine
The Southeastern Conference has imposed another six-figure fine for fans storming the field, this time hitting LSU with a $250,000 penalty.
The league announced the fine after LSU fans stormed the field to celebrate a win against No. 15 Mississippi. The Rebels were ranked seventh at the time.
The 45-20 win vaulted LSU back into the rankings at No. 18, but it proved costly to LSU.
It’s LSU’s third violation of the league’s accessto-competition-area policy. LSU was last fined for a violation following its football game against Georgia in 2018.
Tennessee was fined $100,000 for the postgame celebration of a win against No. 6 Alabama a week earlier. Fans heaved the uprooted goalposts into the Tennessee River.
The fine money is deposited into the SEC PostGraduate Scholarship Fund.
Fines start out at $50,000 for a first offense, $100,000 for a second offense and $250,000 for each one after that.
AP top 25
LSU re-entered The Associated Press College Football poll at No. 18, and No. 25 South Carolina earned a ranking for the first time in four seasons.
The first six teams in the AP top 25 held their spots after either winning and not playing this past weekend.
Georgia is No. 1 for the third straight week, with No. 2 Ohio State gaining ground after it blew out Iowa.
The Bulldogs, who were idle, received 31 first-place votes and 1,530 points, and the Buckeyes got 18 firstplace votes and 1,513 points. No. 3 Tennessee received 13 first-place votes. No. 4 Michigan, No. 5 Clemson and No. 6 Alabama also held their spots, with the Tigers receiving a first-place vote.