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2026 American Conference Media Days: Team-by-Team Recaps and Storylines
All 14 American Conference programs converged at the Hilton Bayfront in St. Petersburg, FL for the league’s 2026 media days. Attendees included Commissioner Tim Pernetti, the 14 head coaches, two player representatives from each team (three from Rice), the teams’ mascots and cheerleaders, and even former Super Bowl champion head coach Jon Gruden.
For the third-straight season, the conference’s structure remains stagnant. While there are no membership changes, the league saw drastic changes at head coach. Four new head coaches — Charles Huff (Memphis), Neal Brown (North Texas), Brian Hartline (South Florida), and Will Hall (Tulane) — made their appearances in Tampa, as did UAB head coach Alex Mortensen, who was promoted after spending six games in an interim role last year.
Here is a recap of each team’s main stoylines from American Conference media days:
Army Black Knights
Army is a storied program with five claimed national championships. But the Black Knights never produced more wins in a season than in 2024, when they debuted in the American. Led by sixth-place Heisman finisher Bryson Daily, Army won 12 games and secured their first-ever conference title. Without Daily, 2025 featured initial growing pains. However, Army found a worthy Daily successor in Cale Hellums. Hellums was not the Week 1 starter but steadily eased into the offense last season and led all FBS quarterbacks with 1,223 rushing yards. He now is one of eight offensive starters returning to West Point in 2026.
“We had some quarterback competition going into last year,” head coach Jeff Monken said. “It took some games and took some trial and error, but I think what we realized was that Cale was the right fit for our football team, the right personality, and the right skillset. He had a good year. He didn’t have a great year. He had some great, outstanding moments and terrific performances, and there are some plays and games he would like to have back, and we would to. But in 2023 we had a quarterback named Bryson Daily, and he started for the first time as a junior and he had very sparingly played in his freshman and sophomore year. He had some games in his junior year, where he performed very well and some he’d like to get those back. He had a much better senior year, so I hope Cale, like Bryson, learns some lessons, gains some experience, and gains some confidence, so he performs more consistently this year than he did a year ago.”
Record-wise, Army was very far from repeating as conference champions. The Black Knights went from 12-2 overall and 8-0 in league play to 7-6 and 4-4, respectively. But taking it game-by-game, Army only lost once by multiple scores. The mission in 2026 is to avoid gut-wrenching defeats, as it fell four times on a go-ahead score in the final 30 seconds of regulation or overtime.
“Obviously the goal is to not lose any games,” center Brady Small said. “But when that does happen, we can’t hit the panic button. We’ve got to stick together, lean on one another, and get the ship sailing in the right direction again.”
Charlotte 49ers
Charlotte did not defeat a single FBS opponent in 2025. However, second-year head coach Tim Albin is optimistic after a 1-11 season. One reason is the numbers are simply better. Charlotte’s 2025 roster had 14 players that could run 20 miles per hour according to the GPS tracking system. Even after losing seven of those players, there are now over 40 who can clock 20 miles per hour on the GPS. Additionally, the offensive and defensive lines are 10 pounds heavier, and the o-line is 60 pounds stronger in squat and power clean, while the d-line is 80 pounds stronger. Another reason for optimism is the Fuel the Future campaign, a fundraising initiative which allowed Charlotte to retain 52 players and bring in a stronger portal class.
“I wear what happened last year — the product — and I own it,” Albin said. “I’m not gonna make it solely fall on my shoulders, but Fuel the Future has given us a lifeline of more talent, and that’s why we’re so excited headed into year two. A lot of the guys on defense returned because of those efforts. The talent acquisition that we have acquired with that project, we are a better football team.”
One of Charlotte’s greatest assets in 2026 is a clean slate of health. The 49ers were bit harder by the injury bug than nearly any team in the country, having 12 players out for the season by their sixth contest. The defensive line was particularly struck as two returning starters — DJ Burgess and Macyo Williams — suffered season-ending injuries within the first four games.
“Injuries are never good,” outside linebacker Kadin Schmitz said. “Our front seven was dwindling very fast, and by the end of the year, it was very thin. I think having a lot of those guys back is gonna make a major difference in the run game and getting pressure on the quarterback. Your front four guys will change the game. It will help the DBs cover better. It will help the linebackers fit the run better. Not having those guys last year genuinely hurt us. And I think this year having them is gonna be a lot bettter for everybody on the team.
East Carolina Pirates
In October 2024, East Carolina fired head coach Mike Houston and promoted defensive coordinator Blake Harrell as the interim. A different brand of Pirates football has been witnessed since that moment. ECU is 14-5 under Harrell with two bowl wins over ACC opponents. However, the Pirates have also become victims of their own success. This offseason, ECU lost both coordinators — OC John David Baker to Ole Miss and DC Josh Aldridge to South Florida. However, the Pirates made a splash offensive coordinator hire in return, brining in former North Texas OC Jordan Davis who led the No. 1 scoring offense at 45.1 points per game in 2025. Harrell said there will be a mix of adjusting to Davis’ philosophies and maintaining what’s previously worked at ECU, which owned the No. 19 total offense and No. 24 scoring offen...
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