2026 American Conference Media Days: Team-by-Team Recaps and Storylines

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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 offense last fall.

“There’s a little tweaks here and there,” said wide receiver Brock Spalding, ECU’s only returning offensive starter. “We’re still doing tempo, which is what we did last year, so lining up on the ball quick and getting the play call. That’s something I was blessed to do last year, so I’m kind of used to it. I think all the other guys have picked up on it very well. But we’re probably gonna air it out a little bit more this year for sure.”

Who is doing the airing it out? ECU has a two-man quarterback competition between Mitch Griffis and Emory Williams. Griffis, who turns 25 in September, arrives from Texas Tech, but the bulk of his playing time occurred during his nine starts at Wake Forest in 2023. Meanwhile, Williams hails from Miami (FL), where he started two contests in 2023 including an overtime upset win over Clemson.

“Mitch and Emory are both awesome,” Harrell said. “Whoever wins that job and goes out there and takes the first snap, I feel 100 percent confidence in because of the way they work, the way they go about their business, the way they lead our football team, and the experience they have. I think there’s about 1,200 snaps between the two of them in college football.

Florida Atlantic Owls

Florida Atlantic posted a 4-8 record in year one of the Zach Kittley era. However, there were signs of promise for the Owls in a forgettable season. They threw the ball more than anyone in the FBS and finished No. 1 in the FBS in passing offense. The two players that contributed most to that No. 1 ranking are back on campus quarterback, as Caden Veltkamp fired for 3,641 yards and 24 touchdowns, while Easton Messer snagged 104 receptions for 1,052 yards and six touchdowns. Even with a potent QB-WR duo, Kittley envisions FAU taking a leap forward on offense with stronger run support.

“Last year, we struggled at tight end, we got banged up at tight end, and we weren’t running the ball very well,” Kittley said. “My philosophy is find your best 11 players and put them on the field. Last year, our best 11 were 10 personnel. So when you’re 10 personnel, you’re going to throw the ball more because the run game is limited. I feel like we’ve improved the tight end room and the running back room. It’s still gonna be a quarterback-friendly offense, a throw-first offense, but I’d be shocked if we throw it as many times as we did last year.”

However, the passing success came with one serious side affect — turnovers. Florida Atlantic ranked last in the FBS in turnovers (29), interceptions thrown (20), and turnover margin (-21, when nobody else was worse than -13). Cutting those outlier turnover numbers will be instrumental to bringing the Owls to their first bowl game since 2020.

“I have so many good players around me. I don’t have to do too much,” Veltkamp said. “Last year, I really tried to just strain and make the Superman play when I didn’t have to and force the ball into situations where I couldn’t, because my shoulder couldn’t handle it. But I just got to get the ball to my playmakers and let them do their thing.”

Memphis Tigers

There are four new head coaches to the American this season, but none made a bigger splash at media days than Charles Huff. Huff will be at his third job in three years after leading Marshall to a Sun Belt championship in 2024 and turning Southern Miss from 1-11 to 7-6 in 2025. The former Sun Belt savant spent his first American media day press conference hoping he’ll be at a different conference’s media day soon, while still serving as the head coach at Memphis.

“I’m in the best situation possible,” Huff said. “I’m in a vehicle that has the resources, that has the platform, and has the opportunity to continue to grow. Hopefully I’ll be standing here one more, two more, or three more years, then I’ll be standing in a power four conference with the same logo on with the same people, the same president, the same AD, and hopefully some of the same players, because I’m in a vehicle that can do that.”

Huff referred to himself as the “Lane Kiffin of the group of five” and the “portal king” at his press conference. Memphis is experiencing its greatest roster refurbishment ever, bringing in 71 new players (17 from Southern Miss) and retaining just one starter in guard Parker Mitchell. It’s Huff’s mission to make all the moving parts work, as the Tigers aim to sustain their bowl eligibility streak which dates back to 2014.

“I feel like every single new guy that we have has been a blessing to play with and a blessing to play for,” said Memphis inside linebacker Mike Montgomery, who came with huff from Southern Miss. “You’ve got to have to want to play for the person next to you. You can’t just play together. That’s not enough. You have to want it for them. That’s the biggest thing we’ve talked about. A few weeks ago, I had a player-only unit meeting, and I wanted everyone to come up there and say their ‘why’ and why they play this game.”

Navy Midshipmen

Navy is in excellent shape from a continuity standpoint. The Midshipmen return roughly half their starters on both sides of the ball, looking to build on a 11-2 season where they won the Liberty Bowl and finished ranked No. 23 in the nation. However, there are two mammoth losses the team must account for. Running back/wide receiver Eli Heidenreich and defensive tackle Landon Robinson were both generational talents at Navy, as Heidenreich shattered virtually every program receiving record while Robinson was the the Midshipmen’s first AP First Team All-American since 1975.

“Those guys are generational talents. It’s impossible to replace Eli or Landon Robinson,” head coach Brian Newberry said. “I do think we have some great pieces in our program. We didn’t know Landon Robinson was gonna be as good as he was. We didn’t know Eli was gonna be who he was… We’re probably gonna be even better from a complementary standpoint offensively and defensively than we were a year ago. We’re probably not gonna be as explosive as we were on offense, losing some of those players and production. I think we’re gonna be a team that can go out there and have 13, 14, 15-play drives, eat the clock, and that will help us on defense. So there’s a lot of ways we’re maybe even a better football team.”

Another star talent Navy must replace is quarterback Blake Horvath, who guided back-to-back 10+ win seasons. Taking the reins is Braxton Woodson who started one game in each of the last three years. But even with limited starting experience, Woodson has substantial in-game experience, eclipsing the 100-yard rushing threshold three times in 2025 and five times over the course of his career. He believes that fully prepared him for his moment as QB1.

“It takes the pressure off because you’ve been in those big moments before,” Woodson said. “I mean, you’ve kind of done the big thing already, so there’s no excuse to be nervous. Just go out there and play football. I think having that advantage is the same as being able to play a lot of games as a returning quarterback.”

North Texas Mean Green

North Texas is fresh off its winningest season in program history. The Mean Green attained a 12-2 record, finished ranked No. 24 in the AP Poll. In a pre-transfer portal world, North Texas would likely have a preseason ranking and be favorites for the College Football Playoff. But that world no longer exists. Head coach Eric Morris and a bulk of the Mean Green stars departed for Oklahoma State this offseason, leaving new head coach Neal Brown the task of rebuilding the entire roster. Zero starters return, and Brown assembled a new squad in Denton primarily through the transfer portal.

“This is a year-by-year league, and we want to embrace that,” Brown said. “For us, it’s a unique challenge. We want to do something that’s never been done. We’ve got 70-plus new players. For us, it’s like, why not us? There’s not a whole lot of people talking about us for the championship, but in our building, there’s a ton of belief that we can go in there and do that. I wish I had a year of experience already in the league, so I know what to expect, but I don’t. But I like our team and I’m excited to get started.”

There are plenty of revamped rosters across college football, but North Texas takes it to a different extreme as one of two programs (along with Iowa State) without a single starter back. Thus, in a melting pot setting, it takes time to figure out who the team leaders are, but Coach Brown has found one in inside linebacker Aaron Alexander, who generated a team-high 91 tackles at Arkansas State last season.

“I’ve been around the block a little bit, so I’ve been coming around new teams, and I’ve had new coaching staff,” Alexander said. “I feel like we’ve handled it very well. You just gotta come in and put in the body of work. For me, I came in, I just went to work. I didn’t really say too much, but if I saw problems here and there, I would speak up, but I’d say, you gotta put in the body of work first or no one’s gonna respect you.”

Rice Owls

Rice took the largest schematic gamble in the American last season, switching to an option-based offense called the “Rice gun choice,” under first-year head coach Scott Abell. Overall, the end result was commendable. The Owls improved their win total and participated in a bowl game during a 5-win season. While Abell was impressed with the year one results, he feels much more comfortable entering year two at the program with his system fully installed and the administrative items settled.

“What doesn’t feel different?” Abell said. “Year one is a lot of learning for everybody, including myself. Credit to that team, because I’ve said often they somewhat overachieved. No one’s really recruited around the system we’re implementing, there wasn’t much roster change, a lot of graduation the year before. Here we are a year leader, able to make much-needed changes to the roster and had that opportunity this offseason… And I felt a lot like CEO Abell last year, right? You’re putting your staff together, you’re managing the portal, are we gonna have rev share money, and what’s it gonna look like? A lot of those questions have been answered, and that’s given me the ability to settle into the role and be where I’m most comfortable — to be Coach Abell.”

Last season, the top two quarterbacks on Rice’s depth chart were remnants of a previous era — quarterbacks who didn’t commit to run an option-based offense. This offseason, Abell was able to hand-pick a quarterback from the portal perfectly suited for this scheme. He landed on Jacurri Brown, who started four collective games at Miami (FL) and UCF, a mobile threat who registered 830 career rushing yards and eight touchdowns on a 6.0 average. Brown discussed the challenges of learning the Rice gun choice offense.

“I’ll say one thing is you treat every play differently,” Brown said. “Another thing is don’t get bored with the process. We want to have those 14-play, 15-play drives that are withstanding, keeping the ball and controlling the clock. What I’ve been more used to is spotty plays, hit on some plays, more of a flash offense. With this one, it’s more methodical, more structure You can take more pride in it because you gotta win your one-on-one out there. All 11 guys out on the field have to win their one-on-one. It’s not necessarily one guy running the show. It’s everybody coming together as a team, and that’s what football is all about.”

South Florida Bulls

South Florida produced three-consecutive winning seasons since Alex Golesh, including a 9-4 mark in 2025 — signifying the program’s best season since 2017. However, the Bulls are starting anew at head coach. After Golesh left for Auburn, Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline entered with the mission of elevating USF’s recent success. Hartline spent seven years as an NFL wide receiver, logging over 1,000 yards in 2012 and 2013. South Florida’s players have been impressed by his fine-tuned style of coaching, as he emphasizes improving the most detailed intricacies of everyone’s game.

“It’s really night and day,” tight end Wyatt Sullivan said. “Any aspect of my game that Hartline notices I can improve on, which is every aspect of my game, he’s gonna tell me. ‘Hey, on this route, you can give me a little bit more or a little bit less.’ Or, ‘Here’s how you should run at the top of your break.’ When it comes to learning details and everything, it’s really been a positive thing for me in my development.”

Hartline arrives with a new staff, and one staff member is certainly familiar with the American Conference. Defensive coordinator Josh Aldridge arrives from East Carolina, where he captained the league’s top 2025 defense in fewest points allowed, fewest rushing yards allowed, and sacks.

“First, I was looking for the right personality,” Hartline said. “I think that’s really important. Players embody the personality of their coaches. I talked to a lot of guys, and he definitely checked that box. He’s passionate, and the one thing he’s most passionate about is putting guys in position to be successful. And if a guy doesn’t make a play, he tries to blame himself, like, ‘I could have done this better. I could have done that better,’ which is great. It was also very important to have somebody who understood the process, because I was not an expert in the conference at that time. It’s very well-noted you must understand the academies are different, both personality-wise and schematically, and how they do things. I wanted to make sure I had a defensive coordinator who understood that, and that was really, really imporatnt.”

Temple Owls

Temple’s last winning season was observed in 2019. The Owls spun their wheels in 3-9 for four-straight years from 2021-24, but head coach K.C. Keeler elevated the program out of that territory during his inaugural 2025 campaign. Keeler guided Temple to a 5-3 start, sitting on the fringes of its first bowl game of the 2020s decade. However, four-straight losses followed, causing the team to land at 5-7. Keeler believes learning how to defeat service academies Army and Navy is the factor which catapults his team to the next level.

“Really disappointed, and I think the two things that sit with us is those two one-point losses to the academies,” Keeler said. “We recognize we have to play those guys every single year, and we have to do a better job in those academy games if we want to be a contender for a bowl and for a conference championships. We’re gonna have those games on the schedule every year.”

The Owls demonstrated some of the most impressive retention in the American. They did not lose a single starter to the transfer portal — only to graduation — and seven offensive starters return. But not all positions enter 2026 armed with experience. Temple’s quarterback room has thrown a combined two collegiate passes. The primary candidates are Penn State transfer Jaxon Smolik and Rutgers/Washington State transfer Ajani Sheppard. Keeler said Smolik is currently the favorite to win the job, although the battle will extend through fall camp.

“The great thing about both of them is they came to a place like Temple,” tight end Peter Clarke said. “Haason Reddick was a walk-on. He came to Temple. He’s who he is now, so this is a proving ground for players, and it has been year-on-year. So two guys coming in to compete for their role is only gonna make both of them better. In the spring, they both developed, picked up the playbook, built relationships, and started to throw that rhythm out. Over the summer, we fine-tune that, so in the fall we can have a great time.”

Tulane Green Wave

Tulane is the standard of the American. The Green Wave now own a conference-record with four-straight championship game appearances. The reigning champs also qualified for the College Football Playoff last season. However, remaining at the top does have its challenges in 2026 considering Tulane lost head coach Jon Sumrall to Florida and seven all-conference players to the transfer portal. The returning players are now the standard bearers, emphasizing the importance of a player-led team as the Green Wave transition to new head coach Will Hall.

“We lost Coach Sumrall. Okay, cool. It’s not all about coaching because we’re a player-led team,” Chris Rodgers said. “We were a player-led team before too. If a player messes up, we’re not gonna wait on coach. We’re gonna get on them. It’s all about the players. Players make the program. Coaches coach and players play. It’s a player-led program.”

Hall knows what success at Tulane looks like. He spent 2019 and 2020 as the offensive coordinator in the Willie Fritz era — the period where the proram first became a consistent bowl team. Then he returned to New Orleans in 2025 as the passing game coordinator under Jon Sumrall for the CFP-bound Green Wave. Hall aims to incorporate values he learned under Fritz and Sumrall to ensure Tulane is maintaining its winning tradition, rather than trying to rebuild it.

“We’re kind of 10 years into a program in a day and age where you don’t really have programs,” Hall said. “Coach Fritz was there seven years and credit to Coach Sumrall for coming in and keeping a lot of those values and a lot of those staff members. Then you hire me, who had been with both, so we’re kind of 10 years into a sustained foundation of how we do things. A lot of that will stay the same. There will be some tweaks that I have to do that work for me, specifically with how we’ll play offense, but our values, the way in which we recruit, build, and develop will all stay the same.”

Tulsa Golden Hurricane

Tulsa prepares for year two of the Tre Lamb era after finishing 4-8 in year one. The Golden Hurricane extended their bowl drought to four-straight years, but there were signs of promise along the way with statement wins over Oklahoma State, Oregon State, and Army. Lamb finds his second season easier to manage due to the team’s improved roster stability.

“That first year we brought in about 75 transfers, and I didn’t really have a great opportunity to build a relationship with everybody on the team, but now I know everybody,” Lamb said. “I’ve been around them for a year and know how they tick. That’s been the biggest difference. We only took 25 transfers this year, so we got a lot of returners.

Tulsa’s best continuity is visible in the defensive back room, where starters Elijah Green, Devin Robinson, Zach Williams, and JD Drew all return. The 2025 All-American Conference First Team features 16 players that are currently on college football rosters, and only four stayed with their programs. One was Elijah Green, who produced 59 tackles, seven pass breakups, and a conference-best five interceptions. The First Teamer’s commitment to stay was a significant factor in retaining a bulk of the defensive back room.

“It honestly makes me want to stay even more, because having a guy like Elijah, he’s not just a hard-worker and doesn’t talk to anybody. No, he’s a spark plug in the locker room,” Robinson said. “He is a guy you want to be around, always has a smile on his face, always wanting to work hard. Him being a First Team, it makes sense, because he does everything right. He’s the person who sets the example.”

UAB Blazers

Are there four new head coaches or five new head coaches in the 2026 American Conference? The question is unclear since UAB operated six games under Alex Mortensen in an interim capacity last season. Mortensen, who guided the Blazers to an upset of a ranked Memphis team in his coaching debut, ultimately retained the job for 2026. The 40-year old is still in the midst of learning the offseason procedures, but Mortensen can already reflect on his experience accrued experience in his six games (2-4) as UAB’s frontman.

“I think when he played well, we played incredibly hard and we didn’t beat ourselves,” Mortensen said. “In games where we didn’t get the result we wanted on the scoreboard, I think in some cases we still played incredibly hard, but I do think we did some things to beat ourselves. I think good football starts there. I don’t mean to play cautious or scared, but we need to play disciplined and smart football. That’s the emphasis of our team going forward — playing good, disciplined football, not giving the game away. Make someone beat you physically, but don’t give it to them.”

Despite a 4-8 finish, UAB excelled statistically in some facets last season. The Blazers ranked 28th nationally in passing offense and 49th in total offense, showing a propensity to move the ball on opposing defenses. However, UAB’s defensive metrics showed little promise. The team ranked second-to-last nationally in points allowed per game at 38.3. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham was hired to resolve such issues. Grantham arrives with vast coordinator experience with stops including Georgia, Louisville, Mississippi State, Florida, and most recently, Oklahoma State, as well as the Cleveland Browns.

“He’s been to a lot of areas already. He knows how to adjust,” said outside linebacker Ike Esonwune, who played under Grantham at Oklahoma State. “He did it at the high levels already. He knows what needs to be done to be a winning team, what needs to be done to be one of the top defenses in the country. He’s instilling that in us every day and every second that we step on a field, whether it’s a workout, or whether we’re in an install, or whether we’re in a walkthrough.”

UTSA Roadrunners

There are three American programs that retain their head coach and Week 1 starting quarterback from 2025 — Army, Charlotte, and UTSA. The same can also be said for UTSA from 2024. Jeff Traylor enters year seven as the Roadrunners’ head coach, while Owen McCown enters year three as the starting quarterback. Traylor believes that type of stability can give the Roadrunners a leg up in the conference, especially considering contenders like Tulane, North Texas, Memphis, and South Florida are all resetting at head coach and quarterback.

“He’s so tough,” Traylor said of McCown. “He played the entire year last year injured and never whined about it one time. Had surgery when the season was up. Didn’t get with us in spring ball. Doesn’t even talk about it. I know his dad playing in the league 18 years, that’s all he’s ever known, but still, it’s an unbelievable testament to his mental and physical toughness. He’s healthy now, he’s bigger, and he’s a very good athlete. We didn’t get to see him run a lot because he was trying to protect himself last year, but I bet he’ll make more plays with his feet this year kind of like he did in his first year as a starter.”

McCown’s highlight from 2025 was a near-perfect game against a playoff-bound Tulane team. He finished 31-of-33 with 370 passing yards and four touchdowns in a dominant victory. Such performances have become standard at the Alamodome, where UTSA is 25-1 against conference opponents in the Traylor era. But figuring out how to translate that success to the road is the ingredient which can evolve the Roadrunners from a solid bowl team to a conference contender.

“Every now and then, I try to pull up my film from that,” McCown said. “But I think that was the disappointing part of last year. We had the team to beat a good caliber playoff team like Tulane, but then maybe struggle on the road versus some lesser teams. Getting the road woes figured out was a big deal for us this offseason, and I think we’ll do that. I think it goes back to your preparation.”

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