STAFF ROUNDTABLE: Biggest Holes to Fill in G5 Football in 2024

G5 Football Daily Staff | Jul 22, 2024

Florida Atlantic's LaJohntay Wester (1) at a football game against UTEP at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. / GABY VELASQUEZ/ EL PASO TIMES / USA

Rosters change every year in college football. However, with the evolution of the transfer portal and this offseason's waterfall of coaching changes, there is a prevalence of production and leadership gaps to fill in the Group of Five this year.

This week, G5 Football Daily managing editor Joe Londergan and staff writer Kevin Barral are joined by Eric Henry of 247Sports and Horns247 to discuss those major gaps and how their respective teams can address them, or already have addressed them, moving into the new season.

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Joe:

UNLV (QB): Jayden Maiava won the Mountain West Freshman of the Year last season, leading UNLV to their first appearance in the MWC championship game, all in relief of Doug Brumfield. Maiava has transferred to USC and Brumfield’s career is over. Matt Sluka had an extremely strong FCS career at Holy Cross, and landing him to try to fill that hole was a major win for Barry Odom’s staff.

Texas State (QB): TJ Finley set program records at Texas State, throwing for 3439 yards with 29 total touchdowns for the Bobcats last year. As the circumstances of the offseason have played out, Finley is at Western Kentucky now. The pickup of Jordan McCloud was extremely lucky, and while he found success last year with James Madison, it should be interesting to see how he fits in on Kinne’s team.

JMU (Curt Cignetti): Thanks in large part to Curt Cignetti’s leadership style, James Madison barely skipped a beat making the jump to the FBS level. Expecting them to stay at that level in Bob Chesney’s first year isn’t really fair, but seeing how quickly he can get his feet under him is one of the more intriguing storylines in the Sun Belt, in my opinion.

Kevin:

New Mexico State (QB): Although the Aggies did go out and fill out their quarterback room, it’s still possess a lot of questions as to wether they will be able to produce. At the moment, the Aggies brought in University of Kentucky transfer Deuce Hogan and brought in multiple transfers. Although some can fill the void Diego Pavia left, it’s still a question as to how consistent they can be.

Liberty Flames (WR): With the departure of CJ Daniels to LSU, the wide receiver room is a bit barren, but through the transfer portal and returners, they should be fine, but Salter will have to spread the ball around plenty in the offense and see who will step up.

FAU (WR): The departure of both LaJohntay Wester and Tony Johnson, the teams top receivers, newest quarterback Cam Fancher will have a tough time. They brought in EJ Horton who had a strong season, but the losses int eh room are too many and it’ll take time to adjust with plenty of new players.

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Eric:

FIU (WR): For the last half-decade, Florida International has been hit hard by the transfer portal. Each of the last five seasons, the Panthers’ have seen Power Five programs pluck FIU’s homegrown talent and last season was no exception as star wideout Kris Mitchell made the move to Notre Dame. 

Especially as talented sophomore quarterback Keyone Jenkins is looking to establish himself, Mitchell’s loss will be felt. The next man up could be veteran Dean Patterson, who has steadily improved ever since beginning his career at Division II Findlay University. Additionally, Mike MacIntyre’s program has a pair of talents in Eric Rivers and JuJu Lewis, who could give the Panthers a deep group of wideouts to replace Mitchell. 

NM State (Jerry Kill): There are no two ways about it – the Doug Martin era at New Mexico State was lifeless. In Martin’s eight seasons at the helm of the Aggies, he went a combined 25-74 with one bowl appearance. When Jerry Kill took over, there was little reason to believe that NM State would become one of the top Group of Five programs in the nation. However, the career program-builder managed to guide the Aggies to 17 wins over the last two seasons. Now, with Kill off to Vanderbilt as a special assistant to head coach Clark Lea and star quarterback Diego Pavia following him to Nashville, the head coaching reigns are in the hands of former UNLV head coach and Aggie wideout Tony Sanchez. I’ve long believed that Sanchez did an admirable job with the Rebels after a storied tenure as a Las Vegas area HS coaching legend and deserved another head coach gig. He has huge shoes to fill, but doing so at his alma mater couldn’t be a better situation. 

Coastal Carolina (Grayson McCall): Grayson McCall embodied everything about the Coastal Carolina football program. So much so that he declared (to put it gently) that when he uses the restroom, it’s in teal. Now, with McCall choosing to go to Raleigh and NC State for his final season, yes, the Chanticleers have a hole at quarterback and will turn to former Michigan State starter Noah Kim. However, they also have to fill the void of the identity of Coastal Carolina football now finishing his career with the Wolfpack.