WEST DIVISION
- LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE, 46 POINTS (6 FIRST-PLACE VOTES)
The team picked ahead of Arkansas State University to win the West was Louisiana-Lafayette.
The Ragin’ Cajuns went 7-7 in 2018, making it to the inaugural Sun Belt Championship Game before losing to Appalachian State. Based on the preseason coaches poll, a rematch is expected.
“When the coaches pick you to win the West, I think it’s humbling to some degree,” Louisiana-Lafayette Coach Billy Napier said. “I think we’re mature enough as a football team, and hopefully as a staff, to handle that.
“I think that some people would think that maybe it’s a negative. But I think it’s a sign that we’re improving. I think it’s a sign of respect for the coaches that we have on our staff, and the players that we have coming back.”
- ARKANSAS STATE,
42 POINTS (3)
- LOUISIANA-MONROE,
27 POINTS
Louisiana-Monroe is looking to rebound after a difficult finish to last season.
The Warhawks were bowl eligible at 6-6 but were still passed over for a bowl game. ULM dropped its last two games to Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette when one more win easily would have secured the Warhawks a bowl bid.
ULM Coach Matt Viator said his players took that to heart during the offseason.
“What we hope to do is continue to improve, and what I’ve been talking to the coaches about is let’s get ourselves back in that position again,” Viator said. “We want to be in the mix, so I feel like we’ve improved in the sense that when we first started at ULM, we weren’t in the mix. But we’ve finally got ourselves in position, and hopefully, we can continue that, where we’re right there.”
- SOUTH ALABAMA,
19 POINTS (1)
College football is increasingly becoming a battle of who has the best facilities, and few coaches understand that better than South Alabama’s Steve Campbell.
Campbell, who was the University of Central Arkansas head coach from 2014-17, noted Monday that the Jaguars just built the largest indoor football practice facility in the state of Alabama a year ago, including the ones for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers.
South Alabama is also in the process of building a new stadium, which Campbell said is “close to 50%” done.
“We’ve put our facilities up against anybody in the country’s,” Campbell said. “When you look at the indoor practice facility, the new stadium will be second to nobody’s in the country, the Jumbotron that we’re having put in, I think, is the largest in all of the Group of 5 — the facilities will be second to none.
“We’re glad. We think that people upgrading in our conference is great because we’re — through the leadership of our president and our athletic director — we’re setting the tone as far as our facility enhancements are concerned.”
- TEXAS STATE, 16 POINTS
First-year Coach Jake Spavital didn’t take long to remind everyone of his impressive coaching credentials during his news conference.
S p a v i t a l has coached quarterbacks Kyler Murray, Will Grier, Case Keenum, Geno Smith, Johnny Manziel, Brandon Weeden, Davis Webb, Kyle Allen, Kenny Hill and David Johnson during his career.
When discussing Texas State’s wide-open quarterback competition, he let everyone know this isn’t his first rodeo.
“We have a lot of moving parts in that room, and there’s something I take a lot of pride in the quarterback position,” Spavital said. “I’ve got seven active NFL quarterbacks right now, and I don’t think there’s anybody in the country that has that many guys, and what we’ve done with those quarterbacks is we’ve played to their strengths.
“We want the next guy to come in and be their own man and understand that we’re going to work with them and we’re going to put them in positions that they are good at. If you look at Tyler Vitt, Gresch Jensen and Jaylen Gipson, those are three different quarterbacks — we have to figure out what they do good.”
EAST DIVISION
- APPALACHIAN STATE,
46 POINTS (7)
First-year Appalachian State Coach Eliah Drinkwitz has the toughest act to follow of any of the new coaches in the Sun Belt.
Drinkwitz replaces Scott Satterfield, who left to take over at Louisville after compiling a 51-24 record and winning three consecutive Sun Belt titles from 2016-18. He also made four consecutive bowl trips with the Mountaineers. And Appalachian State is picked to win the Sun Belt championship again this season.
Drinkwitz is well aware of the expectations for his team.
“There’s a lot of things that they’ve accomplished in the past that are tremendous, but we’ve found those things that we can do better, that we can try to focus on, that we can try to achieve and set our mark,” Drinkwitz said. “And the thing that we’ve talked to our team about is we have to form our new identity. We’re not the 2018 Mountaineers, we’re not the 2005 Mountaineers, we’re the 2019 Appalachian State Mountaineers. We have to form a new identity with our coaching staff and the players that we have, and that’s what we’re working hard every day to do.”
- TROY, 39 POINTS (1)
Troy joins Texas State, Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina as Sun Belt schools with new head coaches this season.
Chip Lindsey, who spent the past two seasons as Auburn’s offensive coordinator, replaces Neal Brown, who left to take over at West Virginia. But that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a ton of shakeup with the Trojans’ offense in 2019.
“It’s really similar to what we did last year,” senior quarterback Kaleb Barker said of Lindsey’s style. “There are a couple of tweaks here and there. The blocking scheme up front is a little different.
“Being older, I’m kind of more comfortable with learning new things. It’s a little different when you come in as a freshman and you’re thrown the whole playbook. It’s kind of overwhelming. He’s been really good to make sure that we meet about it often and that we get it and that we have it at home so we can go over it.”
- GEORGIA SOUTHERN,
35 POINTS (2)
Georgia Southern’s season opener next month is daunting to say the least. How’s a night game in Death Valley sound?
The Eagles head to Tiger Stadium to face LSU on Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m.
Georgia Southern Coach Chad Lunsford said Monday that his players and the Eagles’ fan base are looking forward to measuring up against one of the SEC’s top teams in one of the country’s best college football environments.
“I think it’s important for our guys to understand that we’re not going to sneak up on anybody, and they’ve got to understand that each and every game is important,” Lunsford said. “And so when we talk about what’s important now, we’re not looking so far in the future that we can’t get ourselves in position to perform that week.
“It’s something that our guys look forward to, though. They get an opportunity to go try to perform against a Power 5 school. They’re going to work hard to make sure that they’re ready. They’re going to work hard to make sure that they put their best product on the field.”
- COASTAL CAROLINA,
17 POINTS
First-year Coach Jamey Chad-well knows his program is far from where it needs to be.
Chadwell, who took over for Joe Moglia after serving as the Chanticleers’ offensive coordinator the past two seasons, has the task of building a team that enters just its third season in the FBS and Sun Belt Conference, and 17th season overall that the school has fielded a football team.
One Sun Belt team, in particular, he wouldn’t mind modeling his program after is Arkansas State, which has made eight consecutive bowl game appearances and won five Sun Belt championships. Chad-well had high praise for ASU head Coach Blake Anderson’s group.
“For a long time, they were the model of this league, and Blake’s done a great job there,” Chadwell said. “For us to be able to compete with the best teams in this league, we got to learn how to get punched and punch back, and sometimes right now we’re not able to do that.”
After a 44-16 loss to the Red Wolves in Conway, S.C., last year, Coastal Carolina will make the trip to Jonesboro on Nov. 16 looking for a better outcome.
“Hopefully we’ll take a victory swim in that [waterfall] maybe after the game,” Chadwell said with a smile.
- GEORGIA STATE, 13 POINTS
Georgia State was picked to finish last in the Sun Belt East Division and received the fewest votes of any team in the conference’s preseason coaches poll.
However, Georgia State Coach Shawn Elliott said Monday that his team is much more experienced than it’s been in the past. The Panthers return their starting quarterback, junior Dan Ellington, and also have a new offensive coordinator/ quarterbacks coach in Brad Glenn, who used to work with Elliott at Appalachian State in the mid-2000s when they won three consecutive FCS national titles.
“We had outstanding quarterback play during his tenure there, and he has continued to do that with his offenses at Western Carolina,” Elliott said. “He was just a perfect fit for myself, from a comfortable standpoint, knowing that, hey, we can communicate really well because we’ve done it on championship teams before, to bring him in and do it here at Georgia State.”
