The Sun Belt Conference isn’t quite what it used to be, but it’s still a Football Bowls Subdivision grouping with programs making national news and some of the finest first- and second-year coaching jobs being delivered anywhere in college football.
We see you: Bob Chesney (James Madison), GJ Kinne (Texas State), Charles Huff (Southern Miss), Bryant Vincent (ULM) and Gerad Parker (Troy).
Right now, there’s only five of the Sun Belt’s 14 member programs with a winning record; Chesney’s Dukes are the standard-bearers at 5-1; Southern Miss (Huff), Troy (Parker), Old Dominion (Ricky Rahne) and Appalachian State (Dowell Loggains) are the others.
Of note: Huff and Loggains are in their first years at their respective programs; Chesney and Parker Year 2; Rahne’s seeking a second bowl in three years and third in his five years atop the Monarchs, his first-ever head coaching post. His three-straight wins against Virginia Tech (which proved last straw for Tech’s Brent Pry), Liberty and Coastal Carolina in dominant fashion marked Rahne’s most impressive stretch at the helm. The Monarchs need to bounce back after being smashed by first-year Marshall coach Tony Gibson’s Thundering Herd on Saturday.
Following last week’s comprehensive dive into the American Athletic Conference (AAC), and opening the series a few weeks back with an in-depth examination of the ACC before following that up with extensive depth of information on the SEC, as well as our recent looks at the Big 12 and Big Ten conferences, the Inside Scoop series continues this week the latest from the Sun Belt Conference.
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Information and opinion are based on discussions with coaches, agents and administrators in the conference and throughout college football.