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Jacksonville State

Gamecocks · Conference USA

Head coach Charles Kelly Year 2 with Jacksonville State

Year-2 HCs (2015-2024) averaged +0.09 W vs. preseason expectation

Season Projection · 2026 W0

10,000 sims
6.4
Expected wins
6-6
Proj record
3 to 10
Win range (90%)
#93 (70–117)
Final rank (90%)
0%
Make playoff
15%
Win conference

Path to Glory

Tap a win or a loss on each pivotal game to see how the playoff probability shifts. Leave any game unset to average across both outcomes.

Make the playoff

0%

Baseline projection.

  • at North Dakota State
    Away · Aug 29
  • vs Eastern Kentucky
    Home · Sep 5
  • at Ohio
    Away · Sep 12
  • vs Georgia Southern
    Home · Sep 19
  • vs Middle Tennessee
    Home · Sep 26

Pivotal games are the 5 with the largest playoff-probability swing, ranked by the model. Math: chained Bayesian log-odds update from the conditional simulation set; gets the directionally right answer but won't perfectly capture cross-game correlations until the full Monte Carlo pipeline lands.

Returning production · 2026

58 score
  • Quarterback 72% (3/6 )
  • Offensive line 61% (11/18 players)
  • Skill (RB/WR/TE) 32% (22/34 )
  • Front 7 (DL/LB) 56% (16/28 )
  • Secondary 51% (12/28 )
  • Special teams 88% (3/7 )

Share of last season's production each unit returns. Higher means more continuity: 70%+ is healthy, 45–70% a normal rebuild, under 45% a major turnover.

Portal additions · 2026

-0.8 rating

23 proven transfers in, carrying the production below from their prior school.

  • Ronnel Johnson WR ← Missouri State 91 impact
  • Darius Cannon WR ← Murray State 69 impact
  • Marquis Hood DL ← North Carolina A&T 10 impact
  • Mikey Rosa LB ← The Citadel 10 impact
  • Rob Billings IV S ← Clemson 5 impact
  • David Alpers III TE ← South Dakota State 1 impact

Impact scores offensive skill additions (QB/RB/WR/TE) — prior-season production normalized within position (100 ≈ a 90th-percentile producer at that spot) and discounted for non-FBS competition, so a top back counts alongside a top quarterback. Defensive and O-line additions count as transfers but aren't box-score measurable, so they carry no impact score. The rating figure is this class's portal contribution vs. the FBS average, capped at ±2.5.

If QB1 is out (Caden Creel)

GIE projects a -0.1 rating drop and a -0.3pp shift in playoff probability if Jacksonville State loses its QB1 for an extended stretch. (n=2 historical samples; pooled across recent seasons.)

Situational efficiency · 2025

FBS percentile rank
  • 3rd-down conversion 36.0% 43th — below avg
  • Red-zone TD rate 15.6% 60th — average
  • 4th-down aggression 31.1% 27th — below avg
  • Late & close 5.5 yds/play 61th — average

Percentile is across all FBS teams with play-by-play data for the season. "Late & close" is yards per play in Q4+ with a one-score margin — a proxy for clutch offensive performance.

More coming

Per-team pages get the full treatment in Phase 3: current rating, season projection histogram, schedule with win probabilities, and live overlays on Pylon stream days. For now, this page exists so stories and news have a permanent home as content rolls in.