This article is part of our Spring Practice Storylines series.
The 2024 football season ended with what might result in changes in the future for players heading into the transfer portal, and you can point to the Sun Belt Conference. With Marshall fresh off winning the 2024 Sun Belt Conference title, Thundering Herd head coach Charles Huff left for Southern Mississippi, on Dec. 8, after Marshall didn't renew his deal with the team. With the start of the transfer portal on Dec. 9, more than 25 Marshall players, including all three scholarship quarterbacks, entered the transfer portal. The result was that the Thundering Herd pulled out of the Independence Bowl on Dec. 15.
While last season was one of the minor bowl games, what would the ramifications be if it was a major bowl? While Marshall (East) and Southern Miss (West) do not meet during the regular season, it would make for some drama if the two met for the Sun Belt title game. As it turned out, 19 Marshall players, including starting quarterback Braylon Braxton, followed Huff to Southern Mississippi.
Sun Belt Conference Football Spring Storylines
Let's take a gander at some of the biggest storylines following the biggest conference storylines heading into the spring ball session for 2025.
Appalachian State Mountaineers Spring Storyline
Pair battle under center to replace Aguilar
The Mountaineers were the favorite heading into the 2024 season. However, Appalachian State lost its first three games in the 2024 Sun Belt schedule, and it went uphill after that. The transfer portal highlighted a pair of quarterbacks, redshirt junior AJ Swann from LSU and redshirt sophomore JJ Kohl from Iowa State, who will try to fill the shoes of Joey Aguilar, who threw for more than 3,000 yards while heading to UCLA. Through three collegiate seasons, Swann totaled 2,741 passing yards and 22 touchdowns with most coming while at Vandy. Kohl was a four-star quarterback and top 12 quarterback when coming out from high school. There are a pair of running backs, senior Rashod Dubinion (Arkansas, 457 total yards, 2 TDs) and redshirt sophomore Khalifa Keith (Tennessee, 100 rushing yards, 1 TD) who transferred. One of the few returning top receivers is Dalton Strom who caught 20 passes for 307 yards and five touchdowns. And a pair of wide receivers, sophomore Davion Dozier (Arkansas) and redshirt sophomore Jackson Grier (Boise State), transferred to Appalachian State. One of the few returning top receivers is Dalton Strom who caught 20 passes for 307 yards and five touchdowns. .
Arkansas State Red Wolves Spring Storyline
Red Wolves highlight stability
The Red Wolves do not have to worry about under center heading in head coach Butch Jones' fifth season. They already have junior Jaylen Raynor who has thrown for 4,862 yards and 29 touchdowns in the first two seasons. Raynor has his top target back in Corey Rucker, who finished his redshirt junior campaign with 1,053 yards and seven touchdowns on 69 receptions. Returning running back Ja'Quez Cross looks to build on last season where he compiled 798 total yards and three touchdowns. In addition, the Red Wolves swiped running back Kenyon Clay from Sun Belt rival, Southern Miss, where he had 612 total yards and eight touchdowns, seven via the ground last season. Arkansas State has two interesting transfers coming in redshirt freshman JJ Harrell (Mississippi State) who only appeared in four games for the Bulldogs but was a four-star prospect coming out of high school as well as Nana Burris (FIU) who had 22 catches for a touchdown in '24. But Burris had over 1,200 receiving yards and eight touchdowns at FCS Stetson.
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Spring Storyline
Battle to replace Vasko
There will be a new player under center this fall for Coastal Carolina as Ethan Vasko left for Liberty. One of the names at the head of the list is MJ Morris, who comes over from Maryland. The 6-foot-1 quarterback started his career at North Carolina State. In three seasons he has thrown for 1,717 yards (151-of-260), 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, adding 115 yards and two scores on the ground. Morris will probably be battling Emmett Brown for the starting nod. Brown comes over from San Jose State. For the Spartans, Brown tossed the pigskin for 1,621 yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 57.6 percent of his passes. Junior wide receiver Colton Hinton comes over from FCS Furman where he reeled in 92 catches for 1,047 yards and seven touchdowns in a pair of seasons. With top running backs, Braydon Bennett (Virginia Tech) and Christian Washington (San Diego State) moving on, the Chanticleers have been looking for replacements. The lead in experienced is Jalen John, who comes over from Massachusetts. John ran for 583 yards and five touchdowns on 5.3 yards-per-carry in 2024. He also caught 17 passes for 119 yards.
Georgia State Panthers Spring Storyline
Aiming to move up under McGee
Georgia State will look to have a much-improved season in the second year of head coach Dell McGee. Starting quarterback Christian Veilleux will return for his second year for the Panthers. Veilleux, who transferred from Pittsburgh at the end of 2023-24, had his best season (166-of-291 for 2,047, 13 touchdowns) in his college career that also included Penn State. Georgia State though received a pair of signal callers in the transfer portal, PJ Hatter (Texas State) and Cameran Brown (Texas Tech) who will look to supplant Veilleux. Both saw very little time under center at their previous schools. Whichever quarterback earns the job will have the luxury of wide receiver Ted Hurst, who led the Panthers in receiving 961 yards and nine touchdowns. Georgia State was considered to have the best recruiting class in the Sun Belt, including running back Ladainnian Martin, a three-star prospect who held a couple of power-five offers. With the opportunity to see playing time, running back Dijay Braswell left South Carolina for Georgia State.
Marshall Thundering Herd Spring Storyline
Gibson looks to rebuild Herd
Marshall's new head coach, Tony Gibson, has big shoes to fill after the Thundering Herd won the Sun Belt Championship. Despite the success, Marshall didn't come to terms with head coach Charles Huff, who left for Southern Mississippi and brought several Marshall players with him. Gibson and the Thundering Herd moved fast and registered as one of the top transfer classes in the Sun Belt.
One of those players heading to Southern Miss was starting quarterback Braylon Braxton. Zion Turner is one of the quarterbacks that comes to Marshall after a dormant couple of years. Turner moves up to Marshall from Jacksonville State, where he threw all of one pass last season, but he collected 1,500 all-purpose yards and 10 touchdowns at UConn in 2022. Marshall also received other quarterbacks through the portal in Trey Dunn (Navy), Carlos Del Rio-Wilson (Syracuse) and Robert Shockey who followed Gibson from North Carolina State. Like at quarterback, Marshall lost its top running back in A.J. Turner, who moved on to Minnesota. One of the players that has seen extensive time on the field is Jo'shon Barbie, who moves to Huntington from McNeese State after compiling 831 yards and eight touchdowns on 149 carries in '24. At wide out, one of the top replacements is Antonio Harmon, who arrives from Mississippi State, where the 6-foot-3, 200-pound wide receiver/tight end caught 19 passes for 159 yards and a touchdown in two seasons for the Bulldogs. Coming with Gibson from NC State is a wide receiver, Jakolbe Baldwin, who also saw time at safety. Baldwin only had three catches for 11 yards in the four years at NC State.
Georgia Southern Eagles Spring Storyline
Filling holes left by graduations
Georgia Southern is one of the few Sun Belt Conference schools to have some form of continuity, but graduation took the most bite out of the Eagles. Georgia Southern will have to replace some major pieces to graduation in top runner, Jalen White (655 yards, 13 touchdowns) and wide receiver, Derwin Burgess Jr. (603 yards, three touchdowns). Georgia Southern does have the return of wide receiver Josh Dallas, who will look to build on his 568 receiving yards and five touchdowns in 2024. It starts with JC French under center. In his first full season as the Eagles starting signal caller, French compiled 2,831 passing yards and a 17:11 TD:INT while adding 238 yards and a pair of scores on the ground. It's the first season that head coach Clay Helton has had a returning quarterback in the four years. With White's graduation, OJ Arnold will look to pick up the slack. The senior amassed 460 total yards and five touchdowns in '24. In addition, running back David Mbadinga (51 carries, 198 yards, three touchdowns) will be looked upon to pick up more time in the backfield.
South Alabama Jaguars Spring Storyline
Jags get early in targeting portal
South Alabama did not have to worry about bringing in a starting quarterback. In December, Gio Lopez announced that he was returning to the Jaguars for the 2025 season. During the freshman's 2024 regular season with South Alabama, he logged 205 completions for 2,557 yards and 18 touchdowns. Lopez also recorded 82 carries for 465 yards and seven TDs, reaching 3,000 all-purpose yards and 25 endzone touches. With Fluff Bothwell transferring to Mississippi State, Kentrel Bullock has the opening to take the top spot at running back. The 5-foot-10 senior totaled 832 yards and seven touchdowns on 152 carries, adding 15 receptions for 153 yards and a score through the passing game. The Jaguars' top receiver returning is graduated student Devin Voisin, who grabbed 31 passes for 365 yards. In the transfer portal, the Jaguars brought in Brendan Jenkins of Samford. For Samford, Jenkins collected 48 catches for 581 yards and three touchdowns last season.
Texas State Bobcats Spring Storyline
Trio look to replace McCloud
Texas State received a trio of candidates to replace Jordan McCloud under center. The top two candidates are former Pitt Danny Yarnell and former Oregon State signal caller, Gevani McCoy. Yarnell completed 98-of-167 pass attempts for 1,056 yards with 10 touchdowns and five interceptions last season. The other top candidate is Holden Geriner, who comes over from Auburn. Geriner saw little playing time over three seasons at Auburn but is a former four-star recruit. For McCoy, this is his third stop. The redshirt senior played three seasons at Idaho before transferring to Oregon State last season, where he threw for 1,300 yards and produced three passing touchdowns and six interceptions, though his playing time waned down the stretch. On the ground, he ran for 328 yards and five rushing touchdowns.
The program nabbed one of the top running back transfers in the conference in Deion Hankins out of the transfer portal from UTEP to solidify the backfield. The injury bug has bitten Hankins in the past, but he registered 2,604 yards on the ground and 23 touchdowns in 2023. The program had one of the top running backs in the Sun Belt last season, Ismail Mahdi, who was named to the All-Sun Belt first team but transferred to Arizona. Mahdi's departure opens the backfield for a pair of running backs to take over the main rushing duties in Lincoln Pare and Torrance Burgess, with Hankins and UNLV transfer Greg Burrell, a freshman last year at UNLV who ran for 370 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games for the Rebels, also in th emix. There are a few wide receiver transfers for a largely vacated position through graduations and transfers. Shemar Kirk (Miami, Fla.), Quincy Brown (Nicholls State), Tryin Smith (Cincinnati), will be vying for targets from the new Bobcats quarterback.
James Madison Dukes Spring Storyline
New coach has QB quandary following injury
Like a few Sun Belt teams, James Madison has a new coach in Bob Chesney. While Chesney is new to the Dukes program, he has a relatively solid group returning this season. But Chesney's first spring practice brings some questions, starting with quarterback, where last year's starter, Alonza Barnett, is still recovering from a leg injury that made him miss the Dukes' bowl game last season. But James Madison does have a couple of possibilities if Barnett is not ready for the '25 season in Matthew Sluka and Camden Coleman. Sluka transferred from UNLV where he registered 571 total yards including six passing touchdowns. Sluka left UNLV after a disagreement on the NIL contract. Coleman came over from FCS Richmond where he tossed for 3,192 yards and 26 touchdowns over the past two seasons. Chesney has the luxury as a new coach to have the top running back returning in George Pettaway (876 rushing yards, five touchdowns). In addition, James Madison has the return of their top receiver, Yamir Knight, who broke out as a sophomore with 567 receiving yards and four touchdowns. However, the Dukes lost one of the top players, wideout Cameron Ross, who transferred to Virginia after accumulating 37 catches for 443 yards and three touchdowns last season.
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns Spring Storyline
Plenty of production to replace
Louisiana-Lafayette, who reached the Sun Belt final, will have to find a new quarterback this year and that player will have big shoes to fill. Last season's Ragin Cajuns signal caller, Ben Wooldridge, was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. Wooldridge passed for 2,392 yards and 17 touchdowns while rushing for five touchdowns. The replacement might be Walker Howard, who transferred in from Ole Miss. With the Ragin Cajuns it will be the third stop. Howard was with LSU in 2022 and Ole Miss in '23 and '24, but has seen very little time under center, 3-for-6 for 56 passing yards. Howard, originally from Lafayette, was a four-star prospect coming out of high school. The returning quarterback is sophomore Daniel Beale, who made appearances in two games last season, 10-for-26 for 98 passing yards. One of the other top transfers is a wide receiver, Shelton Sampson, who moves over from LSU, where he could not see the field. Redshirt sophomore Bill Davis returns as the top running back rushing 150 times for 777 yards and nine touchdowns. Junior tight end Terrance Carter's departure from the receiving ranks for Texas Tech via the transfer portal will undoubtedly be felt after registering 48 catches for 689 yards and four touchdowns last season.
Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks Spring Storyline
Hoping to revive dormant passing game
The 2025 Warhawks will have a different feeling this fall with their starting quarterback returning while their top back has transferred. Ahmad Hardy collected 1,351 rushing yards in 2024 but has moved on to Missouri. Louisiana-Monroe brings back starting quarterback Aidan Armenta who won the job and saw his first time on the college field last season. Armenta had a roller-coaster season, finishing the campaign with 1,292 passing yards, 10 total touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. Last season, ULM was near the bottom of the country in passing, but with Armenta going through growing pains last season, that should change this fall. Along with Hardy, ULM lost their second top back, James Jones (Sacramento State) to the portal. Coming to the Warhawks are a pair of running back transfers, Antonio Martin Jr. (Southeast Louisiana) and Braylon McReynolds (153 total yards, one touchdown) from fellow Sun Belt foe, South Alabama. Martin Jr. moves up from FCS Southeast Louisiana where he compiled 1,479 yards on the ground and 14 touchdowns. If as expected Armenta makes strides this upcoming season, returning receivers like Jake Godfrey (24 catches, 265 yards, two TDs) and Tyler Griffin (8 catches, 193 yards, 1 TD) will see an uptick in receiving stats. The top receiver that through the portal to the Warhawks is Nic Trujillo who caught 16 passes for 305 yards and a touchdown as a freshman at New Mexico.
Old Dominion Monarchs Spring Storyline
Aiming for encore at the helm
Sophomore Colton Joseph missed the last game of the 2024 season, but it was a spectacular debut under center for Old Dominion. Joseph completed 133-of-222 attempts for 1,623 yards and 11 touchdowns. As a freshman, he was a dual threat with 647 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground. With the graduation of top running back Aaron Young, Bryce Duke might have the opportunity to lead the Monarchs. In his first season after transferring from Virginia Tech, Duke was the second leading rusher with 46 attempts for 285 yards in '24 for Old Dominion. With most of the receivers graduating, the Monarchs picked up several junior college receivers including TJ Johnson (Southwest Mississippi Community College), Tre Brown (Hutchinson Community College) and Titus Myers (Iowa Western Community College). Brown was one of the top JUCO players in the country. All three played for three of the top JUCO programs in the country
Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles
Marshall South in 2025
The downside or upside of the transfer portal was shown at the end of last season's football season. The announcement of Charlie Huff moving from Marshall to Southern Miss started an avalanche of Thundering Herd players making their new home at Hattiesburg. After the winter portal season ended, 19 Marshall players followed Huff to Southern Miss, led by quarterback Braylon Braxton. At Marshall, he went 8-0 as a starter, completing 60.2 percent of his passes for 1,624 yards while posting an excellent 19:2 TD:INT ratio. The running back room is pretty bare of returnees, with the top transfers expected to vie for the ball. This includes a Marshall player, Moses Gray, along with Matt Jones (Ole Miss) and Jeffrey Pittman (Mississippi State). Jones had the best season of the three in 2024, totaling a career-high 226 rushing yards and three touchdowns. A pair of top players returning for the Golden Eagles are wide receiver Larry Simmons, who led Southern Miss in receiving with 27 catches for 421 yards and one touchdown, and Tiaquelin Mims, who finished with 33 catches on 62 targets for 383 yards. Three of the transfer wide receivers come via Marshall in Bralon Brown (15 receptions for 166 yards and two touchdowns), Tychaun Chapman (17 catches for 146 yards) and Elijah Metcalf (194 yards, three touchdowns).
Troy Trojans Spring Storyline
Trojans 'relatively' stable for '25
In the new world of the transfer portal, college football rosters are incredibly different next year compared to the previous year. Troy hopes to push back the 2024 season (4-8 record) and make a run in the Sun Belt conference. The Trojans have their 2024 expected starter back in Goose Crowder, who suffered a season-ending injury in Week 5 against Louisiana-Monroe, and Matthew Caldwell and Tucker Kilcrease round out a solid room. Also returning is top running back Damien Taylor. While all three signal-callers saw time in 2024 with Caldwell, who came over from Gardner-Webb, having the most success with 1,608 passing yards and a 13:8 TD:INT ratio while adding five rushing touchdowns in 10 games, Crowder started the '24 season as the starting quarterback, and he may be the favorite to retain the job in 2025. Taylor, on the other hand, finished the 2024 campaign with 173 rushes for 1,010 yards and eight total touchdowns, earning him All-Sun Belt Second Team honors. The one area that will look like other teams is at wide receiver, with top wideout Devonte Ross moving on to Penn State. The top returning receiver is Peyton Higgins (31 catches, 301 yards and one touchdown). The Trojans do have their top tight ends back in Ethan Conner (12 catches, 115 yards) and Brody Dalton (15 receptions, 188 yards, three touchdowns). Troy hopes the additions from the transfer portal of Kristian Tate (Delaware State) and Tray Taylor (Coastal Carolina) will enhance the wideout room.
