Who might the Niners recruit for 2012?

With the first coach, Brad Lambert, set to be introduced Tuesday, among the first orders of business is recruiting for the 2012 class of rising high school seniors, which will be redshirted and begin play in 2013.

What kind of players might Charlotte expect to sign next February? While recruiting for Football Championship Subdivision schools is harder to follow -- most players would prefer to play in the Football Bowl Subdivision if possible -- there are some players to follow.

Just to get you in the mood, here's a local prospect for 2012, Porter Ridge quarterback Lee McNeill, who at this point could be slightly undersized (6-1, 170, 4.55 40)  for the FBS but interesting to the Niners. He could also end up anywhere, and we're picking him simply because he's local.

Lambert's Deacons D struggled in '10

Brad Lambert had success in many of the 23 seasons he's been an assistant coach -- including winning a national title at Marshall in 1992 and the ACC championship at Wake Forest in 2006.

Things, however, didn't go so well for Lambert at Wake Forest last season, this third as the Deacons' defensive coordinator.

The young and depth-shy Deacons struggled defensively all season, ranking last in the ACC in points per game (35.8), 11th in total defense (430.7 yards) and pass defense (143.8) and 10th in rush defense (192.5). Low points were losses to Stanford (68-24) and Maryland (62-14). Wake Forest allowed 40-plus points four times.

There's an argument to be made that last season was an aberration. So thin was Wake's defense that two true freshman started in the secondary, which almost never happens because coach Jim Grobe usually redshirts his freshmen. But last season's senior class didn't pan out and the young guys were called upon with disastrous results.

The day Brad Lambert beat Spurrier, Bowden

Will Witherspoon was one of the top high school linebacker prospects in the country in 1998. Coming out of Rutherford High in Panama City, Fla., he was a highly sought-after recruit by schools in the SEC, ACC and beyond.

"(Florida State's) Bobby Bowden and (Florida's) Steve Spurrier were beating down the doors for him," said Steve Hardin, the coach at Rutherford.

Then a young assistant coach at Georgia named Brad Lambert got involved. Lambert -- who will be named the Charlotte 49ers' first head coach on Tuesday -- visited Witherspoon and Hardin.

"He had a great recruiting pitch," said Hardin. "He was really straight forward, didn't promise William anything but told him if he worked hard and did things the right way, there was a place for him at Georgia. He thought they could have a great relationship."

Witherspoon visited Georgia soon after. He came back and told Hardin he wanted to play for the Bulldogs, turning down offers from Florida State and Florida in the meantime.

"That was absolutely the work of Brad Lambert," said Hardin, who's now coaching in Florida.

Witherspoon went on to have a standout career at Georgia and played in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers. He's now with the Tennessee Titans.

Donnan: Lambert competitive, adaptive

I'll be posting more about new 49ers football coach Brad Lambert throughout the day. Check back every couple of hours or follow me on Twitter (@davidscott14) to be alerted...

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Brad Lambert has worked for two head coaches in his 23-year career as a college football assistant: Jim Donnan and Jim Grobe.

Donnan hired Lambert as a grad assistant at Oklahoma in 1988, then took him to Marshall in 1990 and Georgia in 1996, staying with the Bulldogs until Donnan was fired in 2001. Lambert then spent 10 seasons at Wake under Grobe.

"He's the right guy for UNC Charlotte from my standpoint," said Donnan, who is now a TV analyst. "He's been around college football on both levels, I-A and I-AA. He knows about fund raising. He's a very cocompetitive guy and very adaptive, which he's going to need since he's starting a new program there."

Lambert was part of several successful teams with Donnan. Marshall won the NCAA FCS championship in 1992 and lost in the championship game in three other seasons. At Georgia, Lambert was linebackers coach on Bulldogs teams that won four straight bowls.

"He's got a really good feel for how to handle people and players," said Donnan. "Every guy has a motor that runs differently. He makes sure he taps into that."

Donnan said Lambert understands what will go into not only his first head coaching job, but starting a program from scratch.

"They don't have helmets, shoes or anything there yet," said Donnan. "But when we were at Marshall, we were building a new stadium, so he knows what it's like to have your office in the gym, to take a bus to practice, things like that. He's done that.

"Marshall, it was so different from Oklahoma. So he had to learn with me about partial scholarships, Pell Grants, getting transfers in ... the things he's going to have to do starting up a new deal at Charlotte. He's not going to get the pick-of-the-litter players. He's going to have to bring them in and develop them, which he's done before."

"He has the one ability to meet people, he's very genuine. He gets his message across and can get people dialed in and get behind him. And he's going to need that support."

49ers land Wake's Lambert

Brad Lambert, a longtime top lieutenant of Wake Forest's Jim Grobe, is the Charlotte 49ers' first football coach, a university source confirmed this morning.

The 49ers will introduce Lambert, 46, on Tuesday at a noon news conference. Lambert will need to hit the ground running for a program that begins play in 2013. He can begin recruiting players immediately for an incoming redshirt freshman class in 2012. Lambert can hire two assistant coaches this year before filling out his staff in 2012.

Lambert -- who has no head coaching experience -- has been at Wake Forest since 2001 and served as the Deacons' defensive coordinator since 2008. He began his stint at Wake as linebackers coach before being promoted three seasons ago.

Lambert will make a base salary of $175,000. The 49ers appear to be following the same pattern of Old Dominion, which began its football program in 2009 and hired Bobby Wilder -- a longtime assistant at Maine who had no previous head coaching experience. The Monarchs have gone 17-5 in their first two seasons (9-2 in '09, 8-3 in '10) competition that closely mirrors what Charlotte will play (a mixture of Division II and FCS competition).

Charlotte will play at the FCS level, but plans to move up to FBS (formerly Division I-A) eventually.

Lambert, who played at Kansas State, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma in 1988-89. He went on to Marshall (1990-95) and Georgia (1996-2000) before moving to Wake Forest.

Lambert coached many of the best defensive players in Wake Forest history, including linebackers Aaron Curry (Seattle Seahawks), Jon Abbate (All-ACC) and Stanley Arnoux, as well as defensive back Alphonso Smith.

Lambert and wife Angie have three children, daughter Lucy and sons Layne and Beau.

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What kind of recruiter is Lambert? Here's a link to a Rivals'com database that will give you some idea.

Making tournament IS important to 49ers

While coach Alan Major has somewhat understandably tried to downplay the importance of making the Atlantic 10 tournament, senior forward An'Juan Wilderness sounded off about how the players feel about it after Charlotte's 72-59 loss to Richmond on Saturday.

“We think about and talk about the tournament all the time,” said Wilderness, who led the 49ers with 16 points. “We need to win a couple more games. If we win those, it’s anybody’s game after that. If we win these next two games and that puts me in the tournament, we feel like we can make a run.

"And it's my senior year, so it's very important to me."

Wishful thinking perhaps -- 13th-place Charlotte finishes the regular season at first-place Xavier and at home against 12th-place Saint Joseph's next Saturday. The 49ers (2-12) will need to be tied or within a game of the Hawks (3-11) when they play each other in Halton in the regular-season finale (a tie in the standings goes to the head-to-head winner). Saint Joseph's hosts Richmond on Wednesday.

Major has said he values the process of his team's progress at least as much as the results -- thereby lowering expectations as the season has continued to get away from the 49ers -- but backed off that a little bit Saturday night as the direness of his team's situation settled in.

“I try to not hang too much over these guys’ heads with absolutes, that you’ve got to do this or that,” said Major. “We want to concentrate on playing good basketball. And if there’s a week to try and capture that, this is going to be it.”

49ers football coach update

Here's what we know about Charlotte's search for a football coach:

-- It doesn't look like it will be Chuck Amato. Amato, the former N.C. State coach, hasn't been interviewed for the job although he has applied for it. In fact, he hasn't heard from 49ers officials at all, according to sources. If Charlotte is going to have someone in place by April 1, it would seem like Amato would have been contacted by now.

-- I spoke with someone who is familiar with several coaches who are interested in the job or who have been contacted by the 49ers (and the names of these guys are kept under wraps so as not to jeopardize the jobs they currently have). He said Charlotte seems to be interested in coordinators on the FBS level who have 15-20 years of experience.

Along those lines, I've heard Chris Cosh, Kansas State's defensive coordinator who had the same job at South Carolina in 2003, might be interested. Wake Forest defensive coordinator Brad Lambert could also be a possibility.

-- Reminder: The Charlotte job pays $175,000 per year. Although that's competitive with what many FCS head coaches around the country make, it's far less than what coordinators at big-time programs are making now.


-- Mike Minter, a former Carolina Panthers player who coaches at Concord’s First Assembly Christian, has taken his name out of consideration.
“I talked to their people and we agreed it wouldn’t be a good fit,” said Minter.

-- Also, Rod Broadway, who had interest at one time, left Grambling for N.C. A&T earlier this month.