Cullowhee, N.C. – Coming off a solid team effort in scoring its first victory of the season last Saturday in Charleston, Western Carolina football again ventures into the Palmetto State on Saturday seeking its second-straight Southern Conference victory of the season. The Catamounts face the Wofford Terriers at Gibbs Stadium in Spartanburg with kickoff scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Saturday's game will be
broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required). The game will also be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with an air time of the Pepsi Tailgate Show at 12:30 p.m. Fans across western North Carolina can hear the game locally on seven CSN affiliates: in Sylva, 105.7 FM and 540 AM WRGC "The River"; 104.9 FM and 1050 AM WFSC in Franklin; WISE Sports Radio 1310 AM and 102.9 FM in Asheville; and 970 AM WYSE in Canton, with
live streaming audio online at CatamountSports.com.
Fans can also follow the game with live stats accessible online at CatamountSports.com with timely in-game updates on Twitter using @Catamounts and @CatamountsFB.
WCU plays its second-consecutive road game in conference play in South Carolina on Saturday afternoon looking for its first consecutive seasonal wins since 2019 and victories in back-to-back road games for the first time since 2017. It's the second-straight series match-up with Wofford to be played in Spartanburg as the 2020-21 game in Cullowhee was canceled when Wofford opted out of its final two seasonal games due to COVID concerns and roster issues last spring.
Filling in for
Rogan Wells in the starting role, quarterback
Carlos Davis had a career day in Charleston in guiding the Catamounts to the road win. Davis posted just the ninth, 400-yard passing effort in program history as he completed a career-high 31-of-40 passes for a career-best 401 yards through the air with three touchdown passes, earning SoCon Offensive Player of the Week laurels. Wells' return to the WCU backfield remains imminent as he recovers from an injury that sidelined him at Chattanooga in early October.
WCU's offense was clicking in Charleston, amassing 577 total yards, the second-most this season and the fourth time under offensive coordinator
Kade Bell that WCU eclipsed the 500-yard mark. The Catamounts scored a season-high 45 points including three TDs by tailback
TJ Jones including a 40-yard reception from Davis and a pair of fourth-quarter rushing scores of 30 and 53 yards. Redshirt freshman WR
Raphael Williams posted his third, 100-yard receiving performance of the year, catching a career-best 12 passes for a career-high 147 yards and a score.
The Catamount defense held the triple-option attack of the Bulldogs – who entered the game leading the SoCon with nearly 300 yards on the ground per game – to just 177 yards rushing, 100 yards below their seasonal average. The 177 rushing yards were the fewest allowed to an opponent in a game since 2009 when WCU held The Citadel to just 91 yards rushing. Senior LB
Kareem Taylor spearheaded a strong defensive effort with his fourth double-digit tackle performance of the season with WCU posting eight tackles for loss including a pair of sacks.
Wofford (1-6, 0-5 SoCon) has uncharacteristically struggled this season since scoring a season-opening, 24-22 road victory over Elon (4-3) in early September. The Terriers have dropped six-straight games on the season. Three of the losses came to nationally-ranked NCAA FCS teams and three of the defeats came in one-possession games – each coming on the road including an eight-point loss at nationally-ranked VMI (31-23, Sept. 25), a six-point loss at nationally-ranked ETSU (27-21, Oct. 2) and a three-point, 27-24, home loss to Samford (Oct. 16). Most recently, the Terriers fell at Mercer, 45-14, though the game was tied at 14 in the second quarter.
The last time a Wofford team sat at 1-6 was in 1987. Dating back to the shortened 2020-21 season in which Wofford solely played league games in the fall, the Terriers have just two wins in their last 12 games and have lost nine-straight SoCon games. Despite the struggle with results, Wofford remains a tough team to beat at Gibbs Stadium where it has won 100 of the 140 all-time games (100-40, .715) including 79 of the last 105 games (.752) and 60 of its last 91 league contests (.659).
The Terriers have had their struggles offensively this year, ranking ninth in the league in both scoring (19.4 ppg) and total offense (332.1 yds/gm) with the bulk of their yardage unsurprisingly coming on the ground, ranking fifth in rushing at just under 200 yards per game. Junior running back Irvin Mulligan spurs the Wofford offense, ranking tied for fifth in the league with an average of 87.7 yards per game rushing. Mulligan, who has four 100+ yard games this fall, went for 106 yards on nine carries back in 2019 in the most recent meeting with WCU.
Defensively, Wofford is surrendering 32.1 points and 444.1 yards per game including 210.7 yards per game rushing and 233.4 yards per game through the air, ranking sixth in the SoCon in each of those statistical categories. Senior linebacker Joe Beckett paces the Terriers, ranking eighth in the SoCon with an average of 7.7 tackles per game with four tackles for loss.
Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 pm on Saturday in Spartanburg.
Western Carolina vs. Wofford – All-Time Series History:
• Western Carolina and Wofford meet for the 43
rd time on the football gridiron in a series that dates back to 1952 … WCU trails in the series, 14-28, including four-straight series losses;
• Wofford has won 12 of the last 14 series meetings dating back to 2006 – and 10 of the last 11 meetings played in Spartanburg with WCU's only road victory during that stretch coming in 2015, though the Catamounts did drop a close overtime game between two nationally-ranked teams (No. 22 WCU at No. 22 No. 5 Wofford), 35-28, in 2017 … WCU is 4-16 all-time vs. Wofford in Spartanburg;
• WCU has dropped 19 of the 23 series meetings since Wofford joined the Southern Conference in 1997 (4-19) including 10 of the 11 series meetings held in Spartanburg, S.C.
Game 8: Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021 • 1:30 p.m.
Location: Spartanburg, S.C. (Gibbs Stadium – 13,000)
Records: Western Carolina (1-6, 1-3 SoCon) at Wofford (1-6, 0-5 SoCon)
BROADCAST INFORMATION:
TV / Video Stream: ESPN+ (
paid subscription required)
PBP: Jim Noble; Color: Thom Henson; Sideline: Van Hipp
Radio: Catamount Sports Network
PBP: Gary Ayers; Color:
Daniel Hooker; Sideline: Greg McLamb Producer: Jeff Bryson
CSN Affiliates:
Sylva – 105.7 FM / 540 AM WRGC
Franklin – 104.9 FM / 1050 AM WFSC
Asheville – WISE Sports Radio 102.9 FM / 1310 AM
Canton – WYSE Sports Radio 970 AM
Online:
CatamountSports.com
Keep track of everything related to Catamount football and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/CatamountSports) and Twitter (@Catamounts, @CatamountsFB).
