Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina football's previously announced 2024 season opener against North Carolina State will kick off on Thursday, Aug. 29, it was announced late on Monday by the ACC as a part of the conference's three-day schedule rollout. The 2024 meeting is the second of a two-game agreement between the two UNC system schools originally announced back in 2014.
Kickoff time and all broadcast information of the pre-Labor Day weekend game will be released during the summer.
The full 2024 Catamount football schedule including highlighted dates such as Family Weekend, Heroes Day, Hall of Fame Day, and Homecoming will be announced in the coming weeks at which time season tickets will also go on sale. NC State is expected to announce its full football schedule this week.
The Catamounts and Wolfpack will meet for the eighth time on the football gridiron at Carter-Finley Stadium in a series that dates back to 1986. The two last met on Sept. 7, 2019, in Raleigh. The game is WCU's eighth against an ACC opponent since 2013 – and the fifth against a North Carolina-based Power Five conference opponent since 2017 (
NC State – 2019, 2024; North Carolina – 2020, 2018, 2017).
WCU has announced four games officially on its 12-game schedule, each slated as a nonconference game. WCU hosts Campbell in the front end of a home-and-home series with the Camels on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Cullowhee in the lone home date among its first four regular-season games. WCU travels to former league foe Elon on Saturday, Sept. 14, with a trip to NCAA FCS national runner-up Montana in Missoula scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21.
Under third-year head coach
Kerwin Bell, the Catamounts are coming off a 7-4 season in 2023, just missing a return to the NCAA FCS postseason. WCU has rewritten its offensive record books the past two seasons, amassing a school-record 5,545 yards of total offense last fall and finishing as the only team to average over 500 yards of offense (504.1 yds/gm). With 413 points scored, the Catamounts ranked fourth in the NCAA FCS with an average of 37.5 points per game and WCU returns the trigger-man in quarterback
Cole Gonzales who was dubbed the SoCon's Offensive Player of the Year by the media.
Western Carolina looks to National Signing Day on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, after adding seven true freshmen and one mid-season transfer during the early period of Dec. 20-22. The squad is slated to open its annual 15-practice spring drills following the university's Spring Break on Tuesday, March 12, with the 2024 Spring Game scheduled for Saturday, April 13 on Bob Waters Field at E.J. Whitmire Stadium.
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).
