Cullowhee, N.C. – Completing a rigorous four-game nonconference gauntlet to start the 2024 season that included three nationally-ranked opponents, the Western Carolina football team enters its bye week as the campus celebrates the 50th anniversary of Mountain Heritage Day on Saturday, Sept. 28.
 
The Catamounts (1-3) are idle this weekend on the gridiron before embarking on an eight-week journey through Southern Conference play. After this week's slate of games, only WCU and VMI remain as teams that have yet to open their SoCon slate. Meanwhile, Mercer plays its third game in conference play on Saturday when it visits Wofford, the next opponent on WCU's docket.
 
Five league teams remain among the nation's rankings this week with one – Mercer – inside the Top 25 in both polls. The Bears are a conference-best 12th in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and 13th in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) ranking. Wofford is the only other team with a number next to its name this week, tipping the scale at No. 23 in the media tabulation while receiving votes from the coaches.
 
Though the Catamounts fell from the national rankings in both national polls this week, WCU remains in the "others receiving votes" category in both polls where it is joined by Chattanooga and ETSU.
 
Over the first month of the season, the Catamounts have played a schedule that fourth-year head coach Kerwin Bell hopes his squad will embrace and use each opportunity as a proverbial measuring stick to see where they can improve now eyeing the conference slate.
 
Between August and September, Western Carolina carried a lead over then nationally-ranked North Carolina State into the fourth quarter in its season-opening loss. The Catamounts bounced back from a disappointing "White Out Whitmire" home-opening, one-possession loss to Campbell before upsetting then No. 22 Elon on the road to return to the national rankings.
 
Last weekend, WCU took its second-longest road trip in program history – the longest in NCAA FCS play – with its trip to Montana which is solidly inside the national Top 10 in both polls. The Catamounts raced out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter before the Griz rallied behind its home crowd – one of the toughest in all of NCAA FCS football – to hand WCU its third defeat of the season.
 
"It was a good trip, but we didn't get done what we wanted to get done," said head coach Kerwin Bell during Monday's "Catamount Football Weekly," presented by Stanberry Insurance live on location at Rodger's Brothers in Cullowhee. "It was good for our football team to experience that type of environment. It was really a big-time atmosphere, and our kids fed off of that. I thought that we were prepared to play and started the game that way, but we just didn't finish the way I wanted us to."
 
He added, "Just to tell you about our players, though, they played in a big game. Got on a plane and flew across the country. I felt bad about it, but we had to put that game to bed on Sunday. So, they got to bed around 3:30 or 4 a.m. and then they were back lifting weights at 12:30 p.m. and then we met with them at 3 p.m. to watch the film before having a little run-through practice to work the soreness out."
 
Four games into the 2024 season, Catamount quarterback Cole Gonzales leads the SoCon with 977 passing yards, averaging a league-best 244.2 yards per game through the air. Led by its preseason Offensive Player of the Year, WCU has amassed a league-best 1,041 passing yards despite the difficult schedule – though are tied for fourth with just four passing touchdowns.
 
For the Catamounts, consecutive home dates against Palmetto State foes Wofford (Family Weekend, Oct. 5) and The Citadel (Heroes Day, Oct. 12) are followed by two-straight road games at Furman (Oct. 19)  and current league leader Mercer (Oct. 26). Alternating home and road dates close the final four games of the regular season with visits to mountain-rival ETSU (Blue Ridge Border Battle, Nov. 9) and Samford (Nov. 23) countered by home contests on Homecoming against Chattanooga (Nov. 2) and VMI (Nov. 16).
 
This week, WCU redshirt sophomore WR De'Andre Tamarez was recognized for his career-best performance last Saturday at No. 10/9 Montana with a pair of awards. The Overtown, Fla., product was an honorable mention for the national Stats Perform FCS National Offensive Player of the Week award. He also received the top offensive player of the week honor from FCS Nation Radio, announced through their TwitterX page. Tamarez caught a career-high eight passes for a career-best 229 yards – the second-most by a receiver this year in the NCAA FCS and the most by a SoCon wideout to date. His 229 yards are the third-most by an individual in a single game in program history.
 
Tamarez is averaging 63.5 receiving yards per game – fourth in the SoCon – while junior AJ Colombo has a 62.5 receiving yard per game average, just behind in fifth place. On the ground, Branson Adams is tied for the league-lead with four rushing scores including two at Montana, while ranking sixth with a 59.5 rushing yard per game average.
 
On defense, Mateo Sudipo has a team-best 27 tackles – seventh in the SoCon – while Blue Monroe (5.0) and Antarron Turner (4.5) rank third and fourth, respectively, in tackles for loss. Caleb Fisher has a team-best 2.5 sacks – tied for second in the SoCon and just ahead of Turner with 2.0. With two interceptions, Jordy Lowery is tied with four others for the conference lead through the first month.
 
Bell looked at the bye week as an opportunity for his squad to continue to get healthy with hopes of adding a few players back to the lineup like Samaurie Dukes and Ed Jones IV  in the defensive secondary and Jalynn Williams in the offensive backfield. But to also heal some bumps and bruises sustained through the grueling four-game start to the year.
 
"I've told the team, let's embrace it. We're 1-3, we know who we are – that's who we are, there's no lying about that. But we have identified a lot of areas that we can get better at – and we can get better. Our coaches aren't sitting there watching film saying, 'Man, I wish we had a better player here; I wish we were better there.' We feel like we've got the players to do it. Now, we've got to make sure we coach them up and that they take what we've learned from playing these really good teams."
 
Bell likened the four-game nonconference slate to a veritable preseason now heading into the eight-straight weeks of SoCon play. He also challenged the Catamount Nation to create the raucous home-field advantage for each of the remaining regular-season home dates in Cullowhee, understanding that E.J. Whitmire Stadium and Bob Waters Field can play that role of 12th man with the game-day atmosphere that is second-to-none in the conference.
 
Western Carolina (1-3) opens its eight-straight weeks of league play on Saturday, Oct. 5, in the first of back-to-back home dates when the Catamounts host the Wofford Terriers (2-1) on Family Weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Season tickets for WCU's remaining four home games, as well as single-game tickets and game day parking passes are available online through CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets or by calling (828) 227-2401.
 
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