Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina football enters its bye week following last Saturday's fifth-consecutive seasonal win with the 45-38 road victory over The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. The Catamounts used 17-straight points between the end of the second quarter and the opening drive of the second half to build the advantage before holding off the resurgent Bulldogs for the key Southern Conference road victory.
"It was a good road win. Any time that you can win on the road in this conference, you've got to feel good about it," said WCU head coach
Kerwin Bell during Monday night's "Catamount Football Weekly" Coaches Show on location at Catamount Jaxe. "It was a big-time win, to go on the road against a team that's playing really well and on a two-game winning streak. We didn't play our best, but it was big, and it kept our streak alive. I was proud of the way that we fought, kept believing in and trusting each other to get it done."
Bell added, "I wanted to get to this point in our season. I felt our team getting a little bit drained mentally and physically last week in practice. So, this bye week is coming at the perfect time. Let's get rejuvenated, get reenergized, and let's go make a four-game run."
Bell also talked about using this week's open date to alter the team's practice schedule, which began on Sunday, a normal work day. WCU's fifth-year head coach mentioned that he gave the team both Sunday and Monday off from practice, with plans to reconvene on Tuesday through Thursday. The Catamounts earned Friday through Sunday off during the bye, and resume Chattanooga game-week practice next Monday, Oct. 27.
Practice plans this week for Bell and the Catamounts (5-3, 4-0 SoCon) include the introduction of next week's game plan against league foe, Chattanooga (3-4, 2-1 SoCon), which travels to Samford (1-6, 1-4 SoCon) this weekend in Birmingham, Ala.
"One thing that I'm really focused on this week is that we come back a refreshed football team," said Bell of the off-days in the open week. "I just want them to get away (from football) and clear their minds. When they come back next Monday, I want them to be a refreshed football team, a team that's hungry to go play football again. We'll already have the game plan in, so we'll reintroduce it and I feel we'll go play our best game of the year against Chattanooga, which it's going to take because they're always tough."
Western Carolina remained among those receiving votes in both major national polls released this week. The Catamounts were the second team outside the rankings in the Stats Perform Top 25 to sit unofficially in 27th, and were the third team listed on the AFCA Coaches Poll in 'others receiving votes," to unofficially sit 28th nationally.
Mercer remains the lone SoCon school among the national rankings by the voting media and head coaches, ranked No.17 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and No. 14 by the coaches. WCU is the only other league team to receive votes in either tabulation.
In the FCS Nation poll, WCU leapt back into the Top 25 ranking at No. 17 after being unranked a week ago following the squad's fifth-straight seasonal victory.
Also this week, Western Carolina and Catamount football were featured by coaching great Jon Gruden on his TwitterX account, opening a "swag box" delivered by WCU's athletics marketing and equipment staff.
Western Carolina has four games remaining in the 2025 regular season – two on the road sandwiched around consecutive home dates. The Catamounts open November with the trip to the Scenic City to face Chattanooga on Saturday, Nov. 1, with a 4 p.m. kickoff. Then on consecutive Saturday's – Nov. 8 and Nov. 15 – the best game day atmosphere in the SoCon roars back to life as the Catamounts square-off against the Mercer Bears for Homecoming in a "Purple Out" in Cullowhee, before entertaining mountain-rival ETSU in the "Blue Ridge Border Battle" on Nov. 15.
WCU wraps up the regular season with a road jaunt to Lexington, Va., to face the VMI Keydets on Nov. 22 with a Noon kickoff.
Each game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required), with live audio from the Catamount Sports Network. The Nov. 15 home date against ETSU and the Nov. 22 road meeting at VMI are both designated as the "Ingles SoCon Game of the Week," through the league's over-the-air broadcast television partnership with Nexstar.
Single-game tickets for the Nov. 8 Homecoming game and the Nov. 15 rivalry match-up for "the Rock" traveling trophy against ETSU are on sale now at CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets or by phone by calling (828) 227-2401.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount football and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (FB.com/CatamountSports; FB.com/catamountsportsnetwork) and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountsFB).
