Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina football returned to the practice field under the lights at E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field on a chilly Monday evening as preparations for Saturday's Southern Conference showdown at Chattanooga ramp up following the team's open week.
Saturday's top three league matchup at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga pits two of the three longest active winning streaks in the SoCon. The Catamounts are winners of five straight since the 0-3 start to the season, while the Mocs have won three in a row following a 1-4 seasonal opening that included a 28-10 home loss to The Citadel. Both trail Mercer (6-1, 5-0 SoCon), which has won six-straight after avoiding the 0-2 start to the season with a no-contest in its opener against UC Davis, followed by the home loss to Presbyterian.
Catamount fifth-year head coach
Kerwin Bell talked on Monday night's "Catamount Football Weekly" coaches show about his desires for the bye week, which included introducing the game plan for the UTC game and then allowing his squad to get away from football to rest, recoup, and reenergize for the tremendous stretch run.
"The bye week came at a perfect time for us. I felt that last week of practice before The Citadel game, our guys were getting drained, both mentally and physically. And I felt because of that, we wanted to get them away (from football) as much as we could during the bye," said Bell during his appearance on the coach's show. "We let them have about four good days away without football where I wanted them to get away, clear their minds, get their energy back, get that passion back. And now, let's go finish these last four regular-season games the way we need to finish them."
Bell said that he and his coaching staff treated much of last week as if it were game week, installing much of the game plan for the Chattanooga game before the much-needed pause. He added that this week is much of a refresh and repeat of last week's game planning as the team moves back into its traditional weekly routine on Tuesday.
Coming off the bye week, Bell hinted at the potential return of several players who have missed time due to injury. Among those are offensive linemen
Brett Gray and
Aaron Sanez, both of whom are expected to travel this week. Running back
Branson Adams could see his first action since the Elon game, with backfield counterpart
Camury Reid also potentially returning. The wide receiving corps looks to get
Jaylin Terzado into the mix for the first time this season.
On defense, Bell was optimistic about the return of LB
Hayward McQueen Jr., who was injured just a few plays into the game at The Citadel, with Jeno Junius returning as well.
When looking at this week's task against Chattanooga, Bell was very complimentary of the improvements the Mocs have made since the opening stretch of games. He also highlighted their offensive balance, boasting the second-best rushing attack in the SoCon entering the week, spearheaded by the league's second-ranked rusher in Justus Durant with 565 total rushing yards, third with 70.6 yards per game.
"Like a lot of us, they really lost a lot of players, and you could see that they were trying to figure it out early on. They had a really tough schedule. But after the loss to the The Citadel, the past three weeks, they've really come out and gotten better every week and they're playing their best football right now," Bell said. "They're always a tough out – you've got to go down there and play 60 minutes of football, and this week will be no different. We've got to go be physical as a football team, play good football, protect the ball to have a chance to come out of there with a win."
HISTORICAL HEADLINE NOTE – the 'W' Road referenced in the headline runs down from Walden's Ridge to Chattanooga on Signal Mountain and is best known for its three sharp hairpin turns.
Western Carolina vs. Chattanooga – All-Time Series:
Despite trailing in the all-time series with the Chattanooga Mocs, 20-30, Western Carolina has won three straight head-to-head meetings dating back to 2022 – though those three victories have come by just a combined NINE points. WCU won last year, 38-34, in Cullowhee, and scored a walk-off Richard McCollum field goal to win 52-50 in the most recent meeting in Chattanooga. The Catamounts started their current streak with a three-point, 32-29 home victory in 2022.
WCU's current three-game streak matches three consecutive wins back in 2000-02 and is the fourth time the Catamounts have won three-straight in the series. The longest consecutive win streak for the Catamounts over the Mocs is four, from 1991 through 1994 – a mark that Bell and Company look to match this weekend.
In the National Polls:
Mercer remains the lone Southern Conference team among the national rankings, tipping the scale at No. 15 in the latest Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and at No. 13 in the latest AFCA Coaches Poll. The Catamounts are the only other team continuing to receive votes in the two major national polls, second among the others receiving votes at No. 27 unofficially in both tabulations. WCU (95) was just four points behind South Dakota (99) at No. 26 and 12 in arrears of Presbyterian (107) in the media polling. The Catamounts received 21 points in the coaches poll, four points back of No. 26 UT Rio Grande Valley (25) and 15 shy of cracking the Top 25, with the final spot held by Abilene Christian (36).
In the FCS Nation Radio Top 25 poll – the nation's only syndicated radio show about the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision – the Catamounts continue to hold a number next to their name at No. 16 overall, just behind Mercer in 12th.
Glancing Ahead at the SoCon Race:
Of the top four teams in the SoCon standings with two or fewer league losses, league-leader Mercer and third-place Chattanooga have arguably the toughest remaining schedules. The Bears still have three games against each of the teams targeting the defending champion in the closest spots to the podium, as does UTC.
Games this first weekend of November could go a long way in shaping the SoCon race over the final three weeks. Saturday's results will either provide a little more spacing at the top or could create a larger logjam at the top as teams jockey for the automatic qualifying bid.
First-place Mercer plays two of its final three SoCon games away from Five Star Stadium in Macon, while WCU and Chattanooga have two apiece, equally split between home and the road. Furman plays two of its final three at home, hosting Mercer before visiting UTC on Nov. 8. Others in the SoCon standings are traps waiting to spring to try and trip the top half in a league where each team plays one another for at least one more season.
SoCon Standings (entering the week):
1 – Mercer – 6-1, 5-0 SoCon – (1.000)
2 – Western Carolina – 5-3, 4-0 SoCon – (1.000)
3 – Chattanooga – 4-4, 3-1 SoCon – (.750)
4 – Furman – 5-3, 3-2 SoCon – (.600)
T5 – ETSU – 4-5, 2-3 SoCon – (.400)
T5 – The Citadel – 3-5, 2-3 SoCon – (.400)
7 – Wofford – 2-6, 1-3 SoCon – (.250)
8 – Samford – 1-7, 1-5 SoCon – (.167)
9 – VMI – 1-7, 0-4 SoCon – (.000)
Top Four Remaining Schedules (SoCon Schedule):
No. 1 Mercer (5-0 SoCon)
Nov. 1 – at No. 4 Furman
Nov. 8 – at No. 2 Western Carolina
Nov. 15 – vs. No. 3 Chattanooga
Nov. 22 – at Auburn (FBS)
No. 2 Western Carolina (4-0 SoCon)
Nov. 1 - at No. 3 Chattanooga
Nov. 8 – vs. No. 1 Mercer
Nov. 15 – vs. No. 5 ETSU
Nov. 22 – at No. 9 VMI
No. 3 Chattanooga (3-1 SoCon)
Nov. 1 – vs. No. 2 Western Carolina
Nov. 8 – vs. No. 4 Furman
Nov. 15 – at No. 1 Mercer
Nov. 22 – at No. 7 Wofford
No. 4 Furman (3-2)
Nov. 1 – vs. No. 1 Mercer
Nov. 8 – at No. 3 Chattanooga
Nov. 15 – vs. No. 9 VMI
Nov. 22 – at Clemson (FBS)
Up Next for Western Carolina:
After the tough road trip to the Scenic City and Moccasin Bend this weekend, the Catamounts return home to the friendly confines of Whitmire Stadium / Waters Field for back-to-back home dates against league-leading Mercer (Nov. 8) and mountain-rival ETSU (Nov. 15), with the traveling trophy "the Rock" up for grabs in the latter.
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).
