Scouting Western Carolina

u Western Carolina returns home for its first of back-to-back home games, hosting chromatic-rival the Furman Paladins on Heroes Day ... WCU and the Catamount Nation salute all military personnel both active and veteran, all civil servants including police, fire, EMS, and a special THANK YOU to all frontline workers for their continued work during the COVID-19 pandemic; u WCU comes back to Cullowhee for its first home game since Oct. 9 – and does so riding a twogame winning streak, its longest since claiming consecutive victories at VMI and at home against

ETSU in early November of 2019; u The Catamounts earned their first win of the season – and the first victory under head coach KERWIN BELL – by snapping a six-game seasonal slide ... an eight-game winless drought ... a five-game skid against SoCon opponents ... and an 11-game road losing streak with the 45-31 victory at The Citadel back on Oct. 23; u WCU was dominant in its 41-21 road win at Wofford last Saturday in Spartanburg ... the Catamounts raced out to a 41-7 lead in the fourth quarter with the Terriers scoring twice inside the game's final 7:35 to provide the final tally; u Western Carolina and Furman meet for 49th time on the football gridiron on Saturday ... WCU trails in the all-time series, 12-34-2, and have dropped five-straight meetings in the head-to-head series – and 13 of the last 15 overall; u Western Carolina ranks fifth in the SoCon in scoring offense (28.2 ppg) and third in total offense with an average of 435.2 yards per game including the league's second-ranked passing offense at 290.8 yards per game and ranks seventh in rushing offense at 144.5 yards per game; u WCU QB ROGAN WELLS ranks second in the SoCon in passing, averaging 237.3 yards per game ... Wells continues to rank second in the league in total offense (291.8 ypg); u WCU placekicker RICHARD McCOLLUM currently leads the NCAA FCS in field goal percentage, having connected on all 10 of his field goal attempts, and is tied for 16th nationally with 1.43 field goals per game to date ... McCollum has hit all 26 of his PATs this season, stretching his active streak to 40 consecutive; u Linebacker KAREEM TAYLOR (pictured below) ranks FOURTH in the SoCon in tackles, averaging 8.4 tackles per game ... Taylor has posted double-digit tackles five times this season including a season-high 11 at Gardner-Webb back on Sept. 25; u Freshman DB ANDREAS KEATON was listed on the initial watch list for the 2021 Stats Perform Jerry Rice Award, which is presented to the national freshman of the year in college football's championship subdivision (FCS) ... Keaton is one of 22 first-year players on this year's watch list and one of two from the Southern Conference, joined by Dominick Poole from The Citadel; u WCU earned back-to-back Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors as redshirt sophomore QB CARLOS DAVIS (423 yds of offense, 3 TDs) and graduate transfer QB ROGAN

WELLS (357 yds of offense, 5 TDs – 4 passing, 1 rushing) collected honors Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 ... PK

RICHARD McCOLLUM collected SoCon Special Teams Player of the Week on Nov. 1; u RAPHAEL WILLIAMS was listed as an honorable mention on the Stats Perform FCS National Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 1; u WR RAPHAEL WILLIAMS (pictured below), the SoCon leader in receptions per game at 7.5 and receiving yards per game at 91.8, caught a school-record 16 passes at Wofford, eclipsing the previous benchmark of 15 accomplished by Terryon Robinson (2014, 2016) and Eric Rasheed (1984) ...

Williams' 16 catches are also tied for the most by an individual in the NCAA FCS this season; u Fifth-year senior LB TY HARRIS now has 347 career tackles moving into SECOND-place in program history for tackles in a career ... He also has 26.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks.

PHOTO BY PHIL POLITO

WESTERN CAROLINA / FURMAN

INSIDE THE ALL-TIME SERIES

ALL-TIME SERIES . . . . . . . . WCU TRAILS, 12-34-2

In Greenville, S.C. .......... WCU trails, 6-18-1 In Cullowhee ............... WCU trails, 6-16-1 In SoCon Play ............. WCU trails, 9-32-2 Current Streak ................... WCU, L–5 Longest WCU Win Streak: .... 3 games (1992-94) Largest Margin of Victory ........ WCU, 38 pts Longest WCU Losing Skid:. . . .5 games (2016-20)

Total Series Points . . . . . . . WCU 868 / FUR 1,365

WCU Average Points ...................18.1 ppg FUR Average Points .................. 28.4 ppg

LAST 10 SERIES MEETINGS:

Feb. 20, 2021 Greenville, S.C. L, 35-7 Oct. 26, 2019 Cullowhee, N.C. L, 28-7 Sept. 29, 2018 Greenville, S.C. L, 44-38 Oct. 28, 2017 Cullowhee, N.C. L, 28-6 Nov. 12, 2016 Greenville, S.C. L, 49-21 Nov. 7, 2015 Cullowhee, N.C. W, 48-10 Sept. 27, 2014 Greenville, S.C. W, 35-17 Nov. 16, 2013 Cullowhee, N.C. L, 32-20 Sept. 29, 2012 Greenville, S.C. L, 45-24 Oct. 1, 2011 Cullowhee, N.C. L, 47-21

WCU HEAD COACH KERWIN BELL