The Basics
Team: Western Carolina Catamounts
Location: Cullowhee, North Carolina
Enrollment: 11,686
Head Coach: Kerwin Bell (117-63)
Record: 0-1
Wins: N/A
Losses: Gardner-Webb
Transfer portal rank: N/A
After finishing last season 7-5 overall, the Western Carolina Catamounts entered the 2025 football season ranked #19 in the AFCA Coaches Poll. They did not stay ranked very long, however, after dropping their season opener to Gardner-Webb in a game that saw WCU blow a 35-7 1st half lead and ultimately lose 52-45. Let’s
take a very quick look at WCU and see how the Deacs stack up against them.
Offense
Points per game: 45.0
Yards per game: 454.0
Run/Pass split: 53/47
Rush yards per game: 221
Pass yards per game: 233
Turnovers per game: 3.0
Sacks Allowed per game: 2.0
The sample size is just 1 game, but the Catamounts had no trouble scoring points on offense in their season opener against Garnder-Webb, putting up 45 points and 454 yards of offense. Their main threat thus far has been the legs of running back Patrick Boyd Jr., who ran the ball 15 times for 142 yards (9.5 yards per carry) and 1 touchdown last weekend. He is currently 10th in the nation in FCS in yards per game and 4th in yards per rush.
As far as the scheme, the Catamounts seem to mostly use the standard spread 11 personnel (1 TE, 1 RB), and their offense looks like it is mostly shotgun handoffs and quick passes around the line of scrimmage–of WCU’s 18 completions against Gardner Webb, 6 went to running backs for a combined 42 yards. Starting QB Bennett Judy completed just 15 of his 27 pass attempts for 151 yards, and, based on that 1 game, he is not much of a threat in the running attack (5 carries, 7 yards). The Catamounts did play 2 QBs in their first game–the other being Isaac Lee, who completed just 3 of his 9 passes and turned the ball over twice. He did have maybe the best pass of the game on a 69-yard TD bomb to Malik Knight.
The 2 QB thing hardly ever works and is typically just a sign that neither QB is very good. I would have to guess that Judy will get most of the reps after how both played last week.
The one Catamount receiver that Wake will probably want to slow down is slot receiver James Tyre. Tyre caught a team high 5 passes for 66 yards and 1 touchdown against GW and is very good at getting open in the middle of the field. He was the only WCU receiver who caught more than 2 passes in the season opener.
Based on their first game, I’d say that Western is definitely a much better rushing team than they are passing, so if the Deacs can shut down Patrick Boyd Jr. and Branson Adams (12 carries, 66 yards) and force one of the two QBs to beat them throwing the ball, I think they should be able to stifle the Catamount offense.
Defense
Points allowed per game: 52.0
Yards allowed per game: 627.0
Rush yards allowed per game: 335.0
Pass yards allowed per game: 292.0
Sacks per game: 2
Turnovers Forced per game: 2
On the defensive side, the season opener was kind of a complete disaster for the Catamounts. After building a 35-7 first half lead, WCU allowed Garnder-Webb to score on 7 of their final 10 drives (and 1 of the 3 they didn’t score on was a missed field goal) and end the game on a 45-13 scoring run. Western had absolutely no answer for GW QB Nate Hampton, who accounted for 392 yards of offense and 6 touchdowns. The Catamounts had particularly trouble stopping the QB run, where Hampton ran the ball 28 times for 132 yards and 4 touchdowns.
I would not describe Hampton as particularly fast or elusive, so I’d imagine WCU will have even more difficulty containing a much more athletic QB like Robby Ashford. The Deacs as a team did a pretty terrible job running the ball in the season opener against Kennesaw State (130 yards on 47 carries), so I am interested in seeing if they can establish the run against a team that gave up over 300 yards on the ground in their first game of the season. If the Deacs manage to rush for under 3 yards per carry again this week, go ahead and smash the panic button on the offense for the year.
In the passing game, the Catamounts held Hampton to completing just 12 of his 30 passes, but a lot of those completions were big chunk plays down the field to pretty open receivers—292 passing yards on 12 completions comes out to almost 25 yards per completion. To me, that would suggest that the Catamounts have some weaknesses in the secondary and are prone to blowing coverages down the field. The Deacs really didn’t try to throw the ball very far at all last weekend, so I would love to see them attack the WCU secondary down the field instead of settling for swing passes and quick outs to the tight end the whole game. We may have a better chance of seeing some of that if Deshawn Purdie gets some playing time.
This is an FCS team that gave up over 600 yards of offense to another FCS team in their first game of the season. I know the Wake Forest offense looked pretty awful against Kennesaw and only managed 10 whole points against a team that was very recently an FCS team themselves, but I think it is overreacting to think that Wake will have trouble against the Catamounts. Even in Clawson’s first season—the one where Wake finished 3-9 with under 40 yards rushing per game—the Deacs still beat their FCS opponent by nearly 20 points. With a game under their belts and a worse opponent this time around, I think Wake will look much, much better on Saturday.
