Scouting Western Carolina

u Western Carolina opens the KERWIN BELL (pictured below) era by hosting the Eastern Kentucky

Colonels at E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field in Cullowhee in a Labor Day weekend matchup ... Saturday’s game has been billed the Ingles SoCon Game of the Week and marked for linear television on through Nexstar Media Group and ESPN+; u WCU's 13 previous first-year head coaches have combined to go 6-5-2 in their first games dating back to 1931 with the past three coaches since 2002 winning their opener ... Bob Waters – WCU’s all-time winningest head coach – posted the best-ever first season by going 9-1 in 1969, opening the year with a victory; u Western Carolina and Eastern Kentucky meet for the SEVENTH time on the football gridiron with the Catamounts trailing the Colonels in the all-time series, 2-4 ... WCU has split the two series meetings played in Cullowhee, dropping the first-ever meeting between the two schools, 32-14, back in 1988 before upending then 19th-ranked EKU, 20-17, in at Whitmire Stadium in 2006; u Western Carolina and EKU met in Richmond, Ky., in 2020 for the first-ever “Opportunity Bowl” to honor the memory of Dr. Sheila Pressley, a WCU alum and former EKU dean of the College of Health Sciences and served as the Faculty Athletics Representative ... Dr. Pressley, who graduated from WCU in 1989, passed away in January 2020; u Redshirt sophomore offensive lineman TYLER SMITH (pictured below) represented WCU on the 2021 Preseason All-Southern Conference team announced as the league converged on the Biltmore Estate for the 2021 Football Kickoff and Media Day back in late July; u Smith's first-team selection is the first for a WCU offensive lineman since Zach Weeks collected first-team preseason All-SoCon accolades prior to the 2018 season ... Smith is among five returning starters on the Catamount offense, leading three starters back up front; u WCU's lone selection on the preseason all-conference team marked its fewest since 2012 when LB Rock Williams garnered the squad's only preseason nod; u All nine SoCon teams were represented on the preseason all-conference teams, with each program securing at least one first-team selection; u WCU was picked ninth in both the preseason polls from the league's head coaches and voting members of the media; u Five Catamounts landed on Phil Steele's Preseason All-Southern Conference teams as selected and announced by the publication. Western Carolina put two players – QB ROGAN WELLS and DB

RONALD KENT JR. – on the second team and three – OL TYLER SMITH, LB TY HARRIS, and LB

CAMERON MCCUTCHEON – on the third team; u Western Carolina’s new coaching staff added two-time Harlon Hill Trophy finalist QB ROGAN

WELLS to the quarterback room ... Wells is a graduate transfer who was the MVP of the title game in winning the 2018 NCAA Division II National Championship at Valdosta State and led Tusculum to the Spring 2021 South Atlantic Conference championship ... He has spent his career in the offensive schematic under WCU offensive coordinator KADE BELL; u Returning for his fifth-year due to the COVID-19 exemption, WCU senior LB TY HARRIS has a shot at etching his name in the Catamount football record books for career tackles ... Harris enters the season just 13 tackles shy of WCU’s career Top 10 list and is just 39 away from second-place in

WCU’s career ledgers; u Harris ranked fourth in the SoCon in 2020-21 with an average of 9.9 tackles per game (19th in the NCAA) ... He was second in the league with 49 solo stops (5.4 per game, 38th in NCAA).

WESTERN CAROLINA / EKU

INSIDE THE ALL-TIME SERIES

ALL-TIME SERIES . . . . . . . . . . . .WCU TRAILS, 2-4

In Richmond, Ky. ..............WCU trails, 1-3

In Cullowhee .................. Series tied, 1-1

Current Streak .................... WCU, L–1

Longest WCU Win Streak: ....... 1 games (twice) Longest WCU Losing Skid:. . . . 2 games (1988-89) Total Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WCU, 109 / EKU 181 WCU Average Points ................. 18.17 ppg

EKU Average Points .................. 30.17 ppg

ALL-TIME SERIES MEETINGS:

Sept. 4, 2021 Cullowhee Nov. 21, 2020 Richmond, Ky. L, 49-14 Nov. 14, 2009 Richmond, Ky. W, 24-7 Sept. 8, 2007 Richmond, Ky. L, 45-21 Sept. 16, 2006 Cullowhee W, 20-17 Sept. 2, 1989 Richmond, Ky. L, 31-13 Oct. 22, 1988 Cullowhee L, 32-14

WCU HEAD COACH KERWIN BELL