Game Week - Western Carolina

Western Carolina's Season to Date...1-4 Overall / 0-3 SoCon
Sep. 3 at East Carolina L 52-7
Sep. 10 vs. Gardner-Webb W 44-14
Sep. 17 at ETSU (Bristol Motor Speedway) L 34-31
Sep. 24 BYE
Oct. 1 vs. The Citadel L 37-14 (Only Common Opponent - Sep. 1 Mercer vs. The Citadel L 24-23) 
Oct. 8 vs.Wofford L 31-19

SCORING OFFENSE

SCORING DEFENSE

TOTAL OFFENSE

TOTAL DEFENSE

RUSHING OFFENSE

RUSHING DEFENSE

PASS OFFENSE

Detrez is a beast - and last week I believe he got a total of 14 touches (9 runs) in a game where we were only down 5 well into the 2nd half and still had a realistic chance of winning. Not trying to say anything about Wofford, as they have a good defense (particularly against the run), but the pre-season offensive player of the year has to be used more than that - I'd take my chances with Detrez finding a way to break a long run or screen pass over watching our QB run for his life on may of your plays. So those kind of things are what I am talking about with our offense - fairly predictable play calling that when it doesn't work we put our defense in a hole by having them run back onto the field against an option team after many 3-and-outs the last 2 weeks.

For WCU to have a chance to win against anybody in the SoCon, my opinion is we need to come somewhere close in time of possession, we have to not turn the ball over when we are moving the ball (multiple turnovers or dropped passes when we have been on our way to a score), and we need Detrez to touch the ball more than 20 times per game (I'd love to see 20 rushes and a few receptions). From the stats above, my guess is our OC will see that you guys give up a very high completion percentage and he will go with throwing it 40 times again. Which means he might ignore the fact that you also have 13 sacks (we have given up 14 this season with a VERY athletic QB - meaning it probably should be much higher).

Mercer plays a lot of close games, and WCU still has a fair amount of players from last year's team that was 7-4. But other than the GW game we have not looked at all like the last 2 years. I can't argue with the spread/line on the game based on what I have seen so far. We keep waiting for our team to show what it is capable of, but it hasn't happened for more than about 1 half all season.

WCU Head Coach Mark Spier: "Our Offense...as good as anybody in the country." (13:42)

* Per their Game Notes, WCU is starting 4 Soph's and a Freshman in the O-Line this week.
* They are also starting a Freshman QB (who is VERY good) and a Soph WR.
* 7 FR/SO's starting, in total, on the WCU Offense. So, 4 SR's/JR's starting on Offense, FWIW
* Last week against Mercer, Chattanooga started 4 SR's and 6 JR's on Offense. So, 10 SR's/JR's starting on Offense, FWIW
* At the present time, The Citadel starts 5 SR's and 4 JR's on Offense. So, 9 SR's/JR's starting on Offense, FWIW
* 15 of 24 Players listed on the WCU O's 2 Deep are Freshmen or Sophomores.
* IF they are as good as anybody in the country on Offense, they will certainly be a force to be reckoned with this season and over the next 2 or 3 years

* The JR QB who engineered WCU's come-from-behind-game-winning-drive against Mercer last season suffered a broken leg (I believe) and is out for the season
* WCU's backup QB's are:
___a 6-1 185 FR, apparently, in his 2nd year as a student at WCU, who walked-on this Spring. He completed 2 passes in their Spring Game and has not participated in a game so far this season...OR
___a 5-11 200 R-SO, who is listed as a DB in his 1st year on WCU's roster. He is listed on Charleston Southern's 2014 roster as a QB, but did not participate in any games for CSU. In 2015 he was listed on Itawamba (MS) CC's roster as a WR, played in 10 games, caught 28 passes for 239 yards and 2 TD's. He also fumbled twice (in the same game and lost both of them) while making those 28 receptions. Further, he was 0-2 in passing for the ICC Indians, had 1 Punt Return for 13 yards, and had 1 tackle. He has not participated in a game for WCU in 2016.
* WCU did not give up a sack in their 1st 2 games vs. ECU and Gardner-Webb.
* The Catamounts have given up 15 sacks in their past 3 games, including 8 to The Citadel
* 7 of those 8 Sacks by The Citadel were made by D-Linemen
* WCU fell behind The Citadel 34-0 before scoring their 1st points with 1:36 remaining in the 3rd Quarter

As it was with VMI, it seems to me, Mercer's KEY TO VICTORY in this game is to GET TO THE QB! In their 1st 2 games, when WCU's QB was not Sacked, he averaged 364 yards of Total Offense. In the past 3 games, when he has been Sacked a total of 15 times, he averaged 243 yards of Total Offense. That's a 33% fall-off in production when he is sacked at least 1x. Also, if either of the backup QB's are required to play, they will be taking their 1st snap as a college QB, most likely under adverse conditions.

That said, WCU gets the ball out much quicker than VMI AND their QB is much, much more elusive than VMI's.
It will be a challenge to get him off his spot AND contain him.
As I saw it, The Citadel did that by swarming blitzes that seemed to confuse both the young Catamount O-Line and the young QB.

Looking for these 9 young men (and others) to come up BIG on Saturday!

Some interesting comparisons using NCAA FCS Rankings...

FYI. New Marriott is now open. They still have rooms for this weekend.

I checked the next 4 Saturday nights and they sat anywhere between $98 and $140 a night