What Even Is A Catamount?

​If you haven't heard of the Western Carolina Catamounts, I wouldn't blame you. Perhaps tonight is the first time you have heard of Western Carolina University. It's a small school located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina that not many people have heard of. I graduated from Western in 2021, but I only knew the school existed once I started applying to colleges in high school because it showed up on all of the pages that showed the average GPA and test scores of the incoming freshmen they had admitted. 

If you are a football fan, and that's how you find out about new schools, then you really haven't heard of Western Carolina. The school's team started back in 1931, and since then, they have won one conference title, in 1949, when they competed in the North State Conference. They have two FCS tournament appearances, and the biggest accomplishment the program has is that they made it to the finals back in 1983, where they lost to Southern Illinois 43-7. 

Since the turn of the century, the Catamounts have had more seasons with two or fewer wins (9) than they have winning seasons (7). Two of the Catamounts' winning seasons are thanks to their current Head Coach, Kerwin Bell, who is seemingly doing a full 180 with the Western Carolina football program. 

Western Carolina is by no stretch a football school, as much as they'd like to convince you they are while you are there. Previous to Kerwin Bell, the Catamounts were led by Mark Speir, who likely could have stayed at Western Carolina forever had the school not hired Alex Gary to be the AD for the school. 

To give you an idea of how unserious the Western Carolina football program was, Western Carolina offered Mark Speir a five-year contract extension with the Catamounts before the 2019 season, when he had an all-time record of 29-51 with the Catamounts and was coming off a three-win season. This is just a rumor, but sources within the athletic department had told me while I was working as an Operations Assistant with the team that the AD at the time knew that he was going to be fired by Western Carolina within the year, and this was his final f*** you to the university. I cannot confirm or deny this claim, I'm just telling you what I had heard. 

Now that you have a little background on the Catamounts, let's move on to last night's game between the Catamounts and the Wolfpack. Western Carolina came into this game as the #19 FCS team on the FCS Coaches Poll and is the highest-ranked FCS team in North Carolina at the moment. I expect, after putting a performance on like that against a Top 25 FBS team for that ranking, to increase a good bit. 

I don't need to recap the game, that's what ESPN is for, but what I am here to do is tell you my biggest takeaways from the game. First off, NC State was wildly overrated coming into the season. That's an easy one. Grayson McCall relies on one receiver the entire game, Kevin Concepcion. If you can shut him down, you shut down the Wolfpack's entire offense. 

McCall did not look too hot, and all of us were way too high on him. Something about a guy being in his SIXTH year at the college level gives me the ick. I'm not saying to give up, but at this point, if you haven't made the jump to the NFL, you best start counting your days because a long career playing football probably isn't in the cards for you. Granted, McCall is only 23 years old, and I'm not an expert, so you can't hold me liable for any bad takes that will come back to bite me in the ass. 

Moving forward for the Wolfpack, it could get rough, and not because it took until the 4th quarter for them to get a solid lead on an FCS school that can barely put together a winning season. NC State came into the season all high and mighty, expecting big things, and now they've been served a fat slice of humble pie that could affect the team in two ways. Option number one, they could lose all momentum and completely bomb this season. With Tennessee coming to town next week, I expect the Wolfpack to lose, so you start the season off with a demoralizing win and a loss. Not the best way to start the season. 

Option number two, you take what you did horribly wrong against the Catamounts and learn from it. Fast. I'm a big believer that a little adversity to humble the team is good for you, but that all depends on how the team responds. I know I'm generalizing here, but NC State isn't known for learning from past mistakes. Assuming they can learn from this experience, having an FCS team come on your turf, take your money, and almost steal a win might be enough to light a fire under their ass, and the Wolfpack go undefeated this season. I don't know. We will see how they respond next week. 

Switching gears, I see this as an absolute win if I'm Western Carolina. If you compete with a nationally ranked FBS team, you're bound to have some momentum as you play Campbell next week. Kerwin Bell is the real deal, and despite the Catamounts' very depressing past, Catamount fans have a lot to look forward to. The Catamounts have the opportunity to have three consecutive winning seasons, which hasn't been done since the team was led by Steve Hodgin in the '90s. 

Western has a gauntlet of a schedule that includes two top-10 conference opponents, #8 Chattanooga and #9 Furman. But before opening up your conference play, the Cats have to go to #3 Montana. If Western can win just one of those games and win out the rest of the schedule, we may see the Catamounts competing in the playoffs for the first time in over 40 years. Buckle up Catamount fans. This season could be one for the history books. 

Also, a catamount is just another name for puma, cougar, or mountain lion and it sounds a lot cooler. Don't ask me why the mascot is a Bobcat, I don't know the answer to that.