As a part of this week’s football preview, ASOR welcomes Chris Womack for this week’s edition of “Ask A Beat Writer.” Womack is sports reporter/anchor for WNC News 13 in North Carolina, and covers Western Carolina Athletics.
This is the Catamount’s first game of the season. Do you think that is an advantage for WCU, as they should be relatively healthy and will have plenty of game film on Liberty?
Chris Womack: If the Catamounts were returning more established starters, I would say yes. However, head coach Mark Speir has remained consistent throughout fall camp and preseason practice that he will be treating this fall slate like an NFL preseason. They plan to play a lot of young players and focus on mastering their new base defense. He told me earlier this week that yes, they will prepare for Liberty and scout them – however, he really wants to see his team execute what they would do against other Southern Conference teams. Despite not having any games, they do have a couple guys nicked up who will not play this Saturday.
It seems the Catamounts may have a QB battle going on. Will the Flames see multiple QBs in this game?
CW: You could see as many as four quarterbacks get snaps for Western Carolina this week. 4-year starter Tyrie Adams graduated and now there’s a competition between his back-up the last two seasons, Will Jones, and three newcomers. I anticipate Jones getting the start with transfers Mark Wright (Hutchinson CC), Marcelo Rodriguez (Southern Miss), and true freshman Kason Lincke coming in after him in no particular order.
Liberty’s rushing attack has brought them a lot of success this season. How will Western Carolina attempt to stop it?
CW: I think it’ll fall on the shoulders of Ty Harris and Trevor Childers, two returning starters at linebacker. If you look at the defensive line, they are YOUNG. K.J. Milner is the leader of that group, but aside from senior Ricky Palao who had more of a reserve role last year – Milner has a bunch of young guys to mentor. One thing to note, Western will not show much of their hand – it will be a pretty vanilla, base defense because they don’t want the SoCon to learn too much about new defensive coordinator Andy McCollum. So don’t expect too many special packages, stunts, or blitzes. The Cats will probably play straight up base and work on mastering that.
What team unit could sway this game into the Catamounts favor in order to pull the upset?
CW: I’ll answer this in two parts – a group that has to play well is the wide receiving corps. I really like Western’s guys at that position, as well as running back. So if there is to be an upset, they will have to play well. One area where they HAVE to improve upon is special teams. The Catamounts were probably 5-10 special teams plays from being a .500 ball club last year. It seemed like every game they gave up a 40+ yard return on either punts or kick offs. I’ll break it down even further:
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- Game 1 vs Mercer: 82 yard KOR
- Game 3 vs North Greenville: 72 yard PR TD
- Game 6 vs The Citadel: 43 yard KOR
- Game 7 vs Wofford: 87 yard PR TD
- Game 9 vs VMI: 59 yard KOR
- Game 11 vs Samford: 65 yard KOR, 59 yard PR TD
- Game 12 vs Alabama: 49 yard PR
This has been a problem for the last two years for WCU. If they want any shot of upsetting Liberty, they cannot hand Malik Willis a short field.
What is your prediction for the game?
CW: As I mentioned earlier, I don’t anticipate Western Carolina opening up the playbook too much or over-exerting for a win. They want to stay healthy, get experience, and find a few positives to take away. Their real season begins in 2021. Liberty 49-17.
