Co-written and produced with Samuel Dietrich.
“He uses words like ‘championship,’ because that is the goal here at Western Carolina. He’s doing all of the right things, saying all of the right things, and he has created a lot of belief in our community.”
Those are the words of Director of Athletics, Alex Gary, who hired Head Football Coach, Kerwin Bell, on April 27, 2021.
Bell, who most recently served as the offensive coordinator at the University of South Florida in 2019, was given the nod to take over a struggling Catamounts’ team that was a combined 4-17 over the past two years.
Gary’s ultimate goal for Bell was simple when hiring the Florida native – to win a Southern Conference (SoCon) Championship and be selected as a contender for the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Playoffs – something that Western has not accomplished since 1983.
“If I didn’t feel confident that he could do that, I wouldn’t be the Director of Athletics at Western,” Gary said.
It is not just Gary that is confident this will happen. The players and staff are too. See what they say in the video below.
Since his hiring, Bell has brought along a staff that has shifted the program away from its dreadful days at the bottom of the SoCon.
After starting the season on a six-game losing streak, the Catamounts won their last four of five, finishing fourth in the conference. Additionally, they finished first in the SoCon in scoring offense, passing offense, total offense, and touchdown passes.
“I am satisfied. You don’t really want to go into [the season] with a certain amount of wins that someone needs to have. The goal is to win a championship always, but we weren’t able to accomplish that this year,” said Gary.
Despite being picked before the season to finish last in the SoCon, Gary believes that this season was successful, and the team is trending upwards.
“The momentum going into this recruiting season, as well as spring ball into the next year, is right where we want to be,” said Gary.
The shift, now, turns towards the offseason – the first that Coach Bell and his staff will go through, following a time-constrained 2021 pre-season.
Offensive coordinator, and Coach Bell’s son, Kade, knows that this spring will be a challenge for the players, as they develop into a better squad.
“This offseason is going to be tough, this spring. We’re going to build leadership, throughout our team. Obviously, with [the players] having a year underneath what we expect, they kind of understand what we expect, but they really don’t, because we haven’t had a true offseason,” Bell said.
Along with this, Bell believes that there are still some areas to work on that will bring the Catamounts closer to their overall goal.
“To me, there are two things that we are really going to focus on this spring. We’ve got to be really efficient on third downs and we have to be really efficient scoring touchdowns, and not field goals, in the red zone,” said Bell.
The Catamounts are slated to open their 2022 season with back-to-back away contests, against Charleston Southern on Sept. 3 and Georgia Tech on Sept. 10. Their home opener is scheduled against Presbyterian, on Sept. 17 at E.J. Whitmire Stadium.
