2019 Football Preseason Preview: The Citadel Bulldogs

Throughout this preseason, Purple & Gold will preview all of Western Carolina's 2019 football opponents.

For the sixth game of the season, the Cats travel to South Carolina's low country to face the Bulldogs of The Citadel.

Western faces the Bulldogs for the forty-fourth time since 1972.





Game #6 - The Citadel

When: Saturday, October 12at 2:00 pm
Where: Johnson Hagood Stadium (11,332), Charleson, SC
TV/video: ESPN3

The Series: Western trails The Citadel 17-25-1 overall in the series, after winning on the road in Charleston in 2017, breaking a two-game skid to the Bulldogs. The Cats dropped the homecoming game to the dogs in 2018 in Cullowhee. Coach Speir is 2-5 against the Citadel.

Games that will be played by the Bulldogs this season before the WCU contest: (6 games) The Bulldogs kick off the season by playing back to back CAA Football opponents. First, at home against Towson, followed by a road trip to former SoCon member Elon. The dogs then travel to Atlanta to meet Georgia Tech, before returning home to meet cross-town Big South member Charleston Southern. The Citadel opens conference play the next week in Birmingham against Samford, then back to Charleston to face arch-rival VMI.

Last Season's Game vs. The Citadel (Nov. 3, 2018) -  Second Half Surge Pushes the Citadel over WCU   Cullowhee, N.C. – The Citadel used a pair of third-quarter blocked punts to erase a 14-point halftime deficit and a defense that pitched a second-half shutout, forcing three turnovers as the Bulldogs upended the Western Carolina Catamounts, 38-24, to spoil Homecoming at E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field. Back-up quarterback Brandon Rainey, who earned the starting nod for The Citadel on Saturday afternoon, rushed for 188 yards and a touchdown for the Bulldogs (3-5, 3-4 SoCon) while Clay Harris scored twice in rushing for 126 yards in the winning effort. All told, The Citadel ground out all 421 yards of total offense in the running game with four touchdowns, attempting just one pass which fell incomplete.

Last season's Record (The Citadel): 5-6 overall, 2-3 home, 3-3 away, 4-4 SoCon

Head Coach: Brent Thompson -  Brent Thompson was named The Citadel's 25th head football coach on January 19, 2016. In his first year, he led the Bulldogs to unprecedented heights while authoring one of the best seasons in Southern Conference history. Thompson’s first season in charge featured a program-record 10-game winning streak, a single-season school-record six road victories, only the seventh 8-0 conference record in 84 years of SoCon football, a second consecutive conference championship, a No. 6 national seed in the FCS Playoffs and the first home playoff game in 24 years. He was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year for the 10-2 campaign that resulted in the first time in program history with back-to-back playoff appearances.


Offensive Formation: Triple Option
-2018 Offense 29.8 ppg. (43rd in FCS)
Defensive Formation: 3-4 (new defensive formation)
-2018 Defense: 30.3 ppg. (76th in FCS)
Starters returning/lost:  20 /  7
Offensive starters - Returning/Lost: 10 / 3
Defensive starters - Returning/Lost: 7 / 4
Specialist - Returning/Lost: 3 / 0
Lettermen - Returning/Lose:  30 / 16

Picked to finish seventh in the 2019 season by both the coaches and media, the Bulldogs will enter the season with a chip on their shoulder, or at least the head coach will have a chip on his shoulder.  The local Charleston newspaper carried the following headline after the Dogs were picked to finish 7th - "Citadel coach: ‘Flat-out joke’ that Bulldogs are picked 7th in SoCon football".  “I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve taken away from today, is how little respect we have right now, and that’s OK with me." said head coach Brent Thompson. Hero Sports shares his opinion of the dogs, as their preseason rankings have the Citadel coming in at #25 in their poll.

The #7 pick in the SoCon polls has a total of six members selected for preseason All-Southern Conference honors. Joseph Randolph II, Willie Eubanks III, and Matthew Campbell were selected to the first team, while Haden Haas, Drew McEntyre and Jacob Godek were named to the second team. Eubanks was the top tackler last season as he finished with 80 tackles, 8.5 tackles-for-loss, and 4.5 sacks. He also added two interceptions and recovered a pair of fumbles.

The Bulldogs return 20 starters from last season's 5-6 squad that finished 4-4 in the SoCon. Before rising junior Brandon Rainey took over as starting quarterback in the eighth game of the season, the Bulldogs’ triple-option offense averaged 264 rushing yards and 26.8 points while going 2-5, all against FCS teams. In their final three games against FCS teams, with Rainey at quarterback, the offense averaged 331.3 rushing yards and 41 points per game in victories over Western Carolina, Samford and Charleston Southern.

In 2018, the Bulldogs finished in 4th place in the SoCon in scoring offense with 29.8 points per game, and came in 6th place in scoring defense, giving up30.3 ppg. The Bulldogs came in second behind Wofford in rushing yardage with 283.6 ypg. and were 3d in rushing defense, only giving up 141.3 ypg. The Bulldogs finished in the last place in passing offense, averaging 83.7 yards per game and were 7th in pass defense, giving up 253.7 yards per game

Given their returning starters, I'd say the SoCon polls are probably wrong on the Bulldogs as well.

2018 The Citadel Statistics:
Rushing Offense: 3120 yards
Yards per game: 283.6
Yards per rush: 4,7 yards
Rushing 1st downs: 148
TDs rushing: 32
Passing Offense: 921 yards or 83.7 yards per game
Avg. per pass: 8.3 yards
Passing 1st downs: 36
Passing Comp-Att-Int: 50-111-5
TDs Passing: 5
Total Offense: 4041 yards or 367.4 yards per game
Fumbles-Lost: 21 - 10
3d Down Conversions: 76 of 181 (42%)
4th Down Conversions: 23 of 38 (61%)
Field goal attempts: 11 - 13
PAT-Attempts: 41 = 41 (100%)
On-side kicks: 0 - 1
Red Zone Scores: 29 of 33 (88%)
Red Zone Touchdowns: 21 of 33 (64%)
Punts - Yards: 52 - 2264 - Avg per punt: 43.5


Game prediction: Per the Massey Ratings, the Cats have only a 25% probability of winning (31-40) over the Bulldogs.
According to Massey Rankings to date, Western Carolina should be 2-4 after this game, however, I'm going to disagree, the Cats win again in Charleston and come home with a 5-1 record after this game.



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