71 days to WCU Football Kickoff - #71 Austin Grunden

 

Welcome to the eleventh annual Catamount Football "100 days to Football Kickoff Countdown".

During the countdown, we'll highlight the player whose number corresponds to that day in the countdown. To help pass those long summer days, and hopefully get the Catamount faithful more excited about the upcoming season, and knowledgeable of the team members, we'll continue the football countdown each day until kickoff Saturday.

Since the official 2021 Catamount Football Roster has not yet been published, we'll use the 2021 Catamount Football Preseason Roster for jersey numbers until the new roster is posted, at which point we'll switch to the official roster for the remainder of the countdown.

It's now 72 days until the kickoff of Catamount football on Saturday, September 4th, 2021, against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, in E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field, Cullowhee, NC.

Today, we'll highlight an offensive lineman:

#71 Austin Grunden

POSITION Offensive Line
HEIGHT 6-2
WEIGHT 205
CLASS Freshman
HOMETOWN Kannapolis, N.C.
HIGH SCHOOL A.L. Brown HS








2020-21 (Freshman): Started the season working with the WCU tight ends before finishing the year working with the offensive line … Did not see game action.

Prior to Western Carolina: Varsity letter winner where he was a tight end and H-back … Was a team captain as a senior … Caught 16 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown, adding a two-point conversion to his point tally according to MaxPreps … High school coach was Mike Newsome … Also played tennis as a prep ... Joined the WCU football team as a walk-on.