Monday, June 6, 2022

89 days to WCU Football Kickoff - #89 Richard McCollum








Welcome to the twelfth annual Catamount Football "100 days to WCU Football Kickoff Countdown"

It's now 89 days until the kickoff of Catamount football on Saturday, September 3rd, 2022, against the Charleston Southern Buccaneers, on Buccaneer Field in Charleston, SC

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 day.

Today we will highlight #89, a kicker:

#89 Richard McCollum







POSITION Kicker
HEIGHT 5-9
WEIGHT 180
CLASS Junior
HOMETOWN Sanford, N.C.
HIGH SCHOOL Southern Lee HS








2020-21 (Redshirt Sophomore): Saw action in all nine of the team’s seasonal games on special teams … Connected on three of his six field goal attempts on the season and was 18-of-19 on PATs … Scored 27 points on the year … Matched a career-best with two made field goals (2-for-2) at Samford (Feb. 27) including a career-long 45-yard boot … Tied his career-high with a 45-yard field goal at ETSU (March 27) … Added two kickoffs on the year for an average of 40.0 yards per kick ... Named to the 2020-21 Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll and was named Academic All-Southern Conference.

2019 (Redshirt Freshman): Played in five games on the season handling placekicks including field goals, PATs, and kickoffs … Connected on a career-best two field goals (2-for-3) in the home win over North Greenville (Sept. 14), scoring a career-high six points … Finished 5-for-5 including a career-best 4-for-4 on PATs at Chattanooga (Sept. 28) … Kicked off a total of 17 times for an average of 49.4 yards per kick with one touchback.

2018 (Freshman): Played in four games on the year, remaining eligible for a redshirt ... Made his collegiate debut at Gardner-Webb (Sept. 14) … Handled kickoff duties in four games, kicking 20 times for an average of 56.0 yards per kick with two touchbacks … Kicked off a career-high nine times against VMI (Sept. 22) … Did not attempt a field goal or PAT ... Named to the 2018-19 Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll.

Prior to Western Carolina: Connected on 13-of-20 field goals as a senior including a career-long 51-yard field goal in 2017, adding 31 touchbacks on kickoffs … As a junior, connected on 44-of-45 PATs and was 14-of-20 on field goals including a long kick of 47-yards in a game as a part of earning the Cape Fear Valley Conference Special Teams Player of the Year … Connected on a 60-yard field goal at practice in Twitter post that went viral … Received the Tom Suiter Extra Effort Award from WRAL-TV in Raleigh ... High school coach was Joe Allison … Is bi-lingual and was the leader of his school’s Spanish Club … Also played baseball as a prep.

Personal: Full name is Richard Larry McCollum … Is the son of Carolina and Fredy McCollum … Has two brothers, Freddy and Bryan … His older brother, Freddy, kicked collegiately at Wingate.

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