It's now 89 days until the kickoff of Catamount football on Saturday, September 2nd, 2023, against the Arkansas Razorbacks in the War Memorial Stadium, Little Rock, AR.
To help pass those long summer days, and hopefully get the Catamount faithful a little 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 a kicker:
#89 Richard McCollum
Position Kicker
Height 5-9
Weight 175
Class Redshirt Senior
Hometown Sanford, N.C.
High School Southern Lee HS
2022 (Redshirt Junior): Saw action in all 11 of the team's games handling primary placekicking duties ... Three-time Southern Conference Special Teams Player of the Week, first after WCU's season-opening road win at Charleston Southern, hitting a 42-yard field goal and a career-best seven PATs ... Went 4-for-4 on field goals at Samford (Sept. 24) to earn weekly honors ... Tallied his third award after hitting the game-winning 33-yard field goal at ETSU (Nov. 12), scoring eight points with two field goals and a pair of PATs ... Finished the season 17-of-19 on field goals and 40-of-41 on PATs for a team-best 91 points scored ... Named second-team All-Southern Conference selection by the SoCon Sports Media Association (SCSMA) ... Tabbed a third-team Associated Press All-America selection ... Selected to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team ... Named to the 2023 NFF Hampshire Honor Society ... Earned 2022 Fall Academic All-SoCon honors ... Was a second-team preseason All-Southern Conference selection at placekicker by the league's head coaches ... Tabbed second-team preseason All-SoCon by Phil Steele.
2021 (Redshirt Sophomore*): Saw action in 10 of the team's 11 games on special teams ... Led WCU in scoring with 78 points, ranking seventh in the SoCon in points per game at 7.8 ppg ... Finished the regular-season as the NCAA FCS field goal percentage leader, the only kicker to remain perfect on the year (12-for-12, 1.000) … Hit two field goals in a game three times, going 2-for-2 in those instances ... Split the uprights on a season-long 40-yard field goal at Gardner-Webb (Sept. 25) … Was perfect on PATs this season, hitting all 42 attempts … Earned Southern Conference Special Teams Player of the Week after WCU’s road win at Wofford, scoring a season-high 11 points with five PATs and two field goals of 37 and 23 yards … Also handled kickoff duties much of the season for WCU, averaging 58.0 yards per kick with five touchbacks ... Was named second-team All-Southern Conference by Phil Steele. ... Named 2021 Fall Academic All-Southern Conference ... Named to the 2021-22 Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll.
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.
NOTE: McCollum has scored 207 career points to sit sixth in the program’s all-time record book for points scored – just 95 points shy of the school record of 302 scored by Kirk Roach (1984-87) ... He is 34-of-40 (85%) on field goals with his 34 successful FGs ranking fourth in school history ... Holds the school record for most consecutive successful PATs at 85-straight.
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