Cats Selected to Finish 3rd in the SoCon - Coach Bell's Media Day Interview

Western Carolina was picked to finish third by the coaches in the 2024 SoCon preseason poll at the Media Day held in Greenville South Carolina. Quarterback Cole Gonzales was selected as the preseason Offensive Player of the Year, and a total of 10 Catamounts were honored with all-conference selections. 

Catamount head coach Kerwin Bell's Media Day Interview is below:  

 

Your offense was top five in the country, scored 37 and a half points a game last year. You return a lot on offense, is there any reason to believe that that unit isn't going to be just as explosive? 

"Well, we go in every year to be in a top-five offense, you know we want to average 300 throwing and 200 running, and if we can do that, we feel like we're accomplishing what we want to get done. I tell people all the time man I'm so proud of one fact we didn't just lead the nation last year, as not the only place we've done it three different places in the NCAA, at Jacksonville University, at Valdosta State, we led the nation and then we led the nation last year. So I think we know what we're doing. You've got to have players that fit your system and I think that's what we know the best is who can fit our system"

What does that mean, fit the system, how do you know a guy's going to work well? 

"Just take a sample of a receiver. A lot of guys will go draft that 6'2" 200 lb, 190 lb guy that runs 46, 45, because he looks pretty getting off the bus, in pads. That ain't who we want though. We want guys, I don't care if he's 5'10" or 5' 11" or 5'9" if he can be explosive, drop his hips, get in and out of routes, be able to catch the deep ball and be able to vertically push you on on offense. That's the kind of guys we want who can run after the catch because that creates explosive plays. That's why we've been so good is that we create explosive plays."