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Western Carolina to meet Florida State on Saturday
After being a decisive favorite in last Thursday’s 35-0 win over Shorter to open the football season, the shoe will be on the other foot Saturday when Western Carolina travels to Florida State for a 6 p.m. game.
The Seminoles may no longer be a perennial top five program, but they are still among the upper echelon of the Atlantic Coast Conference and will be overwhelming favorites against the Catamounts.
“We were proud of the effort and proud of the way our kids played for 60 minutes,” assistant head coach Matt Pawlowski said of the Shorter game.
He was filling in on the Southern Conference coaches’ teleconference for Coach Dennis Wagner, who was ill.
“Now we’ve got Florida State coming up,” Pawlow-ski said. “They’re a whole different can of worms. We understand this is a journey, and we’ve got a lot of football ahead of us.”
FSU quarterbacks Drew Weatherford and Christian Ponder have “major league arms,” according to Pawlowski.
“They’ve got a boatload of skill guys that can run down the field,” Pawlowski said. “They’ve got so many guys that can take it to the house at any time.”
He added that the Seminoles use an attacking style on defense.
“It’s not about Florida State,” Pawlowski said. “It’s about Western Carolina and us improving and playing every down for 60 minutes.”
He acknowledged that Hurricane Hanna could disrupt WCU’s travel plans. The Cats plan to leave Thursday afternoon and stay south of Atlanta that night. However, they might move the departure up to Thursday morning.
Pawlowski said the team “had a few nicks and bruises” after the Shorter game but no players had been declared out as of Tuesday morning.
He added that he expected starter Andy Horn along with reserves Adam Hearns and Zack Jaynes to all see time at quarterback as they did against Shorter.
“All three of those guys will get an opportunity to play,” he said. “Each one of those young men has a different style of game.”
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