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Western Carolina will play Liberty at home Saturday
Western Carolina will play Liberty, the nation’s 25th-ranked Football Championship Subdivision team, at 6 p.m. Saturday at E.J. Whitmire Stadium/Bob Waters Field.
After defeating NAIA Shorter and losing big to Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference, this will be WCU’s first game against a team from its own division.
“This will be a true measure of where we’re at,” Coach Dennis Wagner said. “They’ve scored a lot of points and haven’t given up much on defense. Over the past few years, Liberty has re-established their program.”
The Flames have wins over North Greenville (49-10) and Glenville State (44-27).
“They’re a very physical team,” Wagner said. “They’re big up front on defense. Offensively, they can run the football and mix in the passing game. They’re well coached and will be prepared when they get here Saturday.”
Wagner was not happy with his team’s play in Saturday’s 69-0 loss at FSU.
“I’m totally embarrassed by the performance of our football team,” he said. “It is one thing to get beat. It’s another to not operate and function properly. We had too many substitution problems with wasted first downs. We had penalties. We were wasting timeouts to get players on the field, and that’s unacceptable. This football team did not perform to its ability.”
He added, “There’s not much to say when you get beat whether its 69-0 or 34-14. We’re not happy with our performance in any shape or manner.”
Wagner noted that the score was just 7-0 with eight minutes to go in the first half before things got out of hand. The Seminoles scored touchdowns on their final nine possessions.
“We’ve just got to keep talking about mental toughness and not accepting failure,” Wagner said. “We’re still in the process of building the foundation to make this thing work.”
Wagner missed some practices leading up to the FSU game due to back problems.
“It’s my fault I wasn’t there,” he said. “I’ve got to do a better job taking care of myself.”
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