Mocs, Catamounts match 4-0 league records

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At the time the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Western Carolina programs were so far down that neither could have imagined a time they would be playing a college football version of king of the mountain.

When UTC's Mocs and the Catamounts met on a chilly November Saturday exactly six years ago, they were playing to stay out of the basement of the Southern Conference. Western Carolina's 20-point decision in 2008 was its only conference win and relegated UTC to an 0-8 finish and cellar-dweller status.

Two months later, after the Mocs finished 1-11 overall, the school replaced coach Rodney Allison with Russ Huesman and the program's climb to the top began. This weekend preseason favorite UTC travels into the North Carolina mountains to take on the surprise of the SoCon in a game that will go a long way in deciding the conference championship and automatic playoff berth.

"A few years ago not many people would've thought we'd have a game in Cullowhee between these two programs with this much riding on it," said Catamounts third-year coach Mark Speir. "But whichever team wins or loses, both of us still have to go play a lot of football before anything is decided."

Western Carolina is 4-0 for the first time since 1978, and this will be the first time two teams with at least 4-0 SoCon records have met since 2009.

Although UTC has won seven of the last eight meetings and four of its last five trips to Cullowhee, they have been close. The Mocs scored 29 unanswered points in the second half and overcame a 24-22 deficit in the fourth quarter to win in 2012, they claimed a six-point win in 2010, and the two games right before that were each decided by three points.

Both teams are coming off impressive offensive games last week. The Catamounts rolled up 633 total yards against The Citadel, and UTC had 542 in beating Mercer.

Not only are the conference records identical, but they are also very similar in several statistical categories.

UTC's defense has attracted a lot of attention, living up to the hype in every game except last week when Mercer put up big numbers. However it's the Catamounts that have the league's top scoring defense (20 papg). They also rank third in the FCS in pass defense (137.6 yapg).

The Mocs counter with a league-leading scoring offense against league opponents (41.2 ppg) and total offense (479.5).

Western Carolina drew more than 13,300 fans for last week's home game, and another capacity crowd is expected this week.

"This Saturday will be a great atmosphere," Mocs coach Russ Huesman said. "I would think there's a lot of motivation. I would hope that means our guys work hard this week to prepare for a championship type game. I know Western will, so we need to match that.

"This isn't for the championship -- there's a lot of football left. But the winner of this one doesn't have to root for anybody but themselves, while the loser has to root for other people to help them out."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.