Western Carolina has been a historically tough place to win for football. The program owns an overall win percentage just north of .400 and has only had four winning seasons in the last 20 years. Three of those winning seasons (2014, 2015, 2017) belong to current Head Coach Mark Speir.
Speir, a Clemson grad, has spent all but six years of his 29 year coaching career up in the mountains, either at Western Carolina (where he started his coaching career and is now in his eighth season as head coach) or WCU’s arch-rival Appalachian State. He was an assistant coach at App during the Mountaineers’ run of three straight FCS national titles from 2005-2007.