: ''For information on all Wofford College sports, see

Wofford Terriers Wofford College sponsors 18 sports for men's and women's programs, competing as the Terriers. The Terriers compete in the Southern Conference, and have been a part of the league since the 1997–98 academic year. Wofford and the other SoCon memb ...

'' The Wofford Terriers football program is the intercollegiate

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team for

Wofford College Wofford College is a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was founded in 1854. The campus is a national arboretum and one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the America ...

located in the U.S. state of

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. The team competes in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

(FCS) as members of the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

(SoCon). Wofford's first football team was fielded in 1889. The team plays its home games at the 13,000 seat

Gibbs Stadium Gibbs Stadium is a 13,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It opened in 1996 and is home to the Wofford College Terriers football team. It is also formerly the home to the Spartanburg High School varsity football team. ...

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Off ...

Josh Conklin Josh Conklin (born June 19, 1979) is an American college football coach. He served as head football coach of Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina from 2018 until midway through the 2022 season. Conklin served as the defensive coordinator ...

is the current head coach for the Terriers.

History

Wofford moved from Division II to join the Division I-AA Southern Conference in the 96-97 season. Since then, Wofford has won 7 Southern Conference Championships, and received bids to the FCS Playoffs 10 times with the most recent bid coming in 2019. Wofford is typically one of the strongest teams in the Southern Conference every year. Wofford's best finish since moving from Division II was a trip to the National Semi-finals at Delaware in 2003, where they fell 24-9. Mike Ayers, Wofford's winningest and most honored coach who served as head coach for thirty years, retired following the 2017 season, when Wofford made it to the national quarterfinals and finished #8 in the national polls. In recent years, Wofford's football and other athletic teams have finished near the top in the country in APR, which measures athletic performance of athletes. Numerous football players have been elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

Classifications

* 1957–1969: NAIA * 1970–1987: NAIA Division I * 1988–1994:

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

* 1995–present: NCAA Division I–AA/FCS

Conference memberships

* 1889–1900: Independent * 1901–1941: Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association * 1942–1945: Independent * 1946–1964:

South Carolina Little Three The South Carolina Little Three (known as the South Carolina Little Four from 1946 to 1951) was an intercollegiate athletic conference that existed from 1946 to 1964. The conference's three main members, Newberry College, Presbyterian College, and ...

* 1965–1987: NAIA Independent * 1988–1994: NCAA Division II independent * 1995–1996: NCAA Division I–AA independent * 1997–present:

Conference championships

Wofford has won seven conference championships, three outright and four shared. † denotes co–champions

Bowl game appearances

Playoff appearances

NCAA Division I-AA/FCS

The Terriers have appeared in the I-AA/FCS playoffs ten times with an overall record of 9–10.

NCAA Division II

The Terriers have appeared in the Division II playoffs two times with an overall record of 0–2.

NAIA

The Terriers appeared in the NAIA playoffs one time. Their combined record was 1–1.

Wofford vs. in-state NCAA Division I schools

Notable former players

* Brenton Bersin, former wide receiver for the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) * Miles Brown, former defensive lineman for the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

Fisher DeBerry James Fisher DeBerry (born June 8, 1938) is a retired American football player. He served as the head football coach at the United States Air Force Academy from 1984 to 2006, compiling a record of 169–109–1. DeBerry led 17 of his 23 Air For ...

, former head coach at

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

and College Football Hall of Famer *

Ameet Pall Ameet Pall (born April 28, 1987) is a Canadian football defensive end who is currently a free agent. He was selected fifth overall by the Calgary Stampeders in the 2012 CFL Draft and was signed by the team on May 15, 2012. Following his release, ...

, former

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) *

Kasey Redfern Kasey Redfern (born September 26, 1991) is a former American football punter. He played college football at Wofford College. He signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2014. College career Redfern attended and playe ...

, former NFL punter *

Jerry Richardson Jerome Johnson Richardson Sr. (born July 18, 1936) is an American businessman, former NFL player and former owner in the National Football League (NFL). He established the Carolina Panthers franchise, which he owned for 23 years. Early life and ...

, wide receiver for the Baltimore Colts, former owner of the

. *

Nate Woody Nate Woody is an American football coach. He is the current defensive coordinator for the Army Black Knights. Prior to Army, Woody worked for Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan as the senior defensive analyst. He was the former defens ...

, defensive Coordinator at

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

References

External links

* {{Southern Conference football navbox American football teams established in 1889 1889 establishments in South Carolina