The Wofford Terriers football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Wofford College located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as members of the Southern Conference (SoCon). Wofford's first football team was fielded in 1889. The team plays its home games at the 13,000 seat Gibbs Stadium in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Shawn Watson is the current head coach for the Terriers.
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History
Wofford fielded its first football team in 1889. That season, Wofford and Furman played the first intercollegiate football game in South Carolina. There is no record of more than four games in a season before 1900.
Wofford moved from Division II to join the Division I-AA Southern Conference in the 1996–97 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 academic performance of athletes. Numerous football players have been elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Classifications
1957–1969: NAIA
1970–1987: NAIA Division I
1988–1994: NCAA Division II
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
1965–1987: NAIA Independent
1988–1994: NCAA Division II independent
1995–1996: NCAA Division I–AA independent
1997–present: Southern Conference
Conference championships
Wofford has won seven conference championships, three outright and four shared.
† denotes co–champions
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.
Notable former players
Brenton Bersin, former wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL)
Miles Brown, former defensive lineman for the Tennessee Titans
Fisher DeBerry, former head coach at Air Force and College Football Hall of Famer
Ameet Pall, former defensive end in the Canadian Football League (CFL)
Kasey Redfern, former NFL punter
Jerry Richardson, wide receiver for the Baltimore Colts, former owner of the Carolina Panthers.
Nate Woody, Defensive coordinator at Army
Shiel Wood, Defensive coordinator at Houston
Greg Gasparato, Defensive coordinator at Tulane
Future non-conference opponents
Announced schedules as of May 12, 2026.