Mercer Rallies Past ETSU, Prepares for Samford

The 3-1 Mercer Bears look to remain undefeated in SOCON play come Saturday at Five Star Stadium

MACON, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – The Mercer Bears are coming off a huge Southern Conference victory as they prepare for more conference play at Five Star Stadium.

Head coach Mike Jacobs and the Bears are now 3-0 in Southern Conference play after a 38-34 road victory over ETSU on Saturday.

Mercer trailed most of the game, including by 14 points entering the fourth quarter, before rallying to play what Jacobs said was some of the best football they have played all season. Jacobs said he was proud of the way his players fought until the end.

Redshirt junior C.J. Miller had a career-high 172 yards and two touchdowns on 29 attempts, and junior kicker Reice Griffith accounted for eight points, including a 49-yard field goal. Both players earned SoCon Player of the Week honors for their performances.

Now, Mercer turns its attention to Macon native Chris Hatcher and the 0-5 Samford Bulldogs, the only SoCon team the Bears lost to last season.

“We talked all week long. It was, ‘hey, this game is going to need every single person in this locker room, because we’re a little thin right now, and we’re going to need every bit of 60 minutes plus to win the game.’ And we literally did that. We needed every player that was on the bus, and we needed every last second to win the game. But what you saw was a young football team persevere, show great resilience, and win against an extremely tough football team on the road in an environment that has been traditionally tough for us to play,” said Jacobs.

“All in all, I’m really proud of our players. That was a big-time win for our program, and what it does is it builds our confidence going into a massive game here at home against Samford…Chris Hatcher is from Macon, so this is always his Super Bowl. I don’t care what their record says, they got a veteran quarterback, he’s got talented receivers, they run around a little bit on defense, and they’ve got nothing to lose in terms of what they’re playing for. So we expect their best shot this weekend, but really excited about the way we perform. Can’t wait to build on it and see how our guys practice this week, and just know that we’re excited to get back in front of our family and friends for Family Weekend here at Five Star, and we can’t wait for that.”

Kickoff at Anderson Field in Five Star Stadium between the Mercer Bears and the Samford Bulldogs is scheduled for 4 p.m. on ESPN+.