Ranked Mercer Football Heads North for Another SOCON Battle
The Mercer Bears (8-1, 5-1) come off their 37-31 Homecoming win over East Tennessee State and now prepare to head north to face VMI (1-8, 1-4)
MACON, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – The ranked Mercer Bears football team is preparing for another Southern Conference battle Saturday against Virginia Military Institute.
Bears Head Coach Mike Jacobs and this Mercer squad look to keep performing well in all three phases of the game, including the kicking game, which sealed the last six points of the win over ETSU by SOCON Special Teams Player of the Week, Bears Sophomore kicker Reice Griffith, as the Bears take their longest road trip of the season to Lexington, Virginia to take on the 1-8 VMI Keydets, as they come off their first win of the season against the reigning SOCON champion Furman. Jacobs is happy their formula is working to success, but there is still things coach wants to improve on going into the home stretch of the regular season.
“For our guys to find a way to win, and really play well at times in all three phases, just says a lot about our perseverance” Jacobs said Monday afternoon. “I think it says a lot about the resiliency of the team, and then just our grit. I think this is a gritty team. Its not always pretty, its not always perfect, but they continue to find ways to win however we need to.”
Coach Jacobs went on to say, “it’s not the opponent, its about Mercer every week. We have things in all three phases that we can be highly critical of, even in a victory. I think that’s the good thing. There is stuff to work on, so it keeps people hungry, or allowed to maintain a hard edge in practice because we haven’t played that complete game. Again I don’t know if we ever will, I have high expectations, but that’s it. Its about us playing better than we did last week. VMI is the next opponent, so we got to be up and we got to be ready for a team that just beat the defending conference champions.
Mercer Sophomore Tight End Ty Everson spoke about the team’s bond. “I think we trust each other. I think a lot of offensive lines and tight ends trust that we get on blocks. We trust the playmakers to make plays. We all trust each other, and Coach Soto, to call the right stuff, so we are pleased, and we know we have a lot of weapons that if we get stuff right, we could be dangerous. We still have a lot left to accomplish. It’s nowhere close to being over, but I think we are proud of where we are at, and we know we have a lot of work to do.
“They’re just really sound and well coached” said Mercer Junior Linebacker Mic Wasson. “They don’t make a lot of mistakes. They’re really disciplined and just like any other week, we are going to have to play our best.”
Kickoff at Fosters Stadium is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
