Rankings Mercer Football heads north for another SOCON battle – 41NBC News

The Mercer Bears (8-1, 5-1) are coming off their 37-31 homecoming victory over East Tennessee State and now prepare to head north to face VMI (1-8, 1-4).

MACON, Ga. – (41NBC/WMGT) – The top-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 continue to perform well in all three phases of the game, including the kicking game that secured the final six points of the win over ETSU via 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 pick up their first win of the season against reigning SOCON champion Furman. Jacobs is glad their winning formula is working, but there are still things the coach wants to improve heading into the home stretch of the regular season.

“For our guys to find a way to win and play really well at times in all three phases, it just says a lot about our perseverance,” Jacobs said Monday afternoon. “I think it says a lot about the resilience of the team and then just our courage. I think this is a tenacious team. It’s not always pretty, it’s not always perfect, but they continue to find ways to win no matter what we need.”

Coach Jacobs continued: “It’s not about the opponent, it’s about Mercer every week.” We have things in all three phases that we can judge very critically, even if we win. I think that’s the good thing. There are things to work on to keep people hungry or keep a tough lead in practice because we haven’t played the entire game yet. Again, I don’t know if we ever will, I have high expectations, but that’s it. It’s about us playing better than last week. VMI is the next opponent, so we have to be ahead and prepare for a team that just beat the reigning 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 us to get blocks. We trust the playmakers to make plays. We all trust each other and Coach Soto to make the right decisions. That’s why we’re happy and know that we have a lot of weapons that we could be dangerous with if we do things right. We still have a lot ahead of us. It’s far from over, but I think we’re proud of where we’re at and we know we still have a lot of work to do.

“They’re just very healthy and well-coached,” Mercer junior linebacker Mic Wasson said. “They don’t make many mistakes. They are really disciplined and like every other week we have to do our best.”

Kick-off at Fosters Stadium is scheduled for 1:30 p.m