Mercer prepares to battle ETSU for the Southern Conference title and a playoff berth

Mercer football is preparing for its showdown with ETSU in Johnson City this Saturday with the Southern Conference title on the line.

The Bears (7-2, 6-1 SoCon) have won three straight games, including a 10-6 victory over Chattanooga last Saturday. They’ll visit East Tennessee (9-1, 6-1 SoCon) Nov. 20, with a 1 p.m. kickoff at William B. Green Jr. Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Mercer has been in must-win mode since its defeat at the hands of VMI in front of the crowd at Five Star Stadium Oct. 16.

The Bears came into the game sporting a 4-1 record, including three straight wins over conference opponents, and a chance to get into the driver’s seat in the SoCon title race.

But the Keydets dismantled the Bears winning by a score of 45-7. It served as a wake-up call for a Mercer team whose only other loss is to the No. 2 team in the country, Alabama.

“It is all about how you respond,” quarterback Fred Payton said. “When you take that loss, a lot of finger-pointing could have happened. Everybody pretty much just said ‘We don’t care why we lost... we are going to do whatever it takes to not have that feeling again.’ And we went right back to work that next week.”

Cronic changing culture

Mercer’s resilience since the loss to VMI is part of the culture change that started during the COVID-19 shortened season last spring.

The Bears hired head coach Drew Cronic to replace Bobby Lamb, the man that helped restart the football program in 2013.

Cronic took the helm in early 2020 but COVID-19 quickly threw a wrench into things.

The Bears played a non-conference schedule in the fall going 0-3. In the spring, the SoCon played a conference-only schedule. The Bears lost two of their first three games. But they responded by reeling off four straight, including three against ranked opponents.

They lost the season finale against Samford, but the wins over ETSU, Furman and Chattanooga helped build the confidence for the current season. Cronic said he told his team during the Samford game in the spring to keep grinding because the efforts would show back up even if it wasn’t for the current season.

“I think all those things are showing back up. Our kids didn’t quit in the spring. They didn’t opt-out. They finished. I think that shows up now,” Cronic said. “We came here with a vision, with values and our core beliefs and we tried to do it during a pandemic. Which is tough. How far we have come in the last year is amazing to me.”

A tremendous opportunity

Redshirt freshman linebacker Ken Standley has been one of the leaders of the defense this season. Against Chattanooga, Standley came up with a key fumble recovery and recorded eight tackles including one for a loss.

The Bears have leaned hard on players like Standley who are young and inexperienced but have bought into the culture and the program that Cronic and his staff are working to build at Mercer.

Standley said the win over Chattanooga was big because they were underdogs and now they have a chance to play with a conference title on the line.

“It means a lot knowing where we have come from,” Standley said. “Having this opportunity to do something that hasn’t happened in the history of this school is tremendous.”

Mercer is one win from reaching the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history and from winning its first SoCon title. The task won’t be easy. The Bears must beat ETSU, who has had a share of the SoCon lead for most of the season.

In the spring, Mercer beat ETSU 21-13. The Bears took advantage of turnovers and turned that advantage into points. One of the most significant moments in the game was 63-yard scoop-and-score by Yahsyn McKee.

The Bears would hang on for the narrow win after the Bucs managed to score a touchdown with five minutes left in the game.

ETSU perfect at home

ETSU has lost just once since the Bears beat them, to Chattanooga on Oct. 16, the same day the Bears suffered their lone conference loss. Since then, the Bucs have won three straight games over Furman, VMI and Western Carolina.

ETSU got off to a hot start to the season with a 23-3 win over SEC opponent Vanderbilt. The Bucs have survived some close calls with single-digit wins in four of their six conference wins. They come into the game Saturday ranked No. 8 in the FCS while Mercer sits at No. 23.

The Bucs are a perfect 5-0 at home. Mercer comes into the game 3-1 on the road, with the only loss coming in Tuscaloosa. Home field advantage could play a factor but Mercer has shown it has the ability to win on the road in a tough environment.

One of the biggest changes for Mercer between this meeting and the last is the starting quarterback. The Bears were able to land Fred Payton, a transfer from Coastal Carolina, who had just won 11 games and were co-champions of the Sun Belt Conference.

Payton said from day one his goal was to bring a conference title to Mercer.

“It was the first thing coach Cronic and I talked about. He talked about the player that he saw that I was and the potential that he saw in me,” Payton said. “I have been around the culture and what it takes to be a championship team. When he brought me in that was one of the things we discussed was bringing a conference championship to Mercer and this year we have been able to make that run.”