Mercer enjoying hairy situation

The Mercer football team finds itself in a hairy situation these days, and it has nothing to do with the team’s play on the field.

The Bears take on VMI on Saturday in Lexington, Virginia, in a Southern Conference game. When they do, the beards will be flowing for the Mercer seniors.

“We’re still doing it. My parents have said, ‘Man, you’ve got to get rid of that thing,’ ” said running back Payton Usher, one of the team’s seniors. “But we’re going to keep it going. We said we were going to start doing it in camp, so it’s been going on since that started. Hopefully we’ll keep winning games, and the beards will start bringing some good luck for conference games.”

So who has the best beard?

“I think John Russ’ is looking really good,” Usher said of the Bears’ quarterback. “Other than that, (senior offensive lineman) Bret Niederreither’s is looking really good. They’re all coming along; it’ll be funny to see what we look like at the end of the season.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Mercer enjoying hairy situation."