Mercer enters key closing stretch of season

Mercer head coach Bobby Lamb likes where his team is after seven games. Now, he’ll get to see if the Bears are ready to take the next step.

Mercer is 4-3 overall coming a non-conference road win over Austin Peay. The Bears’ final four games are in Southern Conference play, and that stretch starts at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at Wofford.

Like the Bears, the Terriers are 4-3 overall, and both teams are 2-2 in conference play.

“You look at the games we’ve played, obviously we’ve won some games right there at the end, very close football games,” Lamb said. “We lost to The Citadel, a very heartbreaking season opener. But I think we’re where we need to be. The season’s about ebbs and flows. The bottom line is, you’ve got to prepare for a different scheme every week, different talent every week.

“You’ve got kids stepping up. This time of the year, every team is nicked up. Everybody’s got something wrong with them.”

That’s certainly true of the Bears. Lamb said running back Alex Lakes (ankle) and offensive lineman Mitch Payne (neck) are day-to-day, while linebacker Kyle Williams is out for the season with a neck injury. Tight end Chase Westfall continues to battle a foot injury and likely won’t return this season.

On the flip side, defensive lineman Austin Wysor hasn’t played since the Chattanooga game on Oct. 8, but he looks ready to return, while linebacker Tosin Aguebor should be back at full speed after playing sparingly against Austin Peay.

The Bears likely will need to be healthy for these final four games, including two on the road. After Saturday, Mercer hosts East Tennessee State, travels to Samford and then hosts Furman.

With the FCS playoff field expanded to 24 teams this season, Mercer has a chance to make a statement in its final four games.

“This is a great challenge for us because right now they’re sitting with two losses and we’re sitting with two losses,” Lamb said of the Terriers. “Somebody’s going to take the next step in the race. This thing is far from over. If you look at the projections that they put out last week for the FCS playoffs, right now the Southern Conference has got four teams in that 24-team field, obviously, Wofford, Samford, Citadel and Chattanooga.

“So we’d like to get into that conversation, but the only way we can get in that conversation is to go play well in Spartanburg.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Mercer enters key closing stretch of season."