Mercer seniors looking for a strong finish

The time is slowly slipping away for Mercer’s 28 seniors.

OK, maybe not so slowly.

The Bears have three remaining games, and two of them are at home. That starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday against East Tennessee State in Southern Conference play. After Saturday’s game, Mercer travels to Samford and then hosts Furman in the regular-season finale.

So the Bears’ seniors are guaranteed of only three more games.

“(Assistant coach Grant) Cain talked about it being an hour glass where every grain of salt is a day going by toward the end of the season,” senior safety Zach Jackson said. “It really hit me when he said that this is really it, and it could possibly be the final three games of my college career. It definitely heightens the situation because you want to give yourself a chance to go to the playoffs.

“We’ll have a heightened mindset knowing how important these games are.”

The Bears are 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the Southern Conference, and they are tied for fifth in the conference with Furman, a game behind Wofford. East Tennessee State is 3-5 overall and 1-5 in the conference.

The Bucs won their first two games, including their conference opener against Western Carolina, but they have lost their past four conference games.

“In this very room (Sunday), we had a team meeting and talked about that. We talked about this being our next football game,” Mercer head coach Bobby Lamb said of the necessary focus this week. “I’m kind of old school when it comes to that in football. I don’t believe in overlooking teams because in the game of football, unlike any other sport, you’ve only got 11 opportunities. You train all year long for 11 opportunities. Hopefully that 11 turns into more if you do well, but we’ve got 11 opportunities.

“There’s no excuses for us to not come out and play well. We have every intention of getting this football team ready to play well here at 3 p.m. on Saturday.”

Mercer beat East Tennessee State 52-0 last year in a game that did not count in the conference standings. The Bucs are in their first official season back in the Southern Conference after leaving the conference in 2005.

Mercer running back Alex Lakes did not play in last week’s loss to Wofford, and he won’t play Saturday. Still, Lamb said that shouldn’t change the Bears’ game plan.

“We’ve got to play Mercer football. We’ve got to run the ball and be more effective in the run game,” Lamb said. “We’ve got to fly around to the ball on defense like we did last week against an East Tennessee State team that runs a different style offense. That’s the way it is in FCS football; you’re going to get a different offense every single week, so your defense has to be ready to transition. Hopefully we’ll do that this week.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Mercer seniors looking for a strong finish."