Mercer’s Grant Radakovich rewarded for doing dirty work

Bobby Lamb joked that he was a little nervous about how Grant Radakovich would react to scoring his first touchdown.

But the Mercer head coach should not have been concerned. Radakovich, as coaches like to say, acted like he had been there before, even though he hadn’t been ... ever.

Radakovich’s first touchdown catch, which came Saturday against Stetson in the home opener, wasn’t just his first with the Bears’ program. The junior tight end said it was his first ever.

“First, yes, all the way back to pee wee,” Radakovich said.

Still, there was no over-the-top celebration from Radakovich even though Lamb told him a couple of years ago he would allow one.

“Well, two years ago, in November, he knew he wasn’t going to throw me the ball, so he told me I could punt the ball into the stands if I scored,” Radakovich said with a laugh. “But I think I handled it appropriately, just handing the ball to the ref and going to celebrate with my teammates.

“It has been a long-time coming.”

Lamb doesn’t really have to worry about Radakovich, on or off the field.

Radakovich became the first member of Mercer’s original class to graduate, doing so in three years. He majored in finance and is pursuing a Master of Business Adminstration.

He was named to the Southern Conference’s Academic Honor Roll last season.

“He’s very special. He was in that very first class, and he was the first guy to graduate,” Lamb said. “The thing about him is he never asks to come out. He’s always ready to go in. He always asks to go in. He always wants to do different things.

“He’s a joy to coach and is as fine a student-athlete as I’ve had since I have been coaching.”

Radakovich doesn’t touch the ball much in the Mercer offense, but he is fine with that. His hybrid role also includes blocking duties from an H-back spot for running backs Alex Lakes and Tee Mitchell.

Lakes has 219 yards in two games, while Mitchell has 172, and they are averaging 6.4 and 9.6 yards per carry, respectively. Lakes and Mitchell have combined for five rushing touchdowns.

“That’s the fruit of my labor,” Radakovich said with a big smile. “It’s the whole reason I do it. That, and it’s a personal challenge to make to make sure those guys don’t get touched and make sure they get into the end zone and we’re winning the game. That’s the most important thing to me.”

That attitude is appreciated by Lamb.

Radakovich has played in all 24 games for Mercer the past two years. He started all 12 games in 2013 and started one last year. He had two catches for 24 yards in each season.

His catch Saturday was his first this season.

“The guy loves to play football. Most guys like it, but he loves it,” Lamb said. “He loves contact, and that’s why he’s such a good blocker at the point of attack for our backs out of the backfield. He’s getting a lot better as a pass-catcher, too, and he works on it every day and works extremely hard. He’s going to be a senior next year, and we’re in the recruiting process of, ‘How are we going to replace this guy.’

“He’s a hybrid. In a two-back set, he’s an H-back. He’s really important because he motions a lot, and he really knows where to go depending on what the play is and what the defense is doing. He’s really knowledgeable about the game.”

That shouldn’t be a surprise considering Radakovich’s prowess in the class room. He said that was fostered in high school at Walton in Marietta.

“I kind of went turbo,” he said of completing his undergraduate work at Mercer. “I wanted to get it done to get as many degrees as I can. It’s a good feeling to be done and know that I have that in my hand and in my back pocket.

“I had a great foundation coming out of high school at Walton and having a lot of AP classes, so having that foundation propelled me forward when I came here and made sure I studied and worked hard at it.”

On and off the field, the hard work is paying off for Radakovich.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 1:56 PM with the headline "Mercer’s Grant Radakovich rewarded for doing dirty work ."