Bobby Lamb likes the direction his Mercer program is headed

Bobby Lamb knows his coaches and players, and anyone else associated with the program, weren't happy about the team's 47-21 loss to Samford on Saturday.

But Mercer's head coach preferred to take a big-picture view after the loss that dropped his team to 5-6 this season. The Bears, who went 10-2 in 2013 and 6-6 last year, improved from one Southern Conference win last year to two this year. One of those wins was an upset of then-No. 3 Chattanooga.

"I told the team it was a sad night because of the way we played, but look at the full body of work and the things that we did this year," Lamb said. "Third-year program, second-year program in the Southern Conference, and before (Saturday), we had lost four conference games by a total of 13 points, and we won two conference games, beating the No. 3 team in the nation."

Mercer honored 19 seniors Saturday and will have 14 more next year. The two seniors who had the most impact who were recognized Saturday were cornerback Alex Avant and offensive lineman Wilson Heres. Other than that, Mercer will return its core for next season, while the other Southern Conference programs will have many more losses.

Plus, Mercer should be up to the FCS scholarship limit of 63 next season, the first time the program has played with that number of scholarships.

"Are we where I think we need to be? Yes. We've got one more class that we will sign that will get us up to fully allotted scholarships, and we have a great product to sell, what a great crowd we had (Saturday)," Lamb said. "So the arrow is pointed up for Mercer football, and I'm proud to say I'm the coach of these guys, and I told them that."

Despite the loss in his final game, Avant saw many positives for the program moving forward.

"Like I told these guys, they shouldn't lose a game next year because we've got a lot of talent coming back," Avant said. "Plus, a lot of people were hurt and didn't play this year, so it's exciting looking ahead to next year. It's going to be crazy because when we first got here, none of this was here, and I feel like Mercer is only going to get bigger and better. It was cool to be a part of that."

But, as Lamb pointed out, there is work to do, mainly on the recruiting trail and in the weight room.

"We're going to get to work. We have a team meeting (Sunday) with the guys who are coming back. We're going to lay some ground rules down, and we're going to get to work for next year," Lamb said. "The next step for the program is certainly recruiting. We've got to get out there and sign our class that will get us up to 63 scholarships and get in the weight room. We had what I call weight-room plays out there (Saturday). ... We've gotta get in the weight room and get bigger and stronger in the offseason.

"And we've got to go recruiting and start developing some of our players in the offseason workouts."

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Bobby Lamb likes the direction his Mercer program is headed ."