2018 Mercer Bears football team

2018 Southern Conference football standings
	+ – Conference co-champions; ^ – FCS playoff participant; Rankings from STATS FCS Poll

Mercer Bears football
2018 Mercer Bears football
Conference	Southern Conference
2018 record	5–6 (4–4 SoCon)
Head coach	Bobby Lamb (6th season)
Offensive coordinator	Joe Pizzo
Defensive coordinator	Mike Kolakowski
Home stadium	Five Star Stadium; (Capacity: 10,200)

The 2018 Mercer Bears football team represented Mercer University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by sixth-year head coach Bobby Lamb and played their home games at the Five Star Stadium. They were fifth year members of the Southern Conference (SoCon). They finished the season 5–6, 4–4 in SoCon play to finish in a three-way tie for fifth place.

Previous season

The Bears finished the 2017 season 5–6, 4–4 in SoCon play to finish in fifth place.

Preseason

Preseason media poll

The SoCon released their preseason media poll on July 25, 2018, with the Bears predicted to finish in fourth place.[1] The same day the coaches released their preseason poll with the Bears predicted to finish in sixth place.[2]

Media poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Samford	204 (20)
2	Furman	174 (2)
3	Wofford	163 (1)
4	Mercer	133
5	Western Carolina	114
6	Chattanooga	88
7	The Citadel	83
8	East Tennessee State	53
9	VMI	23

Coaches poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Samford	63 (7)
2	Wofford	53 (1)
3	Furman	52 (1)
4	Western Carolina	39
5	Chattanooga	34
6	Mercer	32
7	The Citadel	28
8	East Tennessee State	15
9	VMI	8

Preseason All-SoCon Teams

The Bears placed eight players on the preseason all-SoCon teams.

Offense

1st team

Austin Sanders – OL

Sam Walker – TE

Marquise Irvin – WR

2nd team

Tee Mitchell – RB

Defense

1st team

LeMarkus Bailey – LB

2nd team

Isaiah Buehler – DL

Eric Jackson – DB

Specialists

2nd team

Matt Shiel – P

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	7:00 p.m.	at Memphis*	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Memphis, TN	ESPN3	L 14–66	33,697
September 8	6:00 p.m.	Jacksonville*	Five Star Stadium Macon, GA	ESPN3	W 45–3	10,200
September 15	3:00 p.m.	at No. 9 Samford	Seibert Stadium Homewood, AL	ESPN+	W 30–24	8,717
September 22	4:00 p.m.	The Citadel	Five Star Stadium Macon, GA	ESPN+	L 31–38	11,772
September 29	1:30 p.m.	at VMI	Alumni Memorial Field Lexington, VA	ESPN3	W 48–38	3,251
October 13	1:00 p.m.	at Yale*	Yale Bowl New Haven, CT	ESPN+	L 28–35	2,861
October 20	4:00 p.m.	Western Carolina	Five Star Stadium Macon, GA	ESPN+	W 59–46	8,230
October 27	1:30 p.m.	at No. 9 Wofford	Gibbs Stadium Spartanburg, SC	ESPN3	L 21–42	6,374
November 3	3:00 p.m.	East Tennessee State	Five Star Stadium Macon, GA	ESPN+	L 18–21	10,002
November 10	1:00 p.m.	at Chattanooga	Finley Stadium Chattanooga, TN	ESPN+	W 13–9	8,014
November 17	3:00 p.m.	Furman	Five Star Stadium Macon, GA	ESPN+	L 30–35	8,811
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Source: Schedule

Game summaries

at Memphis

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	0	0	14	14
Tigers	28	28	0	10	66

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Jacksonville

	1	2	3	4	Total
Dolphins	0	0	0	3	3
Bears	7	24	14	0	45

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–0	2017	MERC, 48–7

at Samford

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	7	10	0	13	30
No. 9 Bulldogs	7	0	7	10	24

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
10–13–1	2017	SAM, 20–3

The Citadel

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	7	7	3	21	38
Bears	7	10	7	7	31

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–9–1	2017	MERC, 24–14

at VMI

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	13	14	14	7	48
Keydets	7	13	0	18	38

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
3–1	2017	MERC, 49–14

at Yale

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	14	7	7	28
Bulldogs	14	14	0	7	35

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

Western Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
Catamounts	7	20	6	13	46
Bears	0	28	17	14	59

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–2	2017	MERC, 35–33

at Wofford

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	0	7	14	21
No. 9 Terriers	0	14	14	14	42

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
6–4	2017	WOF, 28–27

East Tennessee State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Buccaneers	0	14	7	0	21
Bears	7	3	5	3	18

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–1	2017	ETSU, 26–23

at Chattanooga

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	0	0	13	13
Mocs	0	0	3	6	9

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
8–19–1	2017	MERC, 30–10

Furman

	1	2	3	4	Total
Paladins	7	13	9	6	35
Bears	7	3	14	6	30

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
6–8–2	2017	FUR, 28–21

gollark: Testbot, take -92 noble animals.

gollark: Testbot, take -0.0000000000000002 beeoids.

gollark: Testbot, take a beeoid.

gollark: However, English took the syllable thing, which doesn't even work the same in english, and dropped all else.

gollark: Interesting fact: Japaneseishly speaking, the syllable count makes no sense, and haikus are about other things.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] ttp://www.soconsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=21895&SPID=1781&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211735859&DB_OEM_ID=4000

[2] ttp://www.soconsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=21895&SPID=1781&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211735863&DB_OEM_ID=4000

Mercer Bears football
Venues	Five Star Stadium (2013–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1891 1892 1893 1894–1895 1896 1897 1898–1902 1903 1904–1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917–1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942–2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020