Couple of unrelated thoughts on Mercer.
The Bears have had a strong season. ALL of the pressure Saturday will be on them, however. As we saw last year, a struggling team can surprise the conference front runner late in the season.
Mercer's passing offense appears to essentially do what Furman does statistically. They'll turn it over some. The Bears run the ball this season better than we do and have been better defensively.
Our defense bowed their necks some in Johnson City. Might be a good time to see the old Paladin stuff-the-run unit show up and let a couple of these newly minted ball hawks on the back end pick off a pass or two.
It's a stat I've followed most of the season, but Mercer almost never (3 times total all year) kicks a touchback. Furman has, arguably, the SoCon's best kick returner that should have opportunities for returns. That will be interesting to follow as Furman loves to get the ball in Hinton's hands and the Bears, at least on kickoffs, will struggle to prevent that from happening.
Overall, limit turnovers, tackle the man with the ball, make Mercer get nervous on a big home game with so much on the line for them (like Furman had last year at Wofford). Make the game ugly.
I'm also sad to see a couple of good soldiers put on the purple and white for the last time. Especially Dimaggio and Clark. Those guys have been fun to watch develop over the years.
