Five 2025 Offseason Questions For Mercer Football

As the 2025 FCS offseason marches on, HERO Sports will look at five questions for the 2024 quarterfinalists.

Next up is Mercer.

Mercer finished 11-3 last year, losing 31-7 at North Dakota State in the quarterfinals. Here are five questions for the Bears entering 2025.

Can Mercer Repeat Its Successful 2024 Season?

The SoCon has had four different quarterfinalists in the last four years: ETSU in 2021, Samford in 2022, Furman in 2023, and Mercer in 2024.

The obvious positive there is that it shows the strong depth of the conference, a league that can say it is not top-heavy and that everyone plays everyone. Larger conferences can sneak more teams into the bracket due to inflated records.

A cynical viewpoint could be that the SoCon champ gets a Top 8 seed and a first-round bye, gets a favorable second-round game to advance to the quarterfinals, and then loses decisively on the road in the quarters. Furman nearly beat Montana in 2023, but ETSU, Samford, and Mercer lost by a few scores at NDSU after battling in the first half. So how good are these quarterfinalists really?

The contrarian argument to that is the SoCon lacks a level of benefit of the doubt from Top 25 voters and the playoff committee, which results in lower seeds and tougher postseason matchups to prevent the league from advancing further in the bracket. Routinely getting its top team a 6-8 seed doesn’t set up favorably to break through the quarterfinals.

A counterargument to that is the SoCon needs to perform better in the bracket and in the non-conference to earn that benefit of the doubt.

A rebuttal to that is it’s hard to perform better in the bracket if the SoCon never gets a Top 4 seed and home-field quarterfinal advantage despite some teams in the past having a resume strong enough for a Top 4 slot.

It’s a never-ending, roundabout argument in the SoCon/FCS space.

Another problem is those past quarterfinalists haven’t been able to sustain that success. A year after reaching the quarterfinals, ETSU finished 3-8, Samford went 6-5, and Furman went 3-8.

While top-to-bottom competitiveness and depth are great and fun week-to-week, it does help a conference to have a consistent national power. Not only does that raise everyone else’s game, but it gives a good data point from a national lens. It flips narratives. Some FCS observers fall into this habit: If the No. 1 Big Sky team loses to the No. 5 Big Sky team, it must mean that the No. 5 team is actually pretty good. If the No. 1 SoCon team loses to the No. 5 SoCon team, it must mean that the No. 1 team actually isn’t that good.

If the SoCon can get a team that consistently competes well deep in the bracket, it will help with comparison points. If SoCon Team A is routinely nationally competitive in the non-conference and the playoffs and is sitting at 6-1 overall and ranked in the Top 5. And then SoCon Team B is also 6-1 but is more of an unknown and doesn’t have any resume-boosting performances yet. And Team B beats or nearly beats Team A, the conversation isn’t about Team A maybe not being that good, it’s about Team B proving it is also that good.

Can Mercer be that consistent team that is routinely in the Top 5 discussion? After back-to-back playoff appearances, last year under first-year head coach Mike Jacobs, the Bears return the second-most starters among 2024 quarterfinalists. As with any teams, though, there are question marks.

Who Steps Up At RB?

A D2 All-American, Dwayne McGee followed Jacobs from Lenoir-Rhyne to Mercer and was a huge part of the Bears’ offense in 2024. He rushed for 1,191 yards and eight touchdowns. Now out of eligibility, his production will need to be replaced.

CJ Miller is back after rushing for 404 yards and three touchdowns. Mercer also signed Autavius Ison, a transfer from Charleston Southern. Ison was a 2024 All-Big South-OVC selection after rushing for 795 yards and four TDs.

Can The Offense Get More Explosive?

Mercer’s offense struggled to be consistently explosive last season. It had consecutive games of 44 and 37 points against playoff contenders Western Carolina and ETSU. It also had slogs of 17 points in the second-round win vs. Rhode Island and seven points in the quarterfinal loss at NDSU.

The Bears return both starting quarterbacks. DJ Smith started at the beginning of the season, and injuries derailed a promising start. He finished the year throwing for 1,311 yards, nine touchdowns, and six interceptions while rushing for 142 yards and four scores. Whitt Newbauer finished the season as the starter, showing some flashes as a true freshman. The six-foot-6 QB threw for 1,398 yards, 12 touchdowns, and four interceptions.

Mercer returns its No. 2 and 3 WRs: Brayden Smith (32 catches, 425 yards, 5 TDs) and Adjatay Dabbs (28 catches, 417 yards, 3 TDs). The o-line returns three starters: EJ Johnson, Tyler Murray, and Amarii Atchison.

Can The Defense Reload?

Mercer was known for its defense in 2024, finishing No. 1 in FCS rushing defense (70.8 YPG) and No. 1 in team interceptions (25).

A lot of star power is now gone. Veteran linebackers and top two tacklers Ken Standley and Isaac Dowling are out of eligibility. Defensive linemen Brayden Manley and Arias Nash transferred to Power 4 programs. Cornerback TJ Moore, who finished No. 2 in the Buck Buchanan Award voting, is also out of eligibility.

Seven of the eight top tacklers are gone.

Safety Chris Joines, who finished No. 4 on the team with 70 tackles, is back. Defensive end and SoCon Freshman of the Year Andrew Zock also returns after racking up 38 tackles, 14.5 TFLs, seven sacks, and 15 QB hurries.

Can Mercer Make A Splash In Week 0?

The Week 0 FCS Kickoff on ESPN features two quarterfinal teams from last year. UC Davis and Mercer meet in Montgomery, Alabama. It’s a great kickoff game that would be even better if they moved it away from a neutral site. Mercer would have drawn a fun atmosphere if it could host.

Regardless, it’s a key opportunity for the Bears.

As mentioned above, conference reputations are shifted by what they do in the non-conference and the playoffs. These types of matchups go a long way during the FCS playoff selection process.

Let’s say Mercer beats UC Davis. Mercer then went on to win the SoCon and has a good overall record, and UC Davis finished third in a Big Sky Conference that sends five teams to the playoffs. That’s a good indicator that Mercer should be a strong seed. Or if Mercer finishes third in the SoCon and is battling it out with other 7-to-8-win teams on the playoff bubble. Beating a playoff team UC Davis is a good argument for the SoCon to get a third team into the bracket.

Or, let’s say Mercer loses to UC Davis. Mercer then finished first or second in the SoCon while UC Davis finished sixth in the Big Sky and missed the playoffs. The SoCon’s top team losing to a middle-of-the-pack Big Sky team doesn’t help its argument when it comes to first-round byes and bubble selections.