2024 Alabama Football Early Opponent Preview, Game 10: Mercer

The ‘cupcake game’ has been a staple on SEC football schedules for over a decade now, much to the vocal displeasure of the rest of the college football world.

In late November every season, the majority of SEC teams schedule a lesser team, typically coming from the FCS of Group of Five level, right before rivalry week to serve as a tune-up for the regular season finale and postseason.

This year, the ‘cupcake’ on the Alabama schedule is the Mercer Bears of the SoCon in the FCS, but this time, the game is a little different.

Typically Alabama’s yearly FCS game comes during the week before the Iron Bowl, allowing for a get-right game before playing in one of the most heated rivalries in the entire sport. This year, however, the FCS game comes a week earlier, coming a week before the Crimson Tide’s challenging 2-game closeout to the season against Oklahoma and Auburn.

Playing an entirely different level of football, it’s no secret that Mercer and Alabama are going to have different talent levels. On top of that, Mercer is entering its first year under a new head coach, as previous head coach Drew Cronic left Mercer to be the offensive coordinator at Navy.

To replace Cronic, Mercer hired Mike Jacobs away from Lenoir-Rhyne, who will look to get the Bears back to the FCS Playoffs after going 9-4 last season and falling in the second round.

Last season’s Mercer offense was average to below average in rankings compared to the rest of the FCS, coming in at No. 88 in total offense and there are set to be a lot of new faces for the 2024 iteration.

Starting quarterback Carter Peevy transferred out of the program, leaving Hess Horne as the only quarterback left on the roster that threw an in-game pass in 2023. Hess completed just 1-of-3 passes for four yards last season, and will likely be thrown into the fire as the starting quarterback with the lack of experience on the roster.

At running back, starter Al Wooten II transferred up to the Power Four level, landing at Duke. Behind him was Tyrell Coard, who averaged an efficient 5.1 yards per carry last season on 48 carries and will take over starting duties in the backfield.

Out wide, there’s even more inexperience. Mercer’s top returning pass-catcher had 121 yards on 14 catches last season in Travion Solomon, but he was a starter ad the third leading receiver on the team a season ago. Also returning is starting tight end Sam Albee, and rotational receiver Parker Wroble who totaled 19 catches on the year for less than 100 yards.

Where the Bears are in a good spot is returning offensive line talent. Only two starters are back from 2023, but those two starters are center Riley Adcock and left guard Israel Mukwiza. Both players were named to the All-SoCon team for their performances in 2023, and they will look to anchor this inexperienced offense as the new season begins.

The Mercer defense is returning more contributors than the offense, including some of its statistical leaders.

The secondary is where Mercer returned the most production, with cornerbacks Dainsus Miller and Myles Weston as well as safety Myles Redding all returning to reclaim their starting roles. Weston and Miller both ranked second on the team last season in pass breakups, while Redding and Weston tied for second on last year’s team in interceptions.

Manning the middle, linebacker Marques Thomas returns to the fold after racking up the second most solo tackles on the team last year, and was also a top-5 sack leader. He’s joined by Isaiah Washburn, who started four games over the season, having amasses some experience entering his upperclassmen years.

The Bears return defensive lineman Brayden Manley on the interior, who totaled 4.5 sacks as a freshman last season.

With the returning production, it seems safe to assume Mercer can improve on its top-50 defense rating from a year ago, and will need a stout defensive unit given the inexperience of the offense.

As mentioned earlier, this game falls two weeks before the Iron Bowl instead of the typical one, meaning this will serve as a tune-up for an extremely difficult closing stretch to end the season.

Alabama’s game against Mercer is sandwiched between road trips to LSU and Oklahoma, not to mention the Iron Bowl during Thanksgiving week. Alabama lost last time it played in Death Valley, and Oklahoma will have its crowd ready to go for Alabama’s first visit as a member of the SEC.

This game could serve as a revamp game for the team if it suffers a loss to LSU, but could also serve as a way to tighten things up before the home stretch of the regular season.

For Mercer, it’s the second to last game of the season, coming before its season finale against Furman. Last year, the Bears played their SEC team early in the year, taking on Ole Miss in September. The trip to Oxford wasn’t pretty, as Ole Miss won 73-7.

Nick Saban wouldn’t be pleased by my assumption that this will be an Alabama win, but let’s not fool ourselves here.

Alabama is the better team by a mile, and barring a miracle, will walk away unscathed on Nov. 16.

The scariest aspect of these games for the better tea can be injuries, but if the Crimson Tide can put on a dominant showing and get some good reps while remaining healthy, which is the expectation, it will be a successful outing.

Aug. 29: vs Presbyterian
Sept. 7: at Bethune-Cookman
Sept. 14: at Chattanooga
Sept. 21: vs The Citadel
Sept. 28: at Wofford
Oct. 12: vs Princeton
Oct. 19: at Samford
Oct. 26: vs Western Carolina
Nov. 2: vs East Tennessee State
Nov. 9: at VMI
Nov. 16: at Alabama
Nov. 23: vs Furman