No. 23 Football Hosts Samford To Culminate Homecoming

MACON – Mercer will close out the regular season portion of its 2023 schedule on Saturday when the Bears culminate Homecoming festivities on campus by hosting Southern Conference nemesis Samford at Five Star Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 3 p.m. EST.

The game is slated to be streamed live on ESPN+ with Frank Malloy and Jason Patterson handling the duties in the booth. Rick Cameron and the rest of the Mercer Sports Network will call all of the action as well, and fans can listen to that broadcast on The Creek 100.9 FM, or by visiting Sportsmic. A live statistics link is also being provided by the Mercer athletics department.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Saturday, November 11 Time: 3 p.m. ET Location: Macon, Ga. I Five Star Stadium TV: ESPN+ Listen Live: 100.9 The Creek I Sportsmic Network Live Statistics: MercerStats.com Twitter Updates: @MercerFootball

GAME NOTES (PDF)
Mercer	Samford	Southern Conference

MERCER/SAMFORD SERIES
Saturday's matchup will mark the 30th meeting between the Bears and Samford in a series that dates all the way back to the 1907 season. Samford leads the all-time series, 15-13-1, including a 6-3 mark against the Orange & Black since the 2013 campaign. The Bears have split four matchups with Samford in Macon since 2013, but have captured each of the last two contests with the Bulldogs at Five Star Stadium.

SCOUTING SAMFORD
Senior quarterback Michael Hiers will lead the nation's sixth-best passing offense into Macon this weekend in hopes of snapping a two-game road skid in the series with the Bears. One of the preseason favorites to capture the Walter Payton Player of the Year Award, Hiers has completed 73 percent of his passing attempts this season for 2,641 yards and 15 touchdowns, and has thrown for 1,249 yards and seven scores on 168-of-221 passing over the last five games for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs have won four of their last five games following a Week 4 home loss to Chattanooga, and has racked up more than 457 yards per game over that span as well. Samford scored 30 first-half points in a 37-7 home win over The Citadel on October 28 before enjoying a bye week last week.


MERCER AT FIVE STAR STADIUM
Mercer is 41-20 (.672) all-time in Five Star Stadium, including a 15-4 (.789) mark at home under head coach Drew Cronic. The Bears have posted 4-1 marks inside their home stadium in each of the last three seasons, and have now captured nine of their last 11 games at home following a Week 8 win against Wofford. The Orange & Black has captured two of its last three home finales, but had their string of two consecutive wins in such contests snapped last season with a 23-13 setback to nationally-ranked Furman.

*DE-FENSE (CLAP, CLAP)*
Mercer's stop unit has now collected 20 takeaways since its Week 4 loss at nationally-ranked Furman (six games), including a dozen over the last three outings for the Bears. Four of Mercer's 12 turnovers over the last three weeks have been returned for touchdowns, including a pick-6 in consecutive matchups with Wofford, Western Carolina and The Citadel.

No. 23 Football Hosts Samford To Culminate Homecoming

Next Event

Footer

Mercer University Athletics