Zock On List Of Finalists For Jerry Rice Award

MACON – Individual recognitions for the Mercer football team continued into the afternoon on Monday when rookie Andrew Zock was included among a group of 25 finalists for the Jerry Rice Award which honors the national freshman player of the year in college football's Division I FCS subdivision.

The Jerry Rice Award, now in its 14th season, is named after the legendary Hall of Fame wide receiver, who played on the FCS level at Mississippi Valley State. Past recipients include Cooper Kupp, Chase Edmonds, Trey Lance, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders.

True and redshirt freshmen are eligible for the Jerry Rice Award. A player must be considered a freshman by his conference in his first academic year or second if he did not surpass four regular-season games played in the true freshman season (the NCAA redshirt rule). The Jerry Rice Award recipient, to be selected by a national voting panel, will be announced on Dec. 4 and honored at the Stats Perform National Awards Banquet on Jan. 4 in Frisco, Texas.

Zock becomes the sixth Mercer student-athlete in the modern day (2013-present) history of the program to be included among the list of finalists for the Jerry Rice Award. Current teammate Isaac Dowling finished fourth in voting for the award following the pandemic-affected 2020-21 campaign.

A product of Citra, Fla., and Hawthorne High School, Zock has started all 12 games for the Bears this season and has amassed 32 tackles (18 solo), including 13-1/2 tackles for loss (-74 yards) and 6-1/2 sacks (-56 yards). He has also added two forced fumbles, a pair of pass break-ups and a school record 15 quarterback hurries to his repertoire as well.

Zock has put a notch in the tackles for loss column in 10 outings already this season, including a season-best three stops behind the line in Mercer's road win over nationally-ranked Wofford. He registered a season-best 1-1/2 sacks in each of the following two games against Princeton and Samford, and made his home in the backfield in contests with East Tennessee State and Furman, tallying five and seven quarterback hurries, respectively.

Mercer (10-2, 7-1 SoCon) will begin its road in the NCAA postseason on December 7 when the Bears suit up to take on either 10^th-seeded Rhode Island (10-2) or Central Connecticut State (7-5) in the second round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs. Kickoff has been scheduled for 2 p.m. at Five Star Stadium.

Tickets for the game can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

Zock On List Of Finalists For Jerry Rice Award

Players Mentioned

Isaac Dowling

Andrew Zock

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