No. 10 Bears Make Long Trek To Face VMI

MACON – The 10th-ranked Mercer Bears will open up a 2-game road trip on Saturday when they make the long trip to Lexington, Va., to battle league rival VMI at Alumni Memorial Stadium. Saturday's game will be broadcasted live on ESPN+ with Wade Branner and Chip Tarkenton handling the duties in the booth. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:32 p.m. ET.

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 9 Time: 1:30 p.m. ET Location: Lexington, Va. 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	VMI	Southern Conference

TICKETS
Tickets are still available for Saturday's game, and can be purchased by visiting *the VMI Ticket Office website.*

MERCER/VMI SERIES
Mercer leads the all-time series with VMI, 7-3, and will ride a two-game series win streak into Saturday's contest. The Bears have captured each of the last two meetings with the Keydets by 35 or more points, including a 38-3 victory over VMI last season in Macon. Mercer is 4-1 all-time in Lexington, and snapped a two-game skid in the series on their last trip to southwest Virginia in 2022. MU has averaged nearly 33 points (32.6) per game in the 10 previous meetings with VMI, while surrendering nearly 27 points (26.4) an outing.

SCOUTING THE KEYDETS
VMI returned 13 starters from last year's squad that registered a 5-6 record under then-first-year head coach Danny Rocco, including a 4-4 mark (T-5th) against league foes. Two student-athletes - running back Hunter Rice and defensive end Dorien Starnes - picked up 1st team preseason all-conference honors from the SoCon, while linebacker Eric Rankin and wide receiver Ian Thorpe logged a spot on the 2nd team. VMI snapped a season-opening eight-game losing streak with a 21-17 home win over Furman last week in which the Keydets possessed the ball for nearly 40 minutes.

ROAD WARRIORS
The Bears have won six of their last nine regular season road outings, but had their six-game win streak in such games snapped with the Week 8 setback at Samford.

DEFENSIVE SUPERLATIVES
Mercer possesses NCAA FCS's 18th-ranked total defense, but ranks among the nation's top 10 teams in 10 defensive statistical categories. The Orange & Black leads all 123 NCAA FCS squads in six of those categories.

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