No. 14 Bears Return Home To Take On The Citadel

MACON – Undefeated and 14th-ranked Mercer will return to Macon for the first time in more than three weeks tonight when the Bears open up the home portion of their Southern Conference schedule against The Citadel. Tonight's game will be broadcasted live on ESPN+ with Frank Malloy and Phil Cox handling the duties in the booth. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:02 p.m. EDT at Five Star Stadium.

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, September 21 Time: 6 p.m. ET Location: Mercer, 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	The Citadel	Southern Conference

TICKETS
Tickets are still available for Saturday's game, and can be purchased by visiting Mer cerBears .com/Tickets.

MERCER/THE CITADEL SERIES
Mercer has captured the last four games of its 21-game-old series with The Citadel, including a 17-0 victory over the Bulldogs the last time the two teams met in Macon. The rivalry between the two sides began in 1906, and the squads eventually met every season from 1925-30 before abandoning the series. Mercer has split 10 meetings with The Citadel since joining the Southern Conference prior to the 2014 campaign, including three wins in Charleston, S.C.

SCOUTING THE CITADEL
The Citadel, which returned 15 starters (9 offense) off of last year's 0-11 squad, has captured two of its first three games this season under first-year head coach Maurice Drayton, including last week's 54-0 home win over NCAA Division II foe North Greenville. The Bulldogs will ride NCAA FCS's 6th-ranked scoring defense into Macon, while also boasting the nation's top punting unit (47.7 net yards/punt).

BEARS IN SOCON HOME OPENERS
Mercer is just 4-6 in Southern Conference home openers, but will take a four-game win streak in such games into tonight's matchup with The Citadel. The Bears have scored an average of 29.3 points per game in their league home lid-lifters since the start of the 2014 season, and their six losses in those games have come by an average of 5.3 points. MU dropped its SoCon home opener by just one point in three consecutive seasons from 2015-17. Saturday's contest will mark the fifth time in 11 seasons that Mercer will open its SoCon home schedule against The Citadel.

DEFENSIVE SUPERLATIVES
The Bears will showcase one of the nation's top defenses in front of their home fans on Saturday. Mercer possesses NCAA FCS's second-ranked total defense (193.7 yards per game/allowed), but leads the country in 3rd down conversion defense (.079%), rushing defense (13.7 yards/game allowed), scoring defense (5.0 points/game allowed) and tackles for loss per game (10.0). The Orange & Black also ranks among the nation's top 10 teams in seven other defensive statistical categories as well.

No. 14 Bears Return Home To Take On The Citadel

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