No. 14 Bears Battle VMI On Military Appreciation Day

MACON – The 14th-ranked Mercer Bears resume the home portion of their regular season schedule on Saturday when they take on Southern Conference rival VMI at 3 p.m. inside Five Star Stadium in Macon.

Saturday's game will be broadcasted live on ESPN+ with Frank Malloy and Phil Cox 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 ETSU athletics department.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Saturday, October 25 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 Game Notes	VMI Game Notes	SoCon Weekly Release

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

MERCER/VMI SERIES
Mercer has captured eight of the previous 11 series matchups with VMI dating back to the 2014 season – the first campaign for the Bears as a member of the Southern Conference … The Orange & Black has won the last three meetings by 34 or more points after dropping consecutive contests with the Keydets in 2020-21 and 2021 … The Bears are averaging 32.7 points per game across the 11-game-old series with VMI and have scored 32 or more points seven times across that span … The series does show one overtime contest - a 33-30 triumph for Mercer in Lexington, Va., midway through the 2016 season.

SCOUTING THE KEYDETS
VMI returned a dozen starters (5 offense, 7 defense) off of last year's team that finished with a 1-11 mark (1-7 SoCon) … The Keydets will ride a five-game losing streak into Saturday's game with the Bears, and registered their lone win of the season in Week 2 against Ferrum (NCAA Division II) … Defensive back Kouri Crump was the lone Keydet named to the Preseason All-Southern Conference squad as a member of the first team … VMI has already registered a conference-best (3rd NCAA) three defensive touchdowns this season, including a 10-yard pick 6 in the Week 7 loss at East Tennessee State … The Keydets have also lost just one fumble this season as well.

RECORD WIN STREAKS WITHIN REACH FOR MERCER
Mercer will seek its school record-tying sixth-straight victory when it battles VMI on Saturday in Five Star Stadium … Last year's version of the Bears captured its first six contests of the season to shatter the previous record (5 games) that was jointly held by the 2013, 2022 and 2023 squads … A win on Saturday against the Keydets would move the Bears to 5-0 in Southern Conference play for the first time in program history as well … The 2022 club was the only Mercer team to capture its first four conference matchups of the season until this year's squad equaled that mark with the victory over Samford in Week 6.

EIGHT-STRAIGHT SOCON WINS FOR MU
Mercer will ride an eight-game win streak against Southern Conference teams into its Week 9 home game against VMI ... The last league loss for the Bears came in the form of a 55-35 loss at Samford that marked the first loss of the season for MU in 2024 ... MU has now captured 17 of its last 19 games against SoCon opponents dating back to a 38-3 win over VMI on Sept. 30, 2023 ... The Bears are 9-1 at home across that stretch and 8-1 away from Macon.

NEXT WEEK FOR THE BEARS
The Bears will hit the road again next week they trek to Greenville, S.C., on November 1 to take on Southern Conference nemesis Furman. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Paladin Stadium and tickets can be purchased by visiting Furman's athletic ticketing portal.

No. 14 Bears Battle VMI On Military Appreciation Day

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