No. 10 Bears Wrap Up Road Trip At No. 24 Western Carolina

Saturday, November 8

Cullowhee, N.C.

2:30 p.m.

Mercer University

#24 Western Carolina

Tickets

No. 10 Bears Wrap Up Road Trip At No. 24 Western Carolina

11/7/2025 7:51:00 PM | Football

Kickoff Is Slated For 2:30 P.M. ET On ESPN+

By: Todd Anderson, anderson_t02@mercer.edu

MACON – The 10th-ranked Mercer Bears will wrap up the road portion of their Southern Conference regular seasons schedule on Saturday when they travel to Cullowhee, N.C., to take on Southern Conference rival Western Carolina in a 2:30 p.m. kickoff at E.J. Whitmire Stadium.

Saturday's game will be broadcasted live on ESPN+ with Daniel Hooker and John Brannon III 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 Western Carolina athletics department.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Saturday, November 8 Time: 2:30 p.m. ET Location: Cullowhee, N.C. I E.J. Whitmire Stadium TV: ESPN+ Listen Live: 100.9 The Creek I Sportsmic Network Live Statistics: Sidearm Stats Twitter Updates: @MercerFootball

GAME NOTES (PDF)
Mercer Game Notes	Western Carolina Game Notes	SoCon Weekly Release

TICKETS
At 10 a.m. on Saturday, an extremely limited number of standing room only (SRO) tickets will be available for purchase ONLINE ONLY at CatamountSports.com. SRO tickets (while supplies last) are $15.

MERCER/WESTERN CAROLINA SERIES
Mercer leads the all-time series, 9-2, and will ride a 9-game series win streak into Saturday's matchup in Cullowhee, N.C. ... The Catamounts captured each of the first two series meetings in 2014 and 2015 - MU's first two seasons as a member of the Southern Conference ... The Bears have outscored WCU 40.0 - 29.0 across the 11-game series, and have scored 45 or more points five times against the Catamounts ... The losing side has tacked up at least 21 points in 10 of the 11 meetings, with the only outlier being a 49-6 Mercer win in 2022 ... Only three games (2015, 2017, 2023) have been decided by single digits.

SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS
Western Carolina returned seven starters (3 offense, 4 defense) off of last year's squad that tallied a 7-5 record and a runner-up finish (6-2) in the SoCon regular season standings ... Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Taron Dickens (QB) headlined a list of 11 Catamounts on the Preseason All-Southern Conference squad that included six first-teamers ... The Catamounts will showcase the nation's 6th-ranked total offense (474.8 yards/game) on Saturday, including the nation's second-ranked passing offense (327.2) ... Western Carolina also boasts the nation's 13th-best tackles for loss squad (7.1/game) and have already forced 16 turnovers this season (16th NCAA).

MERCER VS. TOP 25 TEAMS
The Bears are 14-25 over the last decade against nationally-ranked opponents, including a 14-20 mark against ranked FCS opponents ... Half of the Bears' 14 wins against Top 25 FCS foes have come away from Macon (7-13 away vs. FCS) ... The Orange & Black has also posted a sextet of wins against Top 10-ranked FCS opponents (6-7 vs. Top 10) ... Just more than one-third (7 of 19) of MU's losses to Top 25 FCS competition have come by seven or fewer points ... Mercer has won six of its last eight games against nationally-ranked FCS teams, including a nation's-best five wins last season against opponents ranked in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 at kickoff.

HERE'S A RARITY, AGAIN
For the second-straight week, Mercer will enter a game toting a nation-leading sacks per game (4.16) count, while also showcasing the nation's best unit in sacks allowed per game (0.25) ... The Bears, who paced all 126 FCS schools with 3.29 sacks per game in 2024, have already registered 33 quarterback drops in 2025 ... Mercer has tallied multiple sacks in all eight games this year, including four or more in each of the last five outings ... The offense has surrendered just two quarterback drops this season, and have not yielded a sack since midway through the third quarter of the week 4 contest at The Citadel - a span of 411 offensive plays (not including special teams) ... Presbyterian registered a 7-yard sack of DJ Smith in the fourth quarter of its Week 1 win over Mercer ... Braden Atkinson was dropped for a 1-yard loss in that outing against The Citadel.

NEXT WEEK FOR THE BEARS
The Bears will close out the home portion of their regular season schedule on November 15 when they suit up to take on Southern Conference rival Chattanooga on Homecoming at Five Star Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tickets are still available, and can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.