100 Days to Kickoff: Mercer and Stanford

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Happy first week of college football! I know most readers are eagerly looking past these two opponents on our schedule, but we’ve got matchups against the Mercer Bears in week three and make the inaugural pilgrimage to Stanford in week four to preview.

Week 3: Georgia Tech vs. Mercer (Sept. 19, 12:00 p.m. ET, Atlanta, GA): 

The Bears finished last year’s season 9-3, going undefeated in the SoCon. Mercer gave Auburn a serious scare in the first quarter of their season-opening matchup last year. However they ended their season on a low note with a 47-0 loss to South Dakota in the FCS playoffs.

Mercer hired a new head coach this offseason in Joel Taylor. Joel was hired in early December after Mercer got bounced from the playoffs in that shocking loss to South Dakota. Taylor has been coaching in college for twenty-one years. He spent the 2020-2023 seasons on staff with the Bears before leaving to serve as head coach at West Georgia. While at West Georgia, Taylor experienced success, winning eight games last season. Taylor is reportedly excited to be back in Macon and believes that his squad is equipped to compete for a national title. 

The Bears lost their two best players on both sides of the ball to the transfer portal. Braden Atkinson, quarterback and national freshman of the year, departed for Oregon State. On the defensive side of the ball, Andrew Zock, the best defensive player in FCS, transferred to Toledo. Stunningly, Mercer parted ways with over half of their 2025 roster via the portal and graduation, losing seven offensive starters and eight defensive starters. Joel Taylor and his staff added 31 transfers to their roster and 14 high school signees, to try to reload in year one.

Bottom line, this is a Mercer team being rebuilt from the ground up, despite being led by a coach who knows the program well. The match up is scheduled nicely for the Jackets, sandwiched between Tennessee and the trip to Stanford. This schedule gives Justice Haynes and Malachi Hosley a chance to really get rolling and gets Alberto Mendoza comfortable behind center before the flight out west.

Taylor got his Mercer debut off to a good start. The Bears opened the season last night by beating East Texas A&M 23-15 in the FCS Kickoff at Five Star Stadium in Macon. Mercer jumped out to a 23-0 halftime lead before East Texas A&M made things interesting in the second half, scoring on a 48-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter and a one-yard touchdown run plus two-point conversion in the fourth to cut it to eight. The Lions’ defense held Mercer scoreless the rest of the way and drove all the way to the Mercer 5-yard line in the final minute before a fourth-down pass fell incomplete to seal it.

Quarterback Jaylen King went 15-of-28 for 177 yards and a touchdown for Mercer, and Brayden Smith caught nine passes for 131 yards. Cameron Goggins had a pick-six on defense. Mercer outgained East Texas A&M’s Eric Rodriguez and Micah Simpson (15-of-31, 232 yards and a touchdown pass for Rodriguez; nine catches for 165 yards and a score for Simpson) for most of the game. The turnover margin told the real story, Mercer didn’t turn the ball over once, while East Texas A&M gave it away three times. It wasn’t always pretty in the second half, but Taylor’s first game as Mercer’s head coach is in the win column.

Week 4: Georgia Tech at Stanford (Sept. 26, 10:30 p.m. ET, Stanford, CA)

This one’s a first for the program. Tech has never played at Stanford, and this is the Jackets’ first ACC road game against one of the conference’s two California additions. Georgia Tech and Stanford have only met twice before in bowl games, the 1991 Aloha Bowl and the 2001 Seattle Bowl. Brent Key was actually a graduate assistant on the Tech sideline for that second one. The unknown of it all is compounded with a cross-country flight, a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff, and the start of eight straight games to close out the schedule.

Stanford, like Mercer, is in transition. Tavita Pritchard, a former Stanford quarterback, takes over as head coach after the Cardinal went 4-8 last year under interim coach Frank Reich. Pritchard placed Michigan transfer Davis Warren at quarterback in hopes of him leading Stanford to its first winning season since 2018. Stanford’s pass defense was one of the worst in the country last year, which could open things up for Tech’s new quarterback to show off his arm. Regardless, Tech is set to field one of the country’s best running back rooms. Still, this is a road trip on a short week, three time zones away, against a team that has nothing to lose. It’s the kind of game that could go either way depending on how the Jackets handle the travel.

Each game offers a different test for Tech. Based on the data, I doubt Mercer will give us much trouble, but I have learned over the years to never doubt an FCS opponent, even at home. The trip to Stanford offers more variables, but Stanford hasn’t produced a winning season since I was a high school senior, and I don’t think this will be the year they turn it around. 

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