TUSCALOOSA, Ala.– The Mercer Bears entered Saturday’s game facing No. 10 Alabama with a three-game winning streak, a No. 7 FCS ranking and a 9-1 overall record. The visitors from Macon, Georgia, were unable to parlay these successes into an unlikely upset at Bryant-Denny Stadium, instead falling 52-7 to the Crimson Tide. Head coach Mike Jacobs, who is in his first season leading the Bears (9-2), addressed the media after the loss.

Opening Statement:

“As far as the game goes, certainly not the outcome anyone wanted, and we’re not doing this for any kind of moral victory. But I’m impressed and proud of our guys’ efforts. I think we’ve been tense. thought we executed at times, although it was out of sync. I thought we did some really good things over the course of the day. There will certainly be some lessons learned from the film, but what us We’ve got to turn the page pretty quickly. After this, we have a big game weekend at home against Furman to try to win an outright conference championship. I think that’s a small part of the story: These games usually come not so late in the year and there are several things at stake our young men for their efforts. I’m proud of how they prepared. They were locked in all week or something like that. Half position, our young quarterback played really well. I mean, he was 13 of 15 at halftime, I believe. You know, that one interception was a great play by number four (Qua Russaw). I thought Whitt (Newbauer) made some really great decisions today. I thought he got the ball out quickly and had an incredible touchdown pass there with good contact with Kendall (Harris). Kendall made a great one-handed grab. Just a few missed opportunities. We need to do better with ball security at the back. Credit to Alabama’s defense and their pursuit. I got the ball from behind a few times. It was clear that these were very crucial actions in the match. With that I will open it up to any questions.”

On not letting the loss linger:

“I think behavior is very important. It’s a very fine line, we knew we had to play against it today. We knew we had to play very good, healthy and clean football to be able to play in the football game, and I I don’t want to take away from their preparation and their effort because they did a great job. But we also don’t want to be super excited about a loss, I think, just have that measured moment, but then understand how quickly, the great thing about kids today. is: man, they forget. I’ll dwell on something for three weeks and it’ll probably be done for them by the time they get on the bus. We need to move on quickly, just from a mentality standpoint, to the work that is necessary But we will evaluate and learn from the film, be hypercritical and go from there.

On the possibility of FBS vs. FCS games disappearing:

“I don’t know. I don’t have any insight into it. I think at some point I’m being very speculative, but I think at some point you’re going to see the Power Four completely come unstuck. I don’t know.” I think this is a great opportunity. Many of our kids grew up wanting to play SEC football, or play at Alabama, and have the opportunity to play against the best. and put it on the line, I think an important factor in their overall college experience. But I don’t know which way it will go. We enjoy the opportunity every year, I can tell you that.”

On the possible budget consequences if these games were to disappear:

“It would be devastating. As teams change, as teams line up for the playoffs and all that, I think you’ll see more and more people taking a little bit more of a chance on early season games against other Power Four teams. I believe the SEC has done a good job of continuing to schedule some of these FCS schools, and I think it’s a good thing for the region. Sure, whatever the payday was, whoever it’s for, it’s still there, every time they take something away, something is better than nothing. That’s what my father always told me. It would be a big problem for us.

On how facing this level of competition can help the team grow:

“I think you have to find the little wins. All week our big thing was, ‘Listen. There’s going to be somewhere between 65 and 80 opportunities to play four to six seconds as best as we can. How many of those plays can we win and turn out in our favor?’ We talked about going into the week, I thought we’d have a chance in the game, I thought we’d have to limit our turnovers, I thought we’d have to get some stops on defense, I thought we’d have a should make a splash on the special teams. I thought we performed well on the special teams today when we had a chance to make a splash, but I do think we impacted their punter (James Burnip) again lessons will be learned.”