MACON — At a macro and micro level, Mercer football struggled to the finish last season.
They ended the season with four losses in their last five games, spoiling a chance at a winning season, and bad fourth-quarter performances cost the Bears several games, players said.
The Bears were 2-4 in one-possession games and 6-6 overall. In their first year in the Southern Conference, the Bears were 1-6 in conference play.
This offseason, coach Bobby Lamb and his team focused on developing a tougher mentality and worked on their conditioning in an effort to improve late-game performances.
“We’re really focused on finishing the games, that’s something we didn’t do last year,” junior quarterback John Russ said. “We just had plays and we couldn’t make them.”
The Bears, who set an NCAA record in 2013 with 10 wins in a program’s first season, added a new face this offseason. Punter Matthew Shiel arrived from Auburn, and the sophomore hails from Australia, an oddity on a roster with 78 Georgians.
“It’s always cool to get somebody different on the team,” junior linebacker Tyler Ward said. “We got a lot of guys from Georgia and a lot of those guys are the same, but it’s cool to learn something else and add a different culture to the team.”
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