Mercer football and coach Bobby Lamb came back down to earth a little bit last season, finishing 6-6 after blazing their way to a 10-2 record two years ago. But Wednesday, the NCAA released university athletic programs’ Academic Progress Rate scores for the 2013-14 academic year, and it’s clear that 2013-14 was a big success for Mercer both on and off the field.
The football team got an APR of 1,000 — a perfect score.
Lamb and two Mercer players discussed their academic success Tuesday at the Pigskin Preview, an event where all Georgia college football teams meet with the media to preview the upcoming season.
Lamb and his players put a lot of credit for their perfect APR score on something they call The Breakfast Club.
Now this breakfast is nothing like the one featured in 1985 coming-of-age movie that tugs on heartstrings to this day.
Mercer’s breakfast club starts at 5 a.m. Fridays during football season and Saturdays during offseason.
“(Breakfast club) is complete and total hell,” starting quarterback John Russ said.
Defensive coordinator Mike Kolakowski rounds up all the Mercer football players who’ve violated some sort of team rule each week — such as missing study hall or skipping a tutor session — and puts them through exercises and conditioning that few sane humans would voluntarily go through before the sun is up.
“Burpees, sprints, duck walks, basically whatever (Kolakowski) wants to create to make sure you’re in as much pain as possible,” said Russ, who later boasted he’d never participated in a breakfast club.
And Lamb? What does he think about the this type of punishment system?
“(Breakfast club) kind of solves a lot of problems,” he said with a smile.
Mercer gets back to football Sept. 5, when it travels to Tennessee to play Austin Peay.
Time will only tell if the breakfast club continues to help the program ace the APR.
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