No. 11 Bears Face No. 7 UC Davis In FCS Kickoff

MACON – The 11^TH-ranked Mercer Bears will lift the lid on their 52^nd season of intercollegiate football on Saturday when they travel to Montgomery, Ala., to take on 7^th-ranked and fellow 2024 NCAA quarterfinalist UC Davis in the FCS Kickoff. Saturday's game will be broadcasted live on ESPN with Jay Alter and Rocky Boiman handling the duties in the booth. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET inside the historic Cramton Bowl.

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 FCS Kickoff.

ABOUT THE GAME
Date: Saturday, August 23 Time: 7 p.m. ET Location: Montgomery, Ala. I Cramton Bowl TV: ESPN Listen Live: 100.9 The Creek I Sportsmic Network Live Statistics: Mercer Stats Twitter Updates: @MercerFootball

TICKETS
Tickets are still available for Saturday's game and can be purchased by visiting *the FCS Kickoff events page.*

MERCER, JACOBS IN SEASON OPENERS
The Bears are 9-3 in season lid-lifters in the modern day era (2013-present) of the program, and will ride a four-game win streak in such contests into Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday. Mike Jacobs-coached squads are 8-1 in season openers dating back to the skipper's first season at Notre Dame (Ohio) in 2016. Jacobs' lone loss over that span was a 54-49 setback at then-No. 7 Shepherd in 2017.

BEARS AGAINST NATIONALLY-RANKED TEAMS
MU has captured six of their last nine outings against nationally-ranked squads dating back to the 2023 campaign. The Bears were 5-2 against Top 25-ranked teams last season, including a trio of contests against top-10 ranked squads (#9 Alabama, #10 Rhode Island, #2 North Dakota State).

WELL, WELL, WELL…WE MEET AGAIN
The Bears will open up a campaign at the FCS Kickoff for the second time in three years on Saturday evening. Then-No. 20 Mercer limited North Alabama to just 97 yards in the second half on the way to a 17-7 win over the Lions in the 2023 FCS Kickoff. Mercer put the game away on Micah Bell's 3-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. The game was interrupted by a 77-minute lightning delay in the third period.

SCOUTING UC DAVIS
The Aggies return 13 starters (8 offense, 5 defense) from last year's squad that churned out an 11-3 record and culminated its season in the NCAA FCS Playoffs quarterfinal round. Picked to successfully defend their Big Sky Conference title by the league's head coaches, UC Davis had seven players named to the Preseason All-Big Sky Conference squad, while five of those athletes were crowned with preseason all-America accolades. Returning all-American safety Rex Connors was named the Big Sky Conference Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, while tight end Winston Williams was tagged as FCS's second-best returning tight end by Hero Sports.

NEXT WEEK FOR THE BEARS
Mercer will open the home portion of its 2025 regular season schedule on September 30 when it locks horns with Presbyterian on Teacher Appreciation Night at Five Star Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and tickets can be purchased by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.

No. 11 Bears Face No. 7 UC Davis In FCS Kickoff

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Players Mentioned

Micah Bell

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