By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

He doesn’t look like it would be necessarily a forte, but as it turns out, Mike Jacobs is pretty good at juggling.

No doubt he didn’t start his coaching career expecting that, but certainly in two years at Mercer with the world of college football in transition about every six months, Jacobs and his staff have been handling everything the constantly-changing world of college football has thrown out.

He was 6-1 a year ago when he visited the Macon Touchdown Club, and is 5-1 this year, but without a lot of the same players in key spots.

“In today’s age, with the transfer portal, we knew we’d have a little bit of turnover,” he said at Monday night’s Touchdown Club visit. “Lost a handful of players in the first portal window: two defensive linemen to ACC schools (Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech).

“Then in the second portal window, we ended up losing five more starters.”

One was freshman quarterback Whitt Neubauer, who didn’t start until past the halfway point of the season, had a solid year, and transferred to Oklahoma where he’s on the redshirt list.

This year, a similar scenario has developed, with a new freshman quarterback supplanting the same veteran returnee.

The Bears take a five-game winning streak into the bye week, with freshman quarterback Braden Atkinson having earned the latest Southern Conference offensive player fo the week honor.

Jacobs and his staff appear to have pushed the right button with a freshman quarterback for the second straight year. Atkinson, a 6-1, 215-pounder from Rolesville, N.C., went off for 26 completions on 36 attempts for 311 yards in his debut against Wofford.

“He won over 40 games as a high school student athlete, and (we) beat a number of high-end FCS schools for him,” said Jacobs, who has a son at FPD and one at Stratford. “Since that change, we’ve gone 5-0. It’s a testament to coach Anthony Soto, our offensive coordinator, this is the second year in a row we’ve started (a) freshman.”

The move came after an at-the-time stunning home loss to non-scholarship Presbyterian, which has since moved into the top 25. The Bears had the next week off, and practice was a boot camp of sorts.

“Usually, you don't want a bye week after a loss because you want to get that bad taste out of your mouth,” Jacobs said. “For us, it was good because we got back to the basics, we got after kids, we tackled to the ground, and we found out who they really wanted to be.”

It was quite the week. Mercer has sizzled on offense and defense since then.

“We're averaging about 440 yards a game, over 30 points a game,” said Jacobs, who played on the offensive line at Ohio State. “Our defense, in the 20 games I've coached (at Mercer), we've held opponents under 100 yards rushing 16 times.

“So there's a strong emphasis at the line of scrimmage, certainly with my offensive line background.”

The ultimate combination came last Saturday in the 38-14 win at Princeton. Mercer piled up 503 yards on offense and held Princeton to 257 yards, thanks to eight tackles for loss and five sacks.

A week earlier, they ruined the homecoming of Samford head coach and Mount de Sales grad Chris Hatcher with 550 yards on offense and a school record 14 tackles for loss.

“We're highly committed to running the football and stopping the run and making people one-dimensional and then trying to get the passer,” Jacobs said. “We’ve done a good job doing those things.”

And they’ve done so despite an injury bug. Jacobs estimated 11 surgeries so far th is season, which has led to playing up to a dozen freshmen in games.

“I mean, there's a point against a really good ETSU team where three of our four defensive linemen were true freshmen,” he said. “The fourth guy was a sophomore. And our center is a true freshman, our quarterback is a true freshman. So this is a really young group that has jelled.”

The Bears entered the season with the expectation to defend their Southern Conference title, which doesn’t happen often. Staff stability is a huge reason.

“Several of the coaches that have been with me have been with me as many as 10 years,” said Jacobs, who succeeded Drew Cronic at both Lenoir-Rhyne and Mercer. “Our offense coordinator, Anthony Soto, Jahmal Brown, our defense coordinator, has been with me seven years in three different schools.”

He listed several other who have been with him for a half-dozen ro so years.

“That consistency and how we operate, I think, speaks volumes to how we're able to teach, because we're teachers,” Jacobs said. “There’s an overemphasis on the basics. There’s a commitment to do the little things really well, and with our staff consistency and our ability to teach, (it) has really set us up for long-term success.”