Back with the Bears, Taylor ready to carry the Mercer baton to a national championship
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Bobby Lamb got it going.
Drew Cronic found a nice cupboard waiting for him, and expanded on things. Mike Jacobs took over with an even nicer cupboard, and went up a notch.
Now, it’s up to Joel Taylor, now in charge of Mercer football’s “take that next step” plan.
And the 43-year-old native of Brooklyn, N.Y. who grew up in suburban Columbia, S.C. is ready.
“Everybody knows the 4x1, right?” Taylor said during his introductory public gathering on Wednesday, referencing the track and field relay. “Well, Bobby Lamb had that first baton. He took this thing and built it.
“Well, Coach Cronic took that second baton and turned that corner. Then we handed it off to Coach Jacobs, and he hit it straight away.”
Taylor’s voice slowly grew in volume with each baton exchange.
“Now, it’s time. That fourth baton. We saved the best for last. And we’re gonna turn that corner.”
The crowd of 125 or so in the Heritage Hall plaza in the University Center concourse listened to the fourth head coach in modern Mercer history for about 15 minutes.
He was different than the previous three, who were older, veterans of more head coaching experience, White, and new to Mercer.
Taylor is younger, turning 43 in November, Black, has only two years as a head coach, but has experience with Mercer football.
And he had a little more juice in that first public meeting.
“Swag,” Mercer athletics director Jim Cole said afterward. “He’s got some swag.”
As is usually the case in such gatherings, Taylor had to take a break a few times when thanking his family, especially his wife, Mechelle.
Taylor read from some notes, but otherwise spoke off the cuff, and displayed the passion and confidence that made him so popular at Mercer and so successful at West Georgia.
“I was in that locker room after we got beat by South Dakota State (in 2023),” Cole said. “When Joel announced he's going to West Georgia, I bet there was 30 guys crying.”
Taylor brings perhaps the broadest resume of the modern four.
He began as a volunteer assistant, with a computer science degree, at South Carolina State, an FCS HBCU and his alma mater.
He spent a year Division II Lenoir-Ryne, returned to South Carolina State for four seasons, moved to Southern Conference foe The Citadel and went back to Lenoir-Rhyne in 2019, where he hooked up with Cronic.
The two came to Mercer together after Cronic was hired on Dec. 10, 2019. Just in time for COVID-19.
“We started something in 2020, right? Which is crazy, man,” Taylor said. “We started with COVID. We started the COVID season, we went 0 and 3 and then we messed around and went 5 and 3 and we took off from there.”
As did his predecessors, Taylor touched on support, graduation, culture, community, and Mercer’s academic standards, plus a motto or theme or two.
“We will create an environment rooted in love, built to compete, and driven by belief,” Taylor said. “One that allows us to discover potential, inspire confidence, empower leadership, and serve something bigger than ourselves.
“We will be tough, disciplined team that does things the right way. That will be Mercer football.”
The hiring of Taylor in December came quickly, quicker than most expected, even Cole, who was preparing for a possible change as Jacobs’ name was increasingly mentioned for other jobs.
Cole said he and his family around Thanksgiving had a list of mid-major schools that might target Jacobs, and their contract situations, on a whiteboard
“The one I didn’t have on my list was Toledo,” he said. “But I heard on Friday before we played South Dakota …”
Jacobs told Cole a day after the season-ending 47-0 playoff loss to South Dakota that he’d interview for the job in his hometown. Cole called Taylor that afternoon.
In the current college football climate, on all levels, there’s no time to waste.
“That's why you see a lot of coordinators being promoted really quick, to keep that continuity,” Cole said. “The old days of where you could hire a coach and then give him two or three years to build, it's just not there.
The list is not long when you put all those parameters in place.”
Once Cole called, Taylor had to prepare to move fast, and then had to actually move fast, for an easy and hard decision.
“It happened really, really fast,” Taylor said. “Oh, it was crazy.
“There was only one job that I would take in FCS football, and it was Mercer. I was here for four years, got a chance to build a lot of relationships in the community, on campus, in the field house.
“The only reason I came here is to win a national championship.”