After coming off the highs of securing a landslide victory against longtime WCU rivals Tennessee Tech, who rank no.15 nationally, WCU prepares to face a team with an albeit impressive SoCon ranking at No.5 and an even more impressive ranking of No. 20 nationally among FCS teams.
It’s no secret that WCU has won every home game they’ve played so far in this new season so far. Eastern Kentucky, Presbyterian, and now Tennessee Tech were all blowout victories for WCU, with scores of W 45-21, W 58-14, and W 44-20, respectively. By contrast, WCU also has a noticeable losing streak when they leave home, with Campbell, Cincinnati, and East Tennessee State having scores of L 19-28, L 10-62, and L 31-58, respectively.
WCU Coach Kerwin Bell commented on the team’s performance this season so far.
“Yeah, we just did not play good football last week and we had to own up to it [referring to the ETSU loss Saturday, Sep. 26]. I’m a believer that you don’t point fingers and blame other people, and we didn’t do that,” Bell said. “Not one person did that on this team; we just went back to work. There were certain things we had to get better at, and I thought tonight [referring to the TTU blowout game on Saturday, Oct. 3] we showed that.”
Coach Bell added that Mercer is one of the more formidable SoCon teams. Facing them is personal because, during Bell’s tenure as coach, the Catamounts have lost to Mercer five different times: three home games and two away games.
WCU and Mercer have a one-sided conference record of W 2-10 since they first clashed on Oct. 18, 2014 in Macon, GA. Also, Mercer hasn’t just won 10 games; They’ve consecutively won 10 games since the last away game on Oct. 15, 2016.
Even though the last time the WCU’s Catamounts faced off against Mercer’s Bears was close at W 47-49 on Nov. 8, 2025, with WCU’s offense having the edge in total yards at 599-568, the straw that broke the camel’s back for WCU’s defensive line was the 81-yard touchdown from Braden Atkinson to Adjatay Dabbs that put Mercer up 46-34 early in the fourth quarter. Dabbs finished with 147 receiving yards, and Atkinson threw for 443 yards on 23-of-39 passing.
WCU needs to strengthen its defensive line if they have any chance of breaking their 10-game consecutive losing streak this Saturday.
WCU has a home record of 1-5 and an identical away record of 1-5 with Mercer.
WCU vs. Mercer SoCon game is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 10, in Macon, GA. Get tickets at Catamountsports.com. The game is slated for 3 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.
