Mercer at Tennessee Tech Preview: SoCon Auto-Bid on the Line

No. 13 Mercer (8-2, 5-1 SoCon) plays at No. 10 Tennessee Tech (9-1, 6-1) at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 14, at Tucker Stadium in Cookeville, Tennessee. The Southern Conference's automatic FCS playoff bid is on the line. Ranks are from our Week 10 FCS Top 25.

A Tennessee Tech win clinches the bid in the Golden Eagles' first SoCon season. Mercer can clinch with a win if East Tennessee State also loses at Wofford. The Bears have won six straight. The Golden Eagles have won five.

How to watch Mercer at Tennessee Tech

Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. CT) at Tucker Stadium. The game is the Ingles SoCon Game of the Week, so it airs on select Nexstar stations across the Southeast and streams on ESPN+. Pete Yanity has the play-by-play, Jay Sonnhalter is the analyst, and Dave Friedman reports from the sideline.

SoCon auto-bid scenarios for Mercer and Tennessee Tech

Tennessee Tech leads the SoCon standings at 6-1, and this is its last league game. Mercer is 5-1, Chattanooga is 5-2 and ETSU is 4-2.

If Tennessee Tech wins, it clinches. If Mercer wins and ETSU loses at Wofford (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+), Mercer clinches, according to the NCAA.com automatic-bid tracker. If Mercer and ETSU both win, the race goes to Nov. 21, when ETSU visits Mercer.

The team that misses out on the bid would need one of the 13 at-large spots. Tennessee Tech was No. 9 in the selection committee's Nov. 5 top 10, and Mercer was not listed. As far as Redshirt Sports knows, the committee doesn't use our poll, but it can be a good indicator of how teams are viewed. The field is announced Nov. 22.

Our FCS ratings count only games between two FCS teams. Through Week 10, Tennessee Tech is 9-1 in those games and ranks ninth in strength of record. Mercer is 8-1 against FCS teams and ranks 14th. Mercer's remaining FCS schedule rates as the tougher of the two.

Tennessee Tech's season so far

Third-year head coach Bobby Wilder's team has one loss, 44-20 at Western Carolina on Oct. 3. The Golden Eagles have won every game since. They beat Furman 20-15 and Eastern Kentucky 49-20, won 28-13 at The Citadel and won 24-17 at ETSU on Oct. 31. Last week they beat VMI 66-14 and scored 35 points in the second quarter.

Tennessee Tech scores 35.6 points per game and allows 20.3. Senior quarterback Jax Leatherwood, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Southeast Missouri State, has thrown for 2,629 yards and 26 touchdowns. He completed 21 of 28 passes for 312 yards and five touchdowns against VMI. Tre' Holloway leads the receivers with 656 yards and seven touchdown catches, and Gabe Nunez has 599 yards. M.J. Flowers leads the run game with 655 yards and seven touchdowns.

On defense, Hudson Tucker leads the team with six sacks, and linebacker Greg Turner III leads it with 67 tackles. The Golden Eagles have 21 sacks as a team.

Mercer's season so far

First-year head coach Joel Taylor's Bears lost 20-13 at home to Furman on Sept. 12 and 44-11 at FBS Georgia Tech a week later. They haven't lost since. Mercer won 34-17 at Abilene Christian, 54-3 at VMI and 31-21 at Samford, and it beat Western Carolina 17-14 and The Citadel 28-19 at home.

Last week, Mercer won 14-7 in overtime at Chattanooga. The Bears held the Mocs to 41 passing yards and no points after the first quarter. JP Pickles threw both touchdown passes to Brayden Smith, including a 7-yarder in overtime. Zahmari Palode-Gary ran for 96 yards on 18 carries.

Mercer runs for 225.1 yards per game and scores 28.7 points per game. It allows 16.3. Pickles has completed 83 of 114 passes for 853 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions, and he has nine rushing touchdowns. Jaylen King, who started the season at quarterback, has thrown for 911 yards. Smith has six touchdown catches. Ronin Dangler has 5.5 sacks, and Mercer has 12 interceptions as a team.

Keys to the game

The main matchup is Mercer's run game against Tennessee Tech's front. Mercer wants long drives with Palode-Gary and Pickles. Tennessee Tech wants Mercer in third-and-long, where its pass rush can go after Pickles.

The other side is Leatherwood against a Mercer defense that just held Chattanooga to seven points. Tennessee Tech averages 266.1 passing yards per game. Mercer has picked off 12 passes. Holloway, Nunez and Eric Weatherly, who caught two touchdown passes against VMI, give Leatherwood several options.

Red-zone finishing could matter too. Mercer has scored on 29 of 32 red-zone trips, with 19 touchdowns.

What's next

Tennessee Tech closes the regular season at FBS Mississippi State on Nov. 21. Mercer hosts ETSU the same day. For every conference's clinching math, see FCS playoff auto-bid scenarios: who can clinch in Week 11.