For Mercer football, new head coach Joel Taylor is an ace in the hole

About 15 years ago, for only a few short months, Joel Taylor made his living at a table lined with felt instead of a field made of turf.

The former South Carolina State football player had just been laid off at his alma mater, where he worked as an assistant coach for part-time pay.

“I don’t think it was like, ‘I’m not doing a good job’ or anything, it was just because of what was happening economically across the country,” Taylor said of losing his gig at South Carolina State.

So, with his back against the wall and dreading the possibility of working in a cubicle, Taylor turned to one of the things he loved most besides football: poker.

The man who had been crushing opposing players with tackles and picking off passes as a defensive back just a few years prior made a living at the table, outwitting others while getting a little lucky with the draw. 

Instead of reading the quarterback’s eyes, Taylor read the expressions of his opponents. He studied probabilities instead of playbooks, sometimes taking a gamble on a hand the way he might have gambled on jumping a route.

That life feels worlds away now. 

Taylor — who eventually returned to the gridiron after those few months at the poker table — became Mercer’s newest head football coach in December. He succeeded Mike Jacobs, a coach who took the Bears to new heights. Taylor took over a program with some of the best momentum in the country at the FCS level.

He is already familiar with Macon, as he spent three years as Mercer’s defensive coordinator from 2020-23 while the Bears began their climb to the top of the Southern Conference — he mentioned that he and his wife love the city, giving them more of a reason to return. 

Though Taylor has big shoes to fill now that Mercer has won back-to-back SoCon championships, it seems like a home-run hire.

Indeed, Taylor’s brief poker career does seem like a distant memory — until it doesn’t.

Taylor’s time playing poker was, in some ways, indicative of the incredible journey that led him to Mercer. It showed how his mind works, how he could apply his smarts to the field and make football decisions with both analytics and his gut feelings. It showed how willing he was to grind.

The chance of poker also mirrors Taylor’s coaching career, which feels a bit like it is guided by destiny.

“People always said, ‘You’re going to be a coach one day.’ I didn’t know what they meant by that,” Taylor said. “But now I love the game, and I understand.”

A fish out of water

Surprisingly, the Brooklyn-born, South Carolina-raised athlete who is now Mercer’s head coach did not play football until he was in high school.

Baseball was Taylor’s first love. He was a pitcher, first baseman and outfielder and enjoyed every second of it. After he broke his wrist two seasons in a row, though, he eyed football when he got to tenth grade.

“I was a fish out of water. I didn’t know much about it,” Taylor said. “I started out as a running back. I got smoked one time and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is probably not for me.’”

It didn’t take long for Taylor to find his niche as a defensive back. He quickly excelled in high school despite his late start, then moved on to South Carolina State. Though he was declared ineligible his freshman year because of academics — Taylor said he became a diligent student after that tough first year — he eventually became a team captain for the Bulldogs and finished his career with a conference championship.

Then there was the question all athletes must answer, the one some struggle with more than others: what’s next?

“When my coach asked me that, I didn’t know. I knew I didn’t want to work in a cubicle … but I had been kind of brainwashed to think I had to get a 9-to-5 job like that,” Taylor said. “He said, ‘Why don’t you come work with me?’ And that sounded pretty good.”

There was just one problem.

“The next words out of his mouth after that was, ‘Okay, I can’t pay you,’” Taylor said, recalling the interaction with a grin. “I was like, ‘Huh? Are you kidding?’ I just got my degree, I’m ready to get paid.”

But by then, Taylor had fallen in love with football. It was too late to turn back. He took the job and scraped by until he became a paid assistant with the Bulldogs.

That was from 2005-08. After his brief foray into poker, Taylor joined the staff at Lenoir-Rhyne. He would return there later on, part of a trend of Taylor coming back to different schools for a second stint as a coach — just as he eventually returned to Mercer.

After heading back to South Carolina State from 2010-13, Taylor made a coaching stop at The Citadel that proved to be an impactful post for the budding football mind.

“That’s probably my greatest memory, when we upset South Carolina,” Taylor said. “I mean, we’re talking about The Citadel. They don’t always get the best players. We went out there, they played their butts off and we beat an SEC team.”

After that, Taylor kept moving up. He returned to Lenoir-Rhyne and became a full defensive coordinator for the first time, then moved to become Mercer’s DC when head coach Drew Cronic stepped in.

From 2020-23, Taylor helmed a Mercer defense that produced the program’s two all-time leading tacklers, Ken Standley and Isaac Dowling. The Bears reached the FCS playoffs for the first time ever in 2023.

Taylor’s most recent stop was his first head coaching gig. At West Georgia, he only won four games in his first season but turned the team around for an 8-3 campaign in 2025 that saw the Wolves average more than 350 yards per game on offense.

Now it’s time — as is the nature of a football coaching career — for Taylor’s biggest challenge so far.

He’s not too worried.

Taking it to the next level

Taylor will have high expectations at Mercer. The Bears have grown tremendously in the past decade — Taylor was there for part of it under Cronic — but the past two seasons have taken that to a new high with back-to-back conference titles.

Previous head coach Mike Jacobs finished his time at Mercer with an incredible 20-6 overall record and a 15-1 mark in conference play. Taylor thinks he can sustain some of that momentum.

“The biggest thing for me coming back here was taking it to the next level. I kind of equate it to running a race, right? (First Mercer head coach) Bobby Lamb had the first leg, Drew had the second leg and Mike had the third one,” Taylor said. “I want to be that last leg, the finisher.”

To achieve that, Taylor recognizes he has to develop a culture and learn how to navigate the Southern Conference, one of the most talented football leagues in the FCS.

“I take a little bit from everybody. I call myself a chameleon,” Taylor said of his coaching style. “I can be the motivator, I can be the schematical guy, I can be the guy that brings hell down on you. I can be cool, but I’m gonna be on you like white on rice. If you don’t like it, you can leave.”

Mercer’s defense, which was one of the best in the country against the run last season, will look to thrive again under a defensive-minded coach. Taylor will also try to keep the offense rolling.

Mercer’s immense success, ironically, makes said momentum harder for Taylor to sustain. The Bears have lost some significant playmakers — guys like Jerry Rice Award-winning quarterback Braden Atkinson and the Southern Conference’s top defender, edge rusher Andrew Zock — to the transfer portal, a fact Taylor readily acknowledges.

“In this era, the Braden Atkinsons of the world and the Andrew Zocks of the world, when they have tremendous years like that, you’re going to lose those kids,” he said. “The key is to keep as many quality players as you can… if you offer them development, you will get commitment.”

Taylor hopes to instill that culture and have an intense focus on recruiting, which he says is more crucial than ever in today’s college football landscape. He wants to build off of Jacobs’ explosive success while carving out his own niche — one that players can immediately identify with.

“We’re building relationships. That’s what I want to be, a good relationship builder,” the head coach said. “It might be like, ‘For the first month or so, you gonna hate me. But after that, we’ll be bonded for the rest of your life.’ If you ain’t buying into our standard, you can go kick rocks in flip flops.”

That’s Taylor’s mindset — he’s intense, but personable. He described himself as a “normal dude,” but it’s clear his passion for football has become immense.

“I did one interview where they asked me what my hobbies were. I said football,” Taylor said. “My wife said, ‘You can’t say that.’”

The one hobby he does still engage with is — fittingly, even if it’s on a limited basis — poker.

Taylor puts it on the TV while he pieces together plays, develops recruiting strategies and knocks out other coaching duties. He doesn’t participate anymore, but something about that strategy always draws him in and offers a pleasant backdrop to his work.

With a dedicated leader and someone familiar with Macon at the helm for Mercer’s next chapter, it seems the Bears — and Taylor — have been dealt a pretty good hand.