New Mercer quarterback D.J. Smith shines in 63-10 victory over Presbyterian to open first season of Mike Jacobs era

If new Mercer quarterback D.J. Smith was nervous for his first game in a Bears uniform, it certainly didn’t show.

The junior college transfer lit up the field in Mercer’s resounding 63-10 victory over Presbyterian College at Five Star Stadium Thursday night, finishing with 320 yards passing and a 20 for 24 passing line. He threw for three touchdowns and one interception while also scoring once on the ground.

“I’m excited. To come out and play the way that I played, the performance… it was a nice coming out party for my welcome to Mercer,” Smith said.

Smith showed poise under pressure and made accurate throws all night. Though he did not throw downfield much, he nailed short and medium throws and gave his targets plenty of room to create space after catches. He also spread the ball around, completing passes to 12 different receivers.

Bears head coach Mike Jacobs sung Smith’s praises after the game.

“Super proud of D.J., I mean, the things that you want your quarterback to do… he made some unbelievable plays with both his feet and his arm tonight,” Jacobs said. “For him to come out and go 20 of 24 and run the offense as efficiently as he did, I couldn’t be more proud of that young man.”

Plenty of Mercer fans came into the game eager to see what lay in store for the Bears on offense after the team lost key pieces from last season’s FCS Playoff roster. Quarterback was a big question mark for many. Jacobs and his staff were unsurprised by Smith’s stellar debut.

“Listen, he might be new to Mercer but he’s not new to playing or winning. That kid was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Mississippi for a reason,” Jacobs said. “He won at the JuCo level, and we want to see him keep winning for us. We’re excited, you usually make the most growth between the first and second game, so I couldn’t be more excited to see how he continues to grow in our offense.”

Smith’s success drew further attention, too, because of how dynamic the plays themselves were — the quarterback often shuffled and side-stepped his way out of trouble, scrambling around and between defenders to find open targets in the flat. 

On one third down where it looked certain that Smith would take a sack, he instead flipped the football to a nearby receiver just before hitting the deck to manufacture a big play.

“That was an unbelievable play at kind of a critical point that kind of kept (Presbyterian) from getting any momentum,” Jacobs said. “Those are the types of things he can do for you.”

Not even an hour-and-a-half lightning delay threw Smith off his game. The quarterback said the delay helped him calm his nerves before the contest. On that dynamic play, he just went with his instincts.

“I’ve always been a playmaker, all my life. So in that situation I was just knowing that I’m going to the ground,” Smith said. “I found my partner (running back Tyrell Coard), he’s calling my name, and I just pitched it to him.”

Smith was far from the only star, however, and not even the only standout player by that name — former Tattnall Square Academy standout receiver Brayden Smith scored two touchdowns. One came on a 68-yard catch-and-run screen just three plays into the second half.

The other was even more memorable: a dazzling, 70-yard punt return during which Brayden shed tacklers and crossed the entire field twice.

“I’m standing on the opposite hash, and he punts it all the way over to the other side, so at first I was worried, was I even going to be able to get to it,” Brayden said. “Then I got to it and I saw (wide receiver and blocker) Parker Wroble lay out that kid. I was like, ‘I gotta make one guy miss, then I’m good.’”

He did, in fact, make one guy miss.

“I knew I was all the way gone when I was on the opposite sideline and I broke that tackle… and I reversed the field,” Brayden said. “I didn’t see nothing but orange. So I knew at that point it was going to the crib.”

The defense made plays as well, with two interceptions and an extra touchdown late in the game after a zany punt deflection play gave the Bears a fumble recovery in the endzone for a score with about four minutes left.

Mercer did have some issues with penalties and a few coverage busts that allowed Presbyterian to snag some points.

“With the penalties, I think we had eight… I’ll take the ones where we’re playing hard, but we had a few too many that were stuff that we could’ve controlled,” Jacobs said. “No game is gonna be perfect. You look at all that our defense did tonight… those guys were super consistent. There’s gonna be things we gotta clean up.”

It was a statement game for Mercer and Jacobs in the coach’s first year after coming over from Lenoir-Rhyne to replace former coach Drew Cronic. Jacobs said the extra time to prepare after the Thursday game will give the team a chance to catch up before next week’s matchup against Bethune-Cookman on the road.

An all-around display of strength

Presbyterian came into the contest ranked seventh in the Pioneer Football League’s preseason poll. The Blue Hose met the Bears only once prior since Mercer’s program returned, a 45-7 Mercer win in 2019, though the two programs clashed often in the 1930s and 40s.

The Blue Hose received the ball to begin the game and an out-of-bounds Mercer kickoff gave them decent field position to start, but the Bears defense shut them down and got the ball back in a hurry.

Mercer’s first offensive drive under Jacobs looked like a strong sign for things to come — the Bears consistently found running room to turn short passes into chunk plays and move down the field quickly. 

Dwayne McGee, a running back who followed Jacobs from Lenoir-Rhyne to Mercer, punched it in after the consistent drive to give Mercer a 7-0 lead early.

Presbyterian got some big plays of their own on the following drive, including one chunk play to get them inside the 10-yardline, but the Bears held strong and forced a field goal to make it 7-3.

Mercer took over from that point on, dominating the remainder of the first half. Touchdowns by another Lenoir-Rhyne transfer, receiver Kelin Parsons, and D.J. Smith on the ground stretched the lead before a Coard rushing score a minute or so before the half made the margin 28-3 at the break.

The barrage of points came courtesy of an all-hands-on-deck offensive attack — 12 different players caught passes for Mercer on the night, while five different players gained yards on the ground.

Still, the Bears made their fair share of mistakes in the first half. They drew five penalties worth 55 yards in two quarters and Smith occasionally threw some wobbly passes, one of which was intercepted by the Blue Hose.

Mercer wasted no time getting back to it at the beginning of the second half, as Brayden Smith’s reception for a long touchdown on the Bears’ first possession of the third quarter made it 35-3.

Mercer kept that control for the rest of the game and continued to spread the ball around. Brayden’s punt return and the fumble recovery touchdown by the defense were the final blows in the 63-10 win.