As expected, Mercer lets head football coach Bobby Lamb go, after worst season since the program's reinstatement
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
For decades upon decades, there has been a Lamb as head coach of a football team in Georgia, either high school or college, with hardly a a break.
That changed for the first time since the 1990s on Sunday when Mercer announced the dismissal of Bobby Lamb, the man it hired in 2011 to re-start the football program in 2013.
Lamb at Mercer
2013 10-2 6-2 (Pioneer Football League)
2014 6-6 1-6 t-7(Southern Conference)
2015 5-6 2-5 t6-th
2016 6-5 4-4 5th
2017 5-6 4-4 5th
2018 5-6 4-4 t5th
2019 4-8 3-5 7th
_______________
41-39 18-28 (SoCon)
"Days like today are very difficult, especially when you are talking about someone like Bobby Lamb," athletics director Jim Cole said a statement released around 8 p.m. "Everyone at Mercer has the utmost respect for Bobby, his family, the football staff and our student-athletes.
"We have all worked side-by-side to start and grow the Mercer football program from a dream to an actual reality. Bobby Lamb shouldered the majority of that burden and workload in that process.”
Lamb’s dismissal announcement came about 25 hours after a 56-7 loss at North Carolina, the Bears’ worst loss of the season. In another bit of irony, Carroll McCray, who was part of Lamb's staff during the building process for the first six months before going to North Greenville for a season, was fired Sunday by Gardner-Webb.
He departs with a seven-year record of 41-39 at Mercer - not 40-39 as stated in the release - after going 67-40 at Furman, where he had spent his entire college playing and coaching career before moving to Mercer.
The irony of ironies: Mercer announced the reinstatement of football on the same day Lamb announced his resignation – ostensibly under pressure – at Furman in 2011.
Mercer went 10-2 in his first year, participating in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League and playing a relatively soft schedule that included NAIA Reinhardt in its first-ever football game as well as Warner, a Florida school that was in its first year and had yet to move up to NAIA.
And Stetson, an Atlantic Sun rival, was in its first year as well, also having joined the PFL.
Mercer officials said the school had intended to play non-scholarship football, but immediately accepted an offer to join the scholarship Southern Conference, and became a scholarship program.
Similar success going from one of the weakest Football Championship Subdivision conferences to one of the toughest a year later didn’t follow, inevitably dooming Lamb.
Lamb’s contract was extended in 2013 through this season, in which Mercer entered with eight starters back on offense and on defense.
Lamb, though, reworked much of the staff in the offseason under a cloud of expectations.
Defensive coordinator Mike Kolakowski with Lamb since Mercer’s first season, was out. Also departing, on their own or advised to seek employment: defensive line coach Kenny Baker; Grant Cain (assistant head coach/inside linebackers/special teams), LaDonte Harris (wide receivers); Darius Stafford (cornerbacks),
Carter Barfield was the only member of Lamb’s original staff to remain entering the 2019 season.
In came Bill Legg, owner of an impressive resume, as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Mike Adams joined as the defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach.
Also new: Matthew Fleischacker (outside linebackers), Chase Haslett (tight ends), Jeremy Hawkins (defensive line), and Leon Wright (cornerbacks).
The changes didn’t end up having a positive impact, in part because of another injury bug biting the Bears.
They lost starting quarterback Robert Riddle for the second straight season. Last year, he went out against The Citadel with a collarbone injury, and this year against VMI with a serious leg injury.
He played in four games last year and seven this year.
Linebacker Will Coneway of Washington County, a multiple-season all-conference performer, went out in the same game this year with a sprained MCL and missed four games.
The senior returned for Saturday’s finale, and was in normal form, with six tackles and half a tackle for loss.
Mercer also didn’t have much success against Wofford, Samford, and Furman, schools similar to Mercer in size and academic standards.
The Bears went 4-14 against the three, 0-6 against Wofford.
On the other hand, those three programs have played continuously since at least the early 1900s, while Mercer just completed its seventh season.
Lamb is a member of one of the state’s foremost football families.
His father Ray was the longtime head coach at Commerce High, going 249-103-11 from 1961-92. He later worked with the Georgia football program.
Brother Hal was the longtime head coach at Calhoun, going what before retiring after last season. He got started in 1997 at Upson-Lee, two years later going to Calhoun, and has a 238-52 record in 22 seasons
Nephew Tre Lamb was an assistant at Mercer and is currently offensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech, his alma mater.
And son Taylor was a record-setting quarterback at Appalachian State, and is now a grad assistant with South Carolina, working with the offense.
Bobby Lamb, a 1982 graduate of Commerce, turns 57 on Christmas Eve. He departs second in tenure in the Southern Conference, one year behind Western Carolina’s Mark Speir (32-60 in eight seasons).
Mercer will employ CarrSports Consulting for the search.