Mercer Football will open the 2026 season with a nationally televised stage, hosting East Texas A&M at Five Star Stadium on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. It will be Joel Taylor’s first game as Mercer’s head coach, and will carry the FCS Kickoff.
For Mercer, the matchup is bigger than a season opener. The school named Taylor its 22nd head coach on Dec. 11, 2025, after he spent 2020-23 as Mercer’s defensive coordinator and then led West Georgia to 12 wins across its first two seasons at the NCAA Division I level in 2024 and 2025. Now he gets his first test against the East Texas A&M Lions in front of a national audience, with radio coverage available through Mercer Sports Network on 100.9 The Creek FM or sportsmic.com.
The kickoff also marks a shift for the event itself. The FCS Kickoff will be played outside Montgomery, Alabama for the first time in a decade, and Mercer is putting the game at the center of a full day at Five Star Stadium. Pre-game festivities begin at 11 a.m. on Black Field, Micah Fletcher opens the free Ford Football Concert Series at 4 p.m., Conner Smith follows at 5 p.m., and the Bear Walk is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m., with tickets priced from $20 to $45.
That crowded schedule comes with a small but telling detail: fans still have to move through a clear bag and guest screening policy, even for a game being sold as a marquee event. Mercer is also celebrating teachers on game day, with the first 100 teachers set to receive a commemorative T-shirt and entry into the grand prize raffle. The mix of big-stage polish and routine security checks is what defines college football now, where a national television window and a stadium gate line share the same day.
When the lights come on at 7 p.m. on Aug. 29, Taylor will learn what his Mercer Football team looks like against real opposition, not in the abstract. The rest of the day is built to make the moment feel bigger. The only question that remains is whether Mercer can turn that stage into the start it wants.
