List of Mercer Bears head football coaches

The Mercer college football team represents Mercer University as a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon). The Bears competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The program has had 22 head coaches, since it began play during the 1891 season. Since December 2025, Joel Taylor has served as head coach at Mercer.^[1]

General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 1]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 2]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 3]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 4]}

No.	Name ^{[A 6]}	Season(s) ^{[A 7]}	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	CC	Awards
1	Dave Beggs	1891	2	0	2	0	.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	George Stallings	1893	1	0	1	0	.000	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3	J. D. Winston	1896	3	0	2	1	0.167	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4	Gordon Saussy	1897	2	0	1	1	0.250	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5	E. E. Tarr	1906	5	1	4	0	0.200	0	2	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
6	H. R. Schenker	1907	6	3	3	0	0.500	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
7	Frank Blake	1908–1909	15	6	9	0	0.400	0	7	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
8	Charles C. Stroud	1910–1912	28	15	11	2	0.571	7	10	1	0.417	—	—	—	0	—
9	Lewie Hardage	1913	8	2	5	1	0.313	0	4	1	0.100	—	—	—	0	—
10	Fred A. Robins	1914	9	5	4	0	0.556	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
11	Jake Zellars	1915–1916	12	6	16	0	0.500	2	5	0	0.286	—	—	—	0	—
12	David Peacock	1916	4	0	4	0	.000	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
13	Maxwell James	1919	2	0	2	0	.000	0	1	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
14	Josh Cody	1920–1922	29	10	19	0	0.345	3	11	0	0.214	—	—	—	0	—
15	Stanley L. Robinson	1923–1925	28	12	14	2	0.464	9	5	1	0.633	—	—	—	0	—
16	Bernie Moore^†	1926–1928	27	12	12	3	0.500	7	5	2	0.571	—	—	—	0	—
17	Lake Russell	1929–1940	112	46	61	5	0.433	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	—
18	Bobby Hooks	1941	9	3	6	0	0.333	0	3	0	.000	—	—	—	0	—
19	Bobby Lamb	2013–2019	80	41	39	—	0.513	24	30	—	0.444	—	—	—	0	—
20	Drew Cronic^[5]	2020–2023	45	28	17	—	0.622	22	10	—	0.688	—	—	—	0	—
21	Mike Jacobs	2024–2025	26	20	6	—	0.769	15	1	—	0.938	1	2	—	2	—
22	Joel Taylor	2026–present	0	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	0	—

v t e Mercer Bears football
Venues	Central City Park (1892–1920) Alumni Field (1921–1924) Centennial Stadium (1925–1941) Moye Complex (2013–present)
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898–1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942–2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Coaches