Mercer linebacker Isaac Dowling led a defense that held North Alabama in check for much of the 2023 FCS Kickoff Classic, recording a team-high 10 tackles to earn Most Valuable Player honors in the Bears\u2019 17-7 win on Saturday at Cramton Bowl.<\/p>\n
Having an outstanding game on national television to open the season would be quite an accomplishment for most players, but Dowling certainly isn\u2019t like most players.
\n\u201cFor me personally, I definitely could\u2019ve been better,\u201d he said in rating his performance. \u201cI felt like I made a lot of mistakes, missed a couple of tackles as well. I\u2019d definitely say this is one of my lower games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 5-foot-9, 225-pound junior from Snellville, Ga., anchored a Mercer defense that put the brakes on North Alabama, but that type of performance is one head coach Drew Cronic was expecting despite the array of unknowns his team was facing in Brent Dearmon\u2019s coaching debut at North Alabama.
\n\u201cCoach (Joel) Taylor, our defensive coordinator, (did a) phenomenal job,\u201d Cronic said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a new coach, a new situation, so you\u2019re really having to get ready for everything. I thought we adjusted. I think Isaac had a few blitzes there where we were able to make some plays. You saw him on some very well timed blitzes. And I think we\u2019re pretty dang good on defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game had that early-season feel for both offenses as neither could sustain any success in the blazing August temperatures. But a lightning strike seven miles away halted play for 76 minutes in the third quarter and the North Alabama offense was never a threat once play resumed, managing just 15 yards on its final three possessions over the final 17 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just settled in,\u201d Dowling said. \u201cComing from the (weather) break, we had a lot of time to think about it. As time went on, we\u2019re confident in what we can do and picking up what they were doing as well. Just playing faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the faster Mercer\u2019s defense got, the more difficult it became for North Alabama to find any traction on offense. A lot of that can be attributed to Dowling, who earned the respect of his teammates by being selected as a team captain as a freshman in 2021 and again as a sophomore in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsaac\u2019s a good football player,\u201d Cronic said. \u201cAnd he has been since the day he showed up on our campus. He\u2019s started since the day he showed up. We signed him in our first signing class. That kid is a coach\u2019s dream. He does everything right. Everything. His name has never come across my desk for one negative thing. I mean, he\u2019s got a 3.7 GPA in public health, he has a sister who graduated from Mercer, his parents are awesome. When you tell him to do something, it\u2019s going to get done. And he is a kid that prepares for everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he\u2019s a good player, but he\u2019s an even better player because of the time he spends, how important it is to him, his attitude, his approach. He was being honest with you up here. He expects to play better. Even though he had whatever it was, 12 tackles, 13 tackles and made some huge plays, I promise you he\u2019s going to be critical of himself in that film and he\u2019s going to get better. That\u2019s just who he is. There\u2019s no one more deserving to win that MVP award for the game than he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dowling might not agree with his coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hard on myself,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI want to do everything right. I felt like I made a lot of mistakes, but those can be fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, owns and operates a portfolio of collegiate sporting events nationwide. In 2022, the 32-event schedule included three early-season college football kickoff games, 17 college bowl games, 11 college basketball events, and a college softball event, which account for approximately 400 hours of live programming, while reaching nearly 64 million viewers and attracting over 800,000 annual attendees. With satellite offices in more than 10 cities across the country, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans. For more information, visit the official website, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mercer linebacker Isaac Dowling led a defense that held North Alabama in check for much of the 2023 FCS Kickoff Classic, recording a team-high 10 tackles to earn Most Valuable Player honors in the Bears\u2019 17-7 win on Saturday at Cramton Bowl. Having an outstanding game on national television to open the season would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n