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'Toby Town' opens Saturday for tailgating Mercer fans

It will feature music, bounce houses, a beer garden and food trucks.

MACON, Ga. — Break out the orange-and-black.

Mercer's football home opener is Saturday night at Five Star Stadium against Austin Peay.

The Bears are looking good this season, and the pregame festivities will include some surprises.

Let's start with the X's and O's.

Mercer is undefeated, and head coach Bobby Lamb is pretty happy about that.

"It's really exciting to be 2-0 right now -- new steam on offense, new steam on defense -- and the exciting part is we're 2-0 with two road wins, and now, we're coming home against a very strong Austin Peay team," he said.

Will Coneway is a senior linebacker out of Washington County.

"The new schemes are great. We have a lot of new ideas going in, it feels like things are rejuvenated and guys are excited to play football. I feel like the new coordinators came in and changed the culture a little bit and it's working in our favor," he said with a smile.

He knows he'll have his work cut out for him Saturday night against the Governors.

"They're a physical team -- they're going to try and over power the other team they've got a good running back, a good quarterback, they have a lot of skilled guys that can play," Coneway said.

"They are high-tempo. We've been working hard on that from our standpoint on defense, and then, on their defense, they've got a lot of good athletes and they're hungry for a win, Lamb said.

Friday, crews built the newest feature in the Bears' Den, designed to take tailgating to a whole new level, calling it "Toby Town."

"Yeah, it's crazy, and this has been talked about all summer," Lamb exclaimed.

Saturday, it will all come to fruition for fans to enjoy.

They'll have bounce houses for kids, a beer garden, food trucks and music.

"I wish I could be involved in it, but we've got a game to play," Lamb said.

"It's a great way to bring people into the stadium and have a lot of people at the game. I feel it's great for the fans, and for us, we know a lot of fans are going to be there, so extra motivation for us to go and work hard on game day, Coneway said.

At noon Saturday, Toby Town opens up.

Concerts start at 2 p.m., and the Bear Walk is at 4:30 p.m.

Mercer kicks off against Austin Peay at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Five Star Stadium.

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