How Auburn avoided overlooking Mercer with the Iron Bowl looming

It would have been easy for Auburn to look past Mercer this week. The Tigers were 10 games into the season, had their head coach fired less than a month ago and have a showdown with their hated in-state rivals coming up next week. All of those things make it easy to not be excited for a late-season game against Mercer, an FCS opponent. Auburn, however, shook off a slow defensive start on Saturday to beat Mercer 62-17, improving its record to 5-6 ahead of the Iron Bowl next weekend. “It was really a task and a struggle to say, ‘OK, we’re going to focus on this game,’” Auburn interim head coach DJ Durkin said after the game. “I thought they did a great job of that. Now obviously, this game is over, and our full focus goes to [the Iron Bowl].” Auburn will have plenty to play for next week when it welcomes Alabama to Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers will go into the game a win away from clinching bowl eligibility and a win certainly wouldn’t hurt Durkin’s chances for the full-time head coaching job. On top of that, a win would all but destroy Alabama’s chance at a College Football Playoff berth. That’s all without mentioning how there’s never a shortage of motivation to beat your archrival, regardless of the records. But Auburn avoided focusing on those things this week. Maybe that creeped in early on when Auburn’s defense started slow, but some “rough conversations,” as Durkin described it, fixed those issues. “It was more of like, ‘This ain’t how we play and it’s unacceptable,’” Durkin said. “We have good leadership, and they know how to respond to that, and that’s what they did.” After trailing 14-7 in the first quarter, Auburn outscored Mercer 55-3 the rest of the way. For the final three quarters, it looked like a team whose sole focus was on Mercer, which resulted in a dominant performance. Alabama will present a much tougher challenge, but the win over Mercer gives Auburn more to play for in that game.
https://www.al.com/auburnfootball/2025/11/how-auburn-avoided-overlooking-mercer-with-the-iron-bowl-looming.html