Brandon Mercer likes to have the football in his hands.
Plain and simple.
The North Penn senior doesn’t really care if he’s returning a punt or kickoff or if he’s on the receiving end of a pass or simply running the ball out of the Knights’ backfield.
“I just like the ball in my hands,” Mercer said. “You feel like you have power.”
Mercer – a 5-7 speed burner – can flat out make things happen when the ball is in his hands, but on a team with more than a few stars, he doesn’t find himself in the spotlight.
Still, his numbers are impressive.
Mercer has 309 rushing yards on just 32 carries for a dazzling 9.7 yards a carry. He’s also a big play receiver out of the slot and has hauled in 20 passes for 338 yards for an average of 16.9 yards per catch. He is second only to senior standout Dom Taggart in receiving yards.“He’s a guy when we split out teams have to double him,” coach Dick Beck said. “Guys punt away from him, and many times they won’t even kick it to him, knowing we’ll get good field position, so they’ll kick it out of bounds instead.
“He does so many things for us.”
A starting cornerback on defense, Mercer’s versatility is evidenced by the fact that he can line up at running back, split end or slot.
“We also line him at quarterback in the wild cat,” Beck said. “He’s a very hard working kid.
“He’s small, and he doesn’t say much, but he’s a lead-by-example kid. In practices, he’s running most of the long patterns, and he’s always running full speed. He’s absolutely the fastest kid on the team.”
Mercer is a sprinter for North Penn’s track team, and what he may lack in size, he makes up for with game-breaking speed.
“I just try and play with a lot of heart and use my speed to help me and make me a smart player on the field,” he said.
Just being on the field is pretty special for Mercer, who broke his collarbone in the first quarter of the first game last season.
“We had high hopes for him,” Beck said.
“That was tough,” Mercer said. “I came back in the playoffs, but I really wasn’t at full strength, and I wasn’t playing to my full potential, so it was real hard.”
Mercer reinjured his collarbone in the Knights’ season-ending loss to Ridley in the district championship game.
“It was almost completely healed, and in order to get injured again, it would have to be a straight shot,” he said. “Sure enough, I got hit by a straight shot. It was tough.
“This year at first, I was just cautious, but as the season went on, it felt fine. I have been lifting weights this year, and that really helped me a lot.”
Mercer acknowledged that it’s been a challenge to line up at so many different positions this season.
“This year has been crazy because I used to just play running back,” he said. “I had to learn a lot of positions. We learn of plays in practice, and that made it easy on me in games.”
Mercer is fearless when it comes to running back punts and kickoffs, and he already has a punt return for a touchdown.
“When you’re back there – for me, I feel like I could take it back any time, so I want to go for as many as I can and try and get a return,” he said.
As for the threat of being leveled by players much bigger than he is – Mercer is unfazed.
“I don’t mind,” he said. “That comes with football. You have to be tough.”
Mercer is tough and has delivered his share of big plays. Beck recalls a huge catch he made in the Knights’ come-from-behind win over Souderton.
“It was third-and-eight, and we were on our own 30-yard line,” the Knights’ coach said. “He ran an almost pinpoint corner route, and Corey Ernst threw it for a strike, and he was wide open.
“He kind of spun the safety around on the play, and that was a huge play for us on a big third down. We ended up driving and getting our first score.”
Mercer also was instrumental in giving the Knights good field postion.
“Every time they kicked off, he was breaking it, putting us on the other side of the 50,” Beck said. “Our field position in that game was just amazing because of him.”
According to Mercer, the Knights’ loss to La Salle in the season opener may have been the defining point of the season.
“I definitely think we made some good changes after the La Salle game – everybody is more focused,” he said. “In some ways that loss helped us, but we would have definitely loved to be undefeated, but our season isn’t over.
“We’re still in the playoffs, and hopefully we’ll get another shot at La Salle.”
Mercer and his teammates, however, aren’t looking past any team.
“Football is a crazy sport,” he said. “In any week, any team can beat anybody else. You have to be careful. You can’t come in overconfident.
“This is an exciting time of year. Our (SOL) schedule wasn’t as tough, so we were really looking forward to the playoffs.”
Mercer is hoping to run track at the collegiate level, but he has not ruled out walking on the football team and perhaps returning kickoffs and punts.
“Football is my first love,” he said. “I’d just like to be the guy that touches the ball a little bit.”
And with the ball in Mercer’s hands even a little bit, big things can happen.
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