Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham
Written by Elon Phoenix on 4:19 PMElon football color commentator Taylor Durham took a few minutes to offer his thoughts on this weekend's season-opener with the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.
Welcome to one of the great times of the year as the opening weekend of the college football season gets started around the country on Thursday and the 89th campaign of Phoenix football will begin in earnest on Saturday night at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham for a meeting against the Duke Blue Devils.
The Phoenix, ranked seventh in the FCS preseason polls, and Blue Devils meet for the eighth time in program history and for the first time since before World War II. The team in 1932 came in on the heels of a 3-5 campaign in 1931 and would finish with only two wins in 1932 before finding winning seasons for the final four years of the “Peahead” Walker era at Elon.
The 2010 edition of the Phoenix will arrive in Durham buoyed by a senior class that has already totaled 24 wins over their first three seasons which includes a nine-win campaign last year that garnered an appearance in the FCS Playoffs, the program’s first trip to the postseason since 1981. By the way, the last time Elon achieved eight wins or more for three straight seasons dates all the way back to the 1978 season which happened to be the final year for Coach Red Wilson (1976) and the first two years for Coach Tolley (1977-1978). My broadcast partner David Hibbard and I look forward to having a chance to visit with Coach Wilson during halftime on Saturday night and it is always a great time when Coach Tolley joins us during the season to visit on Thursday nights or Saturday afternoons.
During the course of the season, Elon will face a schedule that represents not only a second-straight year of facing an in-state ACC foe but also two preseason top-10 matchups at Richmond (#6) later this month and at Appalachian State (#3) in the middle of October. The Phoenix will also have four more dates that involve teams receiving votes in the preseason rankings
Saturday night in Durham, Duke will bring in a squad looking to contend in the ACC Coastal Division that features four teams ranked in most preseason lists for the FBS. Sean Renfree gets the nod for the opener with Head Coach David Cutcliffe naming him the successor to record-setting quarterback Thaddeus Lewis. Coach Cutcliffe has been tabbed by some in the national media as “the quarterback guru” and for good reason, having been the offensive coordinator in Knoxville during Peyton Manning’s years with Tennessee before becoming the head coach in Oxford for Ole Miss during the career of Eli Manning. Coach Cutcliffe and his staff (which includes linebackers coach and 1974 Elon graduate, Jim Collins) will try to find the right formula for the first winning season for Duke football since the mid-1990’s.
It should be a great deal of fun throughout the football season and we look forward to having you with us on the radio beginning Thursday night with the first Elon Football Live show at The Fat Frogg followed by the opener on Saturday night from Durham. David Hibbard and I will join you from Wallace Wade Stadium at 6 p.m. with the Countdown to Kickoff followed by a 7:03 p.m. kickoff.
The Phoenix, ranked seventh in the FCS preseason polls, and Blue Devils meet for the eighth time in program history and for the first time since before World War II. The team in 1932 came in on the heels of a 3-5 campaign in 1931 and would finish with only two wins in 1932 before finding winning seasons for the final four years of the “Peahead” Walker era at Elon.
The 2010 edition of the Phoenix will arrive in Durham buoyed by a senior class that has already totaled 24 wins over their first three seasons which includes a nine-win campaign last year that garnered an appearance in the FCS Playoffs, the program’s first trip to the postseason since 1981. By the way, the last time Elon achieved eight wins or more for three straight seasons dates all the way back to the 1978 season which happened to be the final year for Coach Red Wilson (1976) and the first two years for Coach Tolley (1977-1978). My broadcast partner David Hibbard and I look forward to having a chance to visit with Coach Wilson during halftime on Saturday night and it is always a great time when Coach Tolley joins us during the season to visit on Thursday nights or Saturday afternoons.
During the course of the season, Elon will face a schedule that represents not only a second-straight year of facing an in-state ACC foe but also two preseason top-10 matchups at Richmond (#6) later this month and at Appalachian State (#3) in the middle of October. The Phoenix will also have four more dates that involve teams receiving votes in the preseason rankings
Saturday night in Durham, Duke will bring in a squad looking to contend in the ACC Coastal Division that features four teams ranked in most preseason lists for the FBS. Sean Renfree gets the nod for the opener with Head Coach David Cutcliffe naming him the successor to record-setting quarterback Thaddeus Lewis. Coach Cutcliffe has been tabbed by some in the national media as “the quarterback guru” and for good reason, having been the offensive coordinator in Knoxville during Peyton Manning’s years with Tennessee before becoming the head coach in Oxford for Ole Miss during the career of Eli Manning. Coach Cutcliffe and his staff (which includes linebackers coach and 1974 Elon graduate, Jim Collins) will try to find the right formula for the first winning season for Duke football since the mid-1990’s.
It should be a great deal of fun throughout the football season and we look forward to having you with us on the radio beginning Thursday night with the first Elon Football Live show at The Fat Frogg followed by the opener on Saturday night from Durham. David Hibbard and I will join you from Wallace Wade Stadium at 6 p.m. with the Countdown to Kickoff followed by a 7:03 p.m. kickoff.
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