Inside Elon Football With Taylor Durham, Week 8
Written by Elon Phoenix on 8:41 PM
September 3, 1994 . . .
Over the past few days, people have asked me to try and come up with another moment that equals the way that last Saturday turned out for the Phoenix and the only one that keeps coming to mind is the season-opener to the 1994 campaign and the last second loss to West Georgia in Carrollton, Ga.
Give Elon a great deal of credit for the second half that the Phoenix played against Wofford. Coach Lembo mentioned during our conversation last night on the radio show that it may have been the most complete effort of the season for 30 minutes when you consider that the offense drove the football for three scores against the top-ranked defense in the league while the Phoenix defense continued to build confidence after the open date by holding the top-ranked offense in the nation (in rushing yards and passing efficiency) to five straight drives that ended in either a punt or turnover. On another note, you have to be proud of the effort of guys like Sean Jeffcoat who went diving for the pylon on the extra effort to try and get the lead late and complete the rally. As Coach Lembo mentioned last night, Sean has done a great job this year in many ways during his final season at Rhodes Stadium which is one of many reasons that you pull so hard for him and the others that wear the maroon and gold on Saturday afternoon. You hope that he and the remainder of this senior class will get the chance to finish off their career in fitting fashion. Four wins gets them to 30 and makes them only the 12th class in program history to hit that mark. It also would give the program four straight winning seasons which would be the first time since the late 1980’s that they have reached that benchmark standard.
The stretch run begins tomorrow afternoon at the long-time home of the FCS National Championship Game. While the title game has moved to a new date (after the first of the year) and a new location (Frisco, Texas), UT Chattanooga has experienced a resurgence under second-year head coach Russ Huesman and find themselves ranked in the top-20 and squarely in the playoff chase for either the automatic bid as the Southern Conference Champion or a potential at-large bid which would mark the first playoff appearance for the Mocs since 1984. The Mocs are led by B.J. Coleman, the transfer from Tennessee and native son. In fact, expect points to be at the ready tomorrow as the two best signal-callers in terms of yards (Riddle and Coleman) and the top three wideouts in the league line up at Finley Stadium. A Chattanooga win tomorrow would give the Mocs six straight for the first time in 30 years (1980) while an Elon win would keep the Phoenix perfect in four trips to Chattanooga.
Last night during our conversation on the radio show, Coach Lembo mentioned that one of the keys will be to turn the page from last Saturday and move forward with an effort that builds on the positives from Homecoming at Rhodes Stadium.
By the way, I mentioned earlier that September 3, 1994 bounced around my thoughts earlier this week. That team (which included WR coach Keith Gaither) would turn the page seven days later and win on the road at Catawba 22-20. Here’s hoping for a similar result for the 2010 edition of the Phoenix when toe meets leather at 2 p.m. from the Rock City.
As always, see you on the radio.
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