By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Elon’s football team will be anxious to apply the hard lessons learned from last week’s game to another key confrontation.
The Phoenix (1-2) meets East Tennessee State (1-2) at 6:00 p.m. Saturday at Rhodes Stadium.
This will be Elon’s final non-conference game. Considering last year’s 0-3 mark outside of the Coastal Athletic Association cost the Phoenix a place in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, it makes this matchup critical in the big picture.
“We definitely feel like this is a got-to-have game,” linebacker Marco Patierno said.
East Tennessee State lost 38-35 to North Dakota State, the No. 2-ranked FCS team, last week at home, so it was close to pulling a major upset. Its other defeat came in a 38-10 season-opening loss at Appalachian State.
There’s heightened awareness for the Phoenix. East Tennessee State is coached by Tre Lamb, whose recent Gardner-Webb teams, including last year, knocked off Elon. He spent four seasons at Gardner-Webb, and has brought more than 20 former Gardner-Webb players with him for his first season with the Buccaneers.
“There’s a lot of familiarity between Tre and us from his time at Gardner-Webb,” Elon coach Tony Trisciani said. “We’re familiar with each other’s schemes.”
So the Phoenix won’t need a reminder about what happened last year in Boiling Springs, with many of the same players on the opposing side, yet in a different colored uniform.
“I would say it’s definitely a motivator. They got us last year,” Patierno said. “A lot of the same Gardner-Webb team from last year. They beat us last year, so we’re familiar with them. We’re definitely ready and eager.”
There’s also the matter of making amends for last week.
Elon failed to protect an 11-point, second-half lead in falling 24-17 on Saturday night to visiting Western Carolina. A couple breakdowns on special teams contributed to 14 Western Carolina points. A pair of Elon turnovers after reaching scoring territory quashed bids to build a larger lead.
“There’s a lot of learning going on around the country,” Trisciani said. “Absolutely got to learn from it. We did enough good things to win, and enough bad things to lose the game.”
Elon’s Onuma Dieke, a receiver who leads the team with 63.7 receiving yards per game, said the Phoenix is cognizant of the importance of avoiding turnovers.
“The ball is the game,” Dieke said.
Elon had 424 yards of offense, yet the point production lagged.
“We can move the ball,” Dieke said. “It’s all about finishing.”
Old foes, friends
Elon and East Tennessee State last met in 2003 as Southern Conference members. Elon, in its first season in that league, won that game at Rhodes Stadium followed by eight consecutive losses in what was a two-win season.
For the Buccaneers, it was their last season before discontinuing football before the sport was revived with games resuming in 2015 (under the direction of former North Carolina coach Carl Torbush, whose wife, Janet, had worked at Elon).
The East Tennessee State coach in 2003 was Paul Hamilton, who soon after that season was hired by Elon to replace dismissed Al Seagraves. Hamilton had two 3-8 seasons with Elon and was fired.
