Elon Football’s 2014 Home Slate Begins Saturday Against NC A&T

ELON, N.C. – Following a week without a game, the Elon Phoenix football team will return to the gridiron on Saturday, Sept. 13 to play host to the North Carolina A&T Aggies at 6 p.m. from Rhodes Stadium. This will be the first home game of the season for the maroon and gold and the 2014 class of the Elon Sports Hall of Fame will be recognized at halftime.

Fans can watch the game for free on Phoenix All-Access and CAA.tv as well as listen to the game on WPCM 95.1 FM and 920 AM or at elonphoenix.com starting at 5 p.m. New this year, fans can also listen to all Elon football games via the TuneIn Radio app. This app is free to download to your smartphone.

Returning this year is the WSOE tailgate show which can be heard on 89.3 FM starting at 4 p.m.

Phoenix faithful should make sure that they line Bank of America Drive during tailgating for the Phoenix Walk. Welcome the players to the stadium as they make their way up to Rhodes Stadium beginning at 3:30 p.m.

AT FIRST GLANCE:
• Elon has won five consecutive home openers.
• Elon wide receiver Andre Davis was a teammate of A&T’s Tarik Cohen at Bunn High.
• Elon wide receiver Tre Lennon and A&T’s Izayah Moore both graduated from Smith High in 2014.
• Elon defensive end Alexander Dawson attended Eastern Alamance High as did A&T’s Donald Mattocks and Malik Wilson.

A NEW HOME:
After spending the past 11 seasons as a member of the Southern Conference, Elon has joined the Colonial Athletic Association and CAA Football. The Phoenix officially transitioned to CAA Football on July 1, 2014.

The CAA geographic footprint provides an attractive match with Elon’s student and alumni populations. Elon draws a large proportion of its enrollment from mid-Atlantic and New England states where many CAA teams are located. About 1,850 current students came to Elon from areas close to CAA member schools. Alumni populations in CAA cities are equally strong, with about 5,300 Elon alumni living within 50 miles of CAA member schools.

ELON VS. NORTH CAROLINA A&T:
In a series that began in 1999, Elon and North Carolina A&T have played a total of nine games. The Aggies own a slim 5-4 edge in the series following a 23-10 victory in Greensboro, N.C., last season. Elon picked up a 40-7 win in the first-ever meeting of the two squads. A&T’s last trip to Rhodes Stadium came in 2005 as the Phoenix claimed a 12-9 win.

WELCOME TO THE HALL:
Elon will welcome three members to the Elon Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. The new inductees are former football and track standout Tony DiPietro (’89), former men’s golfer Chris Dockrill (’86) and former women’s golfer Beth Frace Heinzelmann (’01).

GETTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT AT HOME:
Entering the 2014 season, Elon has won five consecutive home openers at Rhodes Stadium. It’s the longest such streak since the program posted wins in each of its home openers from 1980-87.

NESTING AT HOME:
Now in the 93rd year of Elon’s program history, the Phoenix owns an all-time record of 487-417-18 (.538) – including a sizzling 176-84-3 (.674) in 52 seasons of home games at Burlington Memorial Stadium and a mark of 35-38 (.479) in its current home at Rhodes Stadium. Since 2007, Elon has gone 23-16 (.590) in the confines of Rhodes Stadium.

RECORD BREAKER:
On his second kickoff return of the game at Duke, senior Kierre Brown set a new Elon career record for kickoff return yards. Brown finished the game with 174 kickoff return yards on seven chances (24.9 ypr) to move ahead of Rod Clark (1991-94) at the top of the chart. Clark’s mark stood at 1,872 yards. Brown’s career total now sits at 2,017 yards.

TRUE FRESHMEN PLAY:
Against Duke, Elon played a total of four true freshmen. Seeing action in their first collegiate game were defensive back Malcolm Galloway, linebackers Bruno Anyangwe and Johnathan Jackson and wide receiver Tre Lennon.

Including those four, a total of 14 players saw their first collegiate action against Duke. Red-shirt freshmen Chris Blair, Ikenna Nwokeji,
Demetrius Oliver, R.J. Pearsall, Justin Snavely, Anthony Hambright, Kelly Brooks-Muse, Rev Ford, Dondre Howell and Nick Groll also played.

YOUNG UP FRONT:
The five offensive linemen who started Elon’s season opener at Duke entered the game with a combined 33 starts. Of those, 31 were made by senior Austin Sowell and two by juniorJacob Ingle. Sophomores Austin Richardson and O’Shane Morris and red-shirt freshmanIkenna Nwokeji all recorded the first starts of their careers against the Blue Devils.