It’s been three different kinds of opponents in three games this season for the Phoenix. A clearly superior opponent in North Carolina, a clearly inferior opponent in West Virginia State, and an opponent hovering somewhere around Elon’s level in North Carolina Central.
Elon did what they had to do this weekend, easily dispatching West Virginia State University in the team’s final non-conference game of the season before embarking on what could be called murderers row of the Southern Conference over the next three weeks.
This week, Elon opens conference play in Statesboro, Ga. against Georgia Southern. The Phoenix will come home for family weekend the following week to play Wofford, then head off to Boone, N.C. for a matchup with Appalachian State.
So coming off a convincing win over the Yellow Jackets where the offense was clicking on all cylinders for most of the afternoon, the Phoenix could use that as a launching pad for bigger and better things now that conference is upon us.
Aaron Mellette’s slow start had been well documented, but that’s a thing of the past now. Mellette broke out against West Virginia State with nine receptions for 129 yards and two touchdowns, and he didn’t even play the second half. Mellette went over the 3,000-yard mark for his career at Elon on his first touchdown reception of the game, a 20-yard leaping catch in the back left corner of the end zone over WVSU corner Romell Haley.
Mellette picked a good day to dominate, as scouts from multiple NFL teams could be found throughout Rhodes Stadium.
Quarterback Thomas Wilson, like Mellette, also jumpstarted his season on Saturday by throwing for 261 yards and four touchdowns, all of which also came in the first half. Wilson also eclipsed a historic mark in the game, as he has now thrown for more then 4,000 yards in his career in maroon and gold. That places him fourth in school history for most passing yards in a career.
With the return of head coach Jason Swepson expected at some point this week after his one-week hiatus due to chest pains that placed him in a Raleigh hospital over the weekend, the Phoenix will make the trip down to Statesboro to take on No. 10 Georgia Southern this weekend looking to get off on the right foot in conference play. These next three weeks are going to test the mental toughness of the Phoenix, and will also be a measuring stick to indicate just where the Phoenix sit in the Southern Conference football landscape.