Elon head football coach Jason Swepson has a three-word take on last Saturday’s 62-0 shellacking of his team by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“It was a national TV scrimmage,” he said Tuesday. “We got some work and played some great competition, and that’s only going to help us down the road.”

Yes, the Phoenix faced a team Swepson said “probably could have beaten the Green Bay Packers on Saturday.” That may be a bit of an overstatement to compare the Tar Heels to last year’s 15-1 Packers, the best team in the National Football League 2011 regular season. But North Carolina did put together the complete game, inserting their backups into the game in the third quarter.

“They played their A-game,” Swepson said.

The Phoenix hopes to turn their fortunes around this Saturday as they face the North Carolina Central University Eagles at 7 p.m. in Rhodes Stadium.

Despite scoring nothing and only crossing midfield twice last Saturday, the Elon offense believes that they can still contend.

“We have a great team, we have a great offense, we have a great quarterback, great receivers,” said senior wide receiver Jeremy Peterson. “Looking back last year against Central, the one thing coming into this week is making sure we don’t turn the ball over, making sure we execute.”

[box]Enjoying His Health Elon senior wide receiver Jeremy Peterson missed last year's NC Central game with an injury. Read how he feels about being able to play in this matchup.[divider_flat] [/box]

The “great offense” will be necessary going against the Eagles, who put up 54 points against Div. II Fayetteville State University last Saturday in a win in Durham. NC Central piled up 420 total yards of offense, forced four turnovers on defense and returned two punts for touchdowns.

The Phoenix held the Eagles to 219 total offensive yards in a 23-22 win Sept. 17 last season, and put up 525 total offensive yards itself, getting 416 yards through the air from then-junior quarterback Thomas Wilson. But, because of five Elon turnovers, the Phoenix needed a winning touchdown pass from Wilson to then-senior wide receiver Christian Dennis with less than five minutes left for a score, plus a botched field goal attempt by NC Central with about two minutes left, to win the game.

Saturday, turnovers were once again an issue. Wilson threw two interceptions (it could be argued that one, or maybe both, were not his fault) and Elon lost a fumble by freshman running back Tracey Coppedge.

So it stands to say that turnover freedom on Saturday would be huge.

“We’ve just got to play disciplined football,” Swepson said. “When you play disciplined football, that means no turnovers on offense and no big plays on defense. If we can do those two things, I like our chances.”

Those big plays were often against North Carolina, and just may be a factor against North Carolina Central. The Eagles are led by junior transfer quarterback Matt Goggans (223 yds., TD last week) and senior wide receiver/kick returner Geovonie Irvine, who caught six balls for 79 yards and a score against Fayetteville State. Plus, Irvine returned a punt 31 yards for a touchdown.

The Phoenix allowed a punt return score to North Carolina sophomore running back Giovani Bernard last week as junior punter Kenton Beal, while punting the stuffing out of the ball, struggled with placement, often out-punting coverage and not getting the ball out-of-bounds when he needed to. Swepson said Beal has taken full responsibility and he hopes to see an improvement Saturday.

[box]Finding the Positives Junior defensive back Ed Burns (29, left) and sophomore linebacker Jonathan Spain found some good things about last Saturday's loss to North Carolina. [divider_flat] [/box]

But perhaps the real problem, as linebackers sophomore Jonathan Spain and senior Blake Thompson point out, was missed tackles. Bernard and others were able to escape the grasps of tacklers several times over. Thompson called tackling “the name of the game” and an area where the Phoenix fell on Saturday.

“Get to the football, make tackles, get lined up, simple things,” Thompson said Tuesday. “We really emphasized that today, tackling in all the skill periods. Wrap them up, everybody get eleven hats to the ball.”

It will all come down to the basics, keeping the ball and taking down the guy with the ball.

“As long as we just execute, do what we’ve got to do, get the job done, go 100 percent and not turn the ball over and get first downs, come Saturday night we’ll be pretty happy,” Peterson said.

Also, it involves forgetting about last week’s slaughter at Kenan.

“It’s tough at this level, when you’re dealing with 18-22 year old, still kids,” Swepson said. “It meant a lot to them, they prepared a lot, they believed that they had a chance to win that game. The result what it was, obviously it hurt everyone. We put on the film and watched it as a team and watched it together. They saw the compete, they saw the fire, they saw that they didn’t quit, that they gave great effort.”

And the head coach’s enthusiasm about his players remains.

“I’m excited about this team,” he said. “Like I told the team after the game on Saturday, we’ve got a good football team, just don’t let this loss affect this week.”

 

Game Notes

  • Goggans, who transferred from Fullerton (Calif.) College after playing two years there, is the first white quarterback to play for the historically-black NC Central.
  • Swepson said he plans on redshirting freshmen offensive tackles Harris Cesko and Gordon Acha, but things might change. “I can’t say that for sure, because if we have two injuries at tackle, then we’re not redshirting them,” he said. “If our three tackles play healthy, then those two will be redshirted.” The starting tackles are sophomore Austin Sowell and junior Gavin Billings, and freshman tackle and Burlington native Jacob Ingle is expected to make his debut against the Eagles.
  • Saturday’s game is the 900th in Elon history.
  • Senior defensive lineman Olufemi Lamikanra is slated to be the fourth captain Saturday along with regular captains Peterson, Thompson and senior kicker Adam Shreiner.
  • INJURIES: Senior tight end Chris Harris was catching passes in practice on Tuesday and looked as if his injury was behind him. Swepson labeled him as “probable.” Junior running back Matt Eastman, expected to be the starter this season, is “questionable” against NC Central, while junior defensive end Jordan Jones, who was injured against North Carolina, is the same. Jones currently has a 14-game start streak going, the second-longest on the team behind senior wide receiver Aaron Mellette.