Before every football game this year, The Blue Zone is going to sit down with a football writer from the opposing school’s student newspaper to get the scoop on their team and season.
This week, The Chronicle’s Nick Martin spoke to The Elon Pendulum's Sports Editor Thomas Hamzik about this weekend’s season kickoff between Duke and Elon.
The Chronicle: It's been a while since our two teams met. Can you tell me a little bit about what's changed for you guys?
The Pendulum: Skrosky left for Ball State. In came Jason Swepson and frankly, the program took a pretty drastic turn. Lembo had the guys in the top 25 for a couple consecutive years and Sewpson's teams went straight in the opposite direction. They struggled pretty heavily the last couple years. Last year especially, they struggled to finish games down the stretch. Almost every game, except the Georgia Tech game, they were in it in the first half and they only came away with two wins. So they fired Swepson a couple days after the season ended last year and brought in Skrosky and his main thing has been changing the culture of the program, which I think he's really starting to put a dent on doing.
TC: A lot has happened in four years, and obviously the same has happened for Duke, going to bowl games back-to-back. It's been a big change under Cutcliffe and I'm guessing that's what Elon is looking for from Skrosky.
TH: Absolutely. Skrosky, when he was here under Lembo, he had Elon in the FCS playoffs for the first time ever. Their only playoff appearance ever was 2009 when Skrosky was the offensive coordinator. That's obviously his goal—to get them back there.
TC: How much does his being familiar with Elon and the Phoenix's program in general, how much has that helped him? Or is this just a start from scratch project for him?
TH: I think he's really emphasized it more as a start from scratch thing. I remember when, at the opening press conference, someone asked him, because I want to say there are six of seven fifth-year seniors who Skrosky recruited, and someone asked if that familiarity helped and he basically said it didn't. Because he was going to come in and set everyone back down to zero and he and his staff as going to come in and evaluate everyone themselves. They came in and—not do a facelift—but make their presence felt and say this is their staff, they're going to do thing their way.
TC: Looking to Saturday's game, are there any players you would point to that we should maybe be on the lookout for? I know Jeremy Cash spoke about Kierre Brown.
TH: Kierre, he's a small guy. Not many of Elon's receivers are big guys. I want to say he's about 5-foot-9 or so. But he's quick. He's got the speed to make some plays. He's a kick returner too. At one of the scrimmages I was at, the first play of the scrimmage they booted it to him and he ran it back. So Kierre is a threat. Last year I believe they lined him up in the backfield once or twice. He's a real big threat anywhere on the offensive side.
TC: If you had to put a score of putting on this Saturday's game, what do you predict the outcome's going to look like?
TH: I think you have to preface that with a little bit history on Elon's last two ACC games. Last year, they opened with Georgia Tech and they lost 70-0. The year before, they lost to Carolina 62-0. So they haven't scored the last two times against ACC teams and have given up 60-plus points. The main goal for Elon is going to be to score and I think they're going to do that. I think Skrosky's going to gave them ready to go. I would say, if I had to put a score on it, 48-10.
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