There’s no question who the main target of the Elon University football team’s defense this Saturday.

He’s the reigning Southern Conference Player of the Year, a first-team All-American by the Associated Press, Sports Network and Phil Steele and is on the 2012 Walter Payton Award Watch List.

But the Phoenix is not afraid of the player who fulfills what was written above, Wofford College senior fullback Eric Breitenstein.

“We’re not scared of any one player,” said Elon senior defensive lineman Olufemi Lamikanra. “The only person that can really hurt us is us, as a defense. If we don’t do our job, that’s how we can hurt ourselves. We feel that, if we do everything right, we don’t have to worry about anything.”

Through three games, Breitenstein has 45 carries for 414 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s leading the SoCon in rushing yards per game with 138 as part of Wofford’s triple-option offense the Phoenix will face at 1:30 p.m. this Saturday in Rhodes Stadium.

This week looks a lot like last week for Elon. Both the Terriers and Georgia Southern University, the Phoenix’s opponent last Saturday, were ranked in the top 11 and coming off a bye week when facing Elon. Also, they’re both triple-option teams.

“We’re going to have the same practice plan for our defense,” said Elon head coach Jason Swepson. “Obviously, two tough opponents to play back to back, but schedule-wise, you’d like to play them back to back so you can have some consistency and get better and try to stop that offense. We’re still young on defense, but I think we’ve got tremendous speed.”

That speed is something that Wofford head coach Mike Ayers is looking out for.

“On (Elon's) defense, all 11 kids can run,” Ayers said. “They’re always trying to gain an advantage with either movement of their front or shifting of their front or rotation of their coverage.”

The Terriers come into Saturday’s game 3-0 on the season, outscoring Gardner-Webb University, Lincoln University and SoCon foe Western Carolina University 165-27. Gardner-Webb is 0-4 this season, Western Carolina was last in the SoCon last season and Lincoln is a Division II program.

So nothing really special. And Swepson sees that. He said the Terriers are not as “battle-tested” as Elon is and hopes to use that to his team’s advantage.

“We got kicked around against North Carolina and came out standing. Central is still a legit 1-AA program, FCS program that plays in a great conference. And obviously Georgia Southern is the cream of the crop at this level of football,” he said. “My only concern going into Georgia Southern was playing 60 minutes, because I don’t think we had played a 60 minute football game. I was just happy that we were able to play 60 minutes of football and have a chance to win the football game. That’s what I meant by battle-tested, is playing 60 minutes of football at a high level in a hostile environment when the game’s on the line. Hopefully, it counts for something.”

Another difference between this week and last week is the location. The Phoenix dropped a 26-23 decision to Georgia Southern down in Statesboro, Ga. Elon hopes to reverse their fortunes this weekend during the university’s Family Weekend activities.

“Hopefully, it just gives us more fan-base,” Swepson said. “Hopefully, they’re nice and loud and hostile and cheering the maroon and gold on and giving our kids some excitement. I know when you have home field advantage and the crowd is rocking, it’s worth about three points, I think. And I think we witnessed that this past Saturday.”

The Phoenix defense hopes to stand staunch and not give up any big plays like they did against Georgia Southern, when Eagles junior running back Johnathan Bryant took a handoff 78 yards for a touchdown 1:01 into the second half.

“If you get too confident, you’re liable to relax on something that you normally don’t relax on,” Lamikanra said. “And then, that one time you relax, boom, it’s a big gain, which is what kind of happened to us at Georgia Southern. We kind of relaxed a little bit, because we thought we were doing well. And the one time we didn’t get to the right spot, boom, touchdown.”

How do they plan on stopping that? In Swepson’s words, by preventing Breitenstein from becoming an “All-American.”

“We’ve got to tackle him,” Swepson said. “We can’t let him become an All-American on Saturday. He’s going to get his yards. Hopefully, it’s only 99. Hopefully, we can keep him under 100. And maybe he scores only one touchdown instead of making him an All-American on Saturday. If we can just contain him and let him get his but not make him an All-American on Saturday, then I like our chances. “

 

Game Notes

  • Elon senior quarterback Thomas Wilson was on Breitenstein’s North Carolina Shrine Bowl team in 2007. “He’s a tough kid,” Wilson said. “I know we had a couple dive plays from under center when we were handing the ball off. Just because of his ability to bury his nose down in there and pick up three or four yards. Even if there was nothing there, he’d make something out of nothing.”
  • On Sept. 29, 2001, eleven years ago, Elon earned its first ever victory in Rhodes Stadium, defeating Gardner-Webb interestingly enough 27-14 on Family Weekend.
  • The Terriers, led by Breitenstein and junior H-back Donovan Johnson, are tops in the FCS in rushing offense.
  • Elon and Wofford are meeting for the 36th time, the sixth time at Rhodes Stadium.