“That’s what it’s all about,” Swepson said. “It’s about pride and really taking an opportunity away from someone else and playing spoiler.”
The Bulldogs are fighting for a Football Championship Subdivision playoff spot, and a win against the Phoenix would go a long way.
But Elon’s seniors are playing in their final home game, and would love to go out winners.
“We can call it pride. We can call it a lot of things,” said senior offensive lineman Justin Ward. “We’re definitely going to try and win, but we all play for the name on the front of the jersey. You never want Elon to lose to another Southern Conference school, so we’re really going to play for Elon, our student body, ourselves and our coaches, our families and hopefully get a win this Saturday.”
The Phoenix has lost a shot at the conference title, the playoffs, a winning season. All those are things to play for are no longer there. But Saturday’s game is Senior Day, a chance for the ten players in their final season to end their careers at Rhodes Stadium on a high note. They’ve been at Elon for two different coaching staffs, most of them for a run to the playoffs in 2009, and three seasons of six wins or less.
“These guys have seen a lot,” Swepson said. “They welcomed me with open arms (in 2011), and that’s something I’ll never forget. And when you bring in 40 freshmen, you better have senior leadership. These 10 guys really took these freshmen and really showed them the ropes.”
In order to have their last home game be a happy memory, the seniors will need to slow down a Samford team that is playing its last SoCon game this season. The Bulldogs are 6-3, 4-3 in the conference, and a seventh overall win and fifth conference win would go a long way towards reaching the playoffs.
In Samford’s most recent game, they upset No. 6 Wofford College in double-overtime. Senior quarterback Andy Summerlin hit junior wide receiver Kelsey Pope for a 12-yard touchdown, then senior defensive back Alvin Hines II recovered a fumble on the ensuing Wofford possession to lead the Bulldogs to a 24-17 win.
“You just turn on the film and you know they’re physical,” Swepson said. “They run the football and they can throw it. They’ve got good skill players. They’re just a big, physical football team and they’re going to try and impose their will on us.”
The Bulldogs have been paced this season by junior running back Fabian Truss, who is sixth in the SoCon with 879 rushing yards this season while tacking on nine touchdowns. For a team in Elon that is struggling to stop the run and has faced several good runners this season, it’s more of the same.
“This league is filled with good running backs,” Swepson said. “We’ve got our hands full. We’re going to have to stop the run for us to be successful.”
To do that, senior linebacker Blake Thompson said Elon will need to do all the basics.
“We need everybody to focus on every single play,” he said. “We need 11 hats around the football. We need to finish plays. We need to start the game and finish the game. We need to play with our hair on fire.”
That hair on fire may the crucial for Elon. Two weeks ago against Furman, Swepson said Rhodes Stadium “felt like a coffin” and that his team needed to “create” its own energy.
“It’s a home game for us and we know our home routine,” Swepson said. “The bottom line is we’re going to have to play well and we’re going to have to play with some enthusiasm. I think one thing that we learned in our last home game is that we have to bring our own energy. We can’t rely on anyone else but us to bring that energy on Saturday.”
Perhaps one way to derive that energy is to rely on those seniors.
“We’ve got nothing to lose. Just go out there and play loose and excited and happy and see what happens,” Swepson said. “We’re going to try to defend our turf. I know the seniors are going to play hard and I’m excited about the team’s attitude right now. They just want to have some fun and let everyone know that we can play some football and see if we can win one.”
For Thompson, Saturday hearkens back memories of childhood games when, if you lose, you get to “run it back” one more time.
“It just goes back to when you’re young playing sports,” he said. “You’re not really playing for much. You’re just playing to have fun and playing to win and to beat your friend in a game of 21 in the backyard. So it’s just playing to win. When you lose, you say run it back. We’ve only got two more chances to run it back, so we’ve just got to attack.”
- The Phoenix has lost junior defensive tackle Tony Thompson and sophomore running back Karl Bostick for the rest of the season with injuries, and junior punter Kenton Beal is "extremely doubtful" for the game according to Swepson.
- Elon senior wide receiver Aaron Mellette was named the SoCon's Offensive Player of the Month for October. In just three games, he had 32 catches for 595 yards and eight touchdowns.
- On Nov. 10, 1928, Elon earned its first victory of the season over the University of Miami.
- Elon holds a 7-3 edge on the Bulldogs in the all-time series. Elon won the first game 33-10 in 1973.