Saturday night, Nov. 23, in Birmingham, Ala., the Samford University football team scored a last-second touchdown to defeat Elon University, 33-32.
The loss dropped Elon to 2-10 overall and 1-7 in the Southern Conference, the second year in a row in which Elon held that mark in conference play under head coach Jason Swepson. By 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, Elon had issued an announcement on its athletic website reading: “Elon Launches Search for a New Head Football Coach.”
Earlier in the day, Swepson had been dismissed as head football coach, leaving a 10-24 record in three seasons at the helm of the Phoenix. The decision to remove Swepson might have been delayed slightly due to the fact that Dave Blank, Elon’s athletic director, was in California with the Elon men’s soccer team over the weekend when the Phoenix took on UCLA in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We played on Saturday,” Swepson said. “And I met with Dave Monday afternoon."
The meeting, Swepson said, was simple with the message that Elon needed to “make a change.”
"I want to thank Coach Swepson for his hard work and dedication to our football program during his time at Elon," Blank said in a statement to elonphoenix.com. "At this time, however, I believe that a change in leadership is necessary to move our program forward and provide the best opportunity for Elon student-athletes to succeed."
Swepson summarized the reason for his firing as the simplest measure of success.
“The bottom line is we didn’t win enough games,” he said.
Blank then had the task of informing the team of his decision at a team meeting. According to players, Swepson was not present for the meeting in which Blank informed the team the search for a new coach had begun.
When asked of the players’ reaction, an anonymous player told The Pendulum the room was in “dead silence but nobody was upset. We were in awe that it actually finally happened.”
The player did add that he and much of the team are sad for the assistants, who will likely not be retained. “A lot of them are good people,” he said.
Swepson leaves Elon with no hard feelings against the school.
“I had a great experience,” he said. “I believe I was a positive influence on the student athletes, like I said, we just didn’t get the wins.”
The 22-year coaching veteran plans to continue pursuing his passion as a career.
“I still believe I have 15 to 20 years left of coaching football at the college ranks or in the pro ranks,” Swepson said. “Once I started coaching, I knew this was what I wanted to do.”
Just as he is eager for his own future, Swepson believes there is potential at Elon.
“I think we left a lot of good young talent in the program,” Swepson said. “I feel good about that, sometimes you just don’t get enough time, that’s the nature of the business. I’m very thankful for President (Leo) Lambert, Dave Blank and his staff. I feel like our staff represented the university, brought in student-athletes that represented the university in a high manner. I wish everyone great success in the future.”
Swepson was introduced on Jan. 11, 2011, so it is reasonable to anticipate that Elon will announce its new coach by that time. The new coach will take over a team expected to return 14 of 22 starters from its final game of 2013.
Elon’s 2014 season, its first in the Colonial Athletic Association, kicks off Aug. 30 with a road game at Duke University.
More Elon Football
—2014 football schedule—Samford stuns Elon in final seconds
—Elon football leaves SoCon for CAA
—If Elon had been in the CAA this year...