ELON, N.C. -- The sixth-ranked Elon Phoenix will pay a visit to Western Carolina this weekend for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff from E.J. Whitmire Stadium in Cullowhee, N.C. on Saturday. The Phoenix enters with a 7-1 overall record and 5-0 SoCon ledger while the Catamounts are 1-7, 1-5 following a 24-20 defeat at Chattanooga last weekend.
Saturday's contest will be the 39th in the series between the Phoenix and Catamounts. Elon owns a 20-16-2 edge in the series and has won three straight match-ups. A Phoenix victory on Saturday would give Elon its longest winning streak against Western Carolina since winning the first seven games of the series.
The Phoenix sits at No. 6 in both The Sports Network top-25 the FCS Coaches top-25 polls for the second consecutive week.
With its win over Wofford last week, Elon improved to 7-1 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 1973-74 campaigns. In 1973, Elon went 12-1 with its only loss coming to Abilene Christian in the NAIA playoffs. In 1974, Elon was 10-1 before suffering a playoff loss to Henderson State.
In its first eight games of 2009, Elon has out-gained its opponents in total yardage by a 3,631-1,632 mark. The Phoenix has averaged 453.9 yards of total offense per game while allowing just 204.0 yards of total offense each outing. Elon rates fifth in the nation in total offense and leads in the country in total defense.
Elon will look to continue a trend of being successful on first down. The Phoenix has converted 53 of its 272 first down plays into either a touchdown or another first down (19.5 percent). On 272 of those first down plays, Elon has gained five or more yards 117 times (43.0 percent).
Elon head coach
Pete Lembo is in his ninth season as a collegiate head coach and his fourth with the Phoenix. Lembo sports a 71-29 overall record including a 27-15 mark at Elon.
The Elon defense has notched nine interceptions in eight games this season, including three in the win over Georgia Southern. Last year, the Phoenix defense picked off 10 passes. Senior defensive back
Cameron McGlenn has three picks, one each in Elon's first three games. He had just two career INTs entering the year.
In three of its last four games, Elon has not allowed a touchdown until the fourth quarter. In the other, the Phoenix did not allow a touchdown at all. Two of the three have come with under eight minutes to play. The Phoenix defense has not allowed a first half touchdown since Wake Forest found the end zone three times in the first 30 minutes on Sept. 19. Those are the only first half TDs allowed by the Elon defense this year.
Elon senior wide out
Terrell Hudgins and junior quarterback Riddle will look to continue their assault on record books this season.
Hudgins set a new NCAA Division I record with 331 career receptions during a victory over Furman. In the win at Wofford, Hudgins posted 153 receiving yards which gave him 24 career games with at least 100 yards to break the FCS record of 23 held by Jerry Rice. He is also just 35 receiving yards shy of setting the FCS record for career receiving yards held by Rice and just one 200+ yard receiving game shy of setting SoCon mark with four career 200+ yard receiving contests. Each currently has 23 100-yard receiving games. The FBS mark of 26 for that category is held by Nevada's Trevor Insley (1996-99).
Meanwhile, Riddle needs just three games of passing for 200 or more yards to reach the SoCon record for that category. He is now the league's all-time leader in career completions (802) and TD passes (74). Riddle sits second to Appalachian State's Armanti Edwards for the SoCon lead in passing yards. Riddle has thrown for 9,006 yards to Edwards' 9,184 yards. He also set a new record for most passing attempts without an interception at 218 before he was picked off in the fourth quarter against Georgia Southern.
-- ELON --