Wake Forest vs. Elon Game Preview
9/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 17, 2009
Video: Game Preview With Jim Grobe
Game Notes: Wake Forest 
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By Alex Botoman, WakeForestSports.com
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - When Wake Forest (1-1) takes on Elon (2-0) on Saturday, it will be the first meeting between the regional rivals in 70 years. Despite being only 50 miles apart from each other, the Demon Deacons last played the Phoenix, then the Fighting Christians, in 1939. Wake leads the overall series 8-0-1.
In addition to geographical ties, the two schools also represent different generations of the Southern Conference. Wake Forest was a member of the Southern Conference from 1936-1953 before leaving to become a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Elon recently joined the Southern Conference in 2003.
Despite being a Football Championship Subdivision team, Elon is not to be taken lightly as they are currently ranked No. 11 in the FCS and have outscored their first two opponents, Davidson and Presbyterian, by a combined score of 97-7.
"I would think people would look at what's happened with all the Top 25 I-AA teams. They've all acquitted themselves very well and in some cases beating I-A teams and in some cases playing them right to the wire," said head coach Jim Grobe. "We have to play hard to have a chance to win. We have a heck of a football team coming to town."
Elon runs a high-powered spread offence that averaged 595 yards over their first two games -- tops in the FCS. The Phoenix boast a highly-decorated receiver in Terrell Hudgins who is the active leader in almost every career FCS receiving category. Hudgins is also only 27 receptions shy of the FCS career receptions record, and he has a chance this season to break Jerry Rice's FCS record for career receiving yards.
Delivering the ball to Hudgins and the rest of the Elon receiving corps is quarterback Scott Riddle. Riddle is one of the top players at his position in the FCS and is the all-time Southern Conference leader in touchdown passes. The Phoenix also have an experienced offensive line as they return all five starters from last season.
"It's very easy to turn the video on and see that Elon is very talented. They have a great quarterback, a great wideout, five offensive linemen that started every game last year that are all back," said Grobe. "You have a tendency to look at the quarterback, look at the receiver and talk a lot about them, but if you look around you see a lot of great players on the team."
More than a few FCS teams have defeated or put a scare into FBS teams already this season, and the Demon Deacons are determined to not underestimate the threat that Elon poses.
"We don't think of Elon as a (FCS) team and that we are going to beat them badly," said defensive end Gelo Orange. "We think that every team could beat us, but also that we can beat every team."
"The playing field is leveling and teams are getting great players. It's only a matter of time until everyone is competing with everyone," added linebacker Hunter Haynes. "It's really not that hard to turn on the film and see that Elon has good players. I'm sure we get more hype than them, but they are a great football team. Regardless of who they are or where they are from they want to come in and win."
The task of stopping the dynamic Elon offense will fall to a Wake defense that came together in the second half of the Stanford game, keeping the Cardinal from extending their halftime lead.
"We really did come out flat (against Stanford), and it felt like that as a player. We have a lot of new guys in some new spots, and at halftime everybody just looked each other in the eyes and realized that we have to step up," said Haynes. "You have to know what it feels like to play at (high) intensity, and I feel like, as a defense, we did that in the second half. Now that we know that feeling, it has to be like that every play."
After a sluggish start, the offense also clicked against Stanford racking up over 450 yards of total offense. Of that total, 250 yards came on the ground where a triumvirate of running backs in Kevin Harris, Josh Adams, and Brandon Pendergrass as well as receivers Devon Brown and Chris Givens shared the carries.
"Once Josh hits a hole, he's making a guy miss and when Kevin hits a hole he's running somebody over," said guard Jeff Griffin. "(Pendergrass) does a little bit of both. He's a little power guy, and he can juke people."
"You see the carries we get. It's basically like a running back in the slot position," said Chris Givens of Wake's offensive scheme. "Playing running back my entire life has made the transition to playing slot easier."
In the game against Stanford, especially in the second half, the Demon Deacon offense was able to put together several sustained drives including three of longer than 70 yards, all of those going for touchdowns. Continuing this trend against Elon will be important, as Wake Forest will want to control the ball and keep the potent Phoenix offense off of the field.
"When you have a defense on their heels like we had Stanford in the second half, you just keep pushing them and pushing them, and they start getting tired. It's a lot of fun," said Griffin. "When it's the fourth quarter and everybody's tired, it just comes down to who wants it more."
Regardless of the outcome, it seems likely that the matchup of two high-powered offenses should make for an exciting football game that is an important one for both teams. For Wake Forest it presents an opportunity to achieve a winning record, while Elon will be looking to become the latest FCS school to knock off one of their higher division brethren.
"I know they're coming in here looking for a win, and we're looking for a win, so it's going to be two talented teams playing well," said Givens. "It's going to be a hard-fought game."
Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at BB&T Field. The game can be heard on the Wake Forest ISP Radio Network, and can be seen online on ACC Select.
