Leatherneck Nation

It's probably a lot more common than i think i don't know a whole lot about the way recruiting is done.

No new news on the coaching staff? WOW School resumes Tuesday.

Our new D-coordinator...

DAVID ELSON
David Elson
Position: Defensive Coordinator/Recruiting Coordinator
Alma Mater: Butler, 1994
David Elson has finished his second season as an assistant coach for the Salukis and his first season as defensive coordinator after earning the promotion following the 2014 season. Elson also works with SIU's secondary and leads the program's recruiting efforts.
In Elson's first season as the program's defensive coordinator, three of his players finished in the top five in the MVFC in tackles per game (Chase Allen, Kenny James and Markese Jackson). Allen and James earned All-MVFC recognition after the season.

Elson is no stranger to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, having served as the head coach at Western Kentucky for seven seasons from 2003 to 2009. He helped lead the Hilltoppers through their transition from the FCS to the FBS. Prior to his head coaching tenure, he was the defensive coordinator at WKU under Jack Harbaugh and helped the team win the 2002 I-AA national championship.

Among the players Elson mentored while at Western was wide receiver Curtis Hamilton, who played in the NFL for the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints, and cornerback Joseph Jefferson, who played for the Indianapolis Colts.

Elson became the youngest Division I head coach when he was tapped to lead WKU before the 2003 season. He made the I-AA playoffs in both 2003 and 2004. After losing 25 seniors from his 2003 team, Elson guided the 2004 Hilltoppers to a 9-4 record and a 6-1 mark in the Gateway. That team made a quarterfinal appearance in the FCS Playoffs, and Elson was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award. His 2005 team reached a No. 1 national ranking twice during the year, and his 2003 and 2004 teams both finished the season ranked in the top-15 nationally. Nine of his players earned All-America accolades.

Elson is also familiar with Southern Illinois, having spent two years in Carbondale as SIU's graduate assistant in 1994 and 1995.

Prior to becoming Southern's secondary coach in 2014, Elson served two years as defensive coordinator at New Mexico State. He spent the 2010 season on the Indiana University coaching staff as defensive quality control coach before his time at New Mexico State.

A 1994 graduate of Butler, Elson was a three-year letter winner and started at strong safety his final two seasons. The Bulldogs captured the conference championship in both his sophomore and junior years.

A native of Indianapolis, Elson and his wife Kathy have three daughters, Lauren, Jessica and Maggie.

02/04/2015
Coach Lennon Signing Day press conference transcript
Head coach Dale Lennon met with the media to discuss his 26-member 2015 recruiting class
12/27/2014
Lennon announces coaching staff changes
Elson, Hill and O'Boyle earn promotions
08/10/2015
2015 Fall Camp: Day Two
Photos from the second day of fall camp.

Look to have a new LB Coach - Garry Fisher

https://twitter.com/linebackers101

http://www.ekusports.com/coaches.aspx?r ... h=football

Leatherneck57 wrote:Our new D-coordinator...

DAVID ELSON
David Elson
Position: Defensive Coordinator/Recruiting Coordinator
Alma Mater: Butler, 1994
David Elson has finished his second season as an assistant coach for the Salukis and his first season as defensive coordinator after earning the promotion following the 2014 season. Elson also works with SIU's secondary and leads the program's recruiting efforts.
In Elson's first season as the program's defensive coordinator, three of his players finished in the top five in the MVFC in tackles per game (Chase Allen, Kenny James and Markese Jackson). Allen and James earned All-MVFC recognition after the season.

Elson is no stranger to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, having served as the head coach at Western Kentucky for seven seasons from 2003 to 2009. He helped lead the Hilltoppers through their transition from the FCS to the FBS. Prior to his head coaching tenure, he was the defensive coordinator at WKU under Jack Harbaugh and helped the team win the 2002 I-AA national championship.

Among the players Elson mentored while at Western was wide receiver Curtis Hamilton, who played in the NFL for the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints, and cornerback Joseph Jefferson, who played for the Indianapolis Colts.

Elson became the youngest Division I head coach when he was tapped to lead WKU before the 2003 season. He made the I-AA playoffs in both 2003 and 2004. After losing 25 seniors from his 2003 team, Elson guided the 2004 Hilltoppers to a 9-4 record and a 6-1 mark in the Gateway. That team made a quarterfinal appearance in the FCS Playoffs, and Elson was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award. His 2005 team reached a No. 1 national ranking twice during the year, and his 2003 and 2004 teams both finished the season ranked in the top-15 nationally. Nine of his players earned All-America accolades.

Elson is also familiar with Southern Illinois, having spent two years in Carbondale as SIU's graduate assistant in 1994 and 1995.

Prior to becoming Southern's secondary coach in 2014, Elson served two years as defensive coordinator at New Mexico State. He spent the 2010 season on the Indiana University coaching staff as defensive quality control coach before his time at New Mexico State.

A 1994 graduate of Butler, Elson was a three-year letter winner and started at strong safety his final two seasons. The Bulldogs captured the conference championship in both his sophomore and junior years.

A native of Indianapolis, Elson and his wife Kathy have three daughters, Lauren, Jessica and Maggie.

02/04/2015
Coach Lennon Signing Day press conference transcript
Head coach Dale Lennon met with the media to discuss his 26-member 2015 recruiting class
12/27/2014
Lennon announces coaching staff changes
Elson, Hill and O'Boyle earn promotions
08/10/2015
2015 Fall Camp: Day Two
Photos from the second day of fall camp.

I hope are defensive is better than SIU was this past season.

ibleedpurpleandgold wrote:

Leatherneck57 wrote:Our new D-coordinator...

DAVID ELSON
David Elson
Position: Defensive Coordinator/Recruiting Coordinator
Alma Mater: Butler, 1994
David Elson has finished his second season as an assistant coach for the Salukis and his first season as defensive coordinator after earning the promotion following the 2014 season. Elson also works with SIU's secondary and leads the program's recruiting efforts.
In Elson's first season as the program's defensive coordinator, three of his players finished in the top five in the MVFC in tackles per game (Chase Allen, Kenny James and Markese Jackson). Allen and James earned All-MVFC recognition after the season.

Elson is no stranger to the Missouri Valley Football Conference, having served as the head coach at Western Kentucky for seven seasons from 2003 to 2009. He helped lead the Hilltoppers through their transition from the FCS to the FBS. Prior to his head coaching tenure, he was the defensive coordinator at WKU under Jack Harbaugh and helped the team win the 2002 I-AA national championship.

Among the players Elson mentored while at Western was wide receiver Curtis Hamilton, who played in the NFL for the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints, and cornerback Joseph Jefferson, who played for the Indianapolis Colts.

Elson became the youngest Division I head coach when he was tapped to lead WKU before the 2003 season. He made the I-AA playoffs in both 2003 and 2004. After losing 25 seniors from his 2003 team, Elson guided the 2004 Hilltoppers to a 9-4 record and a 6-1 mark in the Gateway. That team made a quarterfinal appearance in the FCS Playoffs, and Elson was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award. His 2005 team reached a No. 1 national ranking twice during the year, and his 2003 and 2004 teams both finished the season ranked in the top-15 nationally. Nine of his players earned All-America accolades.

Elson is also familiar with Southern Illinois, having spent two years in Carbondale as SIU's graduate assistant in 1994 and 1995.

Prior to becoming Southern's secondary coach in 2014, Elson served two years as defensive coordinator at New Mexico State. He spent the 2010 season on the Indiana University coaching staff as defensive quality control coach before his time at New Mexico State.

A 1994 graduate of Butler, Elson was a three-year letter winner and started at strong safety his final two seasons. The Bulldogs captured the conference championship in both his sophomore and junior years.

A native of Indianapolis, Elson and his wife Kathy have three daughters, Lauren, Jessica and Maggie.

02/04/2015
Coach Lennon Signing Day press conference transcript
Head coach Dale Lennon met with the media to discuss his 26-member 2015 recruiting class
12/27/2014
Lennon announces coaching staff changes
Elson, Hill and O'Boyle earn promotions
08/10/2015
2015 Fall Camp: Day Two
Photos from the second day of fall camp.

I hope are defensive is better than SIU was this past season.

Good point but you're only as good as the talent you have...

Here's Coach Elson's Wikipedia page for breakdown of where he's been: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Elson
And his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/coachdavidelson

SIU's defense last year was pretty horrible, which does kinda worry me. On the other hand, he did do really well as the DC for Western Kentucky when he was there. How much of that was him and how much was Jack Harbaugh, it's difficult for me to say. He struggled as HC at WKU, but that was during the transition to FBS and it's possible that he's the kind of guy who just isn't (or at least wasn't at that point in his career) cut out for a HC job, but could still do well at a DC position. Something else to keep in mind, he did take over as the HC of a team that was on it's way to FBS when he was only 31 and it was his first HC job. Even a couple years into the job, he was still the youngest HC in Division 1. So, it's possible that his difficulties there were just due to lack of experience rather than lack of ability. He was also the recruiting coordinator for SIU, so he may have his eye on some quality kids to bring in that had been looked at by SIU.

I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt though and see how things go for the next couple of years. Hopefully his issues at SIU had more to do with the talent level rather than his coaching/playcalling ability.

Looks like Jason Enos will be on staff not sure what role he served as defensive assistant/D-line last yr.

Also looks like David Milke will be retained as the Director of Football Operations. Here's his bio from last year as a reminder: http://goleathernecks.com/coaches.aspx? ... h=football
Him and Enos were both linked in a recent tweet going around that lists all the coaches twitter handles.

ST_Lawson wrote:Also looks like David Milke will be retained as the Director of Football Operations. Here's his bio from last year as a reminder: http://goleathernecks.com/coaches.aspx? ... h=football
Him and Enos were both linked in a recent tweet going around that lists all the coaches twitter handles.

yes that was the tweet that i saw i didn't see Milke name in the post when i originally saw it but saw it later.