Upon arrival at Elon, Pete Lembo, like any resourceful football coach, had to make do with what he had and get along with what he didn't.
In the four seasons since, Lembo and the Phoenix have gotten along famously.
"When we first got here, our offensive line was one of the weak points of the team," Lembo said. "So going to more of a spread-style offense was more out of necessity than anything else."
The result was one of the most wide-open offenses in all of college football, one that produced one of the best wide receivers in Southern Conference history and a quarterback who has passed for at least 300 yards 13 times in 25 games. The explosion has turned Elon from a SoCon afterthought into a contender.
Beating Wake Forest of the ACC this Saturday at BB&T Field in the first game since 1939 between the two schools will be another challenge altogether, but there's reason to believe that the Deacons will have to score more than a touchdown or two to prevail.
Quarterback Scott Riddle, the son of Elon alumni Jimmy Riddle, a linebacker, and Cathy Riddle, a captain of the cheerleaders, completed 263 of 427 passes last season for 2,871 yards and 24 touchdowns, with 15 interceptions for the Phoenix.
A junior from Ramseur, Riddle holds the SoCon record for throwing touchdown passes in 24 straight games, including a 56-0 drubbing of Davidson in the season opener and last week's 41-7 romp at Presbyterian.
Lembo said that there are more similarities between Riddle and quarterback Riley Skinner of Wake Forest than height, or lack thereof.
"He's got a strong arm," Lembo said of Riddle. "He's a savvy player, probably in some ways what (Wake Forest fans) have seen from their own quarterback the last few years.
"Scott's a gym-rat type kid, just very comfortable in that role.
"He's not the biggest guy, just 6-0 tall, but he's got a real passion for the game and he's a real competitor."
Riddle also has the good fortune of throwing to a target with the size, speed and hands of Terrell Hudgins, a 6-2, 236-pound senior wide receiver from Rocky Mount, who has amassed at least 100 receiving yards in a game a conference record 18 times. Hudgins was second-team All-America in the NCAA Division I Championship Subdivision last season after catching 86 passes for 1,116 yards and 10 touchdowns.
He's off to a fast start in his final season with 18 catches in the first two games for 290 yards and four touchdowns.
Lembo is steeped in wide-open, pass-oriented offense, which he ran during his five highly successful seasons (44-14) as coach at Lehigh.
But he said that the Phoenix is not the same one-dimensional team that it was his first season or two. Elon gained 186 of 575 yards on the ground against Davidson and 268 of 614 yards on the ground against Presbyterian. Jamal Shuman, a 5-7, 160-pound sophomore, carried 26 times for a career-high 190 yards against Presbyterian.
"I think one of the things that has made us better the last two years is we've become a much more balanced offense," Lembo said.
No one is more responsible for the matchup than Dr. Alan White, a former All-ACC back at Wake Forest, who was Elon's director of athletics from 1979 through 2006.
"This game, from what I understand, has been moved around a couple of times," Lembo said. "It was originally supposed to be played in '05, I believe, and at that time Elon did not have enough scholarships for it to count (toward Wake Forest's bowl eligibility).
"And then we were supposed to play in '07, my second year, and Wake had to move the game because of a conflict.
"If it goes well, we would certainly be interested in future games."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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