1996-2000: Elson is hired by former Head Coach Jack Harbaugh as an assistant coach and works primarily with defensive backs.
2001-2002: Elson serves as defensive coordinator.
Dec. 20, 2002: The Toppers win the Division I-AA (now Football Championship Series) national title.
March 5, 2003: Elson is hired to replace Harbaugh, who resigned as head coach.
2006: Western begins a transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Jan. 30, 2009: The Board of Regents approves Elson’s contract extension from June 30, 2012 to June 30, 2016.
Sept. 20, 2008: Western defeats FCS opponent Murray State in the season’s home opener. The Toppers have not won since. They have a 17-game losing streak.
Nov. 8, 2009: Athletics Director Wood Selig and President Gary Ransdell decide Elson won’t be retained after the season ends, though he’ll coach the Toppers’ last three games.
Western’s two years of transitioning to Division 1-A football have led to a season of expectations without restrictions.
The Toppers have a tangible goal to meet this fall for the first time in two years, and senior punter Jeremy Moore said that the team is motivated to prove itself against Sun Belt Conference competition.
“We’ve been in our so-called transition, and now all our ducks are in a row,” he said. “We’ve got everything lined up, and I definitely think we’re right there ready to compete with the top of the Sun Belt.”
Now a full-fledged member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Toppers are bowl-eligible if they win six games, as are the other 119 teams competing at college football’s highest level.
They’re also in the running for the Sun Belt championship after playing a limited number of games against league opponents for the past two seasons.
Senior wide receiver Jake Gaebler said completing the transition has gone a long way in increasing the team’s anticipation heading into the 2009 season.
“Having that chance to play for a championship, a conference championship and then go to a bowl game, that’s huge,” Gaebler said. “That puts a lot of excitement back into the locker room and back into the university.”
The Toppers went 9-15 in their two NCAA-mandated transition seasons, but among those nine wins, only one was against an FBS opponent.
Part of the transition allows for increasing the talent base and using FBS status as leverage in recruiting, defensive coordinator Mike Dietzel said.
Western’s 2009 recruiting class was ranked first in the SBC by Rivals.com.
“We’ve got a great pool of talent, and with that talent now, we need to develop that talent,” Dietzel said. “We have to get them to understand how to play disciplined in a lot of instances, but then also be ready to turn them loose when we get a chance to do that.”
Part of Western’s attempt to attract that talent involved renovations to Houchens-Smith Stadium, which were completed late last season, and a new playing surface was installed in 2009.
Coach David Elson said that completion of the project has done a lot to lend stability to the team over the summer in preparation for its first full season of FBS competition.
“There’s so many things that are different,” Elson said about the program’s development. “We’re just so much better settled — better prepared, I think.”
The Toppers will play their first game as an official FBS member at 11 a.m. tomorrow when they travel to take on Tennessee.
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