ELON, N.C. -- As spring football practice is winding down, we took a few minutes to sit down and speak with Elon's new offensive coordinator Chris Pincince.  Pincince spent the previous three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Rhode Island.

What attracted you to the job here at Elon?

My prior relationship with Coach Swepson was a big part of why I chose to come to Elon. The academics and location of Elon as well as the recent success they have had down here in the last four years were also factors.

Can you talk a little about your relationship with Coach Swepson?

I’ve known Coach Swepson now for about 16 or 17 years. We met my last year playing. He was the wide receivers coach at Boston University where I was a player. We just kept in touch and talked. We met a lot during recruiting on the road and talked about recruits and philosophies offensively. We've just been really good friends.

What did you know about the Elon program before you interviewed here?

I came down last spring, coincidently, to come down and meet the former staff and talk football. I was pretty familiar with what they had done here in the last four years. I'm familiar with the national college stage at the Division I FCS level where Elon has had a lot of success. Academically, Elon has a great tradition. Football-wise the program has been heading in the right direction.

With your spread offense, you have had some quarterbacks put up very impressive numbers. What is the key to being a successful quarterback in this system and what do you ask of your quarterback?

The key is that they have a lot of talent. Being very smart, being in the system for a year or two helps. Most quarterbacks who have had success in this system have had a year or two to get to know it. But really we are trying to surround them with really good players. You could be the best quarterback in the world, but if you do not have good players around you are not going to have good numbers at the end. So we are going to try to accumulate as many good players as we can and give ourselves a smart quarterback who does what we ask of him.

What will be the big difference in the style of offense from last season to the upcoming season?

To the fans, to the outside world, it is going to look pretty familiar to what we’ve done in the past here offensively. We will be predominately shotgun, predominately one-back in the backfield. We will throw the ball quite a bit. Terminology was different and that has taken some adjustng to for the kids. But for the most part there is only a certain amount of ways you can put 11 guys out onto the field. It will look similar to what we’ve had before.

You are also coaching the running backs here at Elon. What has stood out to you with guys like #A.J. Harris and Jamal Shuman#?

We’ve got some kids that have some experience, which is good, very good. A.J. has played a lot of football here. Jamal not so much over the past couple of years because of injuries. But between those two and Dontay Taylor we have three quality running backs that I think can play in this league. It’s great obviously that we have some experience. All three are seniors, all three are in there last year, all three have had a little success here during their career. We will use all three of them and all three can be very good players for us.

What is your overall impression of your offense as spring practice winds down?

I think they have been very good. We’ve been slow as far as installation goes. We try to have everyone figure it out. But they are very, very smart kids that are willing to change. We have probably put in about half to three quarters of the offense right now and they are really intelligent guys. They have grasped what we are doing. They have done an outstanding job of adapting and doing what we have asked them to do. We will see good results when we come back in August. We have tried here in the spring to let them get a feel for everything we do. We will try to hone in on what we think our kids are best at come August.

After each of the past two seasons, this Elon offense has lost a player who has rewritten numerous records at the program, SoCon and national level. How do you go about replacing players like that?

Sell the school. Sell the facility. Sell the fact that Terrell (Hudgins) had 395 catches during his career here. We are hoping that at the end of the day Aaron Mellette can reach that or exceed that. We hope that we can get someone in the future that can get close to Scott Riddle’s numbers. Scott Riddle was an exceptional player but he also had the experience of playing four seasons. You sell the system. Sell the fact that you can come in as a running back, wide receiver or quarterback and get plugged right into the system and have that kind of success that those kids had. And use the past to help us out in the future.

How has your experience at different schools evolved to your present coaching style?

The last two schools that I was at were a great combination of Elon. I was at Holy Cross in the Patriot League, spent four seasons there. Great academic school, great FCS academic institution that really stresses the student-athlete. We had a lot of success football-wise but were unable to take that next step of reaching the playoffs. But we did it with great kids, we did it with great families. With kids that understood that you have to go to class, you have to get an education. My last job was the University of Rhode Island. We played in the CAA for football, which is arguably one of the best conferences in FCS football with the Southern Conference. We played against some of the top competition out there in the country. We played playoff teams and beat playoff teams. That kind of got me excited to be at a place where we can combine playoff level FCS football and get kids great educations and sell the fact that after they graduate they are going to get a job that will help them out with their families.