ELON, N.C. – The Elon University football team will return to Rhodes Stadium for its first home game of the 2023 season Saturday. The Phoenix went undefeated at home in 2022 in its return to the FCS playoffs and will look to bring that same energy for the home crowd during Saturday's game against North Carolina A&T
Rising Phoenix sat down with the four team captains ahead of the home opener.
*(All stats are updated as of Sept. 9)
Chandler Brayboy - Wide Receiver - Pembroke, N.C.
The redshirt junior has played in 35 games for the Phoenix over his five seasons with the team. He played in all 12 games in 2022 on his way to a Third Team All-CAA selection as a specialist. He posted a career-high 475 receiving yards on 28 receptions last season. Brayboy is now just 14 receptions away from the 100 mark in his Elon career.
Q: What's your pregame routine?
Brayboy: I'm a very nervous guy before a game, I guess because I care so much. Since I'm Native American, I listen to the Native flute since it's very calm and soothing. I sit there and try not to listen for more than five minutes because I don't want to get too relaxed but at the same time I want to calm the body down.
Q: What goals do you have for the team this year?
Brayboy: Just be a great group of guys on and off the field. Sometimes in life, you have to sit back and know football is not everything, which the younger guys think it is. But as a whole, I would say just be undefeated at home once again, win the CAA championship and then of course win a playoff game and ride that wave and be the best team that we can be.
Q: What are you looking to bring to the table as a captain?
Brayboy: I'm not a vocal guy. I'm more of a "pull a guy off to the side and chat about his life and make sure he's good health wise off the field" type of dude. I like touching base off the field because I feel like when you're winning off the field, you also have a good spirit and win on the field.
Q: What advice do you like to give your teammates going into each game?
Brayboy: Be yourself. Don't try to do too much. You're here for a reason and a lot of people believe in you. Be you and do what you've got to do. You're here, so what got you here? See how far that can take you.
Q: What's one word you would use to describe the team this year?
Brayboy: I want to say energetic and I feel like that's a great word because, in practice, the defense is always the energetic group but in a game when the offense and defense combines and we're going for one goal, the energy level is absurd. And I love it.
Bo Sanders - Defensive Back - Indianapolis, Ind.
Through five seasons with the Phoenix, Sanders has played in 36 games. The senior has recorded 98 solo tackles with a career high 46 coming in the 2022 season. Sanders has also moved into the role of a punt returner for 2023 and has so far returned four punts for 25 yards.
Q: What's your pregame routine?
Sanders: I'm a pretty nervous guy before we play because I know what it takes to play football at a high level. I just try to fight off the nerves and just get some food and drink a lot of water. I'd say I probably drink the most water on the team, but then I just go and play football.
Q: What goals do you have for the team this year?
Sanders: Keep the main thing the main thing. Just go 1-0 every week. Take it one week at a time and one practice at a time.
Q: What are you looking to bring to the table as a captain?
Sanders: I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing the past four and a half years – being a leader and bringing people with me. I've got to keep coming to work everyday with a smile on my face and impact as many people as I can.
Q: What advice do you like to give your teammates going into each game?
Sanders: Fly around and play football. The thing I tell them is "find the football." One key I've been telling them this year is the play doesn't care who makes it. If you have the opportunity to make the play, you've got to make the play.
Q: What's one word you would use to describe the team this year?
Sanders: I'd say gritty. I'm a big listener of "Pardon My Take," it's a Barstool podcast and they talk about grit. And shoutout to those guys because they're a big part of my game day routine to try not to think about football. But it's just grit. It's finding a way to win, finding a way to get through it and finding a way to get the job done
Dylan Tucker - Defensive Back - Charlotte, N.C.
After missing 2022 due to injury, Tucker is back on the field and a force to be reckoned with. The redshirt sophomore has already recorded nine tackles through Elon's first two games in 2023. Over the span of his Elon career, Tucker has 59 total tackles with 48 of them being solo.
Q: What's your pregame routine?
Tucker: I listen to music, but I kind of try to listen to whatever music they have on in the weight room to try and get the vibe of the team and listen to what everybody else is listening to. I like to laugh a bit and have a bit of fun to just calm myself down.
Q: What goals do you have for the team this year?
Tucker: I think we have a strong team and a strong bond as a team. So my goal for starters is to win a CAA championship. It's never been done here before so we always talk about wanting to make history and be the team that can be looked back on and put up a banner in the fieldhouse.
Q: What are you looking to bring to the table as a captain?
Tucker: I'm looking to lead by example. I've been here for a while so just being able to play fast and communicate and show the guys a standard on how to pick each other up and stay positive at all times and just how to deal with adversity. I just want to be putting things on tape so down the line for years to come, you can see the culture and how we were as a team and how we were as a unit.
Q: What advice do you like to give your teammates going into each game?
Tucker: I like to yell at them, but it's uplifting yelling. Just tell them it's our day or it's your day. Make the plays, envision yourself in certain situations and let's go out and work.
Q: What's one word you would use to describe the team this year?
Tucker: It's going to sound weird, but juicy. We just run on juice. We come on to practice and it's BYOJ: bring your own juice. Be the spark. It sounds crazy when you say juicy at first but just bring energy and enthusiasm and just leave it all out there. Whatever you have, just make sure you put it all out there.
Jabril Williams - Offensive Line - Statesville, N.C.
Williams, a redshirt junior, returns to the Phoenix after a successful 2022 campaign. The Third Team All-CAA selection has started every game since the 2021 season and helped the offensive unit rush for 120+ yards 10 times in 2022. Williams also helped the offense work in the passing game, as Elon ranked in the top 20 nationally in efficiency and yards per completion a season ago.
Q: What's your pregame routine?
Williams: It mostly just consists of waking up and eating something really light. Then, I like to listen to some very slow music, especially when we get to the game to calm myself down.
Q: What goals do you have for the team this year?
Williams: We're looking to win every game possible and whatever game we get a chance to play. The game is sacred and we want to go out and win every single one. Of course, you want a CAA championship but it starts off one game at a time.
Q: What are you looking to bring to the table as a captain?
Williams: Just showing guys to do the right things. I'm a guy who likes to lead by action and make sure that I'm doing the right things. Make sure other guys are also on top of those things. And hopefully guys tend to learn from me from my mistakes or things I've done correctly and incorporate it into how they play and how they come about themselves.
Q: What advice do you like to give your teammates going into each game?
Williams: Just have fun. At the end of the day, football's just a game. If you're having fun and doing what you need to do and just everybody's playing fast and carefree. That's how you know you're not going to make the most mistakes if you're constantly worrying about what you got to do. And just know your assignments and know what you got to do.
Q: What's one word you would use to describe the team this year?
Williams: Hungry. We came up short last year with winning the CAA so we want to go out and take it this year.
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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