ELON – A warm November afternoon turned into an early Thanksgiving feast for the Elon football team. With one game left on the schedule, the Phoenix put all its plates on the table as it cruised to a 55-17 victory over North Carolina A&T. While the high-flying offense roasted the Aggie defense, Elon also brought a healthy fill of stuffing to the table on the defensive side to help finish the 2025 football season on a high note.
Elon turned the oven on immediately with a 66-yard kickoff return to start the game deep in A&T territory. The offense took the field, and no sooner had they gotten into their stances before they were jogging off again, celebrating as redshirt freshman quarterback Landen Clark connected with redshirt junior wide receiver Landyn Backey on the first play from scrimmage for a 29-yard touchdown. The score came only 17 seconds into the ballgame, the fastest time Elon has gotten on the board this season and the second time in the last two seasons that the team has found the endzone on the first play from scrimmage.
The Phoenix only turned up the heat from there. On A&T's opening drive, Elon pinned the Aggies behind the sticks for an early third down. That was when sophomore defensive end Kahmari Brown decided to crash the party, taking out the quarterback and forcing the ball loose, bouncing around until it was eventually recovered by Elon in the red zone. With excellent field position, Elon's offense made sure to capitalize on the turnover as Clark made a man miss as he scrambled in for a two-yard touchdown.
"When we're rolling, we really feed off of each other," head coach Tony Trisciani said. "We wanted to get out to a fast start. That was our plan."
Nobody had a better feast against the Aggies than Clark. The freshman phenom, coming off a CAA Rookie of the Week performance, dazzled when he had the chance. He racked up 231 yards on only 10 completions, with four of those connections going for six.
On the receiving end of half of Clark's tosses was wide receiver Isaiah Fuhrmann. The sophomore, who scored the miraculous 96 yard touchdown that helped Elon beat Campbell a week ago, kept his momentum going with six touches, 130 total yards, and two touchdowns. His performance against A&T marked his eighth game this season with a touchdown catch and fifth straight game making it into the endzone.
The chemistry between Clark and Fuhrmann has been on display all season, and it came through on a big play midway through the second quarter. After a false start on Fuhrmann before the play, Elon dialed up a deep shot to him. Clark stepped up in the pocket and lofted the ball into double coverage. For a second, the ball looked like it may slip into Aggie hands before Fuhrmann climbed the ladder and beat them to the punch, not only hauling in the contested catch but inexplicably breaking out of the grasps of both defenders and sauntering into the endzone as he looked back on the mess he made in the secondary.
"I would say for Isaiah, that play is normal," Clark said. "That's just what Isaiah does. That is what it is. Zay is down there somewhere."
While Clark dished out touchdowns to three different receivers through the air, he didn't forget to save some helpings for himself on the ground. He eclipsed the hundred yard mark for the first time in his young career, most of it coming on a third down run in the fourth quarter where he found space along the sideline and turned on the jets for an 86-yard touchdown, the longest run by an Elon player since 2018.
"Honestly, I was more happy for our offensive line," Clark said. "They were more happy than I think anybody could ever be. It was really good to see a smile on their faces."
The history books were in Elon's favor all game. Clark's two touchdowns on the ground gave him the most rushing scores in a single season by an Elon player, scoring his eleventh on that long run. Combined with junior running back Dan Frederick, who accumulated 101 yards and a touchdown as well, the two became the first duo of Elon players to both reach the century mark in the same game since 2009.
Clark wasn't the only player to reach the record books against the Aggies. Defensive end Kahmari Brown put together a legendary performance to finish off his 2025 campaign, accounting for 2.5 sacks, three tackles for loss and a QB hit. After breaking Elon's record for sacks in a season last week, the second-year player hit an unprecedented milestone against A&T, tying Elon's record for career sacks as only a sophomore. To add icing to the cake, Brown forced two fumbles, with both turnovers handing Elon's offense the ball in the redzone.
"I didn't want to make it about me," Brown said. "I wanted to make it about the D-Line, the linebackers, anybody on the defense I was playing for. I was playing for them and giving my all for them knowing it could be their last game ever."
While Brown was at the head, he wasn't the only one to help himself at the table. Elon's defense took down the quarterback nine times during the game, with redshirt senior defensive tackle Jake Louro recording a career-high two sacks in his finale at Rhodes Stadium. Other role players, such as redshirt junior defensive end Ethan Grace and freshman defensive end Rylan Shibley, also recorded solo sacks that helped keep the Aggies from building momentum offensively. In the secondary, redshirt sophomore safety Tony Hart III became another nightmare for the quarterback, plucking one ball out of the air in the second half and hopping on a fumble forced by Brown.
"We played together well," Brown said. "We were talking in practice, working hard in practice, working for everybody and one another. Obviously, it was our last game so it was just trying to get everybody some food."
Elon finished its season strong once again, taking home a win in the team's regular season finale for the fifth year in a row. While the Phoenix did face adversity during the season, building momentum heading into the offseason will hopefully pay dividends for the future.
"The resiliency in our program that we've developed is part of our DNA," Trisciani said. "There's some hard times, hard conversations that we have with each other, but it's all about the next snap. That's how you keep playing late in the season, and when you have mentally tough guys and relentless competitors, you want to win."
Elon has a lot to be thankful for after wrapping up its 2025 campaign. While the team will be feeling full heading into the offseason, Trisciani emphasized that he wants them to stay hungry as the page turns to 2026.
"I love the offseason," Trisciani said. "I can't wait to rebuild this team again. The foundation is strong and the talent is in the room."
'Rising Phoenix' is a 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 X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Sydney Spencer at sspencer9@elon.edu.
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