Tough, Talented Evan Elder Ready for NCAA Division III Playoff Debut

Evan Elder (13) has a team high 52 tackles this season. (Chris Zollner Photo)

Veteran Centre College coach Andy Frye has a simple philosophy about what type of player he wants on this roster.

“I will take tough over talent. I will take both but normally if you are tough you become talented,” Frye said.

That’s why Frye is such a fan of senior linebacker Evan Elder, a former Louisville Trinity standout.

“He epitomizes what toughness can do. He worked his butt off and became better,” said Frye.

Elder and the Colonels went 8-2 this season and will face Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh in the NCAA Division III playoffs Saturday at noon (the game will be shown on ESPN+). Elder leads the Colonels with 52 tackles, including 30 solo stops. He has eight tackles for loss, seven quarterback hurries and 4.5 quarterback sacks.

The game location could not be more perfect for the 6-0, 210-pound Elder because he’s a “huge” Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

“My dad grew up a Steelers fan so I was brainwashed into it at an early age,” the Centre senior said. “And the Steelers host the Bengals (Sunday), so that would be cool to work out to see that game for me.”

Elder is not surprised the Colonels are in the playoffs.

“I think our senior class is an extremely tight knit group. I don’t think anybody was surprised at all with the outcome of this season, especially with how everybody worked,” Elder said. “I think early on we all understood what our goal was and how we were going to get to it. I think everyone bought into that extremely well.

“I have been a part of teams all my life where there may be one guy who’s a little selfish, and this is one of the most selfless groups I’ve been a part of, and I think that played a huge role in getting us to where we are today.”

Players in Elder’s class had to deal with COVID during their high school senior season but he was lucky and got basically a full season even though some of his classmates did not.

“After I’d committed to Centre, I was aware that they were having only a spring (football) season but we still had a big class coming in,” he said.

Even though Trinity is a traditional state high school football power, Elder understood he would have to work for playing time and it took him until his junior season to get on the field full time.

“I would have loved to come in and been a starter from day one, but I knew from the jump, especially after I committed, that wasn’t going to be the case,” Elder said. “I knew I’d have to work for what I wanted, and it wasn’t going to come easy, especially when I got here. I knew that from the jump that it wasn’t going to be easy to get what I wanted but it is just kind of one of those moments where you put your head down and work.”

Elder also says he was playing behind several really good players, including All-American Armon Wells, his first two years at Centre that enabled him to watch and learn.

“Them graduating helped me move up, but I think something that also helped me was the defense became just kind of a second nature to me,” Elder said. “I could not only just not even think about whatever we’re running, but also just help other people around me to understand the defense and help them play better. Our team as a whole is full of athletes, and so it wasn’t going to be easy to become a starter.”

Once Elder got on the field, he’s non-stop action. Even if he’s not making a tackle, he’s usually involved in some type of contact.

“That’s kind of what kept me playing football from a young age. (Defensive coordinator) coach (Carter) Conley actually says football is the most fun ever because it’s the only time you can hit somebody as hard as you can without getting in trouble for it,” Elder, a former lacrosse player, said.  “I never really thought about it that way. But I mean, he’s not wrong. It’s an intense game and the  ultimate team sport.”

Now he’s playing with house money going into the playoffs with nothing to lose in Saturday’s game.

“We’re in the playoffs. We’re like, I don’t care who they are, what they do, we’re just going to go play,” Elder said. “This is my first time being in the playoffs since I’ve been here. So I’ve got to approach it with kind of a chip on my shoulder. I’m sure our defense and team as a whole has to do the same.

“We can’t really get complacent with the fact that, ‘Oh, we made the playoffs. Cool.’ We always say it is a one game season, so take everything one game at a time. Coach Conley describes every week as Super Bowl week and this certainly qualifies as a Super Bowl week for us.”