David Elson
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"David Elson" is an American football coach who is currently secondary coach for the Southern Illinois Salukis. Between 2003–2009 Elson was head coach of the WKU Hilltoppers football/WKU Hilltoppers football program representing Western Kentucky University (WKU). Elson oversaw the transition of WKU from a Division I (NCAA)#Football Championship Subdivision/Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA) to a Division I (NCAA)#Football Bowl Subdivision/Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) program, the highest division in college football; in his final season, the Hilltoppers joined the Sun Belt Conference/Sun Belt.

Elson joined the Hilltoppers staff as a defensive backs coach in 1996. He served as defensive coordinator for the 2001 and 2002 season before he was promoted to head coach. The rise to college football's highest level was difficult for the program, and Hilltoppers went 2-20 in Elson's final two seasons.

On November 9, 2009 Elson was fired by the university, finishing out the 2009 season. WKU alumnus and Stanford Cardinal football/Stanford running backs coach Willie Taggart replaced him.{{cite news

/url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hUNtrL9bDdlOFMTZRNrNoq8q7MtwD9C5DJ403

/title=WKU hires Stanford's Taggart as coach

/date=November 23, 2009

/last=Graves

More David Elson on Wikipedia.

The thing that I am most excited about with this class is that I think it backs up what we said when I first started back in March 2003. We want to recruit the state of Kentucky better than anybody does, and this signing class states that with nine kids from the state.

It definitely made us limited on some things. Philip Bates has shown, in the time that he's been able to get in there, that he's a strong back that gets positive yards, and he's hard to bring down.

We've fluttered around with turnovers (earlier this season) and need to keep that under control.

We've just scratched the surface in being able to communicate with him so that he can play our defense. Right now, we're relying mostly on the written word I'd personally like to take basic sign language lessons and continue to develop better ways to communicate with him.

Foster had two legitimate Conference USA offers from Tulsa and Memphis, but he stuck with us.

It looks like (MSU) is playing with a lot of confidence on both sides of the ball and on special teams. I think they're one of the most improved teams in the conference over the last couple of years.

What he's doing is showing all those guys that either aren't in now or that are going is that there's great competition. He's raising the level and raising the bar, and everybody's gotta step up and be ready to compete.

He's been a two-year starter there and is certainly working on improving his game. We're looking for some depth there and someone who can challenge him.

We'd like nothing better than to have people from all parts of our community come out and get involved in this. We appreciate what our fans mean to this program.