Elon’s game changer: Chandler Brayboy electrifies in his final season

Chandler Brayboy still has his college commitment announcement pinned on his Twitter/X profile page.

“Proud to say I’ve verbally committed to ELON UNIVERSITY,” Brayboy posted in July 2018.

The appreciation is surely mutual. Brayboy, who hails from Pembroke and was a three-sport star at Purnell Swett High School, has grown into one of the most dynamic collegiate players in our state since stepping on campus for the 2019 season.

His latest performance this past Saturday rewrote an Elon school record, set new career bests and earned Brayboy CAA Offensive Player of the Week honors.

In a 50-27 win over Campbell, Brayboy recorded 309 all-purpose yards, the most by an FCS player this season and the most in a single game in Elon program history.

He caught eight passes for 183 yards (a new career high) and scored two touchdowns. He returned a pair of kickoffs 62 and 51 yards. He took one handoff 13 yards. His first touchdown came on a 66-yard completion from Matthew Downing on Elon’s first play from scrimmage, setting the tone for the day.

“That was huge,” Elon coach Tony Trisciani said during Monday’s CAA teleconference. “Chandler had a great day offensively and in the return game.”

Brayboy has had a great year overall, though Elon (3-6, 2-3 CAA) has struggled at times to find its footing due to injuries and other challenges. Consider some of the redshirt senior’s highlights:

* Returning not one but two kickoffs for touchdowns in a win at Albany — the first time an Elon player has ever done that. The long-distance jaunts covered 95 and 94 yards, and served to answer each of the Dane’s scores in the game.

* Surpassing the 2,000-yard career receiving mark a few weeks ago. Saturday’s performance puts him at 144 catches for 2,311 yards and 16 touchdowns, across 52 games.

* Earning Stats Perform National Special Teams Player of the Week as well as conference Special Teams Player of the Week following the Albany game.

* Ranking first in the nation at the FCS level in kick returns, averaging 40.7 yards per return.

* Ranking seventh in FCS and first in the CAA in all-purpose yards per game, 146.5.

* Being named in the preseason to Bruce Feldman’s annual “Freaks List” for exceptionally athletic players.

Despite missing one game this season, an Elon win at North Carolina Central in September, Brayboy leads the Phoenix with 38 receptions for 630 yards and five receiving TDs.

Brayboy has three more chances this season to add to his tally and cement his status as an all-conference performer and one of Elon’s best at the wide receiver position. (He’ll surely be in the running for NCFootballNews.com post-season honors as well).

“Chandler is a phenomenal, phenomenal player,” William & Mary coach Mike London said earlier this week. “Obviously, he’s a playmaker and (has) explosive play capability — an All-American, probably a draft pick. He’s got a skill set that is special.”

Brayboy and the Phoenix visit London’s William & Mary squad this Saturday at 1 p.m. Though underdogs on paper, Elon has had recent success against the Tribe, beating them at home 14-6 a year ago when William & Mary was ranked No. 5 in the nation and knocking them off 35-31 in Williamsburg when they held a No. 14 ranking in 2022.

Brayboy had four receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown in last year’s game. London remembers.

“When you are game-planning, you want to know where he’s at,” the coach said. “Where you kick the ball matters. Where he’s lined up, it matters in terms of coverage opportunities or help. We’ve seen people on film double-team him, triple-team him, all that stuff and he still gets free and makes plays.”

Brayboy got his start in football growing up as a member of the Lumbee Tribe, which is located in and around the Pembroke area. He told an Elon publication for a story last year that being part of the Lumbee exposed him to a number of activities, from sports to drumming to arts. But he settled on football as his main pursuit, eventually becoming a conference player of the year on the gridiron as a senior at Purnell Swett.

“I played three sports, and I had to pick between dancing and then playing a sport,” Brayboy told the Elon News Network for a story on Native American Heritage Month in 2023.

“So I chose a sport, and I think it did me OK.”