Mark Elder (born December 10, 1977) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He was the head football coach at

Eastern Kentucky University Eastern Kentucky University (Eastern or EKU) is a public university in Richmond, Kentucky. As a regional comprehensive institution, EKU also maintains branch campuses in Corbin, Hazard, Lancaster, and Manchester and offers over 40 online un ...

from 2016 until 2019. Prior to his tenure at Eastern Kentucky, Elder was an assistant coach at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

Biography

Elder graduated from Sycamore High School in 1996, and played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Case Western Reserve Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

. He began his coaching career at various institutions, including

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

, Lehigh,

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

, Wayne State (MI), and

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

before he was hired as an assistant football coach at

Central Michigan Central Michigan, also called Mid Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As its name implies, it is the middle area of the Lower Peninsula. Lower Michigan is said to resemble a mitten, and Mid Michigan corre ...

by head coach

Butch Jones Lyle Allen "Butch" Jones Jr. (born January 17, 1968) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at Arkansas State University. Jones previously served as a special assistant to the head coach and offensive analyst at the Univ ...

. When Jones was named head coach at

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

in 2010, Elder also became an assistant there. Elder subsequently followed Jones to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

as an assistant coach in 2013. On December 8, 2015, it was reported that Elder was to be named head football coach at

. He was formally introduced at a press conference on December 10, 2015. When he began his duties as head coach, he also continued to serve as an assistant coach at Tennessee through the completion of the

Outback Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 to ...

. In four years at EKU, Elder recorded four straight top-25 rated recruiting classes. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, he led the program to a 7–4 record and resulted in recording their most wins since the 2014 season. Prior to the 2019 season, the Elder-led Colonels were named to preseason Top 25 lists by

Lindy's Sports ''Lindy's Sports'', also known as ''Lindy's'', is a sports magazine. It was established in 1982, and is located in Birmingham, Alabama. Lindy Davis is its publisher and founder, having started the magazine when he was a 26-year-old student at Sa ...

and Hero Sports. Additionally, Elder was named as a leading preseason candidate for the

Eddie Robinson Award The Eddie Robinson Award is awarded annually to college football's top head coach in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). The award was established by The Sports Network, since merged into Stats Perform, ...

, given to the national coach of the year at the FCS level. Elder's contract at EKU was not renewed after finishing 7-4 and 7-5 in his final two seasons and failing to make the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

playoffs. On December 19, 2019, Elder returned to his hometown of Cincinnati to become the new head coach at Moeller HS. On February 3, 2023, Elder announced that he resigned from Moeller HS.

Personal life

Elder and his wife, Lindsey, have two sons, Owen and Ellis, and one daughter, Lila.

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

Eastern Kentucky profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elder, Mark 1977 births Living people American football safeties Akron Zips football coaches Case Western Spartans football players Central Michigan Chippewas football coaches Cincinnati Bearcats football coaches Eastern Kentucky Colonels football coaches Iona Gaels football coaches Lehigh Mountain Hawks football coaches Michigan Wolverines football coaches Tennessee Volunteers football coaches Wayne State Warriors football coaches High school football coaches in Ohio Players of American football from Cincinnati Coaches of American football from Ohio