At a news conference this afternoon, Elon announced that it has hired N.C. State running backs coach Jason Swepson to be its head coach.

Swepson, 40, has coached running backs for four seasons for N.C. State. He also coached from 1999 to 2006 at Boston College under current Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien.

“He is a very bright, young offensive mind and has a great passion for the game,” O’Brien said in a statement. “He has done a great job recruiting for us. Jason has really done a good job of evaluating talent which shows when you find guys like Matt Ryan, among others, that he has signed for us in the past. I think he’ll do a great job at Elon and look forward to watching him grow as a football coach.”

GREENSBORO — N.C. State couldn't buy a free throw. Elon couldn't miss a 3-pointer.

That combination left the Wolfpack in a 10-point hole twice in the first half of Wednesday's game at the Greensboro Coliseum. Just when N.C. State's dress rehearsal for the ACC tournament was about to turn into a disaster, Tracy Smith and Scott Wood made sure the Wolfpack left the Coliseum with a 87-72 win.

Smith scored 15 points, all but four in the second half, and Wood found the range for 13 points, 11 in the second half, to put away the determined Phoenix (6-8).

Duke coach David Cutcliffe wanted Sean Renfree to be relaxed but excited, confident but not too confident.

And, more than anything, a winner in his first career start at quarterback.

Renfree more than did his part Saturday in the Blue Devils' season-opener against Elon, going 31-of-39 passing for 350 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-27 victory over the Phoenix.

David Cutcliffe's third season at Duke should open with a win. The
Blue Devils will kickoff the 2010 season against Elon on Sept. 4 at
Wallace Wade Stadium, Elon announced Tuesday.

With the state's unemployment rate at 10.8 percent, it's little wonder residents remain pessimistic about the economy.

According to a new Elon University Poll of 703 state residents, 73 percent said they expected the economy to either stay about the same or get worse. Three quarters of the respondents said they economy had affected them personally.

According to the data:

47 percent have lost money in the stock market
41 percent have seen the value of their homes decline
38 percent have seen their retirement plan lose more than 25 percent of its value
32 percent have had their hours reduced at work
20 percent have had trouble paying their mortgage
20 percent have lost a job
18 percent have lost medical coverage or medical insurance.

The poll was conducted Oct. 26-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Read more about recent Elon polls here.

Wolfpack loses another home midweek game.

We've been writing a lot about budget cuts in higher education lately and want to hear your stories.

If you work at or attend a local university here in the Triangle and have a story to tell, observation to make or complaint to rant about, we'd love to hear it.

Send me an email at Eric.Ferreri@newsobserver.com.

Four of North Carolina's private universities are considered top values, according to a new magazine analysis.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance likes Duke, Davidson, Elon and Wake Forest.

Read more about it here. 

In this weak economy, private colleges are feeling a serious pinch.

Around North Carolina, small, private colleges are scrambling to pay their bills. Some are actually merging with other institutions. At many, enrollment is dropping.

As my colleague Jane Stancill reports today, private colleges without the benefit of massive endowments are slashing budgets, freezing hiring, laying off employees and delaying construction projects, all in effort to just get by.

This isn't just a North Carolina phenomenon. In Atlanta, for example, one small college didn't pay the water bill and thus can't open for the next semester.