Early in his coaching career, David Elson had a rapid rise from Western Kentucky position coach, to defensive coordinator before helping lead the Hilltoppers transition from FCS power to member of the FBS ranks as their head coach.

While his head coaching career started promising with back-to-back 9-win seasons and trips to the FCS playoffs, Elson’s tenure leading the program ended with a 2-10 season as an FBS independent before a 0-12 season in their first year as a member of the Sun Belt.

Elson has spent his time in coaching since then at a wide range of jobs from Big Ten assistant at Indiana, to high school defensive coordinator, and defensive play caller stops at the NAIA, FCS, and FBS levels in addition to support staff roles in the Big Ten and ACC.

After a season as the defensive coordinator at linebackers coach at Indiana State (FCS), multiple sources have shared with FootballScoop that Elson is heading back to the major college level.

Sources share Elson is joining Jeff Brohm’s staff at Louisville as a defensive assistant.

It marks a reunion with Brohm, as Elson previously worked on the Purdue staff under the head coaching veteran in 2021 and 2022, starting in a quality control role before being elevated to linebackers coach.

In addition to WKU, Elson’s defensive coordinator stops include two seasons at New Mexico State, a pair of FCS coordinating stops at Southern Illinois and then Western Illinois before a return to major college football at Ball State from 2017-19.

He spent the 2020 season calling the defense at small college midwest power Marian (NAIA – IN) before landing back in major college football in West Lafayette under Brohm.

At Louisville, he joins a defensive staff going through significant changes, as co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Ron English who decided to step away for the year, along with fellow co-defensive coordinator Mark Hagen who will also not be with the program in 2026, as we have previously shared. Both coaches followed Brohm from Purdue when he took over at his alma mater in 2023.

Today, Brohm announced that Mark Ivey will serve as co-defensive coordinator and coach the defensive line, while Steve Ellis will coach the secondary and share the co-defensive coordinator title as well.

Brohm led the Cardinals to a 9-4 season last fall, marking the third-straight season of at least nine wins for the program. They won their first seven out of eight games to open the year, losing only to a ranked Virginia team, and then hit a three-game slide where they lost home games to Cal, Clemson and on the road to SMU before winning their rivalry game against Kentucky and then their bowl game over Toledo.

As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.Â