Dillon Lucas

Dillon Lucas joins Coach Crocker’s staff as Eastern Football’s first defensive coordinator. Lucas, who has played for and coached with Crocker in his career will play a major role in establishing culture and building a great defense in St. Davids.

He comes to Eastern after serving on staff at Elon where he finished as the team's special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach. Previously at Elon, Lucas served as the assistant defensive line coach in 2017 and 2018 before moving to outside linebackers ahead of 2019.

In his time with the Elon defensive line, the 2017 unit recorded 16.5 of the team’s 31 sacks as the Phoenix’s 2.58 sacks per game ranked 28th nationally. In 2018, Elon finished 38th nationally in total defense with 359.1 yards allowed per game. The defensive line also helped Elon finish 15th in the country with 2.91 sacks per game. Marcus Willoughby led the unit with 3.5 sacks on the year. He was named CAA Defensive Player of the Week after Elon's 30-9 win over New Hampshire with nine tackles - six solo - with 4.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks for a loss of 15 yards before going on to earn Third Team All-CAA Football honors after the season. Tristen Cox also finished fifth in the nation with three recovered fumbles for the season. After Lucas's move to outside linebackers, Willoughby went on to finish his career in maroon and gold as the program's FCS sack king with 16.5 in his career and he signed a free agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens in April 2020.

In the fall of 2021, the outside linebackers combined for 4.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss, as well as two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and an interception. In his first year leading the special teams, Elon ranked in the top 25 nationally in blocked punts and punt return defense. Kicker Skyler Davis earned CAA Football Special Teams Player of the Week honors and was one of the more consistent kickers in the conference, connecting on 17-of-22, including his last nine.

Before coming to Elon, Lucas spent one season as the linebackers coach at Moravian College in 2016. There, he coached one third-team All-South Region and All-Centennial Conference selection.

Lucas was a standout linebacker at fellow CAA Football member Villanova, where he was the 2011 CAA Defensive Rookie of the Year and a third-team all-conference pick under Elon head coach Tony Trisciani and defensive coordinator Billy Crocker. A finalist for the 2011 Jerry Rice Award, Lucas helped the Wildcats to a pair of FCS Playoff appearances.

Lucas graduated from Villanova with a degree in communications in 2015 and also earned his master's in educational leadership.