Having played his high school football at North Schuylkill, Elsdon committed to Penn State as a three-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class. He picked the Nittany Lions over offers from West Virginia, Virginia, and a host of Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.
He redshirted his freshman season at Penn State, but eventually took over the starting middle linebacker role in 2022 as a redshirt sophomore. As a starter, he put respectable stats — 44 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, and 1 sack — as he shared time at the Mike with Kobe King. Heading into his redshirt junior season, Elsdon will compete again with King for the starting gig on the inside.