Rick, tell your friend that he is correct, if he can do one thing. Have him line up on the runway and give full down elevator. After all, the elevator controls your speed, right?

I always thought of it as the following:
There are two flight conditions. In the first condition you have adjustable power. In this case, use elevators to control altitude and power to control airspeed. The second condition is when the power is fixed, such as gliding or climbing under full power. In this case, pitch controls both altitude and airspeed. This is certainly a simplification, since really both controls affect both airspeed and altitude.

Pitch+power=performance