Noah Plack steps onto the football field with a simple mindset.
“See ball, get ball,” the fifth-year Delaware safety said.
His vision and procurement skills were rewarded last week when Plack was named first-team All-Colonial Athletic Association, along with teammate Kedrick Whitehead, the All-American out of Middletown High.
It was the second time in four seasons both first-team All-CAA safeties came from the same school, with James Madison’s D’Angelo Amos and Adam Smith cited in 2019.
“It meant a lot,” said Plack, who’d been a second-team pick twice. “Me and Kedrick always tell each other before the game we’re the best two [safeties] in the country. Being first-team all-conference is really something I’ve been striving to get.”
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At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, Plack has provided a physical presence in the Blue Hens defense that led to first-year coach Ryan Carty referring to him as “hybrid linebacker.” He is second on the team with 7.5 tackles per game behind linebacker Johnny Buchanan, whose 135 total tackles lead FCS nationally.
Delaware (8-4) will need those skills in abundance Saturday when it visits No. 1-seeded South Dakota State (10-1) at 3 p.m. EST (ESPN+) in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs round-of-16.
It’s a rematch of a 2021 spring semifinal in which South Dakota State prevailed 33-3. Plack’s six tackles led the Hens in that game, in which four straight first-half touchdown drives enabled the Jackrabbits to take charge 27-3 at halftime.
South Dakota State averaged 7.2 yards per play that game, giving Delaware trouble with its tempo and physical approach.
Its quarterback then, Mark Gronowski, is its quarterback now. Running back Isaiah Davis, who had 70 yards on just nine carries, has rushed for 932 yards this year.
Yet Plack and his teammates are, he said, “just really excited to have this opportunity again, have a little rematch,” while knowing it’s a very difficult test.
Delaware enters the game ranked 23rd nationally. South Dakota State is No. 1.
“That’s when I feel like we play the best,” he said, “whenever we’re the underdog, when the pressure is not on us, it’s on the other team.”
Delaware is No. 3 nationally in FCS in total defense allowing 276.8 yards per game. The Jackrabbits are second (255.0).
Plack was an All-State tight end and outside linebacker at South Fayette High in western Pennsylvania who first played safety as a true freshman at Delaware in 2018.
He played in two games that year, thereby retaining his eligibility before becoming a starter in 2019. Because the 2021 spring season did not count against players’ eligibility, he can return to play in 2023.
“He’s so instinctive,” Carty said. “He does a great job at roaming the field and making plays in both situations, run/pass. We can send him on a blitz. He’s gonna make a play on whatever defensive call or front we have.
“And he does such a great job of being that guy that can kinda run to the ball and make everybody else correct. We call them ‘erasers.’ If there’s a mistake in the front six, he’s gonna make it right. He’s got a really good knack for finding the ball and tackling it and then making plays in the pass game when we need it.”
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