After its dominant back-to-back home wins, Delaware’s path to a potential Colonial Athletic Association football title now faces some severe road tests.
The Blue Hens (5-0 overall, 3-0 CAA) travel to William & Mary on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. showdown between Top 25 teams.
CAA STANDINGS: Hens, UNH tied atop league
Delaware then has an open date and Oct. 22 nonconference Homecoming date with Morgan State before an Oct. 29 trip to Elon, which enhanced its Top 25 status Saturday with a double-overtime win over Richmond.
“Hopefully we’ll continue to get better and be ready,” coach Ryan Carty said Monday. “We got a little bit of a stretch here where we got a bunch of good opponents. … We’re worried about this one right now and, hopefully, we can go down to William & Mary and prepare really well this week.”
There are now 13 CAA football members, with everyone playing an eight-game league schedule. The NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs include 24 qualifiers.
The CAA can typically depend on sending three or four teams to the playoffs, though that number has been as low as two and as high as six in the last 10 years. The next two months will determine who gets the opportunity to play for a national title, which is the goal and expectation of every Delaware team, and who does not.
Prior to the CAA opener at Rhode Island, we ranked the potential importance and difficulty of each of Delaware’s eight Colonial matchups. We now update that list every Monday with Delaware’s remaining league games:
HISTORY LESSON:Delaware win over Towson positive harbinger for 2022 season
1. Elon (4-1; away, Oct. 29)
Elon remains at the top of the list, following its comeback win at William & Mary Sept. 24 and Saturday’s 30-27 double-overtime conquest of visiting Richmond. The memory of Nolan Henderson getting his helmet – and thank goodness not his head also – taken off on a first-quarter targeting infraction during Delaware’s last trip here in 2019 also raises caution about this endeavor. Delaware lost that game 42-7, still the second-most lopsided defeat in the Hens’ 37 years as a Yankee Conference/Atlantic 10/CAA members. Elon was competitive with Vanderbilt in a 42-31 loss, blasted Wofford 26-0 and nipped Gardner-Webb 30-24 before rallying past the Tribe 35-31. Elon Quarterback Matthew McKay, a former starter at North Carolina State and Montana State, has thrown for 12 TDs with just one interception. He was 20-for-35 with three TDs against Richmond and Elon also got 93 yards rushing from Jalen Hampton as well as a solid defensive effort against the Spiders.
2. Richmond (3-2; home, Nov. 12)
The Spiders’ loss at Elon was its first in a CAA game this year but they remain a championship-worthy outfit. Quarterback Reece Udinski, who threw for a VMI record 7,877 career yards before playing last fall at Maryland, has completed an astounding 77 percent of his passes this year with 13 TDs and just one interception. He threw 58 passes at Elon, completing 42 for 383 yards and two touchdowns with Jakob Herres catching 12 for 174 yards. Richmond also got 102 yards on 19 carries from Aaron Dykes. Delaware has painful memories of its 51-27 loss at Richmond last year and will relish the rematch on home turf, but this will be a very, very difficult challenge.
3. William & Mary (4-1; away, Oct. 8)
William & Mary still shapes up as a very tough road encounter for Delaware this week. The Tribe bounced back from its loss to Elon the week before to beat Stony Brook 27-10 Saturday but did trail at halftime before outscoring the hosts 21-0 in the second half. Malachi Imoh rushed for 128 yards and QB Darius Wilson had a 48-yard run. This is the Blue Hens’ first trip to Williamsburg since 2016, when a mistake-filled loss led to Dave Brock’s firing as coach the next day. Mike London, the former Richmond, Virginia and Howard coach who succeeded Jimmye Laycock in 2019, has the Tribe back in playoff contention. It didn’t really show in last year’s trip to Delaware, a 24-3 UD rout that exemplified the Hens’ defensive firepower. William & Mary, which has a win over FBS Charlotte this season, leads the CAA with 241 rushing yards per game and Delaware’s defense, the best statistically in the CAA, will relish the challenge.
4. Monmouth (3-2; home, Nov. 5)
Monmouth had no trouble with nonconference foe Lehigh in a 35-7 rout Saturday following its 49-42 triumph at Villanova the previous week. In that game. Jaden Shirden rushed for 211 yards, the first plus-200 effort against Villanova since 1995. He is by far the league leader with 154 rushing yards per game. The Hawks feature preseason All-CAA quarterback Tony Muskett, who has thrown for 1,269 yards and 10 TDs.
5. Villanova (3-2; away, Nov. 19)
Villanova played its best all-around game of the year in Saturday’s 45-20 rout at Maine, where it scored on its first six possessions and gained 466 yards. Villanova features a sinister ground game that is averaging 5.8 yards per carry and is led by Jalen Jackson (83.5 ypg). It has been nicely complemented by QB Connor Watkins’ running and passing. Certainly, much is often riding on Delaware’s annual season-ending Battle of the Blue matchup with the rival Wildcats, who have won nine of the last 10 and 14 of the last 16 over the Hens. What happens before though will determine exactly what this outcome will mean.
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
