No. 1 South Dakota State looms but Blue Hens treasure return trip

In May of 2021, Nolan Henderson and his Delaware football teammates visited a state, Henderson admitted, he never expected to set foot in again.

Now there’s no place the Blue Hens would rather be than Brookings, where at 3 p.m. EST next Saturday they’ll take on South Dakota State in the NCAA FCS Tournament round of 16.

“Here we are,” Henderson said, “getting another opportunity at their place.”

The last trip was quite humbling, as the Jackrabbits dominated Delaware 33-3 in the spring 2021 FCS semifinals. They appear to be an even more imposing foe this year.

Nonetheless, Delaware will relish the opportunity, which begins our five takeaways from Saturday’s 56-17 first-round FCS win over Saint Francis at Delaware Stadium.

“Now we’ve got a tall task,” coach Ryan Carty said.

Jackrabbits next

South Dakota State may be better now than it was in May of 2021, when it dominated Delaware. The top-ranked and No. 1-seeded Jackrabbits (10-1) have won 10 straight since a 7-3 loss to Big Ten Iowa. That includes a 23-21 win at Missouri Valley Football Conference rival and defending FCS champ North Dakota State.

“We’re competitors, right?” Henderson said. “We want to go against the best. Right now, they’re number one in the country so we get a shot at that and we feel like, when we play our best ball, we can play any team in the country and beat any team in the country.”

Delaware treasures the chance to visit them at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium, despite the difficulties the Hens had there last time. South Dakota State scored on four straight first-half possessions to take a 27-3 halftime and piled up 354 total yards against a Hens defense that had allowed an average of 223 per game.

Henderson missed a first-half series after hurting his knee but completed 18 of 21 passes for 142 yards. But South Dakota State set a school record with seven sacks against a banged up Blue Hens offensive line and Delaware couldn’t muster much of a running attack.

A week later, Sam Houston, with Carty coordinating the offense, beat the Jackrabbits in the FCS title game 23-21.

“They’re really good at what they do,” Carty said. “They don’t do a ton on defense. They are just so good.”

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But Carty said having coaches and players with experience taking on such a tough challenge helps.

“We’re about to go into not only playing the best team in the country, playing in one of the toughest environments in the country,” Carty said. “So you’re gonna need people who have been in those experiences, those venues, so that things don’t overwhelm you too much. When things go wrong it’s OK, we can fight back.”

Numbers game

The eight wins are the most since Delaware’s 12-3 NCAA runner-up season of 2010.

Henderson’s four touchdown passes, three of which went to Chandler Harvin, gave him 32 this season, breaking Matt Nagy’s single-season UD record of 29 set for the 12-2 NCAA semifinal team in 2000, when Delaware was still running a souped-up version of the Wing-T.

Thyrick Pitts, who caught the other TD pass, now has a reception in 42 straight games dating back to the start of the 2019 season. That ties Nihja White’s school record set from 2009-12.

Johnny Buchanan became the 20th member of Delaware’s 300-tackle club, getting 15 to put his career total at 313, which ranks 14th.

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Saturday was Carty’s 35th FCS playoff game, including six as a Delaware player in 2003 and 2004, 22 while coaching at New Hampshire and six during his stint on the Sam Houston staff.

Attendance, always much lower for postseason than regular-season games, was a particularly paltry 4,629.

Ground up

Delaware gained 283 yards running the football Saturday, easily a season high, topping the 231 at Rhode Island.

Kyron Cumby had 111, surpassing his season-high 100 from the Towson game. Marcus Yarns had 85, bettered only by the 99 he had against Delaware State.

“That’s pretty awesome,” Carty said. “We preach balance, we like it. Today we were fairly balanced. I think that’s something we’re gonna need to continue to do if we want to make a run.”

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On the rebound

Delaware was coming off excruciating losses to Richmond 21-13 and Villanova 29-26 that could have prevented it from even making the 24-team FCS bracket.

But the Blue Hens were in the field and made the most of it, no doubt bringing with them chips on their padded shoulders from those games.

“We stuck together,” Carty said, crediting the team leaders and coaches for trying to learn from those losses and be better for it.

With school closed all week for Thanksgiving break, the team had a better chance to unite in that effort, Carty suggested, to “get into a new season here and just wipe it clean, wipe what happened before. It’s what got us here, but it doesn’t have to define us.”

Delaware still had three turnovers Saturday, including A.I. du Pont High grad Kerry Galloway's interception for Saint Francis, providing a few more lessons to learn from.

No Red Flash in the pan

Saint Francis came into Saturday’s game No. 8 nationally in FCS scoring 37.6 points per game and 16th with 444.4 yards per game total offense. The Red Flash got just 286 yards against Delaware.

They’d also allowed just 18.4 points and 310 yards per game. Delaware piled up 586 yards.

Certainly, playing a Colonial Athletic Association foe as opposed to its Northeast Conference competition made for a significant step up, but Delaware was apparently ready.

“That team came in here with energy,” Carty said, “they came in here with confidence and talented football players and we did a nice job in all three phases of stifling them early.”

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.