SHSU GAME THREAD

[topstraight]

AWAY GAMES:

UD 1-4, 1-3 (CUSA)

Mo St. 4-1, 2-1 (CUSA)

[Caldwell Chicken]

AWAY GAMES:

UD 1-4, 1-3 (CUSA)

Mo St. 4-1, 2-1 (CUSA)

Ouch.

[Caribbean Hen]

In an interview 6th year player and grad student Jack Hall said it the best, the newer recruits have a much higher ceiling than when he and his recruiting class entered the program.

We are still partially an FCS roster. But that can change quickly with the portal, NIL, revenue sharing, and player development.

Mo State seems to be making out just fine with FCS talent .......so is it coaching?

I don’t know anything about MO State’s current roster or how successful they have been in recruiting high school players and transfers. Thus, I can’t answer your question beyond speculation. It sounds like you have done a deeper dive on their roster so I guess you’ll need to answer your own question.

I don’t know anything about Missouri States roster either, but I do know that they’ve been playing North Dakota State and South Dakota State for the past decade, the Missouri Valley football conference is no joke as that conference is pretty deep.

meanwhile Delaware has been playing North Carolina A&T, Hampton and Campbell … a much weaker schedule

[mpwerrell]

Mo State seems to be making out just fine with FCS talent .......so is it coaching?

I don’t know anything about MO State’s current roster or how successful they have been in recruiting high school players and transfers. Thus, I can’t answer your question beyond speculation. It sounds like you have done a deeper dive on their roster so I guess you’ll need to answer your own question.

nice dodge...Patches O'Houlihan would be proud. UD has had nearly 2 years to prepare for the transition up to Conference USA. Missouri State had about a year. So in a shorter transition they are faring far better than Our Blue Hens. Now perhaps their participation in the MVFC led to them having an inhetrently stronger roster that our CAA squad, who knows, the fact is that we had 2023/24 signing and 2024/25 signing to prepare for the move plus the portal and it seems that we are far behind Missouri state in talent AND coaching....

Not a “dodge” just stating what I know and what I don’t know. I’m sure you know more.

[pikecreekbill]

Speaking of 0-10 UMass, if this is the year they drop football and an opening exists in the MAC, would or could we jump?

I have no interest in the MAC. Pretty much are done after October as they go full bore mid week football for the rest of November. I say we wait until the ACC blows up in a couple of years once the ESPN contract is expired and we figure where we fit when the pieces get sorted out.

Now that's funny - waiting for the ACC to blow up. We are where we belong, the weakest or next to weakest conference in FBS! IMO improving our conference affiliation will largely depend on the success of our basketball programs both men and women and I really don't see that happening!

[dovetail]

Speaking of 0-10 UMass, if this is the year they drop football and an opening exists in the MAC, would or could we jump?

I have no interest in the MAC. Pretty much are done after October as they go full bore mid week football for the rest of November. I say we wait until the ACC blows up in a couple of years once the ESPN contract is expired and we figure where we fit when the pieces get sorted out.

The MAC is also a relatively dormant conference with little upside and would do little to help UD with enrollment.

You mean like the one we are now in?

[hensfan40yrs]

Pretty sure if it were to happen, the ACC would be more interested in an already established FBS team like JMU

[Attila the Hen]

Speaking of 0-10 UMass, if this is the year they drop football and an opening exists in the MAC, would or could we jump?

I have no interest in the MAC. Pretty much are done after October as they go full bore mid week football for the rest of November. I say we wait until the ACC blows up in a couple of years once the ESPN contract is expired and we figure where we fit when the pieces get sorted out.

Now that's funny - waiting for the ACC to blow up. We are where we belong, the weakest or next to weakest conference in FBS! IMO improving our conference affiliation will largely depend on the success of our basketball programs both men and women and I really don't see that happening!

I don't think he's talking about getting into the ACC. He's talking about finding our place in the realignment that follows.

[Udforever1]

I have no interest in the MAC. Pretty much are done after October as they go full bore mid week football for the rest of November. I say we wait until the ACC blows up in a couple of years once the ESPN contract is expired and we figure where we fit when the pieces get sorted out.

The MAC is also a relatively dormant conference with little upside and would do little to help UD with enrollment.

You mean like the one we are now in?

How many teams have left CUSA for better conferences compared to the Mac?

[Attila the Hen]

The MAC is also a relatively dormant conference with little upside and would do little to help UD with enrollment.

You mean like the one we are now in?

Maybe. But CUSA is like the Sunbelt was 10 years ago. Schools looking to move up in the world. The MAC not so much.

And in dealing with the upcoming enrollment cliff, exposure within the CUSA footprint is much better than within the MAC footprint.

Anyway, as was stated, when the ACC implodes there will likely be massive changes and UD will probably not end up in either the MAC or CUSA--at least in their present forms. I'm guessing this was UD's plan along-- just get to FBS and wait for sanity to prevail.

[hensfan40yrs]

The MAC is also a relatively dormant conference with little upside and would do little to help UD with enrollment.

You mean like the one we are now in?

Maybe. But CUSA is like the Sunbelt was 10 years ago. Schools looking to move up in the world. The MAC not so much.

And in dealing with the upcoming enrollment cliff, exposure within the CUSA footprint is much better than within the MAC footprint.

Anyway, as was stated, when the ACC implodes there will likely be massive changes and UD will probably not end up in either the MAC or CUSA--at least in their present forms. I'm guessing this was UD's plan along-- just get to FBS and wait for sanity to prevail.

Not sure sanity will prevail again in the current college football landscape.

[tenn hen]

great post by loads of you guys on this subject. I still pray that our UD teams will somehow become much more impressive in a year or two and provide loads of wins and maybe we can slip up to an ACC new realignment of State colleges. Now that would be my heaven each week- NOT a CUSA bottom dweller. It is possible that was the plan all along, but I believe "late to the party" UD admin simply waited till the last second to move or see us relegated in the CAA forever. Cost us that 5 mill that I bitched about that could have been used to attract BETTER recruits(NIL) and more immediate success this season. I still believe that we need an experienced HC to make the leap up. I appreciate the effort by RC but OC (for RC) is where he might be most successful. Realistically none of my wishes can evolve unless a major donor comes to the recue. NO, it ain't me!
as they in Espanol- buena suerte!!

[hensfan40yrs]

I still believe that we need an experienced HC to make the leap up ....... Jim Clements - Kutztown only 2 hours away

[Gannonfan]

I have no interest in the MAC. Pretty much are done after October as they go full bore mid week football for the rest of November. I say we wait until the ACC blows up in a couple of years once the ESPN contract is expired and we figure where we fit when the pieces get sorted out.

Now that's funny - waiting for the ACC to blow up. We are where we belong, the weakest or next to weakest conference in FBS! IMO improving our conference affiliation will largely depend on the success of our basketball programs both men and women and I really don't see that happening!

I don't think he's talking about getting into the ACC. He's talking about finding our place in the realignment that follows.

Yes indeed. The ACC has a contract with ESPN that goes to the middle of the 2030's. It's not going to break up in the next year or two. But 5-10 years down the road, you could see it start to fall apart, especially as the Big Ten and SEC media deals, which are far superior to what the ACC is getting, allow teams in those leagues to consistently distant themselves from the ACC. I don't see how the ACC remains as a conference long term, they look destined to follow the PAC-12 into no longer being in existence. When that happens, some schools will be absorbed into the SEC and Big 10 and I assume the Big 12 will still be around in some form. But other schools will not. I'm thinking Boston College. Wake Forest. Syracuse. Va Tech was heading this way prior to signing James Franklin - he might be enough to save Va Tech football (they won't win a national title, but he could make them competitive every year like he did at Penn State). Schools will be thrown off like Washington State and Oregon State were when the PAC-12 crumbled. Delaware is on the clock to establish themselves well enough that when things start to shift again 5-10 years from now they can be in those discussions and can group up with the teams that don't rate the Big 10/SEC super league. We're late to the game, but not too late to be ready for the next shakeup.

[Bluewyn Gold]

Maybe our program became a lot softer as the CAA declined than most of us realize.
In the playoffs we would be matched up with soft eastern teams in the first 1-2 rounds.
There's a reason why we would be destroyed once we were matched up with a MVFC team in the playoffs.
People talk about talent and coaching, but there is a 3rd factor that we are perhaps underestimating: Tradition.
We lost that in the "Brocco" era.

Another element we lost during that period (and, IMO, by far the most critical element of all): head coaches capable of fielding clubs that win consistently. Based on our very recent and current track record, I'm still not convinced we have that guy in Newark, DE. I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong in 2026.

Any talk of repositioning ourselves for another conference move is premature until we can establish unless we establish ourselves as a program on the rise over a duration of time. We have the opportunity to do that, but we'd better not squander it over the next 2-5 years.