FCS pre-season Top 25 poll by Sam Herder

[Gannonfan]

And Gannett does the same thing today regarding political figures of the day.

It's okay, whatever you read or watch needs to be viewed with a sceptical eye.

All of the above is a pretty dim view lumping all newspapers and media together. It almost gives folks license, or at least allows them to rationalize to believe what they want to believe. But not many outlets have been sued and lost in court and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and actually admitted lying. Being able to discern bald faced lies should not be difficult. Sadly it is for some.

Enter Sandmann is a great entrance choice by Virginia Tech.

Wait…Enter Sandman.

I actually had to google it to catch the reference. No way would've I remembered that kid's name.

[Caribbean Hen]

And Gannett does the same thing today regarding political figures of the day.

It's okay, whatever you read or watch needs to be viewed with a sceptical eye.

All of the above is a pretty dim view lumping all newspapers and media together. It almost gives folks license, or at least allows them to rationalize to believe what they want to believe. But not many outlets have been sued and lost in court and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and actually admitted lying. Being able to discern bald faced lies should not be difficult. Sadly it is for some.

Enter Sandmann is a great entrance choice by Virginia Tech.

Wait…Enter Sandman.

Oh yes, that minor who sued a branch of the government known as the fourth estate and received a few million or so …. good for him !

[BlueHenBill]

"JMU made a splash and then faded"...can you elaborate on this? I don't know what you're referring to at all...

JMU decided to play their players and got into the Top 20 rankings. They made a heck of a splash, but ended up losing their next three games (two of them badly) and faded from the conversation. Frankly, I think that run was great for them…got them into the national conversation and got people talking about the silly 2-year rule that prevents transitioning teams from winning their conference or competing for titles. I get that for a downward transitioning team, but not for one transitioning up. Other teams (Sammy, for one), decide to save at least one year of player eligibility by redshirting their best players during the transition year. That way, a rising junior, who would normally graduate before the transition is complete, can actually compete for a title during their senior year. That can help prevent them from transferring due to the transition.

Different strokes for different folks.

In any case, if the transition rule doesn’t change, we will be playing for nothing but pride for two years if we transition. Short-time thinkers (fans and players) might leave if they believe there will be a lot of years of growing pains and losing/or mediocre seasons associated with the transition.

On the other hand, plenty of folks will love the idea of playing up a level, even if we struggle for a while.

I’d like both worlds…winning one more national championship on this level in the next 2-3 years and then transitioning to FBS. I won’t mind a few mediocre transition years if it gets us to a better place.

I highly doubt the two year transition rule will change. JMU and others before them tried it to no avail.

JMU lost an OT game last year to GSU and lost their QB early the next week to injury, yes Louisville beat them pretty good but they came back to win the Sun Belt East, beating Coastal by 40 last game of the year, but alas not allowed to play in league championship game the first two years either.

Some on this board won’t like this comment, and I get that a good % of you want to move up, I want to move up too. However, there is no market for FBS football in Newark today. 15-20 years ago there was. Maybe in the future there will be again, but I don’t see any real enthusiasm for it today. There is no league for them, you’re unlikely to get teams to Newark that will move the needle (granted it’d be much better than this and last year’s home slates), I just don’t see it.

There has never been a FBS/IA league for UD to join if UD had been interested.

[BlueHenBill]

We might be able to win the CAA, but we aren’t touching the Natty unless we get some more help on the lines.

Carty must be having some sort of mental block. Yes, we need to out-talent the big boys with better skill players. But Sammy won that FCS national championship with an outrageously talented defensive line that got into the backfield, and a very large OL that was not great, but solid enough. They also had great special teams (hello Mr. Ezzard) and a fleet of talented WRs and RBs. And then there was Schmid, who had wheels, a solid arm…and a boatload of guts. That really was a special team…but their front 4 on D were special. Disrupters. And their OL was good enough, even with all of their injuries (luckily, they also had depth), to help deal with the pressure from the big boys’ DLs.

In other words, we’re gonna’ need a bigger boat (on both sides of the lines). Keeler learned that the hard way, but adapted and won another national championship. Carty will get us close…but needs to learn the same final lesson.

Looking forward to this season. It is going to be fun.

Its obvious to everyone (it appears except our current and past coach) who has watched the Hens play over the last decade that we have been horrible on OL and DL. Everywhere else we have had a lot of players good enough to potentially win the CAA and contend with the upper echelon of FCS. (our WR's TE's RBs DBs and LBS have all been pretty good and consistent over the years, QB Henderson was good enough the last few years)

This year we have brought in some good DL transfers who could be good on paper (several 3 star players) but lost most of our OK players on DL from the last 3 years (they could hold their own against most CAA teams but got blown up against the elites). (McGowen who is reliably OK is back). A few of them were not here for spring practice. Carty should realize every elite team Keeler had at UD and SHSU he had great DLs with quite a few elite passrushers. When was the last time we had a Matt Morcorelle or Sean Johnson? Those guys got our defenses over the top in the elite years. That 03 DL was special, they stuffed Navy at the LOS, shut down Colgates all American rusher, and were constantly on the QB making everyone else on D look better. We haven't been close to that level on DL in the last decade.

OL we have Oneil coming in as a highly touted freshman but will not really contribute more than likely this year. Everyone else is the same very poor to mediocre group we had last year and the 2 years before that. The OL did improve throughout the season from below average to mediocre as the season went on but the rest of the team went backwards. The rumors are the coaches are happy with the OL improvement in the spring and they are the most experienced group on the team? So maybe they blocked better in spring practice against our entirely new DL and undersized LBs? It is hard to believe without a few more athletic players on OL that Carty thinks his offense is going to fly. Without OL help the team is going to have a ceiling of being mediocre. IE Rocco Relevant 6 to 8 wins in the regular season, one home playoff game, and an A$$ whoopin when we play an FCS elite in second or third round. OL improvement needs to be a priority of the staff. As stated by many on this board we do not have to be NDSU or SDSU good on the lines but we have to be at least as good as SHSU was when they won the title, we are not even close as of right now and it does not appear to be going in that direction. We have to be able to block to get out playmakers the ball in space as Cartys offense is meant to do. We also need to be able to consistently get a first down every once in a while, on 3rd and 4th and short on the ground which has not happened in many years.

+1

[BlueHenBill]

Thank you much guys but I’m just slinging tropical thoughts up against the wall to try to draw Dan out so he can give us his always excellent analysis

From what I read on AGS we might be in FCS for a while longer so might as well get onboard with it

Caribbean Hen, Please forgive my ignorance and/or poor memory but what is "AGS"? Please provide a link.

[BlueHenBill]

And there you have it

So safe to assume Delaware will be in FCS for several years or more, unless they decide to go the independent route ?

That was the initial statement made a week ago.

"If the Hens continue to stay in the FCS the exodus will continue annually. Moving up is the only answer to slowing the process down. Do the Hens have the balls to move up as an Independant?"

Who said/posted "If the Hens continue to stay in the FCS the exodus will continue annually. Moving up is the only answer to slowing the process down. Do the Hens have the balls to move up as an Independant?"?

[BlueHenBill]

This pic was already shown here with the football alumni golf outing post so nothing new now. There are others but shows what can get done with a plan for FBS.

That is not what I had anticipated for the North part of DE Stadium when forthcoming renovations were first circulated. Where are the extra seats and how many? I posted here when it was first posted that UD was going to build a Field House replacement beyond the North stands that it indicated to me that UD was never going to FBS because DE Stadium would be enclosed on 3 sides by the Bob Carpenter Center to the South, the Whitney Athletic Center to the West, and the new building North of the North stands. Only the East stands remain unrestricted and I can't see UD building such an unbalanced stadium that would result if another grandstand were built on top of only the East Stands. The other alternative of a new stadium seems unlikely since it is unclear where it could be built and the enormous expense that would be required. Some here indicated that the new North Stands would be significant. I envisioned DE Stadium as a horseshoe where the new North stands would be as high as the East & West Stands ad completely attached to those stands. This proposed "vision" of the new North Stands says FCS not FBS and is an unnecessary FCS expenditure.

[Caribbean Hen]

Thank you much guys but I’m just slinging tropical thoughts up against the wall to try to draw Dan out so he can give us his always excellent analysis

From what I read on AGS we might be in FCS for a while longer so might as well get onboard with it

Caribbean Hen, Please forgive my ignorance and/or poor memory but what is "AGS"? Please provide a link.

http://www.gohens.net/

Any Given Saturday

You can find the link on the top right corner on the gohens mainpage

[HENJOHN]

Bill, sign up on AGS and tell em Caribbean Hen sent you.

[Cluck U]

Bill, sign up on AGS and tell em Caribbean Hen sent you.

Let the games begin.

[Caribbean Hen]

AGS pre season poll out today

Hens in at 22

1/2023

Rank Team: Total Points First Place Votes
1 South Dakota State Jackrabbits 1049 41
2 North Dakota State Bison 973 1
3 Montana State Bobcats 967
4 Furman Paladins 857
5 Holy Cross Crusaders 810
6 William & Mary Tribe 786
7 Samford Bulldogs 690
8 Incarnate Word Cardinals 686
9 Sac State Hornets 589
10 Idaho Vandals 588
11 New Hampshire Wildcats 539
12 Southeastern Louisiana Lions 520
13 Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 510
14 Montana Grizzlies 490
15 Weber State Wildcats 463
16 UC Davis Aggies 421
17 North Dakota Fighting Hawks 399
18 Richmond Spiders 326
19 Mercer Bears 322
20 Northern Iowa Panthers 233
21 North Carolina Central Eagles 181
22 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens 178
23 Rhode Island Rams 147
24 Chattanooga Mocs 125
25 Elon Phoenix 107
ORV:
26 Southern Illinois Salukis 82
27 Eastern Kentucky Colonels 76
28 Fordham Rams 73
29 Youngstown State Penguins 60
30 Missouri State Bears 58
31 Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs 49
32 Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks 44
33 Jackson State Tigers 34
34 Florida A&M Rattlers 32
35 Central Arkansas Bears 30
36 Yale Bulldogs 25
37 Austin Peay Governors 22
38 Princeton Tigers 21
39 St. Francis Red Flash 20
40 Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks 15

[HENJOHN]

Looks about right.

[77HEN]

I hope the Blue Hens could beat Mercer. So, where is Nova?

[Caribbean Hen]

I hope the Blue Hens could beat Mercer. So, where is Nova?

Where is Nova? Very Fair question 77

I heard they’re living rent free near the Boulevard of broken playoff dreams.

Is it taboo to admit it? Don’t think so, but it’s probably taboo to ask Carty about it

Maybe the media should address the curse directly with Carty and ask him why he’s going to break the spell…. Once these curses find a host they tend to hang around forever… ask an old Red Sox fan

[Caribbean Hen]

Stan Becton predicting 5 CAA teams in playoffs including Delaware.

He’s also predicting Monmouth making playoffs on the back of RB Shirden …. I don’t think so

https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/arti ... redictions

CAA at-larges to go with Conf champ William & Mary

Rhode Island's first game of the year is against the FBS's Georgia State, a team that finished 4-8 last year. That's a winnable game for a Rams team filled with returning talent. Once conference play starts, Rhode Island's biggest tests against Richmond and New Hampshire both come at home. I think this schedule should allow Rhode Island to go from one of the first teams out last year to a team in contention for a seed this fall if all goes right. Elsewhere in the CAA, New Hampshire and Delaware should also return to the playoffs after both programs won a playoff game in 2022.

The final CAA at-large spot goes to Monmouth. Monmouth will be one of the last teams in, but I think a strong start to the season behind recent Walter Payton Award finalist Jaden Shirden gets the Hawks into the postseason over fellow CAA teams Richmond, Elon and Villanova.