Poll: Do national hopes improve with Saturday loss?

[Housthen18]

Not getting into the win where we are debate, this is just in regards to the recruiting point from someone who follows recruiting at length.

I think UD would be fairly successful right away recruiting should we make the move to FBS. The Hens already recruit against Mac schools a decent amount and have been successful in getting guys with MAC offers. Of the 7 commits this year, 6 had at least one FBS offer. 2 had P5 offers. Of the 13 high school kids last year, 8 had FBS offers, 3 with P5 offers. Moving up to FBS alone will get you into some living rooms alone for kids who are FBS or bust. Then you had in the WAC, the future new facilities, young coaching staff, being the shiny new toy in regards to being FBS and I think the Hens would pull in some nice classes to begin. I’m not talking about out recruiting Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, but I believe they’d certainly have nice G5 recruiting classes to start, and hopefully continue.

I think Delaware's institutional profile would make it immediately competitive in recruiting against MAC/CUSA-tier schools. You're right that many of these kids are FBS or bust. And of the ones who feel that way and are MAC/CUSA quality recruits, many would prefer to play at University of [STATE], not at Northeast Ohio Tech University. I'd imagine that UD's campus also blows schools like Akron or Toledo or Western Kentucky out of the water. Newark is a bona fide college town.

[Udforever1]

Not getting into the win where we are debate, this is just in regards to the recruiting point from someone who follows recruiting at length.

I think UD would be fairly successful right away recruiting should we make the move to FBS. The Hens already recruit against Mac schools a decent amount and have been successful in getting guys with MAC offers. Of the 7 commits this year, 6 had at least one FBS offer. 2 had P5 offers. Of the 13 high school kids last year, 8 had FBS offers, 3 with P5 offers. Moving up to FBS alone will get you into some living rooms alone for kids who are FBS or bust. Then you had in the WAC, the future new facilities, young coaching staff, being the shiny new toy in regards to being FBS and I think the Hens would pull in some nice classes to begin. I’m not talking about out recruiting Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, but I believe they’d certainly have nice G5 recruiting classes to start, and hopefully continue.

I think Delaware's institutional profile would make it immediately competitive in recruiting against MAC/CUSA-tier schools. You're right that many of these kids are FBS or bust. And of the ones who feel that way and are MAC/CUSA quality recruits, many would prefer to play at University of [STATE], not at Northeast Ohio Tech University. I'd imagine that UD's campus also blows schools like Akron or Toledo or Western Kentucky out of the water. Newark is a bona fide college town.

Good points as well and agree with you. Will be interesting to see what our recruiting footprint becomes once we go FBS. CUSA- do we start to recruit Florida a bit more, or even Texas since there are some schools there? If we moved to the Mac I bet we’d do really well in Western PA, especially as long as Rojas is here. We already get a few guys from there as an FCS school. Not saying we shift our philosophy or connections to those areas, just wondering if we dive a bit more into those areas.

[Udforever1]

@Udforever1,
Believe it or not, I appreciate you keeping me honest!
I said I would be happy if we finished above .500, so I guess I should be happy.

In my defense, however, A few things have happened since then...
1. I thought Towson and Campbell would be better than they turned out. Especially the Camels. I said Campbell looked "Mmm Mmm Good" - and they DID early on. They gave then #6 William & Mary a pretty good game week 1. Of course, now we know that the Tribe wasn't that good to begin with. Not sure what happened to Towson but the point is, our weak-**** schedule turned out to be even weaker than I originally thought. Well, I said Campbell looked good and obviously that was a complete whiff. I'll own that one.
2. I said we would struggle with UNH, Elon and Nova. And we DID, didn't we? And we probably will struggle with Nova. I don't think anyone is expecting us to blow them out. They always give us their best game.
3. Our schedule is SO weak - the weakest ever in my memory - that we could not help make the playoffs in my opinion. I think the truth is that WE STILL DON'T KNOW how good this Delaware team is. We've beaten no one! Even UNH turned out to be an average team this year. I'm happy with the wins, but I temper that jubilation with THAT schedule - yuk! But I said we would not make the playoffs and here we are at 8 wins, so I was wrong. I'm HAPPY to be wrong on that.

So, speaking somewhat philosophically here, Are we a "Playoff Team" ? Just because we make the playoffs.
I mean, Are we a Playoff CALIBRE team? If we lose to Villanova, I'd say 'no'. Look at our resume. Nova is the only playoff team on our schedule.
That's why I say if we lose to Nova - even if we beat a patsy or 2 in the playoffs and artificially back our way in to the Quarterfinals or even Semis- unless we actually BEAT a good team this year, then we have not improved.

I Will say that I think our line play on both sides of the ball have improved this year and that has been a very pleasant surprise. I hope we crush Villanova.

After 12 weeks, we FINALLY get to learn how good this Delaware team is tomorrow.
GO HENS !!!! BEAT NOVA !!!!

Fair enough and good points. Will just have to agree to disagree on whether Nova makes or breaks a successful season. Please don’t view this as being soft, or excuse making, I want to beat Nova more than anything tomorrow, but to me a much better judgement would be a healthy Hens team against what is a healthy, older and experienced Nova team. Now that’s not an excuse, as Nova has beaten the Hens when they’ve been banged up before, both last year and I want to say 2017. Just reality.

I’m just willing to wait until after the year is done to make a decision on whether this is a successful season (on the season predictions thread I said 8-3 with a playoff win or two would be with how much experience we lost).

I just hope the team doesn’t feel the way some posters do in regards to Nova or bust. You should always want to beat Nova, and especially since they’ve dominated for so long. But like I tell my team, if you win, you enjoy till midnight. If you lose, you be bummed, pissed, whatever until midnight. But Sunday starts a new season. The 07 and 10 teams realized that, I hope the 23 team does as well.

[udsb97]

You make a ton of sense HensRock and your debater is a typical fan who is making excuses in advance and issuing a disclaimer. This is the most meaningful game in recent UD football . It will send a message that we have a real head coach and not some former alumni in training. It's not necessarily the team we're playing , it's the situation. Thinking that we can lose and move forward with no evidence we are really a good team is certainly naïve and we have no Flacco or Devlin to pull us out of the lake once we are thrown in. Being in the playoffs with the 23 schedule was always a given.

[Udforever1]

You make a ton of sense HensRock and your debater is a typical fan who is making excuses in advance and issuing a disclaimer. This is the most meaningful game in recent UD football . It will send a message that we have a real head coach and not some former alumni in training. It's not necessarily the team we're playing , it's the situation. Thinking that we can lose and move forward with no evidence we are really a good team is certainly naïve and we have no Flacco or Devlin to pull us out of the lake once we are thrown in.

Henzone, this you?

[Caribbean Hen]

You make a ton of sense HensRock and your debater is a typical fan who is making excuses in advance and issuing a disclaimer. This is the most meaningful game in recent UD football . It will send a message that we have a real head coach and not some former alumni in training. It's not necessarily the team we're playing , it's the situation. Thinking that we can lose and move forward with no evidence we are really a good team is certainly naïve and we have no Flacco or Devlin to pull us out of the lake once we are thrown in.

Henzone, this you?

If not, we have Rich Little on gohens…

[HensRock]

I don't ever remember Henzone complimenting me on any of my posts.

[HensRock]

... to me a much better judgement would be a healthy Hens team against what is a healthy, older and experienced Nova team.

I don't think a healthy Hens team would have won today. Score would probably have been a little closer though.
We might have prevented them from being the auto-bid.

[UD '01 grad]

The third-string QB threw the touchdown pass. The first two QBs lower the margin and get some first downs in the third quarter but don't change the outcome.

The Hens couldn't get 1 or 2 yards multiple times when game was in balance. They were trailing one minute into the game. Nova wanted the ball. They wanted to take control early and did exactly want they wanted. They are better.

[Udforever1]

... to me a much better judgement would be a healthy Hens team against what is a healthy, older and experienced Nova team.

I don't think a healthy Hens team would have won today. Score would probably have been a little closer though.
We might have prevented them from being the auto-bid.

Hard to disagree there. Maybe a starting QB keeps the game closer, and maybe we’re able to jump out to a lead when Nova was giving us every chance to stay in it with the missed field goals, drive killing penalties and turnovers. But unfortunately again Nova was the better team, and pretty obvious. Mind boggling that it happens year after year.

[Cluck U]

The third-string QB threw the touchdown pass. The first two QBs lower the margin and get some first downs in the third quarter but don't change the outcome.

The Hens couldn't get 1 or 2 yards multiple times when game was in balance. They were trailing one minute into the game. Nova wanted the ball. They wanted to take control early and did exactly want they wanted. They are better.

3rd/4th and short is Carty’s Kryptonite. All the finesse and trickery involved throughout the years is absolutely mind boggling.

[Caldwell Chicken]

The third-string QB threw the touchdown pass. The first two QBs lower the margin and get some first downs in the third quarter but don't change the outcome.

The Hens couldn't get 1 or 2 yards multiple times when game was in balance. They were trailing one minute into the game. Nova wanted the ball. They wanted to take control early and did exactly want they wanted. They are better.

3rd/4th and short is Carty’s Kryptonite. All the finesse and trickery involved throughout the years is absolutely mind boggling.

Agreed. It would be nice to see a few fundamentally sound plays that just work when you need it most.

[UD '01 grad]

How about that? Nova at 8. In S.D. State bracket. Who'd of thunk?

[artbuc]

The third-string QB threw the touchdown pass. The first two QBs lower the margin and get some first downs in the third quarter but don't change the outcome.

The Hens couldn't get 1 or 2 yards multiple times when game was in balance. They were trailing one minute into the game. Nova wanted the ball. They wanted to take control early and did exactly want they wanted. They are better.

3rd/4th and short is Carty’s Kryptonite. All the finesse and trickery involved throughout the years is absolutely mind boggling.

Carty is a HS coach. Everybody go long.

[Cluck U]

The third-string QB threw the touchdown pass. The first two QBs lower the margin and get some first downs in the third quarter but don't change the outcome.

The Hens couldn't get 1 or 2 yards multiple times when game was in balance. They were trailing one minute into the game. Nova wanted the ball. They wanted to take control early and did exactly want they wanted. They are better.

3rd/4th and short is Carty’s Kryptonite. All the finesse and trickery involved throughout the years is absolutely mind boggling.

Carty is a HS coach. Everybody go long.

Nah.

Carty has some good schemes…but the majority of them require his skill players to win every one-on-one battle. That works against less talented teams, but struggles (an understatement) against talented, disciplined defenses. Watching Sam Houston games was both fun and frustrating. Brilliantly designed plays followed by WTF moments. To Carty, the game is to out finesse teams…out scheme them. There is no, “hey, our guys can simply push the other team around all game, so let’s go with that.” It is more akin to, “hey, let’s see how their D lines up and then we will find the most interesting (not dominant or most effective) match-up (even if requires a complex set of things to go correctly). Explosive play junkie. Thus, the multiple 3-and-outs instead of simply moving the chains.

Funny things is…and this is important…once he has a large lead, he has changed things up a bit to use the clock. Believe me…that is new. And, it gives me hope that he can continue learning and adapting. He is like a gambler always looking for a new, splashy angle…will he continue to bet on the big plays or will he mellow and call a better, complete game?

Time will tell.