Emotional Letdown? Not This Team

By: Matt Janus

The emotional ebb and flow of football is a beautiful thing. 

On Saturday afternoon in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the University of Delaware football program experienced one of the gutsiest wins it has enjoyed during head coach K.C. Keeler’s nine-year tenure.  Despite losing quarterback Pat Devlin (only one of the best signal callers in the country) on their second offensive play from scrimmage, the Hens found a way to beat a top 10 team on the road with their 13-10 triumph over James Madison.

It was the kind of win a team can rally around later in the season when more adversity comes its way, the type of victory that proves the true mettle of these Hens.

“It wasn’t a good win,” Keeler said this week.  “It was even beyond a great win.  It was a fantastic win.”

But it was also a physically demanding and an emotionally draining game.  On top of Devlin going down with a concussion, Delaware saw four different players leave the contest due to injury.  Receiver Mark Mackey did not return courtesy of a concussion, while Andrew Harrison, Darryl Jones and Anthony Walters all came back in the second half and gutted their way through the final 30 minutes at less than 100 percent.

That second half saw the Hens rally from their first deficit of the season.  K.C. Keeler attributed the come-from-behind effort to a fiery halftime speech delivered by seniors Jones and Matt Marcorelle.

“I was thinking about what I was going to say (to the team at halftime) until the kids got themselves together,” Keeler said.  “I had nothing else to say.  What they all said, I couldn’t top that. 

“It would have been so easy to have an excuse to lose this ballgame,” Keeler said.  “It was built in.  They had knocked out one of the top players in the country.  But the kids, I didn’t have to tell them that.  They refused to let that be an excuse.”

The message from the team’s leaders was to keep fighting and to stay together.  It was so emotional and Keeler was left so speechless that he sent his team out early for the second half.

“I remember looking up at the clock and thinking, ‘what, are we going to have two minutes of silence here?’  I had nothing else to say.  I mean, it was emotional, it was spontaneous.  It was an interesting locker room.  So we went out two minutes early.”

Delaware left the locker room and played inspired football in the second half.  A defense that had allowed 214 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes surrendered only 69 yards in the final two periods, while the offense put together two well executed fourth-quarter scoring drives and kicker Mike Perry knocked through a pair of clutch field goals. 

After the game, the same Delaware locker room that saw such tense emotions at intermission housed nothing but pure joy.

“Nick Rapone (Delaware’s stoic defensive coordinator) was just out of control,” Keeler said.  “And to know Nick Rapone, and to see him out of control, the kids just loved it.  I was trying to talk and all of a sudden he had an (joyful) outburst and all the kids turned around and they all went nuts with him.”

After things settled down, Keeler said a different kind of emotion took hold.

“There was plenty of tears in guys’ eyes.  More the coaching staff than the players, because it was a proud moment.”

Now, conventional wisdom suggests a team that had tears in its eyes after a win, and had toured just about every inch of the emotional spectrum, would be mentally drained.  As a result, it would not be a stretch to imagine that same squad having a difficult time getting up for its next game.  But the last two lines from Keeler speak volumes about this team and its leadership.

The players were excited and going nuts, but it was the coaches that were moved to tears.  Not only because of the win, and the adversity that was overcome to get it, but because of how it was overcome.  Keeler and his staff have discussed the concept of individual ownership of this team by his seniors at great length before Saturday’s win at JMU.  Never before had it been hammered home so clearly, however.

The 17 seniors that make up this 2010 Delaware roster have been through so much.  As freshmen in 2007, they went to the national championship game.  One year later they experienced the worst season in the program’s long and illustrious history.  Then, as juniors, they finished one win shy of a playoff berth.  They have experienced seemingly every emotion a football player can on the field.  As a result, it seems they have a maturity that goes beyond what most college players get to experience during their careers.

“The kids get it,” Keeler said.  “I had to remind them what this conference was all about only because it’s what you have to do because of the young kids in this program. 

“I’m hoping the guys put the blinders on and I would think they will because there is a lot of experience here.  Our kids have it figured out, they know.  If you have been in this league long enough you have seen enough things happen and you know this is a good football team we are playing and we have to worry about that one next.”

Hens Hoping to Cement CAA’s Superiority on Saturday

By: Matt Janus

There is no denying that for the last half-decade, the CAA has been the best conference in the FCS.  The league has featured three or more schools in the postseason in each of the previous four campaigns.  The rest of the conferences in the country have placed three or more teams in the big dance a grand total of two times over that span.  Colonial teams have accounted for the previous two, and four of the last seven national championships, while the league has placed six squads in the last seven title games.  The CAA has lapped its competition and is the best conference in the FCS.  This is fact.

But even with that fact firmly established, the CAA still cannot rest completely on its recent laurels for 2010.  The non-conference season each year provides a huge proving ground not only for individual teams, but for conferences as a whole.  How many schools a conference sends to postseason can be greatly affected by how its teams fare in tilts with other top-tier competition.

Now that’s not to say if the Colonial drops a few encounters with teams from other conferences it would be a one or even a two bid league.  But if the conference wishes to continue getting four or five of its schools into the tourney, then it needs to establish dominance during September.

In the past the CAA has done an excellent job of accomplishing exactly that.  A season ago the league enjoyed multiple wins over FBS opponents.  The Colonial earned a pair of victories over the MAC and the ACC, while going a combined 3-1 against the two other top conferences in the FCS, the Big Sky and the Missouri Valley Conference.

The status quo did not hold up over the opening week of 2010 however.  Colonial teams went 0-4 against FBS opponents and their best non-conference win of the weekend came over Morehead State.  Richmond and Villanova came up with statement wins over a bowl team (Villanova over Temple) and a BCS conference opponent (Richmond over Duke) in 2009, but dropped similar decisions to open this season.

The point is that with the early portion of the non-conference season not going the CAA’s way, Saturday’s inter-conference showdown between Delaware and South Dakota State takes on added relevance.

Not only do the Hens need a victory to boost their own résumé, but to help out the entire league. If any conference wants to continue getting four or five berths to the postseason, these are the kind of games its teams have to win.  Considering the fact that Delaware was picked to finish anywhere between fourth and sixth in the CAA entering the year by most prognosticators, getting that many CAA teams into the dance would seem to be essential for the Hens.

Now a loss on Saturday would cause the Hens no great shame.  The Jackrabbits are a nationally ranked top-10 team, and were a fourth quarter meltdown (they blew a 27-point second-half lead) away from upsetting Montana in the first round of last year’s tournament. 

But consider this hypothetical down the line.

Delaware finishes the season with a record of 7-4.  Four other teams finish equal with them, or ahead of them in the CAA standings.  Now, as the selection committee gathers to decide who is postseason bound, Delaware is deemed the fifth-most deserving CAA team for a playoff berth.

The Hens go into the at-large pool and have their résumés sized up with teams from around the country, including schools from the Missouri Valley Conference.  If the final spot comes down to Delaware and North Dakota State or Delaware and Northern Iowa, wouldn’t the selection committee weigh pretty heavily the fact that Delaware could not beat an MVC team in their own building?