Delaware faces Rhode Island in rare conference match-up to start season

The last time the University of Delaware launched its football season with a conference game, in 2007 at William & Mary, the Blue Hens eventually landed in the NCAA title game.

Delaware can only hope Thursday’s season opener against Colonial Athletic Association foe Rhode Island can lead to such a conclusion.

For now, the Blue Hens simply just want to start well, knowing the fact this is a CAA game raises the stakes.

With eight league games on the schedule, including four against nationally ranked foes, the No. 15-ranked Blue Hens can ill afford a slip-up against the Rams.

“There is a heightened awareness and a reality that this game has become a very, very important football game for both teams and for both seasons,” Danny Rocco said Monday as his second season as UD coach neared.

Delaware and Rhode Island kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday at Delaware Stadium (CollegeSportsLive.com).

The Blue Hens begin a bid to end their seven-year NCAA playoff drought after an encouraging 7-4 season in 2017. Three home games to start the season – Lafayette and Cornell follow – provide an ideal starting position heading into week four’s venture to No. 1-ranked defending FCS champ North Dakota State.

“This year I really like that we’re opening up with a conference opponent,” said senior inside linebacker Troy Reeder. “It’s a big challenge and I think it kept our guys even sharper during camp, just knowing that we were heading into conference play right off the back.”

Senior wide receiver Joe Walker said URI visiting for the opener gave Delaware a greater sense of urgency in preseason camp.

“It let us come out every day knowing we can’t take a day off,” he said.

Delaware won that 2007 opener 49-31 in Williamsburg as senior running back Omar Cuff rushed for 244 yards and tied an NCAA FCS record with seven touchdowns. The Blue Hens, led by Cuff and senior quarterback Joe Flacco, reached the NCAA final that season before losing to Appalachian State.

Rhode Island has been, by far, the CAA’s least successful program. The Rams have had endured 16 straight losing seasons and had winning records just three times in the last 32 years (1991, 1995 and 2001).

Of the 12 CAA teams, Rhode Island has had the longest absence from the NCAA playoffs, having not made it since 1985. Delaware, which hasn’t qualified since 2010, actually has the second-longest time away from the postseason.

But Rhode Island has still managed to pull off its share of wins over Delaware, including in the 2001 opener at Delaware Stadium at the start of Tubby Raymond’s last season as coach. The Blue Hens have won five straight at home against URI since then despite losing three times in Kingston.

With eight returning starters each on offense and defense from last year’s team that went 3-8 overall and 2-6 in the CAA – its best record in four years – Rhode Island feels primed for improvement in the league.

“We are where we want to be and we’ve got a very talented football team that has the opportunity to do good things,” said fifth-year URI coach Jim Fleming. “I think our talent is plenty good enough to be competitive in winning this league. Now it’s a question of playing good football.”

It’s Delaware’s first game against Rhode Island since a 20-0 loss in Kingston in 2015. That was the first time since 1996 Delaware had been shut out by a fellow FCS team. It was Rhode Island’s only win that year.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Walker, who was a freshman starting quarterback in 2015. “Not to make any excuses, but around that time there were a lot of freshmen, sophomores, a really young team, not too much experience, didn’t really know how to change the outcome of the game going in from first half coming out in the second half. But this year we have a lot of experience, we have a lot of seniors coming out.’’

Last year Rhode Island beat Villanova 20-6 the week before Delaware closed its season by losing 28-7 to the Wildcats, a defeat that cost the Hens a playoff berth.

“They’re getting better,” Rocco said of the Rams. “Coach Fleming is probably on the verge of having them be competitive week in and week out. That’s the hardest thing to do in this league ... They just look to have a competitive roster.”

Hen scratch

Delaware has already raised more than $31 million of the targeted $35 million for the Delaware Stadium west grandstand/pressbox renovation and Whitney Athletic Center construction, according to athletic director Chrissi Rawak. Work would begin after this season. The university is covering the rest of the estimated $60 million cost.

The Blue Hen Touchdown Club’s season-opening luncheon is Wednesday at the Carpenter Center’s upstairs Carpenter Club. Rocco and Rawak will speak. Doors open at 11:15 a.m. for the noon program. It’s open to the public. Cost is $20 for TD club members, $25 for others.

Bill Harman is now color analyst for football with play-by-play voice Scott Klatzin on the Blue Hens Radio Network (WDSD 94.7 FM). Harman, the long-time Wilmington Friends School assistant football coach who has also worked NFL games for FOX, has been Klatzkin’s UD men’s basketball partner the past several years.

The first coaches radio show with Rocco on WDSD airs live from Klondike Kate’s in Newark at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Delaware has added Cost of Attendance stipends to scholarships in all sports, including football. UD had tacked on the additional $1,500 for men’s and women’s basketball scholarship recipients in 2017-18. Cost-of-attendance payments were introduced in 2015-16 at schools in the NCAA’s power-five Division I conferences – ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12. Athletic scholarships cover tuition, room and board, books and other compulsory fees. They do not cover additional costs, such as travel to and from home, food and school supplies. COA stipends aim to help manage those costs. The amount is determined by each school’s financial-aid department.

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.