Poll (Nuance Aplenty): Did the 2023 season represent progress?

[UD '01 grad]

What do you think?

[Hengrad07]

Big Time change is coming… An OC, A New DC & I would guess, many current hens enter the portal next week.

[72 Hen]

Nine wins is impressive. The easy schedule, however, is the reason for nine wins. One rating site listed only one team (Richmond) with a weaker CAA schedule.

[ColoradoHen]

I remain very optimistic for the programs future. We were able to keep pace with last years progress with a significantly new roster and exciting to watch in the those games we should have won. BUT, totally frustrating to watch in the games we NEEDED to win to show real progress from last year. The same old problems surfaced during each of those losses. We see every way in the book to lose games in all facets - Offense, Defense, & Special Teams. I’m very old school and analytics is a tool that I feel is over hyped. There are more times than not when punting or kicking field goals is the better call than turning the ball over on 4th down, especially when 4th and 1 is a consistent team problem area. Still this was a good season that shows this staff can recruit quality players as well as shows promise for future. Now is the time to get to work to lay ground work for 2025. I do hope that the staff’s off season review points out that our version of the 3-2-6 defense quite working against the better coached teams, either against the run or the pass. Should be a really interesting off-season to try and track. Go Hens.

[bullet2830]

I definitely think Manny Rojas is way overrated. Our defense was poor against the run and the pass.

[HensRock]

Let's keep in mind that we replaced 9 starters on that defense from last year.
I had pretty low expectations going into this season. With the weak schedule turning out to be even weaker than we initially thought, it's very difficult to gauge "progress". We beat the teams we should have beat and lost to the 4 best teams we faced. Maybe we can look at UNH and Elon as 50/50 games where we got "expected value". As far as the rest goes, it's almost like we played 8 Stony Brook's and 3 Penn State's. No real surprises. We shot par.

As far as the "eye test" goes (and keep in mind my expectations going in were pretty low)..

- I thought line play was better than I expected on both sides and may have actually improved from last season (but hard to tell).
- Kicking game improved.
- Play calling did not improve
- Performance vs. Villanova regressed - big-time

[udsb97]

The Blue Hens are going absolutely nowhere in the FBS until Ryan hires a talented OC and gives him a relatively free rein .

That is a major sticking point going forward.

[Udforever1]

The Blue Hens are going absolutely nowhere in the FBS until Ryan hires a talented OC and gives him a relatively free rein .

That is a major sticking point going forward.

OC? Sure, I can get on board with that. Someone to tell him hey let’s run here or no, don’t call that dumb play in the red zone. Free rein? The guy’s offense just put up 32 PPG even with the Penn State dud, and literally is here because of the job he did coordinating offenses at both Sammy and UNH.

[Cluck U]

We scored 19 in Grizzyworld (really 21, but whatever). Their D let up an average of 14+.

We scored more than Sac State (7) and Montana State (7)…two playoff participants that some folks may be familiar with.

We moved the ball…well over 350 yards of offense.

Sure, we stopped ourselves a few times. But, we fared better than many teams against the Griz.

[HenZoneNation]

We made the playoffs two years in a row...the first time since 2003-2004. Let us never forget the dark days of Brock...we are light years ahead of that. This isn't going to be the team that plays at the FBS level. That Montana team would have done very well in C-USA this year. We need a QB, a couple of OL's, and some pass rushers.

[Hens79]

We scored 19 in Grizzyworld (really 21, but whatever). Their D let up an average of 14+.

We scored more than Sac State (7) and Montana State (7)…two playoff participants that some folks may be familiar with.

We moved the ball…well over 350 yards of offense.

Sure, we stopped ourselves a few times. But, we fared better than many teams against the Griz.

How did you like the play Mrs. Lincoln? The less we talk about the last game in FCS, the better.

[Caribbean Hen]

We made the playoffs two years in a row...the first time since 2003-2004. Let us never forget the dark days of Brock...we are light years ahead of that. This isn't going to be the team that plays at the FBS level. That Montana team would have done very well in C-USA this year. We need a QB, a couple of OL's, and some pass rushers.

True and if the Hens were completely healthy they would have won some games vs the bottom tier of CUSA with the FCS roster…. FIU should be a win, heck horrible Maine gave em everything they could handle as well a Bryant last season

Just like the CAA, our new conference is a tale of haves and have nots

No reason to think Delaware can’t be competitive right off the bat

[Cluck U]

We scored 19 in Grizzyworld (really 21, but whatever). Their D let up an average of 14+.

We scored more than Sac State (7) and Montana State (7)…two playoff participants that some folks may be familiar with.

We moved the ball…well over 350 yards of offense.

Sure, we stopped ourselves a few times. But, we fared better than many teams against the Griz.

How did you like the play Mrs. Lincoln? The less we talk about the last game in FCS, the better.

Nah. Lessons to be learned.

Some folks want Carty out because they don't like his offense/play calling. Just wanted to point out that Carty's O can score...even as a walking wounded outfit...it has been the D that has consistently failed us.

Someone noted the improved OL, and in a way I agree...but our center was lofting some high snaps at the beginning of the game (and I am not talking about the long snapper). Damned shame.

Plenty of things to fix. Nothing that more staff (special teams coach, new DC, better line coaches, etc.) can't resolve.

[udsb97]

The Blue Hens are going absolutely nowhere in the FBS until Ryan hires a talented OC and gives him a relatively free rein .

That is a major sticking point going forward.

OC? Sure, I can get on board with that. Someone to tell him hey let’s run here or no, don’t call that dumb play in the red zone. Free rein? The guy’s offense just put up 32 PPG even with the Penn State dud, and literally is here because of the job he did coordinating offenses at both Sammy and UNH.

"As part of its eventual upward climb, Delaware may also play next season with an offensive coordinator – perhaps one with Blue Hens ties – after head coach Ryan Carty has also been chief play-caller and orchestrator the last two years." KT, News Journal 12/4

What we need is for one of our analytical all stars on here to give us some numbers on the percentage of FBS teams that don't have an OC. It will be extremely small is my guess.

Even if we score those 32 points we still lose 4 ball games. Penn State 63 , Elon 33 Nova 35 , Montana 49

Oh course we only managed to average 15 against them .

[HENJOHN]

Who are our "Analytical All Stars"?