Preview - UD Football vs. Maine

The Blue Hens are headed up into the middle of nowhere to take on the Maine Black Bears, who are well rested after sitting idle last weekend.  They deserved the bye after facing Pitt the previous week, losing by six to the Panthers squad that just dismantled a ranked FBS opponent this week.  Both the Blue Hens and the Black Bears have things to work out in Orono on Saturday, so in an effort to keep things short, here is the short and sweet of it for both teams:

Quick Hits (9/29)

Not too much going on for the Blue Hens on the Internet these past few days so here are some links to the worth-while reads that are out there:

K.C. Keeler Show

Slow week for UD Football, so with nothing else major to go through from today, here is the audio from the K.C. Keeler Show that just aired tonight from Kate's:

• The K.C. Keeler Show (9/28/11) on WDSD

FCS Bracketology - Pt. 5

Back in the saddle, again!  Delaware's all-important home playoff game has been restored in the new edition of Bracket Projections from "The Sports Network."  The bracket and quick analysis follows:

Monday's Press Events - Maine Week

Due to prior obligations, I did not have the time for a full analysis on the CAAFBtc and Keeler's Presser from the BOB preceeding the Maine game this coming weekend.  Here are the links to both Coach Keeler's and Coach Cosgrove's (Maine's HC) segments from the CAA Football Teleconference this week along with the video from BlueHens.com of Keeler's presser.

• CAA Football Teleconference - Coach Keeler (9/26/11)
• CAA Football Teleconference - Coach Cosgrove (9/26/11)
• BlueHens.Com - K.C. Keeler Press Conference Highlights (9/26/11) [video below] 

Delaware Stadium: A Retirement Community?

I did not want to post this before the game because I did not want to encourage any one of that age to take part in this deal.  I have no problem with senior citizens getting discounted tickets or meal deals.  You live that long, you deserve some perks in life.  My issue here is that this advertisement is just another example of catering towards a more vintage crowd.  Here is the ad I am referring to and the writeup I did the night before the game:

Post-Game - Delaware 27, Old Dominion 17

Way to scare the living daylights out of everyone!  The newest member to the toughest conference almost handed the Hens a huge blow to their season in the 4th game of the year. I'll give tons of credit to Coach Wilder for having the Monarchs ready to stick with the Hens throughout the game and taking advantage of many Delaware mistakes on the day.  Enjoy the stressful rundown:

GAMEDAY - DELAWARE vs. OLD DOMINION

The first CAA game for the Blue Hens this season comes against conference newbies, Old Dominion.  This is one of those "don't-let-the-old-people-get-cold-at-night" early starts, so make sure to check out all the storylines before you hop in the car and head to the lots to tailgate.  Here's your GAMEDAY links:

Preview - UD Football vs. Old Dominion

With no history between ODU & Delaware, I am going with
the awkward trophy shot from last week.

A few years ago, the CAA lost two of it's football teams due to contraction in the same off-season.  The conference that was looking to add Old Dominion and Georgia State programs down the line and rise up to a 14 team super conference in the FCS was dealt a blow that resulted in the destruction of the divisions and a fear of other teams making their way out of the conference for one reason or another.  Luckily, the break-up never really happened (Villanova would not commit to the Big East and only UMass has been able to secure moving up to FBS play).  Old Dominion is now joining the CAA as it's 11th member (Georgia State will be #11 again next season with UMass' exodus).  So what better way for a new team to begin conference play than to face last season's 2nd best team in the nation?  Talk about your baptism by fire!

Game of the Week???

I do not know who put this guy in charge of deciding on the "game of the week," but apparently this site is doing previews of big games and game strategy.  To me, it looks like a coach looking to keep his skills sharp.  It is a basic preview of the game, and I would have expected more video analysis or telestrations, just something that shows the strategy you are trying to talk about.  I have no idea why I feel compelled to share it with everyone, but I do not want to hold anything back from you no matter how random it may be.  If it's Blue Hens, I will cover it.  With that being said, here is this guy's preview of the game this week versus Old Dominion:

CAA & Realignment

The CAA Basketball
Landscape... for now.

The CAA is entrenched as a mid-major conference when it comes to basketball, and as Division 1.5 football in the FCS.  No one is jumping from a larger or better conference to join the CAA.  However, if/when a CAA team decides to jump ship, to a FBS conference, for whichever sport, Tom Yeager appears to have a plan in place.  In a conference call earlier today, the CAA Commissioner wanted to clarify how the constant realignment rumors are affecting the CAA and that the conference does have plans in place should it be affected.  CAAHoops.com has provided a full in-depth analysis on the conference call.  The link is after the jump.

Keeler Presser - ODU Week

K.C. Keeler held his weekly press conference from the BOB on Monday afternoon.  Here is a quick recap of what was discussed and the video embedded at the end...

Giusti Named CAAFB Defensive Player of the Week

Sophomore DB
Jake Giusti

Jake Giusti has been named the CAA Football Defensive Player of the Week after his fumble return for a touchdown.  Here is the full quote from CAASports.com and the link to the article:

• CAA Football Players of the Week - Sept. 19

Directly from CAASports.com:

CAA Football Defensive Player of the Week - Jake Giusti, SS, Delaware
Giusti, returning from a severe knee injury suffered in last season's National Championship game, the safety picked up CAA Football Defensive Player of the Week honors after returning a fumble 32 yards for a touchdown. Giusti, who also logged a tackle in the 45-0 shutout win over Delaware State, helped pace a Blue Hen defense which limited the Hornets to 112 total yards and just four first downs. Delaware's defensive unit did not allow a third-down conversion on the night, limiting DSU to a 0-for-10 effort.

Keeler Has No Rules (#CAAFBtc 9/19)

After a victorious weekend over Delaware State, the Blue Hens have their first ever matchup with Old Dominion to look forward too, officially kicking off the CAA season for Coach Keeler's squad on Saturday.  Here is the audio link for the CAA Football Teleconference, and my take on K.C.'s segment of the TC (ODU Coach Wilder's segment also covered):

FCS Bracketology - Pt. 4

Another week, another bracket to moan about.  I get what Craig Haley was doing here, with all the teams on a bye this week.  Delaware remains in the same position as last week.  The big movers are Eastern Washington (dropped) and Montana, who beat them (added).  Here's your bracket:

Post-Game - Delaware 45, Delaware State 0

Jake Giusti returns a DSU
fumble for a Touchdown

I really do hope that they warmed up the bus during that 4th quarter because this was o-v-e-r early!  Now, for all the fun this beat down was for the casual fan, the real truth here is that no problems were really "solved."  I'll get into that in a bit, but first, here is your game rundown:

GAMEDAY - DELAWARE VS. DELAWARE STATE

UPDATED: Today's News Journal links added 

Call of the Blue Hen

If you have ever seen a Penn State football game (or Carolina Panthers, or Florida Panthers), then you've heard the cat roar sound effect.  Why Delaware decided to get their own version of the sound effect is beyond me, but for some reason, I kind of like it in a comedy sort of way.  In no way do you have a rooster crowing to intimidate an opponent.  It's just for the heck of having it there.  I can do with or without it.  It was played during the last game vs. West Chester at the very beginning and then occasionally during the game, but it was so bizarre that I just thought it was a one time thing at first.  I really do not know on this one.  Please let me know what you think of the sound effect.  My money is on "no" from the fans, but it's something that no one will complain enough about and has gotten the school publicity, so it is going to be here to stay whether we like it or not.  I am leaning "yes," but barely.  Here is the feature that was done by ABC-Philly:

Oh Captains, My Captains!

Saddler, McNeil, and Hagins will captain the Hens in '11-'12

Coach Monte Ross has named his captains for the 2011-2012 season.  Sophomore Devon Saddler, and juniors Kelvin McNeil & Jamelle Hagins have been chosen to lead the team into the upcoming season of Delaware basketball.

Preview - UD Football vs. Delaware State

The Blue Hens were given a scare by a Division II school last weekend.  Delaware State was beaten by a Division II school last weekend, and then they were let off the hook.  Shaw University had the ball back with 1:01 remaining after DSU failed to connect on a game-tying field goal.  With only one timeout left for the Hornets, Shaw could have just taken a few knees and pulled off the upset.  Yet something told the D-II school to run the ball at least one more time.  Big mistake.  DSU stripped the ball from Shaw and just two plays later, Nick Elko's pass to Darius Jackson for six put the Hornets up for good.

Quick Hits (9/14)

Busy day here on my end, so I've grabbed as many Blue Hen links for you as I could.  Just a few previews of the DSU game, a final piece from last weekend, and some injury updates, but all worth passing along.  The game preview for this weekend should be up by Friday, and I have a few other pieces in the works for tomorrow that are worth reading.  Enjoy!

FCS Bracketology - Pt. 3

I am restricting myself from any complaints this week.  After the Hens poor showing vs. West Chester, even I would keep them out of the top 8.  The one interesting thing of note is EWU's loss this knocks them out of a seed.  Feel free to share your impressions of the 3rd installment of FCS Bracketology.  The bracket follows after the jump...

Blue Hen Ballz & the MBB Schedule Release

I figure this is a good a time as any to introduce you to the new Blue Hens Basketball Mascot: Blue Hen Ballz.  The Mid-Majority is a great source for mid-major basketball and is a must read during the season.  He travels around with his appropriately colored basketball mascot, Bally, who can be seen sitting on press row throughout the basketball season.  As Bally's popularity grew, so did the demand of the readers for mascots of their own.  Long story short, with my membership for the upcoming season, I got the chance to have Delaware represented in the bunch.  All of the site's school-specific mascots are called Ballz, so therefore, mine is dubbed "Delaware Ballz," but I feel like Blue Hen Ballz has a much better ring to it so that's what I'm going with.  You can look for him to be featured in a decent amount of the updates throughout the season.

As for the actual teams, the Men's schedule was released back on Wednesday and what better way to celebrate than to give a full game-by-game prediction of the season so far ahead of the opener at Radford.  Here we go! (All predictions based solely on gut instinct and what I know without overly researching anything)

Blue Hens Beat (Episode 2)

The second episode of Blue Hens Beat was released today by BlueHens.com.  Instead of giving a full blown analysis, I'll keep it concise with just a rundown of the episode and some quick thought, with the video linked up below.

• The Prettyman Twins of UD Field Hockey & Track talk about growing up with their triplet younger siblings and the efforts of their parents.  Nice to see that Blue Hen runs in the family.
• Blue Hen Barbara... She's a sassy one... random questions from who knows that she answers.  If she gets asked questions that are way further off topic, she could become epic!
• Former UD Football player Siddiq Haynes takes on Kelvin McNeil of UD Basketball in P.I.G. inside the BOB.  Someone can't dunk (guess who...).
• At the 9:12 mark, Scott Klatzkin gives a Sports Update for around the Campus... WORTH WATCHING THIS PART!  This includes a quick "Upcoming Schedule" for Blue Hen Sports
• Quick montage of all the Service Appreciation Night features at the West Chester game.
• Jimmy Smith sits down with Coach Keeler to go over West Chester game film (telestrator and all).  Nice little analysis of some of the highlights of the game.
• The next episode will come on the 26th.

Not as in-depth as the last one was, but good to see some of the off-field moments.  If Siddiq had be interviewing McNeil while getting his behind handed to him, it would have been a better segment.  Also, I would have liked to see one negative play mixed in to the Keeler segment, but this is produced by the UD Athletic Department, so the odds of that were slim.  Anyway, here's the video:

Keeler Monday (9/12)

(Link to today's CAAFBtc and UD Press Conference are attached at the end of this post.)

Coach Keeler started off his Monday just like every week with the CAA Football Teleconference, followed by his live presser from the BOB.  The first big news

Men's Soccer off to Fast Start

Sophomore Midfielder
Roberto Gimenez

With all of the focus on American-style football, the Men's Soccer team has gotten off to a great start this season.  The goal of this year's team:  make it back to the CAA tournament.  This is the 85th season of Delaware Soccer and after one of the most successful seasons in team history, the team is looking to make history by becoming the first Blue Hens team to reach it's conference tournament in back-to-back seasons.

Mandatory Contributions (& Season-Tickets)

Here is a great article from the Delaware Online/News Journal on the changes made to the pricing of season-ticket packages for this season of Delaware football.  I wanted to make sure this article got to you all sooner than later so I am just attaching the link for now, and when I can make the time, I will give my full analysis on the piece.  I will say that this is a must-read article and worth knowing about before you commit to any more ticket packages through the school.  I have tons more to say on this, but for now, here's the article:

• Delaware Online - Football ticket sales down, but revenue up for Hens

Cannot Forget (9/11)

I remember exactly where I was when I heard about the Towers.  In my 9th grade math class on Long Island, the announcements were being made and the class was chatting amongst itself.  When our teacher wanted us to be quiet, he told us that a plane hit the World Trade Center.  I thought he was kidding at first, but then there was to be an emergency assembly in the chapel of the school, and it sunk in that something serious happened.

Post-Game - Delaware 28, West Chester 17

Update: Game articles and my analysis have been added/completed.

Wow.  Where do we even start?  This is what Auburn must have felt like last week when they barely escaped Utah State (they needed to recover an onside-kick to do it, but still, this one is vs. West Chester).  So many flaws with how the Hens played defensively.  The offensive side of the ball had it's own issues too, but that defense is a disaster.  Thankfully, Delaware State is next on the slate, not a CAA game.  Here's the game rundown followed by the review of my predictions (so-so):

GAMEDAY - DELAWARE VS. WEST CHESTER

Finally, the Hens come home to really kick off the season.  Kickoff is at 6:00 PM tonight, so make sure to tailgate before the heavier rain comes in!  Here are your links:

• Delaware - Game Day Central (9/10/11) vs. West Chester
• Delaware Media Notes vs. West Chester
• West Chester Media Notes vs. Delaware
• Delaware Online - Keeler looking for clues against West Chester

Don't forget that today's game can be seen live on BlueHens.com and make sure to follow our Twitter feed to see all of our game-day posts!

Keywords: University of Delaware Blue Hens, UD, West Chester University Golden Rams, WCU, Football, NCAA

Preview - UD Football vs. West Chester

I'll be honest with you... this is West Chester we're talking about here.  So there's not going to be a preview of them on here.  As for Delaware, there are a few things to go over heading into Saturday's game:

Tim Donnelly to Start vs. WCU

It's official.  Tim Donnelly will be the starting quarterback for your University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens come Saturday when they host West Chester.  Here are the links to the information...

The Future of Delaware vs. Navy

Let's say you're a football coach.  You practice all summer long to get ready for the season.  Then you see that you have an opponent who runs the triple-option coming up in the first week.  The game offers a great experience for your players, but it requires a specialized gameplan.  You have to take everything you taught your defense so far and throw it out the window in order for them to learn an entirely new scheme, just for one game.  When it's all over, you will have to take your team and restart the original defensive gameplan.  Would you sign up for this "experience" in the future?

Quick Hits (9/7)

Travel day for me means that it's a quick hits kind of afternoon.  Here are some links to worthy reads so far this week:

FCS Bracketology - Pt. 2

One week in and there are a few changes to the original bracket.  I am gearing up for tons of rage here in future Bracketology reviews.  I can tell that this will end up becoming a rant every week and we're only in our second edition here.  This has been your fair warning.  Proceed with caution anytime you see that header on this blog...

Keeler's CAAFBtc & Presser (9/5-6)

Coach K.C. Keeler was back on the media circuit and we have your audio and analysis right here for you.  Expect a lot of Sasek injury news all week long...

Post-Game - Navy 40, Delaware 17

So that was not the best start to a season.  The defense could not stop that triple-option for it's life, and Sasek had to leave the game with an injury.  Here's my take on the game as it went on and we will have my post-game review of the action and my over/unders.

GAME DAY - DELAWARE VS. NAVY

  

It's game-day here in Annapolis!!! I'll be making my way to the stadium shortly.  Here are the links to the game-notes:

• Delaware Game Notes for 9/3/11 vs. Navy
• Navy Game Central for 9/3/11 vs. Delaware

Make sure to keep tabs on our Facebook Page and Twitter Feed as that is where I will be posting updates during the day.  There will be a game recap on here later tonight.

Keywords: University of Delaware Blue Hens, Navy, Naval Academy Midshipmen, Football, NCAA

Quick Hits (9/2)

The Hens leave for Annapolis earlier today.

The Blue & Gold arrived in Annapolis earlier today and checked out the field before their season opener versus Navy tomorrow.  Here are a few tidbits from today that are worth passing along:

The Upside of Wrong

Boy was I wrong.  Back on Monday, I ranked the six CAA vs. FBS matchups.  I placed the Villanova-Temple game at #4 (1 being most likely upset, 6 being the least likely).  Coach Andy Talley expressed concern about his team during the teleconference on Monday, even using the term "rebuilding mode."  To quote myself from that teleconference, here was my feelings about Villanova:

Preview - UD Football at Navy

It all boils down to one play:  the triple-option.

Ditka. Sausage. Hens.

Great quote out of Mike Ditka on his "Back to School" segment on SportsCenter yesterday that I couldn't help but share.

"If winning isn't everything, then why do they keep score?" - Mike Ditka

After Coach Keeler's comments about winning championships, this quote just adds fuel to K.C.'s fire.  Always have to go for the win, and at the end of the day, while you want to win them all, there is only one win that Coach Keeler wants, and that's a championship.

Let this also be a quick reminder to follow us on twitter or like us on Facebook so we know to keep this website going.  We are keeping score here.

"Blue Hens Beat" Debuts

BlueHens.com has debuted a new webshow called "Blue Hens Beat" which has set itself up as an interview show spanning across the landscape of Delaware athletics.  Here is the first episode and the rundown/review of it.

Save Keeler a Parking Spot!

The K.C. Keeler Show on 94.7 FM WDSD aired yesterday and the audio is now available to you here! No breaking news was shared during the interview, but I feel like the tone that Coach Keeler used when discussing the quarterback situation indicated that Sasek will be the one to start for the Hens on Saturday.  Otherwise there were some great moments of humor and some good general UD Football discussions between host, & good friend, Mike Corey and our Coach Keeler.  Continue on to grab the audio link...

Title IX - The Seasons Begin!

So instead of blatantly calling the occasional summation of what's going on in Women's Athletics just that... Title IX makes so much more sense.  Think about what the point of Title IX really was: to give female athletes a fair share of athletics in relation to what male athletes received.  That's exactly what I plan to do here.  Clearly I won't be having a Volleyball or Field Hockey update every day, but I have enjoyed them both when I've gone to matches and games, and I plan on giving them their due time in this space.

So without further ado, here is the first review of the Lady Blue Hens in action: