2019 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team

The 2019 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team represented the University of Delaware in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They played as members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). They were led by third-year head coach Danny Rocco, and played their home games at Delaware Stadium in Newark, Delaware, with the stadium undergoing renovations prior to the 2019 season. They finished the season 5–7, 3–5 in CAA play to finish in a tie for ninth place.

2019 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football
Conference	Colonial Athletic Association
2019 record	5–7 (3–5 CAA)
Head coach	Danny Rocco (3rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Jared Ambrose (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Chris Cosh (3rd season)
Home stadium	Delaware Stadium (Capacity: 16,730)

2019 Colonial Athletic Association football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 2 James Madison $^		8	–	0					14	–	2
No. 18 Albany ^		6	–	2					9	–	5
No. 15 Villanova ^		5	–	3					9	–	4
New Hampshire		5	–	3					6	–	5
Towson		4	–	4					7	–	5
Maine		4	–	4					6	–	6
Elon		4	–	4					5	–	6
Richmond		4	–	4					5	–	7
Delaware		3	–	5					5	–	7
William & Mary		3	–	5					5	–	7
Stony Brook		2	–	6					5	–	7
Rhode Island		0	–	8					2	–	10
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season

See also: 2018 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football team

The Fightin' Blue Hens finished the 2018 season 7–5, 5–3 in CAA play to finish tied for third in the conference. Delaware also returned to the FCS Playoffs for the first time since 2010, falling in the first round to CAA rival James Madison.

Coaching staff

Name	Position	Year	Alma mater
Danny Rocco	Head Coach	3rd	Wake Forest (1984)
Jared Ambrose	Offensive Coordinator	3rd	Shepherd (2007)
Chris Cosh	Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs	3rd	Virginia Tech (1984)
Bill Cubit	Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs	1st	Delaware (1973)
Levern Belin	Defensive Line Coach	3rd	Wake Forest (1991)
Holman Copeland	Assistant Coach - Corners	1st
Jalen Kindle	Assistant Coach	2nd	Delaware (2017)
Dave Legg	Assistant Coach - Outside Linebackers/Special Teams	1st
Gregory Meyer	Tight Ends Coach	2nd	Buffalo State (2009)
Bill Polin	Offensive Line Coach/Recruiting Coordinator	3rd	Colby (2000)
Clint Sintim	Outside Linebackers Coach	3rd	Virginia (2009)
Alex Wood	Wide Receivers Coach	2nd	Iowa (1978)
Tony Palmieri	Video Coordinator	3rd	North Florida (2009)
Carl Kotz	Director of Football Operations	3rd	Clemson (2003)
Chris Stewart	Strength & Conditioning	3rd	Western Carolina (1998)
Felicia Bergman	Director of Football Advising	3rd	Colorado State (2009)
Jude Moser	Administrative Assistant	10th	University of Delaware (1984)

Preseason

CAA poll

In the CAA preseason poll released on July 23, 2019, the Fightin' Blue Hens were predicted to finish in fifth place.[1]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	James Madison	238 (20)
2	Towson	217 (3)
3	Maine	201 (1)
4	Elon	164
5	Delaware	162
6	Stony Brook	151
7	New Hampshire	109
8	Rhode Island	104
9	Villanova	84
10	Richmond	62
11	William & Mary	58
12	Albany	34

Preseason All–CAA team

The Fightin' Blue Hens had two players selected to the preseason all-CAA team.[1]

Offense Mario Farinella – OL

Special Teams Nick Pritchard – P

Schedule

Delaware has scheduled 12 games in the 2019 season instead of the 11 normally allowed for FCS programs. Under a standard provision of NCAA rules, all FCS teams are allowed to schedule 12 regular-season games in years in which the period starting with Labor Day weekend and ending with the last Saturday of November contains 14 Saturdays.[2]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 29	7:00 p.m.	Delaware State*	No. 22	Delaware Stadium Newark, DE (Route 1 Rivalry)	FloSports	W 31–13	15,894
September 7	7:00 p.m.	at Rhode Island	No. 21	Meade Stadium Kingston, RI	FloSports	W 44–36 ^3OT	8,511
September 14	1:00 p.m.	No. 1 North Dakota State*	No. 18	Delaware Stadium Newark, DE	NBCSP	L 22–47	14,489
September 21	1:00 p.m.	Penn*	No. 20	Delaware Stadium Newark, DE	YouTube	W 28–27	11,782
September 28	12:30 p.m.	at Pittsburgh*	No. 20	Heinz Field Pittsburgh, PA	ACCRSN	L 14–17	68,400
October 12	2:00 p.m.	at Elon	No. 15	Rhodes Stadium Elon, NC	FloSports	L 7–42	5,572
October 19	1:00 p.m.	No. 22 New Hampshire	No. 24	Delaware Stadium Newark, DE	FloSports	W 16–10	16,730
October 26	1:00 p.m.	Richmond	No. 19	Delaware Stadium Newark, DE	FloSports	L 25–35	15,308
November 2	2:00 p.m.	at No. 21 Towson		Johnny Unitas Stadium Towson, MD	FloSports	L 24–31	5,522
November 9	1:00 p.m.	Albany		Delaware Stadium Newark, DE	FloSports	L 17–21	13,742
November 16	1:00 p.m.	Stony Brook		Delaware Stadium Newark, DE	FloSports	W 17–10	11,981
November 23	1:00 p.m.	at No. 10 Villanova		Villanova Stadium Villanova, PA (Battle of the Blue)	FloSports	L 33–55	5,319
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

[3]

Game summaries

Delaware State

See also: 2019 Delaware State Hornets football team and Route 1 Rivalry

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hornets	3	3	0	7	13
No. 22 Fightin' Blue Hens	3	13	9	6	31

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
8–0	2017	W 22–3

at Rhode Island

See also: 2019 Rhode Island Rams football team

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	3OT	Total
No. 21 Fightin' Blue Hens	0	0	14	8	7	7	8	44
Rams	3	10	0	9	7	7	0	36

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
22–10	2018	L 19–21

North Dakota State

See also: 2019 North Dakota State Bison football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Bison	10	17	6	14	47
No. 18 Fightin' Blue Hens	5	0	3	14	22

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–1	2018	L 10–38

Penn

See also: 2019 Penn Quakers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Quakers	7	7	7	6	27
No. 20 Fightin' Blue Hens	7	0	14	7	28

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–3	1983	W 40–7

at Pittsburgh

See also: 2019 Pittsburgh Panthers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 20 Fightin' Blue Hens	0	7	7	0	14
Panthers	0	10	0	7	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–1	2014	L 0–62

at Elon

See also: 2019 Elon Phoenix football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Fightin' Blue Hens	0	0	0	7	7
Phoenix	7	0	21	14	42

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
3–0	2018	W 28–16

New Hampshire

See also: 2019 New Hampshire Wildcats football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 22 Wildcats	0	10	0	0	10
No. 24 Fightin' Blue Hens	0	10	3	3	16

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
22–12	2018	W 38–14

Richmond

See also: 2019 Richmond Spiders football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Spiders	21	7	7	0	35
No. 19 Fightin' Blue Hens	7	3	15	0	25

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
21–11	2018	W 43–28

at Towson

See also: 2019 Towson Tigers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Fightin' Blue Hens	7	7	7	3	24
No. 21 Tigers	7	17	0	7	31

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
12–8	2018	W 40–36

Albany

See also: 2019 Albany Great Danes football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Great Danes	7	7	0	7	21
Fightin' Blue Hens	0	17	0	0	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
6–2	2018	W 21–16

Stony Brook

See also: 2019 Stony Brook Seawolves football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Seawolves	0	10	0	0	10
Fightin' Blue Hens	7	3	0	7	17

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–2	2018	L 3–17

at Villanova

See also: 2019 Villanova Wildcats football team and Battle of the Blue

	1	2	3	4	Total
Fightin' Blue Hens	7	10	0	16	33
No. 10 Wildcats	20	14	14	7	55

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
21–30–1	2018	L 21–42

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Final
STATS FCS	22	21	18	20	20	19	15	24	19	RV
Coaches	23	21	18	20	19	18	15	24	19	RV

References

1. Washburn, Rob (July 23, 2019). "James Madison Picked to Capture CAA Football Championship in 2019". Colonial Athletic Association. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
2. "Bylaw 17.10.5.1: Number of Contests, Maximum Limitations—Institutional" (PDF). 2018–19 NCAA Division I Manual. NCAA. July 2018. p. 273. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
3. "Seven Home Games Highlight Blue Hens' 2019 Slate". UD Athletics. Retrieved October 31, 2018.