BY DANIEL STEENKAMER
Managing Sports Editor
Conference realignment is known to shake up leagues across college football in tectonic fashion, but sometimes, it can play matchmaker, too.
Such was the case as Delaware football announced its 2025 nonconference bout with Colorado, the first out-of-conference game revealed by the Blue Hens for their debut slate as a Conference USA member.
With Delaware joining CUSA as a full member on July 1, 2025, the Hens will be in their second year of the reclassification process once the Sept. 6, 2025 contest at Colorado arrives. The 2024 season will see Delaware play through its final Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schedule, which has yet to be released but is expected to include the Hens’ last CAA Football campaign, which features guaranteed meetings with protected regional foes Towson University and Villanova University if the 2023 geographic model is resumed by the league.
Delaware’s impending elevation to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) via CUSA surely made it a more attractive scheduling candidate for Colorado, which was looking to fill game slots after its move to the Big 12 Conference created overlap between previously inked home-and-homes and new Big 12 games.
The Buffaloes just completed their first season under head coach Deion Sanders, known as “Coach Prime” for his pedigree as a Pro Football Hall of Fame honoree and former Major League Baseball player. One of Sanders’ sons, Shedeur, quarterbacked Colorado to a 4-8 record in 2023, though he finished fourth in the Pac-12 Conference with 27 touchdown passes and made waves in the season opener by leading the Buffs to an upset of TCU.
Before Delaware can worry about Colorado or any of its other 2025 FBS matchups, the Blue Hens must construct the foundation of a roster that can hold up against that competition for the length of a season.
This effort began in earnest, or at least began publicly, with Wednesday’s December signing day announcement of eight high school prospects signed with Delaware.
The Hens received letters of intent from offensive lineman Tyler Burnham, defensive back Meikhi Cuttino, linebacker Colin Gallagher, defensive end Kaeden Singleton, running back Greg Spiller, quarterback Braden Streeter, wide receiver Nick Tyree and tight end Jackson Whitacre.
The addition of Cuttino caught the most attention as a previously unannounced commitment. Delaware won over the 6-3, 195-pound DB from Paramus Catholic in New Jersey despite Cuttino’s reported offers from Michigan State, West Virginia, Syracuse, Purdue and Illinois, to name a few.
“He’s one of the ones that was a little bit of a shorter process for us,” Delaware head coach Ryan Carty said about Cuttino’s recruiting. “He was kinda dealing with some FBS stuff up until recently. And we got a chance to steal him away from those, just a fit thing.”
Whether the implication that Delaware’s November Conference USA announcement enabled it to land Cuttino this December holds water or not, the Blue Hens are pleased to welcome a multitalented defender to their back eight in defensive coordinator Manny Rojas’ scheme.
“Pretty excited to add the kind of versatility that he has,” Carty said. “He’s long, physical, can move, can pedal. But also could probably play closer to the line of scrimmage if he needs to, blitz off the edge.”
Joining Cuttino as three-star-rated recruits are Burnham and Streeter. Burnham had heavy interest across the FBS, drawing offers from such programs as Duke, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Maryland and recent reclassifier James Madison.
Delaware took the chance to see Burnham play basketball and came away all the more impressed, Carty said about the 6-6, 310-pound multi-sport athlete from Long Branch, New Jersey.
“He’s nimble on the court for such a big unit,” Carty said. “That’s a huge key for us, as obviously as we get a chance to recruit big people, can they move? You see that on tape, but you also see it on the court.”
Streeter selected Delaware as opposed to an offer from Appalachian State in the FBS and went with the Hens rather than a string of FCS options that included Austin Peay, Southeast Missouri State, and Coastal Athletic Association rivals Elon and Richmond.
Carty was pleased that his coaching and support staff clung to Streeter’s verbal commitment through Wednesday’s signing.
“I’m still really proud of [quarterbacks] Coach [Sean] Goldrich and our staff for hanging onto Braden,” Carty said. “I think that it’s hard to hang onto a three-star quarterback for the amount of time that we’ve had him connected to us and committed to us.”
Carty called the 6-2 quarterback from Franklin, Tennessee “one of those guys that the more I was around him, the happier I was that he was going to be a Hen.”
Delaware’s head coach enters his third season at the helm of his alma mater with the momentum of two successful Carty-era quarterbacks. Junior college transfer quarterback Zach Marker was limited by injuries in 2023 but bolstered the Blue Hens’ quarterback room with 678 yards passing and three touchdowns through the air, plus one score on the ground, in five games played.
Marker’s mobility was missed in his injury absences, but he was, as a result, one-upped in total games played by true freshman Nick Minicucci. Minicucci delivered a dual threat to Delaware’s offense in his first career start, a 36-34 comeback win in the FCS playoffs first round hosting Lafayette. The rookie’s start was necessitated by starter Ryan O’Connor’s injury sustained alongside Marker’s in the regular season closer versus Villanova.
Minicucci capped his first college season with a 60.5 completion percentage, 474 passing yards and five touchdown passes in six games.
Marker had ACL surgery after his latest injury, he announced on social media.
In Streeter, Delaware can hope for the early bright signs of a third quarterback recruited by Carty, who has said as of this month that he expects to continue calling plays offensively for the Hens next year.
Next year – a season defined by transition amid Delaware’s FCS playoff ineligibility and final CAA Football games – will be shaped by the Blue Hens’ 2023 roster retention and roster management to follow. This fall’s wave of players entering the transfer portal (to consider other possible opportunities) includes junior defensive back Steven Rose Jr., junior defensive lineman DaMarcus Thompson and senior defensive back Christian Pierce.
On offense, to date, Delaware’s biggest losses of personnel (by production) are due to the expired eligibility of receivers Jourdan Townsend, Joshua Youngblood, Chandler Harvin and tight end Braden Brose.
Townsend, Youngblood, Harvin and Brose combined for 1,918 receiving yards in 2023, Delaware’s second straight season finishing in the FCS second round. The Hens navigated not just a test of quarterback depth, but also reliance on these four pass-catchers with a season-ending injury to wideout Kym Wimberly and intermittent availability of speedy receiver JoJo Bermudez.
Wimberly could have been granted a medical redshirt had he applied for one, Carty said, but the Harvard graduate transfer is “hanging them up.”
Carty noted that Wimberly has now suffered three season-ending injuries in his career, which began in 2018 with the Crimson.
“He is the best, man,” Carty said. “I feel bad for him that it didn’t work out as much as he wanted it to because he’s such a great kid and a great player. At some point, you gotta go use your Harvard degree, you know what I mean?
“So now he’s got a Harvard degree and a master’s from Delaware, so he’ll do OK in whatever he decides to do because he’s also an awesome human being.”
With Wimberly’s college playing days concluded on top of the exits of the top quartet of receivers, Delaware sees the position as an area to strengthen further in the next signing period.
“We certainly need a couple more receivers to come help,” Carty said. “…That’s a position that we’re still obviously on the hunt for.”
In the meantime, anyone on the hunt for last-moment Christmas gifts and on the go on Interstate 95 is unlikely to miss Delaware’s December signees. They are plastered on billboards in the First State, a flashy but fitting welcome for recruits entering the next level while in the name, image and likeness (NIL) era of Division I, let alone FBS, college football.
Editor-in-Chief Konner Metz contributed to this story.
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Publish date : 2023-12-23 03:00:00
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