5 questions about Delaware's football future heading into offseason with FBS looming

Delaware is facing a football offseason unlike any it has had before.

The Blue Hens will basically be preparing for two future falls.

A transitional 2024 season followed by a 2025 move to the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Conference USA widens the vision Delaware must have and magnifies the work coach Ryan Carty and his staff must do.

That process is already under way with Saturday night’s 49-19 FCS round-of-16 playoff loss at Montana ending the 2023 season, the Blue Hens’ second under Carty.

Delaware went 9-4, its most wins since the 2010 NCAA runner-up season, which is certainly a positive sign and a strong foundation.

Now it’s the “same mission, just different parameters,” Carty said on Tuesday.

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The move up demands a different, deeper, bigger and better roster, plus coaches more apt to develop it and win with it.

“There’s good things about the fact that you have two years to get prepared, one, to play an FBS schedule and, two, to get prepared to go really give it a go and be eligible for that 100 percent championship bowl,” Carty said.

As Delaware embarks on that future, these are five important questions:

How to approach 2024?

Delaware will still play a Coastal Athletic Association schedule, though it is ineligible for the league title and an FCS playoff berth, the two goals that have long driven UD teams. Delaware State (away) and Norfolk State (home) are the only nonconference games that have been announced of the four Delaware will play in what is a 12-game 2024 schedule.

It can be a valuable launch pad for the 2025 ascent.

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“I don’t plan on ever saying ‘This one doesn’t matter if we’re winning and losing,’” Carty said. “This is gonna matter. Whatever game we’re in, we’re going to do our best to have what we need to win that game.”

Settling some scores, he added, with CAA rivals would surely be a satisfying way to go out.

“We have a lot of unfinished business in the CAA,” Carty said after going 4-4 in the league in 2022 and 6-2 this year with late losses to Elon and Villanova costing Delaware the CAA title, likely NCAA tourney seeding and more home playoff games.

How do you build a roster?

That will have to be done with the big picture, meaning 2025, in mind. As a result, does Delaware go with a younger, up-and-coming lineup in 2024? How close does it come to having the 85 scholarship players – up from 63 – it will be allowed?

“There has to be a mix,” Carty said about building for both 2024 and 2025, adding, “because you don’t know who on your team is going to stay and leave.”

It’ll certainly be a juggling act. The transfer portal will surely be an extremely valuable asset.

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That includes, Carty said, having a team strong enough to “keep the tradition of winning throughout the transition.”

“We need to go out there and field a great football team for next year,” Carty said, “and then make sure that also prepares us and helps propel us to having an even better team the next year.”

Must Delaware tear up its recruiting list?

Delaware needs to revise its list only a bit while aiming for more higher-level players.

Carty said he and his staff went into recruiting this year knowing a move up was possible and pursuing prospects who’d fit that. Delaware typically has several signees every year anyway who chose the Blue Hens over FBS offers.

That’s also been the case so far this year, as the seven who have committed include several who were FBS targets. With a climb to FBS now coming, Delaware should be appealing to more recruits.

“We were always kind of trying to recruit that person,” Carty said of FBS talent. “Most of the time our battles ended up coming down to Group of Five places and us, in particular for the transfers we were taking.”

Will some players leave?

College rosters are revolving doors nowadays though Delaware has done better than many of its rivals in retaining players. It lost just three major contributors after last year – cornerback Amonte Strothers to Buffalo and safety Noah Plack and wide receiver Brett Buckman to UConn.

So far, safety Steven Rose Jr. is the only regular who has entered the transfer portal. He’ll certainly have company, with next year’s odd situation and the possible influx of more talent perhaps influencing some.

But Carty hopes and expects the qualities Delaware has − athletically, academically and socially − will also influence most to remain.

Coaches have been having season-ending interviews with players, an annual tradition. Retaining players as Delaware builds for its future climb would certainly be beneficial.

“This is not one of those places that people are itching to leave,” Carty said. “I think that’s pretty special and I’m proud of it.”

Carty added that he doesn’t expect a “mass exodus” due to the “relationships that we build as coaches with student-athletes, the way that we treat them right on a 365-day basis.”

Will Delaware be ready for CUSA?

Liberty finished an unbeaten regular season by beating New Mexico State in the CUSA title game Friday night and earning a New Year’s Six bowl matchup against Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.

That is the rugged football world Delaware will enter. It comes with major demands and expectations.

“It’s exciting as a competitor. It’s exciting as an alum that that’s what our association is now,” Carty said.

Recent FCS defector Jacksonville State, which Delaware beat in the 2021 spring NCAA quarterfinals, finished third in CUSA. K.C. Keeler’s Sam Houston State, where Carty was offensive coordinator for the 2021 spring FCS champs, had a tougher time going 2-6 in CUSA games.

“I think that we’ll be able to compete, I do,” Carty said, adding Delaware needs to recruit the type of players and build the depth to ensure that.

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware's football future in 5 questions with FBS, CUSA looming