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My once proud University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens are a shell of what they used to be. Former President Pat Harker and Former AD Eric Ziady successfully destroyed a proud tradition that was built over 70+ years in 4 years. We were a school who had 4 head coaches over a 70 year timeframe. 3 of those coaches are in the college football Hall of Fame. The fourth currently sits undefeated with the #2 team in the nation. When KCK was fired after the 2012 season I held my opinion until they hired his successor. When they named Dave Brock, I knew that we were in for a long downward spiral. While we have not hit rock bottom quite yet, we are circling the drain. In 4 years Dave Brock a journeyman assistant, who never had any notable success to warrant a look at a HC job, has amassed a progressively worse win loss record and has ZERO playoff wins in ZERO playoff appearances. His predecessor who had to be fired for whatever reason....(no real reason other than a power struggle with the president of the university) was 11-3 in the playoffs as coach at UD with 3 championship appearances and 1 title, but has added a 6-2 playoff record at SHSU with 2 consecutive national semi-finals in 2 seasons of work in Huntsville. This is nothing less than an embarassment for my alma mater. The Blue Hen fans deserve much better than they are getting. The architects of this cluster F--- are both long gone and there is new leadership in town. I sincerely hope they have educated themselves on the once proud history of Blue Hen Football and will make the obviously necessary move to can coach Dave Brock. 2 consecutive years of offense that cannot complete a forward pass is unfathomable in todays game of football. I just hope it is not too late to revive our once proud program.

How do you really feel?

BRING BACK TUBBY!!!!

I agree. The Hens and the Griz are the most underachieving FCS teams right now by a wide margin (no offense to either of those teams).

Bluehen95 wrote:My once proud University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens are a shell of what they used to be. Former President Pat Harker and Former AD Eric Ziady successfully destroyed a proud tradition that was built over 70+ years in 4 years. We were a school who had 4 head coaches over a 70 year timeframe. 3 of those coaches are in the college football Hall of Fame. The fourth currently sits undefeated with the #2 team in the nation. When KCK was fired after the 2012 season I held my opinion until they hired his successor. When they named Dave Brock, I knew that we were in for a long downward spiral. While we have not hit rock bottom quite yet, we are circling the drain. In 4 years Dave Brock a journeyman assistant, who never had any notable success to warrant a look at a HC job, has amassed a progressively worse win loss record and has ZERO playoff wins in ZERO playoff appearances. His predecessor who had to be fired for whatever reason....(no real reason other than a power struggle with the president of the university) was 11-3 in the playoffs as coach at UD with 3 championship appearances and 1 title, but has added a 6-2 playoff record at SHSU with 2 consecutive national semi-finals in 2 seasons of work in Huntsville. This is nothing less than an embarassment for my alma mater. The Blue Hen fans deserve much better than they are getting. The architects of this cluster F--- are both long gone and there is new leadership in town. I sincerely hope they have educated themselves on the once proud history of Blue Hen Football and will make the obviously necessary move to can coach Dave Brock. 2 consecutive years of offense that cannot complete a forward pass is unfathomable in todays game of football. I just hope it is not too late to revive our once proud program.

Gil Dobie, as you can see I have not posted much in the years I have been a member od CSD, but I have hit my breaking point with the Dave Brock experiment in Newark. I am now letting it all out. He has got to go. Imagine if you lost your coach and instead of hiring a qualified individual the school hired a buffoon with no real resume to warrant a Division 1 Head Coaching job? We have watched what took 70 years to build be destroyed in less than 5. It is sad!

Pwns wrote:I agree. The Hens and the Griz are the most underachieving FCS teams right now by a wide margin (no offense to either of those teams).

With all due respect to Delaware, I'd say they're underachieving more than us by a pretty wide margin. I also think people underestimate how much of a setback the Jordan Johnson/Pflugrad firing debacle was. Mick Delaney is a good man, but he had no business being a head coach at the D-1 level.

Grizalltheway wrote:
With all due respect to Delaware...

Grizalltheway wrote:I also think people underestimate how much of a setback the Jordan Johnson/Pflugrad firing debacle was. Mick Delaney is a good man, but he had no business being a head coach at the D-1 level.

Sounds like a coaching debacle I am familiar with.......

Bluehen95 wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:I also think people underestimate how much of a setback the Jordan Johnson/Pflugrad firing debacle was. Mick Delaney is a good man, but he had no business being a head coach at the D-1 level.

Sounds like a coaching debacle I am familiar with.......

I mean we also have multiple playoff wins in that same timeframe and are currently ranked 10th in the nation. Putting us in the same sentence as UD is just retarded.

Wow....


SHSU has two more semi-final appearance to their name? Their late-round playoff futility is starting to reach UM and UNI levels

Brock Landers wrote:Wow....


SHSU has two more semi-final appearance to their name? Their late-round playoff futility is starting to reach UM and UNI levels

not the point. The point is UD fired their coach. He sat out a year and worked at ESPN and NFL films. And with one less year at SHSU has gone to the semis 2x and is #2 in the nation as we speak while the gem he was replaced with is still working a 5 year plan to a winning season. It is a point where he needs to be fired for lack of production.

Stop crying, Nancy. Nobody likes a whiner. Boo Hoo. You lost to JMU and Carolina.

Maybe your yard-bird brains can get behind a young team with 8 Seniors.
Go 7-2, and then beat somebody.

Indeed. Suck it up, Hen-Peckers

Grizalltheway wrote:I also think people underestimate how much of a setback the Jordan Johnson/Pflugrad firing debacle was. Mick Delaney is a good man, but he had no business being a head coach at the D-1 level.

That's just retarded. Montana won 10 games just a year after that all happened. They did choke in the playoffs, but that's hardly unique in Griz history.

Delaney's the main reason the program didn't need a total rebuild.

Well said 95. I agree with you. Brock is in over his head. His recruiting methods have not panned out at all. His philosophy on transfers & bettering key positions (QB & WR) has been atrocious. There hasn't been one significant coaching departure in 3+ years of .500 or worse football - so mediocrity is being tolerated. The culture of winning is absent currently from the program.

I sincerely hope that sometime between 11/20 & 11/23 a change is made.

The dumbest firing in A-10/CAA history was in 1996, when JMU fired Lefty Driesell. Well, UD topped that with firing Keeler in 2013. That might be the dumbest firing in I-AA history. I don't know whether I should or

Maybe the worst thing that could happen to UD is that they go 7-4, make the playoffs, win an opener round game vs the Patriot or NEC winner, then get thumped in the round of 16 to finish 8-5, and UD retains Brock.

Mvemjsunpx wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:I also think people underestimate how much of a setback the Jordan Johnson/Pflugrad firing debacle was. Mick Delaney is a good man, but he had no business being a head coach at the D-1 level.

That's just retarded. Montana won 10 games just a year after that all happened. They did choke in the playoffs, but that's hardly unique in Griz history.

Delaney's the main reason the program didn't need a total rebuild.

Easy now, Mick.

BDKJMU wrote:The dumbest firing in A-10/CAA history was in 1996, when JMU fired Lefty Driesell. Well, UD topped that with firing Keeler in 2013. That might be the dumbest firing in I-AA history. I don't know whether I should or

Eh, Keeler was a dead man walking. The real issue was the President of UD at the time, Harker. He took over just after the disastrous fleecing of the season ticket holders that, to date, has resulted in more than 50% of season ticket holders leaving (was a high of 11.5k season tickets in 2008, and is somewhere in the 5k now). Harker was quite open about downsizing college sports, football especially, in terms of importance in the University's priorities. KC was opposite, he was pushing for more investment in football. They were oil and water. Harker made it known that KC wouldn't get anything and KC just withered on the vine. He was mailing it in in the last couple of seasons after losing in the NC title game in 2010 (Harker may have had something to do with the chain gang in that infamous game). KC had lost his fire to coach by the end (think his brother died during that time too) and just couldn't take the Harker beatdowns anymore. Brock, unfortunately, is a hire from that time and that philosophy - we're now 4 years into mediocrity and there appears to be no push to do any better. I think Brock is retained for the last year of his contract no matter what, and that's a shame. He's a nice man, but he's not much of a coach. I'd take a less nicer guy if he knew football at this point. On the bright side, Harker's been gone since June, hopefully the new guy has a different take on football's place at the University.

As for KC, he appears to have taken advantage of the fresh air that moving did for him. He has the support of the University and he's free to coach and he's thriving.

GannonFan wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:The dumbest firing in A-10/CAA history was in 1996, when JMU fired Lefty Driesell. Well, UD topped that with firing Keeler in 2013. That might be the dumbest firing in I-AA history. I don't know whether I should or

... He was mailing it in in the last couple of seasons after losing in the NC title game in 2010 (Harker may have had something to do with the chain gang in that infamous game)...

Wait what? You going all Spanos on us, or is this from KT or some other source?

Rob Iola wrote:

GannonFan wrote:
... He was mailing it in in the last couple of seasons after losing in the NC title game in 2010 (Harker may have had something to do with the chain gang in that infamous game)...

Wait what? You going all Spanos on us, or is this from KT or some other source?

Well, the stuff between Harker and KC and Harker's attitude towards UD football is pretty well known. I admit, though, I have no proof of Harker having anything to do with that chain gang snafu. It just all seems to fit though.

GannonFan wrote:

Rob Iola wrote: Wait what? You going all Spanos on us, or is this from KT or some other source?

Well, the stuff between Harker and KC and Harker's attitude towards UD football is pretty well known. I admit, though, I have no proof of Harker having anything to do with that chain gang snafu. It just all seems to fit though.

I still blame Joe Biden. For the loss and for me being held up 45 minutes by a Secret Service agent from leaving the parking lot in Frisco.

93henfan wrote:

GannonFan wrote:
Well, the stuff between Harker and KC and Harker's attitude towards UD football is pretty well known. I admit, though, I have no proof of Harker having anything to do with that chain gang snafu. It just all seems to fit though.

I still blame Joe Biden. For the loss and for me being held up 45 minutes by a Secret Service agent from leaving the parking lot in Frisco.

Oh lament. Could you have imagined the scene if they had won, I think Biden would've been at our postgame tailgate playing beer pong.

BDKJMU wrote:Maybe the worst thing that could happen to UD is that they go 7-4, make the playoffs, win an opener round game vs the Patriot or NEC winner, then get thumped in the round of 16 to finish 8-5, and UD retains Brock.

Good thing that's not gonna happen.

93henfan wrote:

GannonFan wrote:
Well, the stuff between Harker and KC and Harker's attitude towards UD football is pretty well known. I admit, though, I have no proof of Harker having anything to do with that chain gang snafu. It just all seems to fit though.

I still blame Joe Biden. For the loss and for me being held up 45 minutes by a Secret Service agent from leaving the parking lot in Frisco.

UD seems to lose every big game that Biden attends. I remember a televised UD-Maine game some years back where the Biden jinx bit the Hens in the ass.