Blue Hens must regain traditional ability to run the football

Longtime Delaware football followers tend to yearn for glory-days glimpses, especially as yet another Blue Hens season is poised to finish without a postseason trip.

Nostalgia comes easily when the wish for something better surfaces. Memories of Nate Beasley powering up the middle or Omar Cuff sprinting behind a pulling guard or Butter Pressey zipping around the edge on a speed sweep are treasured.

Running the football has often been viewed as a prerequisite to victory. Maybe at times it was and is.

“Establish the run” is how the common refrain goes, as if the hand-off is the necessary impetus, the primary building block, to success.

Fact is, there have been Delaware football teams in recent years that have run the football very well but couldn’t win often enough, or prevailed frequently without running that great. In modern times, the forward pass frequently rules.

But a potent running attack sure does help, especially with its impact on ball control, clock killing and establishing a physical approach. Delaware’s lack of one now has become a clear disadvantage going into Saturday’s season finale against 6th-ranked Villanova at 1 p.m. at Delaware Stadium (NBC Sports Philadelphia).

And maybe that does seem a bit more impactful and regrettable here, a place where a run-based offense, the Delaware Wing-T, was spawned and became a national phenomenon. Often, its symphony of motion and misdirection was a sight to behold, unless you were the one trying to discover and then tackle whoever had the football.

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In his last few years as coach, Tubby Raymond often did say the Wing-T wasn’t really the Wing-T anymore, especially when Matt Nagy threw for a school-record 2,916 yards in 1998 and shattered that by throwing for 3,436 two years later. Only Joe Flacco (4,236 in 2007) has covered more aerial yards since.

It sure still looked like the Wing-T though with its fullback and two halfbacks, one of them always darting somewhere. The ability to drive the football on the ground was still there, as it was when Raymond's 2002 successor K.C. Keeler installed his no-huddle, one-back spread attack.

But this is about the present and, right now, Delaware’s running game is clearly not effective – or vintage – enough.

The Blue Hens are averaging 118.7 ground yards per game, ninth among the 12 Colonial Athletic Association teams, and 3.2 yards per carry, which ranks 10th.

Those numbers are skewed by events such as sacks and last-second kneel-downs. So here’s a more revealing figure:

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In Delaware’s last four games, 63 of 117 carries – that’s 53.8% – that weren’t sacks or kneel-downs netted 2 yards or less. Now some of those were 1-yard touchdown runs, but more were in search of a greater gain.

“We just haven’t really been able to consistently perform at a high level,” Delaware coach Danny Rocco said, “and it is hard and it makes it harder for Zach [Gwynn, the quarterback] to throw the ball because there's a reality that people don’t respect the run as much.”

They don't respect the run. At Delaware. Holy Gardy Kahoe.

Gwynn is not a quarterback who looks to run, meaning, Rocco added, “You have to gain yards in the run game more conventionally.’’

Rocco pointed out more revealing evidence of Delaware’s troubles.

Dejoun Lee is fifth in the CAA with 76.0 rushing yards per game. But there have been extremes.

Lee has gained 91 or more yards in five games. He’s run for 59 or less in the other five.

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“It’s been the inconsistency of our ability to function, in particular, in the offensive line,” Rocco said.

That unit has considerable experience, especially with tackles David Kroll and Ben Trent, both graduate students, and fourth-year player Stevon Brown at guard most of the time. But center Mickey Henry has missed most of the season and Delaware has had to do some other lineup shuffling, though it likes the talent of its younger linemen.

The Hens have also missed their most physical runner, 225-pound Khory Spruill, since he’s been sidelined with an injury, as has blocking back Mateo Vandamia.

Delaware tried some new running schemes in last Saturday’s 51-27 loss at Richmond, Rocco said, and likely will draw up some new plays this week for Villanova.

Part of that, Rocco suggested, is because more traditional approaches have not worked, leading Delaware to employ run-pass option schemes, for instance. Some of Delaware’s short passes also function almost as run plays.

“We really are searching, we’re kinda searching, for being able to do things in the run game at a higher level, be more efficient,” Rocco said.

The No. 6-ranked Wildcats, who’ll earn the CAA’s automatic FCS playoff berth with a victory but are playoff-bound regardless, do many things very well. Among them is they are No. 2 in the CAA in rushing defense, allowing 90.1 yards per game.

“We just aren’t really controlling or dominating the line of scrimmage like we have done in the past,” Rocco said.

There it is again, “the past.” It always hovers quite close to the present in Delaware football, in the Blue Hens’ ongoing quest to regain some of their ancient stature.

Being able to run the football with authority would certainly inch them closer.

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Villanova gameplan: Blue Hens need to get back to running the football