Sunday, September 2, 2007

DSU gets respect it's been dreaming of with victory


Kevin Noonan, The News Journal

DOVER -- It was a win-win situation for the Delaware State Hornets -- they won a game and also won some respect.

The Hornets sent a message to the college football world when they upset No. 23 Coastal Carolina 23-18 on Saturday night at Alumni Stadium.

It was a big victory, maybe the biggest of Al Lavan's tenure as coach, because the Hornets dream big dreams. Delaware State wants a new and improved stadium and it wants to make the jump to NCAA Division I-A, the highest level of college football. Most people snicker when they hear that, because the unranked Hornets aren't even big fish in the I-AA pond, yet they want to go diving into the I-A ocean.

Lavan has made DSU one of the top teams in its conference, but it's a conference that doesn't get much respect because it hasn't earned it -- the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference has lost eight straight I-AA playoff games by an average score of 38-19.

So, the only way for the Hornets to get the respect they crave is to beat a respected opponent outside the MEAC -- an opponent like Coastal Carolina, which has won the Big South Conference the past three years and has consistently been ranked in the Division I-AA Top 25.

And the Hornets finally did it -- they beat a pedigreed nonconference opponent for the first time under Lavan.




















"A game like this gives kids a vision of what they can do," Lavan said. "It's one thing to be confident you can beat a team, but you have to win the game to solidify that thought in your own mind."

The Hornets hadn't fared well when they stepped outside the MEAC in recent years -- they lost 51-0 to Massachusetts and 49-0 to Southern Illinois in 2004, Lavan's first season, and 24-6 to Coastal Carolina in 2005.

Overall, in its first three years under Lavan, Delaware State was 16-7 in the MEAC, but just 3-7 against nonconference foes. And even their three victories were less than impressive -- they beat two Division II schools (Millersville in 2005 and Concord in 2006) and a I-AA team with a losing record (St. Francis in 2006).

And when the Hornets did step up in class, they got knocked back down, losing to James Madison 65-7 in 2005 and Northwestern State 23-3 in 2006. In eight nonconference games against I-AA teams over the past three years, Delaware State was outscored by an average of 34-19 per game.

That's why this victory was so important to a team that dreams big dreams.

In fact, the Hornets should have won going away, but they made more mental mistakes in this game than some teams make in a season, including dropped touchdown passes and dropped interceptions, as well as some dumb penalties and costly fumbles.

But that makes the victory over Coastal Carolina even more impressive -- Delaware State didn't come close to playing its best game and still beat a nationally ranked team.

"We've come a long way since I've been here," senior guard Jeremy Breath said. "And we still have a long way to go. But now we know we can get there, and that's what a game like this can do for you.

"It makes you believe that anything is possible."

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