Delaware football team, Bryant cross paths for the only time

NEWARK — This is one of those funny things that happens in college sports.

When Delaware hosts Bryant on Thursday at 7 p.m. in its season opener, it will be the first time the two football programs have met.

But it also may very well be the last time.

While the Bulldogs are joining the Coastal Athletic Association this fall, the Blue Hens are on their way out.

Bryant coach Chris Merritt, whose school only started its football program in 1999, has had to deal with a lot of changes over the last few seasons as the Bulldogs moved from NCAA Division II to Division I FCS.

“If you look at my schedule over the last three years, I’ve run into that about 50 times,” Merritt joked on Monday. “Everybody we play is the first and last time we play them.

“Who knows? They’re an FBS opponent now,” he said about UD. “We might need to get that guarantee game. We’ve probably got a better shot at playing them again before we play (2023 opponent) UNLV.”

Technically, Thursday’s matchup is a non-conference game. It was scheduled a few years ago, before Bryant knew it was coming into the CAA this fall.

Because it’s one of Delaware’s three non-conference games, the Hens can use their full compliment of 73 scholarship players. Bryant can have no more than 63.

Even though the Hens will still be 12 scholarships under the current FBS limit, as far as Merritt is concerned, the Bulldogs are stepping up a division in facing Delaware.

“To be honest, we are still taking it as an FBS opponent,” he said. “We need to see where we’re at as a football program. ... We’re taking it as an opportunity for us to get a measuring stick to see where we’re at.”

Blue Hens’ coach Ryan Carty doesn’t see his team’s 10 extra scholarship players making a significant difference on Thursday night.

“When you get into the actual numbers of people who are playing, it’s not going to be a crazy difference from one game to the next,” he said.

As for Bryant being especially motivated to knock off Delaware, that will probably be the case every week this season before the Hens depart for Conference USA and the FBS level.

But Carty also believes teams should be putting everything they have into any game they play.

“I hope so,” he said. “We don’t want anybody to come in here and not give us their best shot. We’re certainly going to give them ours.

“I think that’s going to be out mindset going week-to-week — expecting what the CAA always gives us, which is a fight, week-in and week-out. Nobody on the schedule can’t beat you. That’s what’s pretty cool about this conference.

“Our last year in it is going to be no different. It’s going to be exciting. We get a chance to go say farewell in hopefully as good a fashion as we can make it.”

Different look

Formerly a member of the Northeast Conference, which has a scholarship limit of 40, Bryant is still getting up to the CAA limit of 63.

Coupled with losing some players to the transfer portal, Merritt said about 50 percent of his roster is new this season.

While that might make it difficult for the Hens to scout the Bulldogs, Carty said most opponents’ rosters are going to change from year to year. And even if a team has many of the same players, a lot can change in an off-season.

“You really have to worry about yourself in game one,” said Carty. “We really have to focus on who we are, what we want to be good at and try our best to dictate, ‘This is who we want to be.’

“There’s a lot of different faces on this (Bryant) two-deep than the ones we’re watching on film. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes that’s a bad thing.”

Extra points

Carty has announced that center Brock Gingrich and linebacker Dillon Trainer will be team captains for the second-straight season while cornerback Tyron Herring and quarterback Ryan O’Connor will be first-time captains. ... After Thursday, Delaware doesn’t play at home again until Sept. 21 when it hosts Penn. ... The CAA’s 16-team membership is a record for an FCS conference. It’s more than the record 15 the league had last year when it broke the previous mark by two. ... Delaware and Richmond (Patriot League) are leaving the CAA after this season.