Delaware quarterback Nick Minicucci dives into the endzone for his lone rushing touchdown against Missouri State. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
Senior quarterback, Nick Minicucci, returned from a two game absence to lead the Fightin’ Blue Hens (3-4, 1-2 CUSA) to a 61-38 win over the Missouri State Bears (2-5, 1-2 CUSA) at home on October 20.
NEWARK, DE — Senior quarterback Nick Minicucci stood behind center Steven Demboski along the numbers near the Blue Hen sideline. Minicucci practiced receiving the snap from the Blue Hens’ starting center while the offense waited for the media timeout to end. A typical pre-drive exercise for a quarterback getting ready to take the field. Minicucci was set to return.
Minicucci led the offense out to the field for their first drive and officially returned after a two game absence. The Blue Hens’ explosive offense returned with him.
The University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens defeated the Missouri State Bears, 61-38, Tuesday night, earning their first Conference USA (CUSA) win of the season in dominant fashion against their fellow sophomore CUSA member.
“Personally, I was not going to let anyone tell me I couldn’t play, so I was going to do anything possible to get back,” Minicucci said. “I mean I was waking up at 3:30 in the morning to go head over to Star Campus for an hour every morning … I lived in the training room.”
UD’s signal caller had a slow start in his first on-field reps since leaving Delaware’s final non-conference game against Virginia in the second quarter.
Minicucci attempted only two passes on the Blue Hens’ first drive and threw a pick-six on the Blue Hens’ second that resulted in a touchdown for Bears safety J.J. O’Neal. Missouri State led 14-7 after the interception late in the first quarter, but Minicucci was spectacular from then on.
Minicucci and the Delaware offense bounced back from the turnover to score on their next drive via a six-yard touchdown pass to Bryson Graves. UD’s defense forced a three and out on Missouri State’s ensuing possession — the only three and out of the half — and returned possession back to the Delaware offense. Minicucci connected with sophomore tight end Scott Moore for a 26-yard score over the middle of the field putting UD ahead in the middle of the second quarter.
“After the first drive, I think Nick really settled in and it was, you know, one of his better games to be honest,” head coach Ryan Carty said postgame.
The Bears tied the score on a 11-yard pitch and catch between starting quarterback Henry Belin IV and CUSA’s leading receiver, Isaiah Myers, but lost the lead on UD’s next offensive possession which ended in a 33-yard field goal by Tucker Smack.
Missouri State regained possession with a little over two minutes left in the first half and drove 78 yards down the field in eight plays to score before halftime. Belin and Myers connected once more for the go-ahead score, this time on a six-yard throw and catch.
The Bears led, 28-24, at halftime and Myers finished the first half with 148 receiving yards on nine catches. Myers finished the game with 11 catches and an FBS season high 242 receiving yards.
The game seemed poised to continue its back-and-forth nature after both teams scored on their opening possession of the second half. Minicucci found tight end Elijah Sessoms in the back of the endzone for a go-ahead score on UD’s second offensive drive and it seemed as though Missouri State would answer after driving into Delaware territory on the following possession.
Belin took the snap on second down and dropped back to pass. The fifth-year quarterback had little time to survey the field before he realized Delaware linebacker Jawarren Corbin was bearing down on him and, while trying to escape the sack, Belin fumbled the football. Sophomore defensive end Brandon Gorham scooped the ball up and returned it to the Bears’ four yard line before being tackled.
“[Defensive Coordinator Manny Rojas] knew they [were] gonna cut, and the A-gap would be wide open so we called an A-gap blitz and my luck, it came wide open,” Corbin said about the game changing play.
Minicucci ran the ball in for the score and UD earned its first double-digit lead of the night, 45-35, in the final five minutes of the third quarter.
Corbin’s play swung the momentum to the Blue Hen sideline and broke the shootout game flow both teams settled into. George Mullins continued the momentum shift with an interception on the Bears’ next drive which led to a Jo Silver three-yard touchdown run.
Sophomore safety George Mullins celebrates after earning his third interception of the season. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
Corbin earned an interception of his own on the Bears next drive wrapping up a career best day. Corbin finished the game with his first career interception, first career sack, first career forced fumble and a career high six tackles. Corbin started in place of the injured Colin Gallagher.
“It felt great,” Corbin said about his performance. “You never know when your name’s gonna get called and when my name got called, I just prayed that I’ll make the best of the opportunity.”
Corbin’s interception led to Minicucci’s fifth passing touchdown — a three-yard pass to senior Donovan Lewis — and completed Minicucci’s return to play. Freshman Tyler Bell relieved Minicucci with nine minutes remaining in the game and Delaware ahead, 58-35.
Minicucci finished the game with 225 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and a 69 percent completion percentage. Minicucci’s five passing touchdowns tied the program’s single game high — the last to throw five passing touchdowns in a game was Nolan Henderson in 2022 — and tied his personal career high with six total scores.
Minicucci also etched his name in the Blue Hen history books passing Rich Gannon on the program’s career passing yards list for sixth place all-time and moved into third place all-time in career passing touchdowns.
In addition to Minicucci’s prowess through the air, Delaware finished with a season high 232 rushing yards. Fifth year runner Jo Silver led the team with 101 rushing yards followed by 58 from fellow fifth year, Kaderris Roberts. Both players scored a touchdown in the game and helped take some of the pressure off Minicucci in his return.
“We have to be able to run the ball when we need to,” Carty said. “We’ve got to be able to set up those plays that we can get big ones on later on, and then we got to take some heat off of Nick, in particular when, you know, he’s coming back from injury. … And so it was really great to lean on those guys, and you know coach Rogers does a great job with those guys. The O-line, you know, blocked their butts off today and really worked together in unison.”
Fifth year running back Kaderris Roberts runs into the endzone scoring Delaware’s first touchdown of the game. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
UD finished the game with 482 total yards of offense and generated 13 explosive plays (passes of more than 15 yards and runs of more than ten) in CUSA’s highest scoring game since 2017.
“Really proud of the execution that we had today. We were so much more disciplined, so much more detail oriented. We were intent. Our sideline was better. Our passion was better. We played more connected. We believed in each other so much better than we did in the past couple weeks, and I think that’s hopefully the start of something that can give us some confidence going into next week,” Carty said.
The Blue Hens’ will play their next two conference games on the road starting with a game against Western Kentucky on Tuesday, October 27. They’ll follow that with a trip to Kennesaw, Georgia, to take on Kennesaw State before returning home on November 14, to play the FIU Panthers.
UD is two games behind Liberty for first place in the CUSA standings and have five conference games remaining. Delaware needs three more wins to be eligible for a bowl game.
Ryan Colasanti joins Delaware Live following four years at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism. There he covered multiple sports for the school’s radio station as both a reporter and editor. Ryan is excited to return back to the state and cover all things Delaware sports.
