By Andy Walter

NEWARK — After a brutal week with two heartbreaking losses, the Delaware football team seemed like it would need a miracle to still make the NCAA FCS Division I playoffs.

The Blue Hens got it.

Delaware (7-4) earned one of the 24-team tournament’s 13 at-large bid and will host St. Francis, Pa. (9-2) in the first round of the playoffs next Saturday at 2 p.m.

The winner have to then face top-seeded South Dakota State the following weekend.

While they were a Top 25 team all season, the Hens seemed like a long shot to make the playoffs after falling to Villanova, 29-26 this past Saturday.

After Saturday's loss, first-year coach Ryan Carty said he thought Delaware was capable of playing in the tournament.

"I think this team's good enough to go play football against a lot of people in this country," he said. "I think that's what the CAA does for you. It gives you the opportunity week-in and week-out to get hardened, to be in battles anad be in situations that are playoff-like."

After reaching the national championship game three times between 2003-10, Delaware is in the FCS playoffs for  just the third time since then. In the shortened spring season in 2021, the Hens reached the FCS national semifinals before losing to South Dakota State.

The last time the Hens went to the playoffs in a fall season was in 2018 when they also made it as a 7-4 squad.

That same season, Sam Houston State won the national title with Carty as its offensive coordinator.

Delaware was one of five Colonial Athletic Association teams to make this year's playoff field. William & Mary, Richmond, Elon and New Hampshire are also in the bracket.

William & Mary is the No. 5 seed and has a first-round bye along with the other top-eight seeds.

St. Francis is the Northeast Conference champion after going unbeaten in league play. It has won nine games in a row after starting the season with losses to Akron, 30-23, in OT, and to Richmond, 31-21.

In the two teams' only previous meeting, the Hens beat the Red Flash, 27-10, in last year's home opener.

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at walter@iniusa.org. Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.