By Andy Walter

NEWARK — Like any second-string football player, Bradly Anyanwu knew he was just one play away from getting in the game.
He just never expected the opportunity to come so quickly.

Just five plays into Delaware’s showdown with Villanova on April 17, the Blue Hens’ starting right guard went down with an injury.

“It was definitely surprising,” said Anyanwu. “Obviously, you’ve got to stay ready as an athlete. But, coming into it. I didn’t expect to play as much.”

Anyanwu, the former Dover High standout offensive lineman, held his own, however. And the fact that Delaware won the regular-season finale, 27-20, made the day pretty special for the youngster.

“Getting in there in a rivalry game, in a big moment, I felt so great stepping up and helping the team win,” said Anyanwu. “That was a great experience.”

With the start of the Hens’ fall pre-season camp just weeks away now, Anyanwu is hoping his performance at the end of the spring season has helped Delaware’s coaches trust him even more.

Now a 6-foot-3, 305-pounder, Anyanwu got the first two starts of his career in the Hens’ pair of NCAA FCS Division I playoff wins.

“Bradly is an awesome young man,” UD coach Danny Rocco said after the Villanova game. “He’s the strongest football player on our team. He is all in, fully committed.

“He can move bodies around. He’s smart, he cares a lot. One of the next steps for him is to be able to communicate in the heat of the battle. ... He’s got a bright future with us.”

Like it is for most offensive linemen, it took some time for Anyanwu to earn his place on the field.

He redshirted in 2019 before the pandemic wiped out the 2020 fall season. So when he saw his first collegiate action in the spring season opener against Maine, it was the first real game Anyanwu had played in since Dover’s DIAA Division I playoff loss to Sussex Central on Nov. 23, 2018.

Anyanwu admits that he felt some pressure when his first college start came in a playoff game against Sacred Heart.

“It was definitely a little nerve-wracking, with ESPN and all that,” he said. “(But) it was a great experience. I learned a lot. I got better.

“Looking at the film at the end of the season, I definitely saw an improvement in my game,” Anyanwu continued. “But, at the same time, I know that I can be even better. That’s the great part about it.

“They just told me to expect a bigger role than in the spring season. Just be ready and work on certain things in my game. Obviously my mindset is different. Now I know I can play at this level.”

That next opportunity is coming quickly for Anyanwu and Blue Hen teammates.

Delaware’s last game of the spring season, a 33-3 loss to South Dakota State in the FCS semifinals, was on May 8. That leaves the Hens less than four full months before their fall season opener, on Sept. 2 at Maine.

Anyanwu said he and his teammates know this off-season is definitely different. But right now their summer conditioning is pretty standard.

The Hens are working out every day, Monday through Friday.

“I was playing more toward the end of the season so it was demanding on my body a little bit,” said Anyanwu. “But I’m ready to go now for next season.”

Mentally, Delaware’s players find themselves in something of an unfamiliar place. Because of the pandemic, virtually everyone on the roster in May is coming back.

But the Hens are smart enough to realize that this past spring was a unique season, with fewer teams playing and some squads more focused on the campaign than others.

So Delaware’s players know they can’t just expect to pick up right where they left off.

“It’s kind of a like a ‘part two’ of the season,” Anyanwu said about the fall schedule. “But our coaches have been making sure that we don’t dwell on the spring season.

“To be honest, we caught a lot of teams by surprise. We’re obviously a very talented team, a great-coached team but people didn’t expect us to be that great of a team. Now the target’s on our back.”

Clearly, though, the Hens are expected to be a Top-10 team. They’ve been ranked as high as No. 5 in some of the FCS pre-season rankings.

Like Anyanwu himself, they’re not where they want to be yet.

Anyanwu remembers looking around Delaware’s locker room after the semifinal loss at North Dakota State.

“It was very disappointing just walking off the field,” he said. “I remember the scene in the locker room — people being upset, people having a bad taste in their mouth because of that game. We want to redeem ourselves, we want to get past that point. We want to put Delaware in the national championship game.

“That game at South Dakota State is going to help us in the long run, knowing that we don’t want to feel that feeling ever again.”