By Andy Walter

NEWARK — At 6-foot-4, 217 pounds, Dae’lun Darien still looks like the lean wide receiver he used to be.

The only thing is, he’s been playing outside linebacker for the Delaware football team again since the spring.

Darien has to admit that his unique, lanky build gives him an advantage in some situations.

“Even in practice, when I go against (tight end) Braden Brose, when I extend my arms, he gets mad,” Darien said with a laugh. “He’s like, ‘I hate that your arms are so long.’”

The rest of the Blue Hens, though, are just fine with what Darien brings to the squad. Indeed, the former Penn State transfer seems to be coming into his own lately as a linebacker.

A grad student, Darien had a big 11-yard sack and was involved in a number of other plays as Delaware shut down No. 20 William & Mary, 24-3, on Saturday. The Hens will be trying to come up with another big game when they play at Richmond (2-4 CAA, 4-5 overall) on Saturday at 2 p.m.

For a guy who switched between offense and defense at both Penn State and Delaware, Darien seems to have finally found a place to fit in at the end of his career. He moved back to linebacker during the Hens’ spring season.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun as of lately,” said Darien. “Starting in the spring season, the first game, after I made my first tackle on defense, I knew I was going to have a lot of fun on the defensive side.

“It does feel a little bit more natural. It’s funny because my dad was just saying the same thing. I showed him a couple clips from a couple games and he was like, ‘Yeah, I always liked you on defense. I wish you would have played defense when you’d first gone to college.’”

In one spring game, against Stony Brook, Darien forced and recovered a fumble on one series and then intercepted a pass on the Seawolves’ next possession. He’s been credited with 31 tackles since the spring.

Darien’s teammates are happy to see the Baltimore native find success on the field. Senior receiver Gene Coleman has gotten to know Darien pretty well since he transferred in 2019.

“The best thing to me was just seeing how he kept his head down and kept working,” said Coleman. “You didn’t really hear too much complaining about anything that he had to go through, moving back and forth. He just got comfortable on the defensive side. His savvy and athleticism just took over since the spring.

“I think he’s been one of the best players on our defense. It might not always show up statistically but he’s in the right place at the right time, making an impact on the game. That’s exciting to watch.”

Delaware coach Danny Rocco said he’s happy to see things turn out well for Darien, too. He said it’s “awesome story.”

“Guys like Dae’lun are the guys that just make me proud to be the coach,” said Rocco. “He comes to work every day, he has a great attitude. He’s a good young man.

“He’s really settling in right now as being a big-play capable outside backer for us. He has a knack for punching out the ball, he can tip passes, he can break passes up and he does cover a lot of ground. Having length makes it difficult for the quarterback to have the angles on the throws he wants to make. They look different on Saturday when they’re being defended by a guy who’s 6-4.”

If there’s a problem with being tall, Darien said he has to really focus on getting low when he tackles a runner. He said he’s also tried to put on weight — getting up to as much as 230 when he was at Penn State — but he can’t keep it on.

Whether he looks slightly out of place or not, Darien has become a steady linebacker. He said being able to make big plays just makes him motivated to try to make more.

“Those kind of things make you want to keep going and give you a little extra motivation to try continue off of those plays,” said Darien.

Gwynn improving

People seem to agree that quarterback Zach Gwynn has improved after making his fifth straight start in place of the injured Nolan Henderson.

In the last two games, Gwynn has completed 36-of-49 passes for 372 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Even Richmond coach Russ Huesman said Gwynn looks more comfortable when he’s studied the film.

“I put in their most recent games and he looks really good,” said Huseman. “He can make all the throws that they need him to make. He’s running the offense really well.

“I’ve been impressed with how he’s developed. He’s a really good player and he’s just getting better and better. And that’s what happens when you don’t play a whole lot and then suddenly you get thrown in the mix. ... He has gotten to a point where he’s legitimately hard to defend.”

Injury issues

On Monday, Rocco admitted to reporters that the list of players medically unavailable for practice wasn’t good.

“There are guys that are listed as ‘out’ today that I don’t want to share their names,” said Rocco, whose team doesn’t practice on Mondays. “You just wait to see tomorrow morning what they say.”

Among the top-line players Delaware is missing are Henderson, center Mickey Henry along with linebackers Colby Reeder and Drew Nickles. Against William & Mary, the Hens were also without receiver Thyrick Pitts and tight end Bryce DeMaille.

They were joined by a small army of other players in street clothes on the sideline.

Rocco said dealing with COVID protocols for the past year has made him more patient with injuries as well.

“Last spring, you’d come in on a given day and it’d be eight or nine guys out — just gone — for symptoms,” he said. “And you’re like, ‘OK, we’ve got to move this guy over here and we’ve got to see if he can’t do this, let’s work this guy at two positions. ...’ I have been able to pull some optimism from that and say, ‘Well, this is what it is. We can get over this. We’ve been through it before.’”

Rocco said “the odds are in our favor” with Pitts, DeMaille and maybe even Reeder to be able to play this weekend.

Coleman said offensive coordinator Jared Ambrose complimented the players on how they handled being short-handed.

“He said he felt like this was the first time he watched us just kind of go to work,” said Coleman. “We weren’t sitting there thinking about what we didn’t have. We didn’t talk about how we were going to replace this, how we were going to replace that.

“The guys who had to step up, stepped up. That was the best part of this week for us.”

Extra points

Sophomore punter Tyler Pastula was named the Colonial Athletic Association Special Teams Player of the Week for the second-straight week. He averaged 47.8 yards on five punts against William & Mary, raising his CAA-leading season average to 42.8 yards. ... The Hens received votes in Monday’s STATS FCS poll. Four CAA teams are ahead of Delaware, led by No. 2 James Madison. ... Junior receiver Austin Haverstrom had four catches for 34 yards on Saturday. They were his first receptions of the season.