By Andy Walter

NEWARK — Any football coach would rather be playing at home, of course.

And they’d rather have their team be favored to win.

But there’s something about going on the road and knocking off a higher-ranked squad that’s always going to be especially satisfying.

“I have spoken to our team on a number of occasions about the thrill of victory of winning on the road in the postseason,” said Delaware football coach Danny Rocco. “There’s nothing like it.”

Rocco and the fifth-ranked Blue Hens (6-0) will get one of those kinds of opportunities again Sunday in Alabama when they face fourth-seeded Jacksonville State (10-2) in the NCAA FCS Division I quarterfinals at 3 p.m. The contest can be seen on ESPN-3.

It will be Delaware’s first trip to Burgess-Snow Field and only the second meeting between the two programs. The Hens beat the Gamecocks, 42-27, in Newark on their way to the 1978 NCAA Division II national championship game.

Delaware’s players understand that they face a big challenge in trying to reach the national semifinals for the first time since 2010. But it’s not something that scares them, either.

“We’re very excited to get on the road,” said junior linebacker Johnny Buchanan. “We’re a family here. We believe in ourselves completely. When we go in and win, it’s not going to be a surprise to us.

“We have all the respect in the world for this team (Jacksonville State). It’s a great football program there. I think they have great players, I think they’re coached very well. But it’s not going to be a surprise to me when we go in there and beat them and just play the way we play.

“This team is very tight-knit,” he added. “We believe in each other.”

Some of the most memorable wins in Delaware history have been playoff upsets on the road. That list includes victories at Louisiana Tech (1982), Northeast Louisiana (1992), Montana (1993) and Northern Iowa (2007).

This is only Rocco’s third playoff game as Delaware’s coach. But he reached the playoffs a total of four times at Richmond and Liberty.

In 2015, the Spiders upset No. 2 Illinois State, 39-27, on its home field in the FCS quarterfinals. The following season, Richmond won a second-round playoff game at North Dakota, 27-24.

“I see a lot of similarities between this team right now and those teams that were able to advance on the road in the playoffs,” said Rocco. “I think that starts with good, solid defense. And you have to be solid in the kicking game — and we’ve been solid. Offensively we have been able to have balance, run and pass.

“Our team can find a lot of different ways to win a football game. ... We’re very capable of winning in a shootout, we’re very capable of winning a low-scoring game and we’re very capable of making a 55-yard field goal at the end to win a football game.”

It doesn’t hurt that several members of Rocco’s coaching staff have playoff experience, too. Offensive coordinator Jared Ambrose, offensive line coach Bryan Stinespring and tight end coach Bill Polin have all reached FCS national championship games.

“As a coaching staff, we’ve got a lot of guys who have a very extensive history with the playoffs,” said Rocco. “We’ve got a lot of coaches who have been through this. There’s a lot to be said about valued experiences.”

Of course, Jacksonville State has a proud playoff history, too. The Gamecocks are 22-18 all-time in NCAA playoff games,
including a 7-9 mark in FCS postseason games.

They are 7-7 in the playoffs since 2010, reaching the national title game in 2015.

If the Hens do manage to win today, their reward would likely be another road trip to face a highly-regarded opponent. Today’s winner faces the winner of today’s matchup between No. 1 North Dakota State and Southern Illinois in next weekend’s semifinals.

Finding a way to advance is the only thing that matters this time of year.

While Rocco thought last Saturday’s lackluster 19-10 playoff win over Sacred Heart may have been the result of Delaware’s emotional 27-20 win at Villanova the week before, he knows they’ll have to play much better today to come home from Alabama with a win.

“So now we’re moving to two weeks away from that last big road victory,” he said. “I feel our team needs to go back out and recreate that type of energy, that type of emotion (that they had at Villanova).

“What I have been sharing with our team for quite some time is there nothing’s like winning on the road in the postseason. It kind of is an ‘us against the world’ mentality.”