DOVER — Kenny Carter has had a whole spring and summer to teach his new system and schemes.

When Delaware State University takes the football field today for its first practice of the season, its new coach wants to see how much his team has learned from those classroom sessions.

“I want to see retention,” Carter said. “When we hit the field, I want to see immediately the application of what we learned in the classroom. We don’t want to start over.”

Seven months after being named the Hornets’ head coach, Carter is still busy filling out his roster. He added 14 incoming freshmen to his first recruiting class after he signed 11 on National Signing Day.

Most of the new freshmen were able to be on campus for the second part of the summer and a lot of the returning players were also able to stick around over break. Carter hopes that gives his team a head start trying to learn everything that is new.

“Really the season is here already,” Carter said. “We had a great summer. We had over 58 guys on campus over the summer and all the freshmen. When you have that, you really give the guys a chance to bond. They did a lot of things together outside of the training that we did. It was really excellent.

“We know that guys that were here made gains. The guys that weren’t here during the summer are going to have to show they are at the same levels of those guys. We have a foundation and we’re trying to build on it.”

The Hornets are coming off a 2-10 season and did not retain former coach Kermit Blount at the end of the year. There are a combined 14 starters returning on both sides of the ball from last season’s squad.

One position that will be a new face is the starting quarterback. Esayah Obado, who was the announced opening game starter last year but missed the entire season with a back injury, is the front-runner for the job, though Carter said at the end of spring camp freshman Kobie Lain will be able to compete for the starting spot.

The Hornets will have two scrimmages during preseason camp — Saturday, Aug. 15 and Saturday, Aug. 22. Both are scheduled for 8 a.m. and will be designed to mimic game situations.

“We will touch on about every situation you can have multiple times,” Carter said.

Extra points

Delaware State was picked to finish 10th of 11 teams in the MEAC preseason poll. ... There are two sets of twins in the freshman class, both from Delaware, There’s running backs Sika Bendolph and Tecuseh Bendolph from Caesar Rodney High and defensive back Keyjuan Selby and wide receiver Taronn Selby from St. Georges Tech. ... Former Dover High player Kamal Abrams, a wide receiver, transferred from UConn for his final year of eligibility. ... Sophomore transfer Wisdom Nzidee is the only kicker listed on the preliminary roster though last year’s punter Jeremiah McGeough can also handle kicking duties if needed. ... The first game of the season is Saturday, Sept. 5 at Liberty (7 p.m.).