By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Rod Milstead has the deepest roster of his tenure as head coach of the Delaware State University football team.

He also hopes the Hornets will have a leg up on the competition this season. They were one of only three Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference teams to play an abbreviated season in the spring. The rest of the MEAC has been idle since 2019 after the 2020 fall season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delaware State went 2-3 in the spring season. Milstead said he saw a lot of positives out of his group.

“It’s pretty amazing to see the senior leadership,” said Milstead, the DSU alum now in his fourth year as head coach. “I think that’s the one thing we really derived from the spring, you had your leaders step up. We had so much adversity with COVID restrictions, testing, games getting kicked back and then waiting three weeks to play another game. It never flustered our guys. They just wanted to play football. We are a much tighter-knit and stronger group because of that season.”

Milstead brought 105 players into training camp this fall. The Hornets received a boost when a majority of their veteran players chose to return instead of using the NCAA’s one-time free transfer through the new transfer portal.

The Hornets have six graduate students on the roster and 14 seniors — the abbreviated spring season didn’t count against an athlete’s NCAA eligibility, giving all fall athletes one extra year. They bring 16 returning letterwinners on offense and 15 on defense into the fall season.

The two wins in the spring matched the 2019 fall season when Delaware State finished 2-9 in Milstead’s second season.

“We’re seeing the potential in everybody,” said wide receiver Trey Gross. “We saw flashes here and there of positives. Now there’s a different aspect and a different approach you see us taking this season, which is good. I feel like we got momentum going.”

Milstead said the Hornets will not change anything from the spring.

“Our preparation is still the same,” he said. “We prepared for a complete season in the spring, it got abbreviated but I thought our guys competed well. We set some standards, had some expectations and our guys are living up to our standards.”

Delaware State was predicted to finish fourth in the six-team MEAC by a preseason vote of conference coaches and select media members, although the Hornets received one first-place vote.

The Hornets are led by five preseason All-MEAC First Team members in offensive lineman Matthew Derks, defensive lineman Isaiah Williams, linebacker Brooks Parker (Delmar High), linebacker Antquan Kinsey and defensive back Jawain Granger. Four more Hornets were named to the preseason second team — Gross, running back Thomas Bertrand-Hudon, center Dillon Marshall and tight end Myles Beverly.

Who will quarterback the Hornets is still a question mark. Milstead said he expects to begin the season playing both Tylik Bethea and Jared Lewis under center in a two-quarterback system. The starter for the opener will be a game-time decision, according to Milstead.

Both are sophomores who have started for the Hornets in the past. Bethea played in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2019 and started the spring opener this year before an injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season as Lewis took over.

The Hornets kick off the fall campaign Saturday at home against Bowie State at 4 p.m. The first MEAC game is Saturday, Oct. 23 against South Carolina State in Dover (2 p.m.).

Seven of Delaware State’s 11 games are at home.