Delaware State head coach DeSean Jackson a shot of adrenaline for school, MEAC

BALTIMORE — In a driving rain in Baltimore last Friday, Delaware State athletic director Tony Tucker watched a raucous celebration break out on the Hornets’ sideline as the Morgan State kicker missed a last-second field goal. The miss allowed the Hornets to prevail 14-12.

With the victory, Delaware State’s dream season continued under first-year head coach DeSean Jackson.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Howard, Delaware State is two wins away from achieving what seemed like the impossible dream: playing for the Black National Championship in the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 13. The Celebration Bowl pits the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) champion against the champion of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).

Tucker is Delaware State’s first-year athletic director and Jackson was his first major hire. Jackson has been the catalyst, not only for Delaware State’s dramatic football turnaround but for a positive change in attitude throughout the athletic program.

“I’m feeling great about it,” Tucker said, referring to the Jackson hire. “I mean, it’s a culture shift, it’s a university shift, and it’s rippling out to the MEAC conference, and also HBCUs. “We knew it was going to be a huge impact. I saw early on, when he came in to interview, that he definitely is a coach’s coach.

“It seems like he’s a 10-year veteran coach. He truly is a student of the game. I knew that it was going to be a really deep and hard impact when he came in. And I think everybody’s seeing that right now.”

Tucker has been at Delaware State since 2023. He grew up in nearby Wilmington, Delaware, and attended the University of Delaware, where he played basketball. When he became athletic director in January, he was charged with, among other things, reviving a football program that had not had a winning season since 2012. The team finished with a 2-3 MEAC record in 2021 and 2022; it was 0-5 in 2023 and 2024.

After consecutive losing seasons, the university fired former coach Lee Hull, reassigned the former athletic director and hired Tucker to begin the process of turning around the football program.

The turnaround has been instantaneous, though Tucker said he is not surprised.

“I expected him [Jackson] to do really well,” he said. “I knew he was going to do really well, and now it’s happening.”

The Hornets host Howard at home Saturday, though in all likelihood Delaware State’s Celebration Bowl hopes will boil down to a showdown at home against MEAC powerhouse and defending champion South Carolina State on Nov. 22.

Few would have guessed at the beginning of the season that Delaware State would be undefeated and angling to win the conference title. When MEAC rival Norfolk State announced Dec. 20, 2024, that it was hiring Michael Vick to be its next football coach, many assumed that if any program would experience a rapid turnaround it would be Norfolk State. Although Vick had no coaching experience, he had the big name and stellar NFL credentials as a star NFL quarterback.

When Jackson’s hiring was announced seven days later, the announcement was treated somewhat as an afterthought.

Ten months later, Jackson and Delaware State have become one of the great stories in college football this season. Norfolk State is 0-4 in the MEAC, and Delaware State is undefeated and on the precipice of going from worst to first.

Tucker said he is not interested in contrasting Delaware State’s success with Jackson to Norfolk State’s struggles with Vick.

“I wasn’t really paying attention to Coach Vick,” he said. “I was keeping my eye on Coach Jackson. It’s satisfying that he’s having some great results so early. We’ve still got a ways to go, but the sky’s the limit, and I think that that’s the most satisfaction.

“I don’t want to get into comparing him to other people, but he’s doing exactly what I thought he was going to do, plus a little bit more.”

Like Vick, Jackson has impressive credentials. He made the Pro Bowl in three of his 15 NFL seasons and became the first player in NFL history to earn Pro Bowl honors at two positions as a kick returner and wide receiver. He played with the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, Washington Commanders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders.

In style and manner, Jackson epitomizes being true to oneself. From the jewelry he wears around his neck, to his shooting-from-the-hip way of communicating, to his unbridled passion, Jackson keeps it real.

He does not fit the mold of the traditional head coach — staid, reserved, cliché-bound. He has a unique style and that’s what convinced Tucker that the 38-year-old Jackson was the person for the job.

“I think he’s a player’s coach,” Tucker said. “But at the same time, the thing I love about him is that he’s being himself, and he’s not trying to be anything different than himself.

“And it’s kind of like he’s not trying to fit into this cookie-cutter mold. He’s just being who he is, and the results are positive. It’s going to probably open the door for some other young coaches coming in to just be who they are and don’t feel like they have to fit into this cookie-cutter mold.”

MEAC commissioner Sonja Stills said when it comes to Jackson’s style, don’t judge the book by its cover.

“I think he brings a new nuance to the sideline,” she said. “The look, the flash about him is the first thing you see, but when you start to listen to him talk he’s a true coach. He’s talking business, he’s talking about the right things, so it’s a breath of fresh air. Anything that kind of breaks the mold is amazing, and it just helps bring visibility to the institution.”

Stills added that Jackson is just the shot of adrenaline Delaware State needed and that the conference needed as well. The MEAC needed Delaware State, long regarded as a conference weak link, to be revitalized.

“It’s been an amazing ride to see how the season has unfolded,” Stills said. “I think because people have written off Delaware State and put them at the bottom of the polls. They did not take into account his coaching experience. He came in ready to work, his hiring the coaches and recruitment of players played a big part in his success.”

Stills said she anticipates that Vick will eventually have success at Norfolk State and that the combination of Vick and Jackson will be as dynamic for the MEAC as it was for the Philadelphia Eagles when Vick was throwing passes to Jackson.

“Having both of them have success is going to be is great for the conference, no matter what,” she said. “The visibility that it’s bringing to each of the institutions and to the conference as a whole, we’re here for it. We’re here for the ride, and I just can’t wait to see where this is gonna go.”

For Delaware State, the journey, hopefully, will end up in Atlanta for the program’s first trip to the Celebration Bowl and playing for the Black National Championship.

“For a program like Delaware State, that would be huge because people don’t really talk about Delaware State,” Stills said. “Just putting them on a national platform is going to be amazing for their recruitment, their enrollment. The more you have individuals or students who can see that they can go to an HBCU and get this type of experience, this is what we want. This is what we want to see.”

The larger question is how long will a young successful coach like Jackson stay at Delaware State. The model of HBCUs hiring celebrity coaches, and giving former NFL players an opportunity to become head coaches, has followed a similar pattern. Jackson State did it with Deion Sanders and Tennessee State with Eddie George. Coach Prime left for the University of Colorado and George left for Bowling Green.

That’s the new reality.

“I think it’s the same reality,” Stills countered. “It’s been a while since we’ve had those head coaches who have been there for a long, long time, and I think those days are pretty much gone. Even if you had a non-celebrity coach, if they’re winning, you still have in the back of the mind that they will eventually leave. We hope that these coaches stay and build a legacy, that they’re in it for the long haul. But I think those days are gone.”

For two Hornet players, running back Marquis Gillis and wide receiver NyGhee Lolley, this season is especially sweet because they lived through the bleak winless seasons at Delaware State.

“It means a lot to me — and to my teammates who’ve stayed down and worked through it over the years,” Gillis said after Friday’s victory over Morgan State. “Seeing how far we’ve come makes all the hard work worth it.”

Lolley said he relishes finally breaking the cycle of losing.

“It’s been great, especially seeing how far we’ve come,” he said. “We only won two games the last two years, and now we’re sitting at 7–3. That growth means a lot.”

What if Delaware State were to win the right to play for the Black National Championship in the Celebration Bowl?

“It would be unbelievable — honestly. I’d probably cry,” Lolley said. “I’ve never experienced that before, and last year we were struggling, so it would mean everything.”

Asked about Jackson’s impact on the team, Gillis said, “Coach Jackson’s been really encouraging. We all look up to him, listen to him, and trust his vision. He’s been a big part of our growth.”

On Oct. 30 in Philadelphia. Jackson watched his team win an emotional game against a Norfolk State team being coached by Vick in front of 47,000 at Lincoln Financial Field.

Last Friday at Morgan State, the stage was smaller but the stakes were just as high and Morgan’s defense gave the Hornets everything they could handle. I asked Jackson how he prepared his team emotionally to maintain its focus and intensity in a game it had to win to keep the dream alive.

“Last week was tough,” Jackson said. “We played in that big stadium; that was big for some of these guys who had never been able to play on the stage like that.

“Now, we come back this week and have a back-to-back nationally televised game. I just try to challenge them, to block the noise out, just put our head down and just continue to work.”

By virtue of being undefeated in the MEAC, Delaware State has an unaccustomed target on its back, whether it be Howard on Saturday or South Carolina State a week later. Every team wants to give the unbeaten Hornets their best shot.

“We’ve got two games left, and every game is gonna be tough,” Jackson said. “If we want to go to where we want to go, every game is gonna be tough. It’s one week at a time. We treat every game like it’s a championship, because we know if we handle these next two it’s gonna be good for us.”

Jackson said he has thought about his first season as a college coach and his team’s quick turnaround.

“I have and it’s just surreal to see,” he said. “I told people from the get-go, this was gonna be a special year. We put this thing together real quick, and I just take my hat off to my guys. They work hard and they trust and believe in the process.”

It’s a surprisingly accelerated process that could take them to Atlanta.

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