Delaware State Hornets 2026 Season Preview

Jackson's Program Trending Up

DeSean Jackson took Delaware State to 8-4 and 4-1 in the MEAC in 2025, the kind of on-field jump that changes the conversation around a program. The Hornets sit at a middle-of-the-pack #71 in the power ratings, which reads as a team still building rather than one that has arrived, but the conference mark is the number that matters here. A one-loss league campaign is the foundation Jackson is working from heading into 2026, not a record he needs to defend.

Sauray Inherits a Run-First Machine

The nation's top rushing attack at 291 yards a game did the heavy lifting in 2025, and that ground identity is what Jayden Sauray steps into as the projected starter for 2026, not a passing attack that ranked 110th at 159 yards a game. Sauray's own 2025 line, 495 yards with 2 touchdowns against 3 interceptions, shows why Delaware State will keep leaning on the run and its explosive average of 1.49 per successful play rather than asking him to throw the offense into games. The bigger swing factor is a defense that allowed 265 passing yards a game, 118th nationally, a gap that could undo the rushing edge if it does not tighten in coverage.

Jayden Sauray threw 3 interceptions to just 2 touchdowns last season, but Delaware State barely needed him to be a passer, the offense ran for 291 yards a game (1st nationally) while asking its quarterback for only 159 through the air. That imbalance is the real story for 2026: this attack scored 32.3 points a game on the back of explosive, low-volume passing (a nation's-second-best 1.49 explosiveness mark) and Sauray's job is simply to not turn it over while the run game does the damage. Marqui Adams, Christian Banks and Mikal Davis sit behind him with no meaningful game production, so the offense's ceiling still rises or falls on Sauray tightening up that 3-INT number rather than any change at the position.

The nation's No. 1 rushing attack loses the two backs who actually built it: James Jones (958 yards, 9 TD) and Marquis Gillis (1145 yards, 7 TD) combined for over 2,000 yards on the ground and both are gone. What is left is Sean Weston (112 yards, 1 TD) and Kobe Boykin (155 yards, 1 TD), complementary pieces last year now asked to anchor a scheme that averaged 291 rushing yards per game, plus Louisville transfer Shaun Boykins Jr. arriving with no returning production to lean on. DeSean Jackson's offense has the passing game (159 yards per game, 110th) to make it easy to hide a lesser ground attack, so how much explosiveness Weston, Boykin and Boykins Jr. retain will decide whether this stays the identity of the offense or just a complement to it.

Nathan Stewart's 233 yards on 19 catches topped a receiver room that leaned on the ground game more than the air last season, with Delaware State's passing offense sitting 110th nationally even as the offense ranked 2nd in explosiveness and 1st in rushing yards per game. None of the top three returning options, Stewart, Kyree Benton or Terrence Rone, found the end zone in 2025, so the touchdown production now falls to Ryan Pellum Taylor and Jadyn Robinson, who combined for two scores on just seven catches. NyGhee Lolley's 264 yards and three touchdowns are gone, and DeSean Jackson adds high school signee Chaz Portis out of Myers Park to a group that will still be judged on whether it can turn Delaware State's efficient rushing attack into more explosive throws downfield.

Edward Core's 8 catches for 92 yards were modest production, but on a team that ran for 291 yards a game (best in the country) and threw for just 159 (110th), the tight end room was never asked to be the point of the offense, it was asked to block. Maurice Clark's 10 catches and lone touchdown are gone, leaving Core and Damar Jackson, who added 3 grabs for 44 yards, as the known pass-catching pieces, with Mason Pippin and Tahmir Ellis rounding out a group that fits a scheme built on explosive runs (1.49 average value on successful plays, 2nd nationally) rather than tight end targets. Delaware State's identity runs through the ground game, so this unit's job in 2026 is sealing edges for that rushing attack, not padding a stat sheet.

The line that produced the nation's top rushing attack, 291 yards a game and 6.68 yards per play a year ago, loses its interior spine all at once. Diu Dau, Jestus Johnson, Elijha Payne and Isaiah Cook are all gone up front, and center Jonathan Tejada takes the snap-count continuity with him. DeSean Jackson built his offense on that ground push, and replicating the explosiveness (1.49, 2nd nationally) that made 291 rushing yards per game possible without the five men who cleared those lanes is the real test facing Delaware State in 2026.

Delaware State's front held up against the run last season, checking in at 17th nationally in rushing yards allowed, but the pass rush production walking out the door is the real story heading into 2026. Quincy Robinson and Emerson Martin combined for the only sack production of note among the departed linemen, and their exits alongside Mario Keanon strip out the modest edge presence this defense had. With passing yards allowed already a problem at 118th nationally, DeSean Jackson needs whoever fills those edge spots to generate pressure that the departed group barely provided, or the back seven will keep getting exposed through the air.

Delaware State's run defense held up well last season, ranking 17th nationally in rushing yards allowed at 124 per game, but the pass defense was the leak at 118th in yards allowed through the air, and that split defines what the linebacker corps has to fix in 2026. The group that played behind that front is gone in full: Brian Bates, Na'Shawn Biggs, Quinten Johnson and Cameron Wright all departed, taking every logged tackle at the position with them. DeSean Jackson's defense finished 41st in points allowed per game largely on the strength of its run fits, so whoever fills these spots inherits a scheme that already works against the run and needs to tighten coverage behind it.

Delaware State's secondary gave up 265 passing yards a game last season, 118th nationally, even as the run defense held up at 17th, a split that exposed exactly where teams attacked this group. None of the returning names, Christian Garrett, Wayne Favors III, Mason Williams or Lonnell McCall II, put up big tackle numbers, and both starting corners, Jadarrius Perkins and Dedrick Gibson, along with safeties Dasheen Jackson and Samuel Korpoi, are gone. Penn State transfer safety Lamont Payne Jr. arrives with no college production yet, but his pedigree makes him the name to watch fixing a pass defense that lagged well behind the run stop last fall.

Patrick Fisher-Butler already handled the placekicking load last fall, hitting 8 of 10 field goals with a long of 40 and 60 points, and he is back to anchor the specialist units in 2026. The bigger swing is at punter, where Dyson Roberts and his 40 boots at a 41.1-yard clip are gone, leaving Ghazi Chraibi as the returner with punting experience on the roster, albeit on a tiny three-punt sample at 41.3 yards a kick. Long snapper Shane Carter also returns, so Delaware State is not starting from scratch anywhere on special teams, but the punting job is Chraibi's to prove he can carry Roberts' volume.

Jayden Sauray

Delaware State went 8-4 last year without needing much from its passing game, but that changes now that Jayden Sauray is projected to run the offense after throwing more picks than touchdowns (2 TD, 3 INT) in his limited look. He has a trio of proven targets back in Kyree Benton, Nathan Stewart and Terrence Rone, so the ceiling is there if Sauray simply protects the ball better than his 495-yard sample suggests he can.

DeSean Jackson's Road Value

Delaware State went 8-4 straight up but the market never trusted the Hornets at home, where they covered just 1-2 and were 0-1 as a favorite. The value under DeSean Jackson was on the highway: a 4-2 straight-up mark on the road translated to a 67% cover rate, including a perfect 3-0 as road underdogs. Bettors who backed the Hornets after a loss cashed both times, but laying points with them in MEAC play was a losing proposition at 1-4 against the number.