Liberty's four-year rebuild under Jamey Chadwell hits the road for the trickiest kind of opener: a Delaware team that just won a bowl game and looks like a real CUSA contender.
Bush’s Picks
LIBDEL
LIBDEL
OverUnder
Best BetDelaware
Delaware enters as the more complete team — a returning 3,683-yard passer, a backfield that split carries productively, and a bowl win already in the bank. Liberty's still figuring out who plays quarterback, which makes backing the Blue Hens to win outright the more defensible call here.
Liberty
+Offensive line returns real experience and production
+Chadwell has track record of turning programs around
+Portal QB additions bring fresh competition
−Went 4-8, 3-5 CUSA a season ago
−No clear starting quarterback through fall camp
−11 straight games with no bye to open schedule
Delaware
+7-6 finish capped by bowl win over Louisiana
+Minicucci returns after 3,683-yard, 23-TD season
+Both lead backs, Silver and Ellison, are back
−Defense ranked 11th in CUSA in scoring last year
−Still only in second season adjusting to CUSA
−No history at all vs. this Liberty team
This one doubles as Liberty's conference-play kickoff, and the timing isn't kind. The Flames stumbled to 4-8 last season, went 3-5 in CUSA, and spent all of fall camp without a clear answer at quarterback, cycling through Coastal Carolina transfer Ethan Vasko, Michael Merdinger and others before landing portal addition Ryan Burger in January. Delaware, meanwhile, is coming off a 7-6 season capped by a bowl win over Louisiana and returns the engine of one of the league's best offenses.
The name to know is Nick Minicucci, Delaware's senior quarterback who threw for 3,683 yards and 23 touchdowns last year while adding a team-high 10 rushing scores. Running backs Jo Silver and Viron Ellison Jr. are both back too, giving Ryan Carty's offense a full complement heading into just its second season in CUSA. Liberty's best hope for slowing any of it starts up front, where the offensive line is the one group Chadwell can call a known commodity while everything else on offense sorts itself out.
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DEL Delaware
Delaware isn't walking into this unguarded, either. The Blue Hens' defense returns real production in safety KT Seay and linebacker Gavin Moul, but the unit finished 11th in CUSA in scoring defense and 10th in total defense a year ago — the kind of gap a motivated Liberty offense could actually attack if the quarterback spot settles down in time.
Liberty also opens its season at James Madison before this one and won't get a bye until deep into the fall, part of an 11-game stretch with no rest — a scheduling gauntlet that could leave the Flames banged up and gassed by the time they reach Newark on Friday, October 2. Delaware, by contrast, gets to host this as its Parents & Family Weekend game in front of a juiced-up crowd, its first look ever at Liberty.
Liberty Flames
Sep 24?@ Coastal Carolina—
Sep 19?vs Ball State—
Sep 12?vs Gardner-Webb—
Sep 5?@ James Madison—
Delaware Blue Hens
Sep 25?@ Virginia—
Sep 19?vs Coastal Carolina—
Sep 12?@ Vanderbilt—
Sep 3?vs Merrimack—
Recent form.
None of that guarantees a laugher. Chadwell has built winners before, and if the quarterback competition resolves into something functional, Liberty's defense could keep this closer than the storylines suggest. But on paper, this reads as a program on the rise hosting a program still finding itself — advantage Delaware, especially at home.
