DeSean Jackson took over a Delaware State program that won three games total over two seasons. The Hornets went 8-4 in his first year and nearly won the MEAC. That sounds like a success story. Jackson sees it differently.
Speaking at MEAC Media Day, Jackson didn’t sugarcoat anything. “Last year was last year,” he said. “We can’t hold our hats on what we did. We accomplished some great things. Obviously we turned the program around very fast. But we understand we came up short.”
The season ended with a 28-17 loss to South Carolina State in a game that decided the conference title. Delaware State finished one win away from the Celebration Bowl. For a program that had been dormant for years, that felt like progress. For Jackson, it left a bad taste.
“We didn’t win the big game,” he said. “We’ve got a sour taste in our mouth from that game.”
That frustration is driving everything heading into Year Two. Jackson isn’t interested in moral victories or surprising people. He wants the Hornets to keep climbing.
“We want to continue to build off what we already did,” Jackson said. “We’re not going to take a step back. Our trajectory is always going up.”
How the Hornets got physical fast
The identity took shape almost immediately. Delaware State led the FCS in rushing last season at 291.2 yards per game. They totaled 3,494 yards on the ground. That wasn’t an accident.
Jackson wanted a physical team from day one. “We’re very aggressive,” he said on The Pivot. “It’s a high standard. We don’t dumb down our standard for anybody.”
What surprised him was where the toughest games came from. “The MEAC conference was a lot tougher than our nonconference games were,” Jackson admitted. “I thought the hardest part was going to be nonconference. Then we got to the MEAC and those were some tough, nitty-gritty games.”
The portal era is messy and Jackson knows it
Delaware State lost two top running backs in Marquis Gillis and James Jones to the transfer portal. That’s the reality of modern college football. Jackson isn’t complaining about it. He’s adapting.
“The dynamics have changed tremendously,” he said. “From the team we had last year, it’s going to be very different from the team we have this year. We lost some guys to the portal. We lost some graduate guys. We had to go in the portal. We had to find Division II guys, JUCO guys. We just had to rebuild the team. And that’s what we did.”
Jackson takes a practical approach to roster turnover. He knows he might only get a season out of some players. But he still tries to build real relationships.
“You don’t have time to invest with the kid long term,” he said. “You may have a kid for a season and you look up and he’s hitting the portal. You’ve got to get personal with them, but you’ve got to understand you may not have them long term.”
He learned that from his own career. The coaches he respected most were the ones who understood life beyond football. “It’s not always about football,” Jackson said. “You may be going through something at home. I don’t expect nobody to be perfect. We’re going to make mistakes. But to correct them and learn from it, that’s the biggest thing.”
That trust cuts both ways. “If I respect you, I’m going to go the extra effort,” Jackson said. “You want me to run through this brick wall — but why? Because I’m going to run through it with you.”
Learning on the fly
Jackson came in with zero head coaching experience. He admits that now. “I didn’t really have any experience,” he said. “Maybe that’s why people didn’t think we’d have success.”
He learned as he went. “Last year was a huge year for me because I got into situations I couldn’t have been coached for. It’s one thing to be told, but when you’re in those bullets and decisions — timeout calls, fourth-down decisions — I couldn’t have gotten better unless I went through it.”
For Year Two, Jackson has one rule for himself. “85% of the time last year I went with my gut,” he said. “The 15% when I didn’t go with my gut is when things didn’t go as planned. You’re going to see a lot more of me going with my gut.”
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