Delaware quarterback Nick Minicucci’s status of week-to-week, declared last Friday night by coach Ryan Carty, remains in that type of limbo with the next game now looming.
The Blue Hens (2-3, 0-1) visit Middle Tennessee (2-3, 0-1) in the first of three straight Tuesday night games on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. It airs nationally on the CBS Sports Network.
Who’ll play quarterback remained a mystery when Carty met with the media Oct. 10. Minicucci missed the 30-14 loss to Liberty in the Conference USA opener Oct. 2 after hurting his knee the week before at Virginia.
Sophomore E.J. Archield Jr. started in his place and played 2½ quarters. Archield completed 10 of 19 passes for 137 yards and carried four times for 18 yards in 2½ quarters.
Junior Braden Streeter, who had twice previously come into games this year when Minicucci got hurt, and freshman Tyler Bell also saw quarterback duty.
Carty appreciated how the Liberty game provided a chance to evaluate all three.
“We’ve got confidence in the guys in that room,” Carty said, “and our job as coaches is to put them in some positions to be successful, whoever’s out there, and we used this extra time to continue doing that. I think it was a really good week for that.
“We need everybody around those positions to play at their highest level, too.”
MTSU has beaten FCS Murray State 38-14 and Nevada 20-17 and lost to Marshall 28-26, Jacksonville State 23-13 in its lone league game and the Big 12’s Kansas 55-0.
Coach Derek Mason sized up the UD quarterback situation this week.
“I think they have a system,” Mason said when asked about Delaware, “and I think their system is really complete in terms of what it does. I don’t think it changes much from quarterback to quarterback.”
That is partially true. But Carty said after Streeter replaced Minicucci at Virginia that it was difficult because the game plan had been structured with Minicucci in mind. Streeter completed just 2 of 16 passes.
“Minicucci’s a different player,” Mason said. “He’s a point guard who can deal it. He extends plays in the pocket. Very accurate passer and I think because he can extend plays with his legs, you have to always know where he is. If you don’t get him corralled, man, he’ll make you pay, and that’s critical.”
Mason also complimented Streeter’s pocket passing accuracy and said Archield is more of a dual threat who “did some good things” against Liberty.
MTSU is last in Conference USA in total offense (306.6 yards per game) and ninth in total defense (420.6 ypg).
The Blue Raiders have especially struggled to stop the run, giving up a league-worst 225 yards per game. Delaware’s 98.8 rushing yards per game are last in CUSA.
Delaware won the teams’ first league showdown last year 31-28 in Delaware Stadium.
After the loss to Liberty, Carty expressed profound disappointment in how the offense played in that game and the one at Virginia.
“I didn’t see anything better on tape than I saw and I felt out there,” Carty said eight days later. “Like anything else, it’s never as bad as you think. It’s never as good as you think. And there’s always room for improvement after wins. Sometimes they get highlighted after losses.
“That was fairly blatant for everybody to see that it wasn’t up to the standard of who we need to be and who we have been and any place I’ve ever been a part of as an offensive coach, and so that was frustrating for me, and it still kind of is.”
Having an extra couple days since then to make repairs “was really valuable for us,” he said.
“We had a chance to kind of reflect, evaluate ourselves as a team, evaluate ourselves individually as coaches, get back to playing the brand of football we need to play,” Carty said.
“The difference between identifying those needs to improve and actually improving is what happens in practice, and the progress that we made this week has been good. So, hopefully, we can bring that to term when it comes to what we do on Tuesday. It’s been a very good week for us and hopefully you’ll see a little bit more of production.”
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware keeps QB plans under wraps with game at MTSU looming
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