JACKSONVILLE – A season that started 211 days earlier in the Florida Panhandle came to a halt on a warm, overcast Alabama spring afternoon as fifth-seeded Delaware knocked off Jacksonville State 20-14 at Burgess-Snow Field in the FCS quarterfinals.
 
The Fightin' Blue Hens (7-0) won their first road playoff game in 14 years behind a stout defense that limited the Gamecocks to just 200 total yards, 199.4 below their season average. No. 4 Jacksonville State, which was making its first quarterfinal appearance since 2015, finished 10-3.
 
Delaware limited the Gamecocks to seven first downs and became the first FCS opponent since Kennesaw State in 2017 to hold JSU to 200 yards or less total offense. Jacksonville State was 1-for-12 on third-down conversions.
 
"You have to commend Delaware. They played a solid game," said Jacksonville State head coach John Grass. "Their quarterback was lights out today. He played a great game.
 
"The plan kind of changed at the end of the first quarter when Zion (Webb) got hurt. I thought we had a good plan coming in – it's a shame we didn't get to see the plan work out offensively. Defensively we played better in the second half and had some stops in the red zone to force field goals, but we had a lot of chances to flip the field and just did not get off the field."
 
Jacksonville State lost starting quarterback Webb to a leg injury late in the first quarter and struggled to establish any offensive consistency. Delaware led 14-0 at halftime behind long touchdown drives on its first two possessions. 
 
The Gamecocks were held to 75 total yards in the first half, but equaled that amount on their first two plays after halftime to climb back in it.
 
Freshman A.C. Graham, the third JSU quarterback to appear, sprinted 74 yards straight up the middle on first down before being tripped up at the Delaware 1. Uriah West ran the last yard for a touchdown and Alen Karajic kicked the extra point to slice the Blue Hens' lead to 14-7 with 14:27 to go in the third quarter.
 
West's touchdown was his eighth of the 2020-21 season.
 
Delaware jumped out to a two-touchdown lead in the game's first 11½ minutes with scoring drives of 75 and 89 yards.
 
Anthony Paoletti scored on a two-yard run after the Blue Hens received the opening kickoff and drove to the end zone in eight plays. Ryan Coe's PAT made it 7-0 with less than four minutes elapsed.
 
The Colonial Athletic Association's automatic qualifier extended their lead on the next series. Nolan Henderson passed 24 yards to Gene Coleman II to JSU's 1 and Dejoun Lee ran in two plays later. Coe's second extra point made it 14-0 at the 3:28 mark in the first.
 
Coe added field goals of 23 and 47 yards in the second half.
 
Graham threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Jared Scott with 41 seconds remaining to pull Jacksonville State to within 20-14. But the six-time national champions recovered Karajic's onside kick attempt and ran out the clock to advance to the FCS semifinals next week.
 
"I am just really, really proud of our football team," said Delaware head coach Danny Rocco. "To be able to come down here on the road, in this round, and find a way to win and find a way to advance. We made a lot of really good decisions this week and I think all those things led to our team being ready at the start of the game."
 
Trae Barry caught four passes for 52 yards to lead the Gamecocks and now has 1,610 career receiving yards. Graham was the top rusher with 62 yards, though no other JSU runner managed more than 15 as the Blue Hens' defense surrendered only 107 on the ground.
 
Linebacker Marshall Clark finished with a career-high 12 tackles to lead Jacksonville State, followed by Nicario Harper's nine stops. Jacquez Payton contributed an interception in the second quarter.
 
Jacksonville State kicks off its fall 2021 campaign on Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Montgomery against UAB and former JSU head coach Bill Clark. ESPN is slated to televise the first meeting between the in-state rivals since 2005.
 
JSU will be in a transition phase to the ASUN Conference and will play the 2021 season as part of the AQ7, joining two future ASUN members – Central Arkansas and Eastern Kentucky – and four future Western Athletic Conference schools to play for the automatic qualifier to the FCS playoffs.
 
The Blue Hens' FCS semifinal opponent will be the winner of a rematch between No. 1 overall seed South Dakota State (6-1) and Southern Illinois (6-3), both Missouri Valley Conference members.
 
Jacksonville State Postgame Notes – Delaware
May 2, 2021 • Burgess-Snow Field • Jacksonville, Ala.

• JSU Captains: redshirt sophomore safety Nicario Harper and redshirt junior wide receiver Logan McVay.
• JSU won the coin toss and deferred. JSU was 6-0 entering Sunday when winning the opening toss.
• Attendance: 8,023 (12,000 allowed per NCAA 50-percent limit)
• The Gamecocks are now 22-19 all-time in the NCAA Playoffs and fall to 4-5 in the quarterfinal round.
• JSU was held below 100 yards passing for the first time since the 2017 second-round playoff loss to Kennesaw State on Dec. 2. The Gamecocks threw for 93 yards between three quarterbacks on Sunday.
• Delaware became the first team to hold JSU to fewer than 10 first downs (8) since North Dakota State held the Gamecocks to nine during the 2015 national championship game.
• Redshirt freshman quarterback AC Graham's 74-yard run on the first play of the second-half to setup JSU's first score was the longest play of the season for the Gamecocks, surpassing a 67-yard pass from Zion Webb against UT Martin and a 67-yard run from Webb last week against Davidson.
• Graham later threw his first career touchdown pass on a 27-yard strike to Jared Scott with 41 seconds remaining.
• Redshirt sophomore George Steele recovered his first career fumble during the third quarter after Delaware mishandled a lateral pass.
• Redshirt junior Jacquez Peyton Payton pulled down his third interception of the season in the second quarter, tying Harper's team-high mark for the year.   
• Redshirt sophomore Marshall Clark led the Gamecock defense with a career-high 12 tackles.
• Senior Trae Berry had a 14-yard catch on first play of the game and finished with 52 receiving yards to extend his school record of receiving yards by a tight end to 1,610.

 
Jacksonville State Postgame Quotes – Delaware
May 2, 2021 • Burgess-Snow Field • Jacksonville, Ala.
 
Head Coach John Grass
Thoughts on the game
"We just didn't play a very good game. I thought Delaware played a very solid game and I've got to take my hat off to their quarterback. He played a good game and made good decisions. I thought we had a great week of practice in all three phases of the game and good plans. It's just a shame we didn't get to see the offensive plan like we wanted to with Zion getting hurt. The defense played better in the second half and gave us chances. I'm still proud of our guys. There's a lot of winners in our locker room."
 
On adjusting to Delaware's defense
"It was a little bit of an adjustment. We had seen that defense before in our conference, but it was a bit different. They do a good job of executing and tackling, but we lost our quarterback early and we had to draw some stuff up on the sidelines to create some new things. Our offense tried to respond and give ourselves a chance against it, but we just couldn't get it done today."
 
On summing up the season
"It's been a long season, but I'm proud of our guys and how they represented our university since everything that happened last March. This is a fun group to work with, but we still have a really young football team. We couldn't have asked for a better opportunity than what we got today, though. We put ourselves in a position to make a run in the playoffs, but we just couldn't get it done today."
 
Marshall Clark, Linebacker, Redshirt Sophomore
On defending Delaware's quarterback
"We kept feeling like we would get a stop by getting pressure on him, but then he would extend plays with his legs. You just have to tip your hat to him though because he made plays that would change the game all throughout the course of the game."
 
On defensive adjustments
"I think they came out with a good opening script for what we were doing, but once they ran out of the script, we went back to what we had practiced all week. We did a good job of stopping the run and forcing them to throw the ball. We just didn't get the stops that we needed to get whenever we needed to get off the field."
 
Uriah West, Running Back, Junior
On playing against Delaware's defense
"It was definitely an adjustment we had to make. At the end of the day, we could have executed better at keeping us on the field after third downs. Although, I felt like the only people that could beat us were ourselves and that's kind of what happened today."
 
Looking back on this season
"This season was a show of heart for us. We played the most games in the FCS, we worked hard week in and week out, and we all were invested in this season. We just wanted to show the world and ourselves that we could do this. No matter when, no matter the time, and no matter the season. We could do this."