Rewind: 1980 Delaware State at Portland State

I was going to do a "rewind" of our only previous game against a NCAA FCS school, but the thought of re-watching the 2007 Appalachian State game is just too painful. The wounds are still too fresh. I just could not do it. If you really want to rehash what happened on that particular saturday, you can download the game or read about it here, here or here. Maybe in 10 years I will be interested in watching it again, but likely not.

Instead, I decided to take a look at something to do with Delaware State.

In 1980 the Delaware State Hornets were a bad football team. They won only two games all year long, and were shut out on four separate occasions. The low point of the season appeared to come In mid-October after they got shut out by North Carolina A&T 52-0. But that was just a preview of what was to come.

A couple of weeks later the Hornets traveled all the way to Oregon to face the high scoring Vikings of Portland State. By that point of the season DSU was a beat up football team, with many injuries. Portland State was coached by Mouse Davis, the innovator of the the Run-and-Shoot offense. This offense employed a pass-heavy, multiple-receiver offense that simply confused defenses and put up a lot of points. Under Mouse Davis, PSU led the nation in passing offense and total offense for the three straight years. In 1980, they were led by All American and future NFL quarterback Neil Lomax. The same weekend that Delaware State had given up 52 points to NC A&T -- Portland State had put up 93 points on Cal-Poly Pomona, setting an NCAA Division 1-AA record. But Mouse Davis and the Vikings were not done.

First Quarter: It was a blitzkrieg. QB Neil Lomax hit Wide Reciever Kenny Johnson with a 12 yard touchdown pass for the games first score. They would score four touchdowns in the first 5 minutes. Lomax would find Johnson three more times in the end zone before the quarter ended. His fourth touchdown pass in the quarter broke the NCAA career record of 93 previously held by Grambling's Doug Williams. In all Lomax threw for an NCAA record seven touchdowns -- ALL IN THE FIRST QUARTER. Portland state held onto the ball for only 3 minutes and 57 seconds and scored 49 points.

Second Quarter: Mouse Davis slowed the offense down, a bit. The Vikings only scored two touchdowns and entered the locker room at half leading 63-0.

Third Quarter: Lomax only played three series before he was pulled, but he did throw the 98th touchdown pass of his career. The team scored 4 touchdowns in the quarter. The PSU defense even got into the act and scored on one of Delaware State's 16 fumbles. After three quarters, it was Portland State 98 Delaware State 0, breaking the modern day NCAA record for points scored in a game. The bloodthirsty Viking fans wanted triple digits.

Fourth Quarter: With the game well in hand, Mouse Davis called off the dogs, but only after backup QB LaFrance threw for a final touchdown. Rumor has it that even the ambulance drivers at the stadium were jumping up and down when they broke the century mark. Sad.

Final score 105-0.

Lomax finished the game with eight TD passes, going 16 of 28 for 311 yards; he also ran 13 yards for another score. He played only a total of seven minutes and 28 seconds and was pulled from the game early in the third quarter. "Every play I go all out to execute the best I can. That's what good players do."

The Viking defense also did their job, forcing 16 fumbles and recovering six. Nose tackle Fred Nordgren had 11 tackles, six of them behind the Hornet line of scrimmage said "That is the worst team I've ever seen". Delaware State finished the game with 10 first downs, 27 yards rushing (on 67 attempts) and 34 passing yards.

"I'm sure it's not a problem I'll ever face again, not in the NFL". Lomax was drafted in the first round (fifth overall) in the 1981 NFL draft by the St Louis Cardinals. Despite his college dominance, he had an unspectacular 9-year professional career, playing for some very mediocre Cardinals teams. He did make the Pro Bowl twice (1984 and 1987), but was never an elite player. In the end, he passed for 22,771 yards and 130 touchdowns. He was forced to retire before the 1990 season due to a severely arthritic hip. He underwent hip replacement surgery the next year.

Delaware State won the next week at home, but coach Charles Henderson was fired at the end of the season. This was marked as the low point for the team and with the help of new coach Joe Purzycki the Hornets rebuilt their program. He compiled a 21-21-1 overall record, including a 15-5-1 mark in his last two seasons, before he moved to James Madison.