MVSU Looks to Start Season on High Note as Delaware State Hosts Stony Brook’s First Ever Visit

The 2026 Black College Football season is here! Two HBCU programs open the 2026 season Thursday, Aug. 27, with Mississippi Valley State on the road at Nicholls and Delaware State at home against Stony Brook. Both week zero games kick off at 6 p.m. in their local time zones.

Mississippi Valley State at Nicholls

Mississippi Valley State opens the season in Thibodaux, Louisiana, at John L. Guidry Stadium. Kickoff is 6 p.m. Central (7 p.m. Eastern), streaming on ESPN+.

The Delta Devils enter Terrell Buckley’s second season as head coach off a 2-10 finish in 2025 (1-7 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference), but they closed last year on an up note. Mississippi Valley snapped a lengthy scoring drought in its regular season finale, beating Florida A&M 35-31 behind four passing touchdowns and three interceptions from an opportunistic defense. It was Buckley’s first Southwestern Athletic Conference win as a head coach.

Nicholls, under second-year coach Tommy Rybacki, finished 4-8 in 2025 and has won both previous meetings between the two programs: 41-26 in 1998 and 66-0 in 2024. A win Thursday would give Mississippi Valley its first victory over Nicholls in three tries and back-to-back wins dating to last season’s finale.

Mississippi Valley returns its starting quarterback from a season ago in Josh Brown, who started 10 games in 2025 and led the team in both passing (1,325 yards, six touchdowns) and rushing (412 yards, two touchdowns). Running back Norman Taylor, who gained 317 yards on the ground last season, is listed as the primary backup at running back on this week’s depth chart, behind redshirt freshman Dezmond Ray. On defense, safety Jamari Stokes returns after leading the team with three interceptions last season, including the program’s first multi-interception game since 2022 in the win over Florida A&M.

The Delta Devils were picked to finish sixth, last, in the SWAC East Division in the conference’s 2026 preseason poll. Thursday’s game opens an 11-game regular season for a program looking to build on the momentum from last year’s finale under Buckley, a Pascagoula, Mississippi native, Florida State Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion with the 2001 New England Patriots.

Delaware State vs. Stony Brook

Delaware State hosts Stony Brook at Alumni Stadium in Dover for a “Welcome Back” White Out game. Kickoff is 6 p.m. Eastern, streaming on the MEAC Digital Network. It is the first meeting ever between the two programs.

The Hornets enter DeSean Jackson’s second season as head coach off an 8-4 finish in 2025, his first year running the program. Jackson, a former NFL wide receiver, was named HBCU Coach of the Year for a turnaround that produced more wins in one season (eight) than Delaware State had won combined over its previous three seasons (seven). Delaware State was picked to finish third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s 2026 preseason poll, with two first-place votes.

Five Hornets earned preseason all-conference recognition heading into the opener: offensive lineman Diu Dau, defensive back Wayne Favors, wide receiver Nate Stewart, defensive lineman Quoy Rainey and linebacker Quentin Johnson. On this week’s two-deep depth chart, Favors is projected as a starting cornerback, and Rainey is in the rotation at nose tackle behind Augusta Genlsey.

At quarterback, Delaware State’s fall camp depth chart lists senior Ui Ale as the first-team option, with Samari Collier or Marqui Adams next (Adams was marked injured on that same camp tracker) and senior Jayden Sauray third on the board. Sauray is the only one of that group with meaningful 2025 game experience, backing up since departed starter Kaiden Bennett by completing 57.8 percent of his passes for 522 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 170 yards and two more scores in relief work. Neither Ale nor Adams appeared in the team’s 2025 passing statistics.

Stony Brook, playing its first road game under third-year coach Billy Cosh, finished 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the Coastal Athletic Association in 2025, a step back from Cosh’s 8-4 debut season in 2024 that snapped a string of losing years and earned him conference and regional coach of the year honors. The Seawolves were picked to finish fifth in the CAA’s 2026 preseason poll.

Stony Brook returns redshirt sophomore quarterback Quinn Boyd, who took over as the full-time starter over the final five games of 2025 and accounted for 1,431 yards of total offense over that stretch, averaging 286.2 yards per game with 10 total touchdowns and no interceptions. Boyd was a CAA Rookie of the Week honoree last season. The defense is led by linebacker Anthony Ferrelli, a two-time captain who recorded 109 tackles in 2025 and was named to the Buck Buchanan Award watch list as the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision, along with defensive lineman Sebastian Regis, who had 10 tackles for loss and five sacks.

Both teams are coming off winning 2025 seasons, Delaware State’s first under Jackson and the second of Cosh’s tenure at Stony Brook, giving Thursday’s opener added weight for two programs each looking to build toward their conference races this fall.