Kevin Tresolini

The News Journal

NEWARK – Losses in the last four games had put fourth-year University of Delaware football coach Dave Brock’s future in doubt.

On Sunday, Athletic Director Christine Rawak erased that doubt.

Brock, who coached Delaware to a 19-22 record, was fired, UD announced late Sunday afternoon after first telling some season-ticket holders and donors in an email. His contract ran through the 2017 season.

Delaware has won just 12 of its last 32 football games.

Co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter will take over on an interim basis. A national search will begin immediately to find a permanent successor. Dottin-Carter will be Delaware’s first African-American head football coach.

Delaware also announced Sunday that volleyball coach Bonnie Kenny and associate head coach Cindy Gregory had been dismissed. Both coaches, in their 15th seasons at Delaware, had been placed on administrative leave by the university Oct. 7 without UD making it public. When word of the move got out, UD acknowledged it had happened but did not provide any reasons.

Brock, reached by phone early Sunday evening, said he didn’t feel it was appropriate to comment. Rawak also would not have further comment until Monday, according to UD athletics spokesman Scott Selheimer. Dottin-Carter, the former standout defensive lineman at Maine, also will make his first public comments Monday, along with UD players.

“After thorough consideration and assessment, we have made the decision to change leadership of our football program and I informed Dave this afternoon,” Rawak, hired by Delaware in May from the University of Michigan, said in Sunday’s UD announcement.

“As he has been throughout his time at UD, Dave was a true professional. We want to thank him for his four years of service to the University of Delaware. Ultimately, the hard work and effort off the field did not result in the success that we expect on the field. We wish Dave and his family the best.”

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Brock’s status had become a hot topic among Delaware fans lately. Many had grown skeptical of his and his staff’s ability to return Delaware to prominence.

“With all the winning in previous years, the Dave Brock era has been a great disappointment,” said Remo Mazzetti Sr., 84, a 1954 UD grad and a fan since before then.

David Palombi, a 1981 UD grad now living in Providence, Rhode Island, called Brock’s dismissal “long overdue. … His teams were one-dimensional and prone to making the same errors over and over.”

Brock had publicly stated since the end of last season that he felt his 2016 team was ready to end Delaware’s five-year absence from the FCS playoffs, Delaware’s longest postseason drought since the NCAA instituted national championship competition in its lower football divisions in 1973.

But Delaware’s 24-17 loss at William & Mary on Saturday left it with a 2-4 record. It was also the Blue Hens’ fourth straight loss, just their second in-season losing streak that long in the past 49 years. Delaware dropped the last four games of 2012 in K.C. Keeler’s final season as coach before he was fired by former President Patrick Harker and ex-Athletic Director Eric Ziady. Tubby Raymond’s second team, in 1967, had lost four straight. Under Brock, Delaware also lost four straight covering the final three games of 2013 and the first game of 2014.

Ironically, Keeler is now in his third season as coach at Sam Houston State, which will likely move up to the No. 1 spot in the STATS national FCS Top 25 Monday after top-ranked North Dakota State lost Saturday.

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Still, some Hens fans thought the timing of Sunday's dismissal was odd.

''As a UD alum, I'm appalled at the treatment of firing someone in the middle of the season who seems to be a good man," said Lee Sibley, former St. Mark's High defensive coordinator.

Delaware hosts Stony Brook at 1 p.m. Saturday. Delaware has not gone five games without a win since 1960 (0-4-1). Delaware has not lost five straight football games since 1939, when it lost seven in a row.

Brock didn’t shy away from questions about his team’s struggles and his future as darkness fell Saturday at Zable Stadium in Williamsburg, Virginia. Asked about fans’ skepticism and impatience with his rebuilding efforts, he said, “People have every right to be upset.”

“I hope they’re upset with me,” he told The News Journal. “Those players played their guts out. Don’t be upset with the players.

“That’s part of the job. There’s the expectation that we should be good. I share that expectation. The first time since I’ve been here I felt that way and I said it and I don’t regret saying it at all. We’ve got to find a way to win these [last two] games. All I know is we didn’t. It’d be hard to convince me we couldn’t have. We didn’t do it.’’

Delaware lost to Maine Oct. 8 at Delaware Stadium 28-21 on a 62-yard fumble return with 56 seconds left after failing to put the game away earlier when it had chances. Maine gained 290 yards on just 13 plays, including 11 passes covering 260 yards.

Against William & Mary, Delaware was up 14-3 and poised to increase its lead early in the fourth quarter. But Joe Walker’s third-and-6 pass from the William & Mary 14 was intercepted at the goal line by Aaron Swinton.

William & Mary then drove 80 yards for a touchdown, scored another after recovering an onside kick, then went ahead 24-14 on Swinton’s 63-yard interception return for a touchdown with 1:43 left.

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Afterward, Brock said he hadn’t devoted “one second of my time” to worrying about job security. Asked last week, he’d said that Rawak had never told him he had to win a certain number of games to keep his job, though some prospective donors with whom Rawak has met got the feeling there was a win-or-else attitude, The News Journal has learned.

Brock said he had no regrets touting Delaware’s FCS playoff worthiness.

“I have an incredible belief in these players. We have to do a better job,” he said Saturday night. Delaware would have to win its final five games to have a 50-50 chance to make the 24-team FCS tourney field.

Now that job, temporarily, belongs to someone else. Delaware had three straight College Football Hall of Fame coaches in Bill Murray, Dave Nelson and Raymond. The Hens went to three NCAA title games, winning one, under Keeler, who believed his dismissal came down to Harker simply wanting someone else. Delaware won six national titles under those four coaches.

"Dave Brock is a very professional, stand-up guy who represented himself and the university well,'' said Rich Fagan, 59, a longtime UD fan and graduate from Wilmington. "Unfortunately, his positive attitude and work ethic didn't translate into him being able to successfully lead the program back to its former glory. It's now time to find the right person to restore the football program to the elite status it held for so long."

As for volleyball, director of operations Brian Toron will continue to guide the Hens along with assistant Dana Griskowitz and recent staff addition Colleen Walsh Caskey, a former Blue Hen standout player.

“A change in the leadership of our volleyball program was appropriate at this time,” Rawak said in the UD statement. “Our full support will go toward our student-athletes and coaches both on and off the court as they look to finish the season on a high note. We want to thank Bonnie and Cindy for their many years of service and wish them all the best.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.