After two straight winless conference seasons, Delaware State University is joining the trend in the HBCU football community.

According to multiple reports, the Hornets have hired former Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson as their new head football coach.

Jackson played 15 years in the NFL, including eight years with the Eagles, and this week passed for 58 touchdowns and 11,263 yards, the latter ranking 40th all-time.

The Long Beach, California native was drafted in the second round of the 2008 draft by the University of California Eagles.

He will take over a Delaware State University football program that is in shambles after going 2-21 over the last two seasons, with one of those wins coming against a non-Division I program.

Their last win in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference was on November 5, 2022 and they have gone 0-11 since then.

The Hornets’ last winning season was a 6-5 campaign in 2012 under Kermit Blount, and before that one has to look back to the 2007 MEAC championship season when DSU made its only FCS tournament appearance, losing to Joe Flacco and the University of Delaware .

Jackson’s hiring marks a turning point for the state of Delaware and its historically black colleges and universities.

DSU has begun fundraising to renovate its athletics facilities, including the football stadium’s locker room, with a planned indoor practice facility on the wish list.

Jackson is also the fourth NFL Pro Bowl star or higher to take a head coaching position at an HBCU in recent years.

Deion Sanders spent two years at Jackson State in Mississippi before heading to the University of Colorado.

Eddie George recently led Tennessee State to the FCS playoffs, while former Eagles QB Michael Vick is also headed to the MEAC, having been hired by DelState rival Norfolk State earlier this week.

The University of Delaware will now see two of those four coaches in their first two games at the FBS level when they play Delaware State at home before heading to Colorado.