Copyright Wilmington News Journal
Ryan Carty inherited a class of recruits he had not pursued when hired as Delaware football coach in December of 2021. With signing day looming, Carty did ink the group of players who’d verbally committed to previous coach Danny Rocco and his staff. “I just didn't think it was right,” he said, “to drop kids that late, regardless of what I thought of their talent level.” One of them was then-Dover High senior Elijah Sessoms, a tight end who would confirm Carty’s initial inkling he could become a valuable contributor. The 6-foot-3, 255-pound Sessoms has become someone Carty now refers to as “one of the better tight ends” in Conference USA ahead of Delaware’s bout at Liberty Nov. 1 at 3:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Network). Delaware is 4-3 overall and 2-2 in CUSA games before facing the Flames (3-4, 2-1). “It's easy for me to say now, but Elijah was one of the guys I thought they hit on for sure,” Carty said. “And in particular, he was an in-state player, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying came in as a partial scholarship player. “I thought that was a bargain, you know? I was, like, ‘Wow, that's a really good prospect tight end for an in-state kid not a full scholarship.’ ” Sessoms, who red-shirted as a freshman in 2022, would quickly earn that full scholarship at the start of the 2023 season, an accomplishment that brought tears to his eyes as he called his mother with the news. The fact he had to prove himself to a coaching staff that hadn’t recruited him ended up driving his determination to prove he was worth it. “It almost lit a fire under me,” he said. “It gave me a clean slate of new coaches who really don't know what I can truly have to offer. “It just gave me the hunger and the willpower to just be the best that I could be and show them who I could be as a player.” Sessoms has put together a career that has now generated 27 catches for 245 yards in 31 career games. Most have come this season, with Sessoms snaring 17 so far for 151 yards in what is CUSA’s most prolific passing attack. Along the way he has embraced the versatile role in which tight ends must excel as both a blocker and pass catcher. “They got to be great at everything,” Carty said, “and kind of know the run game and the pass protection like an offensive lineman does and know the pass game like receivers do. That's not an easy thing, mentally or physically.” That can be a challenging set of skills to master, but having done so keeps Sessoms on the field for various situations. “I’ll never play two plays where I’m doing the same exact same thing back-to-back,” he said. “It’s honestly fun. I could go run a route against somebody that I have 40 to 50 pounds on. But I also have to block somebody who has 40 or 50 pounds on me . . . I love it every day.” Sessoms arrived, Carty said, as a gifted pass catcher. But that’s not enough. He had to develop into someone who could make the more difficult contested catches amidst the mayhem swirling around him. “You're never sure,” Carty of young college football players. “There's always potential and there's a ceiling for kids, right? How close we get to our ceiling is based on so many factors that aren’t just talent, and a lot of them have to do with characteristics that Elijah has. His work ethic and toughness and accountability and love of football and being a good teammate. “It's been fun to watch because of what kind of person he is and how great of a kid he is.”
