Below is the transcript for the Bobby Wilder press conference.
We’ve been in camp since August 1, the kids have been going hard for 26 days. We’ve talked a lot about the 46 new players we have in the program, which is the most we’ve had since we started football back in 2009. But we also have 64 returning players and out of those 64, 53 have played football for Old Dominion. Some of those I’ll talk about today have played significant football, have played good football, so we are very excited about our returning players as well. I’d be remiss if I didn’t go right to the new stadium and the excitement with the new stadium. Wood Selig is here today, our athletic director who started with that plan. This goes back a few years along with President Broderick, the work they did to make this happen, the work that Steve Ballard and his crew, everybody at Old Dominion. Basically, a two-year project was done in nine months. The finishing touches are being put on right now as we speak, but I can tell you we’ve been in there three times as a football team to scrimmage and it’s really exciting what it feels like. From a player perspective, we’ve talked a lot about from the fan perspective, but from a player perspective what I can tell you is new and exciting about it: it’s closer, the fans are right on top of us now, it’s higher, it’s louder. We had Alex Trevino and the band in there Saturday night, and it was as loud as I’ve ever heard it, without the 22,000 people that will be there. We’re excited for this to be what it should be, a homefield advantage and we can’t wait to get our fans in there Saturday night and get started.
I’ll talk about our team first and then get into our opponent. Starting with our special teams, we return a veteran kicking game which is critical, particularly when you get early in the season, it’s important to have very good special teams. Our kickers Nick Rice and Brad Davis are back, our punter Bailey Cate, and our long snapper B.R. Hatcher. Those are four critical positions and we have four very good players at those positions. We have tremendous competition for starting spots, as much as we’ve had in the history of our program. That has a lot to do with recruiting the type of players we’re recruiting now. There’s more big skill players in the program, which you look for on special teams. We’ve got a number of key backups right now on offense and defense that are competing for starting jobs on teams and that’s something that Coach Bankins, our special teams coordinator, and myself love to have.
Defensively, very good camp overall. Coach Blackwell and his staff got the scheme inserted and now it’s a matter of figuring out what we do well and designing that versus the opponents we play. We feel like in the defensive line we’ve got 10 players that can play good football for us. Starting with defensive ends Keion White and Derek Wilder, both had very good camps up front, the interior Jeremy Meiser and Juwan Ross and then on the edge Marcus Haynes and Ryan Henry at the bandit position, just to name a few there. At linebacker, our nickel position, our linebacker position, I feel, arguably, is the best two combined returning in the league, they have the most returning tackles, Lawrence Garner and Jordan Young combined for 175 tackles last year. That’s a lot of tackles at that position. A couple of really good backups, Terez Dickerson and Demetrius Stitmon had really good camps for us. Our nickel position, Geronda Hall played good football there. We worked Tank Scott, Justinn Richardson, Joe Joe Headen. We’ve developed some depth at that position and then when you look at the secondary, we feel like we have eight solid football players at that position. In terms of a two-deep, this is the best we’ve had in the back end in our program’s history, starting with Lance Boykin and Kaleb Ford-Dement, at the corner. Calvin Brewton and Joe Joe Headen at the safety position and four solid backups at that position, that gives us the ability to rotate in football games.
Offensively, we had a good camp overall. Our players are learning the scheme, what we want to accomplish there. What we’ve got in the offensive line right now, there are currently eight players that will be in the rotation. We’re hoping to develop more up front and it starts with our captain, Isaac Weaver, who started the most games on our team, he started 24 games over two years, and Tony Barnett, a returning starter. As I mentioned, there’s good young players there that, early in the season, we want to find out what they’re most comfortable playing, position-wise, and it’s important that they learn multiple positions. At running back, very good depth here, we have five players position at the running back position that we feel good about. Three of them are returning players from last year: Kesean Strong, who rushed for 499 yards and was a good receiver for us out of the backfield, Elijah Davis, who played in the four games last year that you’re allowed to play in as a freshmen until we redshirted him, he’s had a good spring and a good camp, and Matt Geiger, who played good football for us. We moved Blake Watson from wide receiver to the running back position, we did it in the spring, he’s practiced there in the spring and the summer, had a very good camp. We added Robert Washington, a transfer running back from Charlotte that we feel can provide depth, he’s still learning the position, good football player.
Wide receiver, right now we’ve got nine quality players that we can put out on the field that can play, still developing some of the younger guys at that position. Starting at wide receiver with Steven Williams, who will play both quarterback and wide receiver, but he’s practiced the last couple weeks primarily at wide receiver, he’s learning the position, getting better, he’s a dynamic athlete. Jake Herslow and Aaron Moore had great camps and then Eric Kumah for the past week has had a very good past week of practice. Obviously, we know what he can do from his game experience, having 42 catches last year at Virginia Tech, but I’ve been very pleased with Eric, not only for his ability to play but his leadership in the room and what he’s doing to help the younger players at that position. At tight end, we return Donta Anthony, who started 11 games last year as a freshman, and Marcus Joyner who has played the position for a couple years, had a very good camp, and then added Chris Cunningham from Virginia Tech. Chris is a dynamic player, he can do a lot of things, not only in the run game but in the pass game. Along with Eric, I’ve been really pleased with Chris and his leadership ability, how he works with the other players on the team, not just that tight end and to have Chris here is good for our team.
At quarterback, I mentioned Steven Williams, who will play quarterback and wide receiver for us, you may see him in this football game at both positions. You may see at time on the field that we’ve got a couple quarterbacks that can play on the field at the same time. Both Stone Smartt and Messiah deWeaver, who joined us in January, have progressed really well, we’re really pleased with the progress they made, we’re really pleased with the progression from the spring through the summer and how much more they’ve developed. When I look at the quarterback position now, what I feel really good about is not only do we have three guys that can throw the ball well, we’ve got three big athletic guys that can also run the ball, that’ll give us the ability to play 12 man football, which we did not have the ability to do that last year. You’re talking about three guys that are all 6-3, 220 pounds, strong arms, ability to escape in the pocket on pass plays when they need to, ability for us to run some quarterback run games. So, I anticipate all three of them will play Saturday night, we’ll progress through the week with the position, then we’ll make a decision on who will be the first guy out to take the field when we get to game time.
Moving on to our opponent, Norfolk State, head coach Latrell Scott, who I know well, I don’t have any doubt that he’ll have his team ready to play. The thing that jumps out about Norfolk State is that this is a veteran football team, they have veterans at every position, Latrell’s talked about the fact that this is the most experienced team he’s had going into his fifth year at Norfolk State. You start offensively with the quarterback, Juwan Carter is a dynamic player, he averaged 231 passing yards a game last year, he threw 13 touchdown passes, he runs the ball well and rushed for 340 yards last year, not all design run, he’s got the ability to escape and move in the pocket. Two veteran running backs in Savage and Brent, they’re both seniors they combined for 700 yards rushing last year, and they’ve got some good skill players. Like us, they’re young at the wide receiver position, but they have some quality players. This is a veteran offensive line; they have 73 combined starts up front in their offensive line.
Defensively, they return one of the top defenses in FCS, they were a top-15 defense last year, they were top-10 in passing, they held teams to 150 yards or less last year. A couple of very dynamic players that I’ll speak to, a safety that they moved to linebacker, Chavis, who had 71 tackles, five and a half sacks last year, he’s an excellent player and another safety, Price, had 59 tackles and he got his hands on a ball 12 times overall last year. So, this is a good veteran defense.
For us, we’re excited with the home opener, we’re excited with the new stadium, and we’re excited to play football.