By Harry Minium
CHARLOTTESVILLE – So what have we learned from Old Dominion University’s two back-to-back road games against ACC, in-state opponents in which the Monarchs were four-touchdown underdogs?
We now know that this team is much better than expected. Conference USA coaches picked ODU to finish sixth in the seven-team East Division, and some prognosticators picked the Monarchs to finish last.
And who could blame them? ODU lost 22 seniors, including two NFL draft picks, from last year’s 4-8 team. It had no appreciable experience at quarterback, where a junior college player would have to step in, and little experience at wide receiver or the offensive and defensive lines.
Yet Stone Smartt has emerged as a very good quarterback, ODU's change to a more traditional ground-oriented offense fits this team's talent and the new system coordinator David Blackwell installed on defense has worked wonders. ODU's defense now ranks – hold your breath – first in Conference USA in rush defense.
Gone is the porous D the Monarchs played last season, when ODU tackled poorly, ran out of gas in some games and often left receivers uncovered on long passes.. ODU ranked last in the league in nearly every defensive category last season.
No one has completed a deep pass on ODU, and Keion White, a tight end turned bandit player, has emerged as an intimidater for ODU.
Two weeks ago,ODU fell at Virginia Tech, 31-17, after closing the margin to seven early in the fourth quarter. ODU outplayed the Hokies in the second half and without some mistakes not uncommon from a young team, the Monarchs might have won.
Saturday night, playing the University of Virginia for the first time, the Monarchs took a 17-0 lead and played even with the Cavaliers in the trenches. But mistakes, and U.Va.’s stellar defense, allowed the Cavs to rally for a 28-17 victory.
You don’t win championships by losing games. Yet a team that leads 21st-ranked U.Va. on its home field in the fourth quarter can and almost certainly will be competitive in Conference USA. The Monarchs could do great things this season.
Virginia is the best team on ODU’s schedule this season. And while it’s too early to say the Monarchs will win 7 or 8 games, it’s not too early to say that’s very possible.
Wilder, like any coach, is cautions about reading too much into two games this early in the season. Yet he’s clearly pleased.
“What’s encouraging is how well we played against two teams that we were massive underdogs against," he said. “In both games we had an opportunity to win in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve just got to make a couple of more plays. If we’d done that, it could have been a different story.”
And ODU might be 3-0 heading into next Saturday’s home game against East Carolina.
“I like this football team a lot,” he said. “This team really works hard and really wants to do well.
“I feel like we’re going to be a very good team this year.”
ODU looked like the nationally ranked team in the first half, bolting to a 17-0 lead on a Nick Rice field goal, a 10-yard run by Smartt and a 47-yard pass from Smartt to Matt Geiger.
Then came the first critical mistake of the game, when the Monarchs covered poorly on a kickoff and allowed Joe Reed return it 57 yards to the ODU 33. The Cavaliers scored quickly, with quarterback Bryce Perkins rolling out to pass, and then eluding three would-be tacklers for an 8-yard TD run with seven minutes left.
The game’s key play came five minutes into the third quarter. Smartt was being rushed out of the pocket and tried to throw the ball away. Instead, he passed directly into the arms of linebacker Zane Zandler, who returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. That trimmed ODU’s lead to 17-14.
U.Va. finally took its first lead after ODU failed to make a first down on fourth down and short at its own 29. The Cavs rolled 29 yards to for a TD, with Wayne Taulapapa running 7 yards for the TD.
Dozens of ODU fans took to Twitter to question Wilder’s decision to go for it on fourth down that deeply in Monarch territory, and some did so quite harshly. Wilder strongly defended his decision.
“We told the team coming into the game that as four-touchdown underdogs we were going to go for it,” he said, citing the fourth down TD pass play to Geiger.
“We hit Geiger for a 47-yard touchdown that puts us up 17-0,” he said. “If we punt there, we’re up 10-0 instead of 17-0.”
Wilder said he had confidence in the play called by offensive coordinator Brian Scott, a jet sweep. “Virginia’s defensive tackle made a heck of a play, and we were just inches from getting it,” he said.
“I feel like we needed that fourth and one, that we needed a spark to get going,” Wilder added. “I don’t regret it at all. That’s the type of football you need to play when you’re a huge underdog on the road.”
Smartt agreed, saying “It’s just one yard. We have to be able to get that one yard if we want to be a great football team.”
Say what you will about Wilder, and I think he’s done a masterful job with this team so far, he doesn’t back down from difficult questions.
ODU earned a lot of respect from U.Va., from including Chris Long, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long, who was a consensus All-American defensive end at Virginia. Chris Long has two Super Bowl rings and was the 2018 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year.
“Lots of respect for the @ODUFootball program,” he Tweeted to his 623,000 followers.
Later, after a U.Va. fan sarcastically called ODU a “juggernaut” Long Tweeted: “They started the program about a decade ago, so I respect their progress.”
So does U.Va. coach Bronco Mendenhall, who praised Wilder profusely.
“I think they’re a tough, physical team and they’re a team with a strong culture,” he said. “They came to the University of Virginia to win a football game and that was apparent right from the beginning.
“That’s a tribute to (Wilder) and his staff as well as their players for how they tried and battled.
“I’m impressed with what he’s done for their program.”
Especially ODU’s defense, which allowed a first down only once on 11 U.Va. third down plays, and held the Cavs to 244 yards, including just 69 rushing yards, Perkins had just 175 passing yards and 35 on the ground.
“We thought we would be able to move the ball consistently,” Mendenhall said. “To Old Dominion’s credit, they defeated blocks and made tackles. They covered our receivers tight. They made it hard for us to move the ball.
“As much as I’d like to say it was only us and our performance, it wasn’t. I was impressed (with ODU’s defense) and I told Coach Wilder that after the game.
“Their defense played really well and made a lot of plays with a very solid plan. They executed at a really high level, and they were hungry and physical.”
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu