By Harry Minium
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
College football isn’t a game for the soft hearted. Players work endless hours lifting weights, running, practicing, studying playbooks, watching hours of film and playing the most physical game in college athletics.
All that in addition to being full-time college students.
It can also be a stressful game, especially when you’re losing. That stress can wear down a team to the point where football is no longer fun.
And for now, at least, it’s an understatement to say football is no longer fun for Old Dominion University’s players and coaches.
The Monarchs marched into Legion Field Saturday evening determined to upset UAB, the defending Conference USA champion and the winner of 15 in a row at home. They had a good game plan and entered the contest in high spirits.
But UAB drubbed, ODU, 38-14, and the script followed other recent Monarch losses.
ODU played well at times, but beat themselves with mistakes. There were dropped passes, missed assignments and three critical turnovers.
Messiah deWeaver sprints for a first down Saturday against UAB.
Fumbles on ODU’s first two drives allowed UAB to take a 14-0 lead, and you could see the energy drain from the players early on. It was 28-0 late in the first half before ODU finally scored on a Nick Rice field goal.
The game was never close, and ODU’s offense continues to struggle. The Monarchs had just 150 yards, the third-worst performance in school history.
ODU football is at an all-time low point. The Monarchs are 1-6 and have lost six games in a row. ODU has to win its last five games to become bowl eligible and that’s a major uphill slog for a team that has been crippled by injuries and is making far too many mistakes.
ODU could have, and perhaps should have, won at Virginia and Virginia Tech and at home against East Carolina, and victories in one or two of those games would have made a huge difference not only in how the Monarchs are perceived, but also in their self-confidence,
Yet coaches often say you are what your record says you are, and that seems like a fair assessment to me. ODU is 1-6 and at 0-3 in the league, is tied with Charlotte for last place in the East Division.
Defensive standout Keion White was somber as Virginian-Pilot reporter Ed Miller and I spoke to him after the game. I asked him if he and his teammates have lost the joy of playing football and he shrugged his shoulders when answering.
Blake Watson continues to star on the kickoff return team. He had a 42-yard return to start the game.
“It’s tough losing,” White said. “I’ve never lost this much in my life. When I played basketball, football, lacrosse or soccer, I didn’t lose.”
He paused to gather his thoughts and then went on.
“There are still five games left, and I plan on winning every single game,” he said. “I don’t care what we’ve done in the past. I don’t plan on losing the rest of the season.”
Strong and hopeful words, but ODU won’t begin to win until its offense gains some consistency. Coach Bobby Wilder says that will only come from hard work in practice.
“The saying is that to be good at anything, you need to do it 10,000 times,” he said. “We’re just young. We need all the work we can get, all the practice we can get.
“My focus with them is mentally to get them to understand that when you’re playing good football teams, you have to executive better. And we haven’t done that.”
When Miller asked Wilder what his message was to disheartened fans, he said “I would hope they stick with us.”
“We are a young and inexperienced team right now that’s making mistakes. And we’re going to keep working our tails off to get better.
“It comes down to one word, execution. We’re not executing enough on the fundamentals to have the success that this team is capable of having.
“That’s going to be the focus is practice, and it has been the focus in practice.”
ODU's football team appears to have hung together in spite of the 6-game losing streak.
Defensive tackle Jeremy Meiser spoke to his teammates following the game.
“He did a great job,” Wilder said. “He said, 'we have to get better at practice. Coach Wilder says we have to practice harder and better and that’s what we’ve got to do.' ”
“That’s a really good group of young men in that locker room. They want to do well,” he added.
“I feel as good as I’ve felt about any team I’ve coached from that standpoint. They’re all trying to do well.
“We’ve got to keep the faith in what we’re doing because I truly believe this football team will be a (C-USA) championship team next year. I don’t have any doubt in my mind we’re a bowl team next year, but this is a team that can win a championship."
ODU is far from a championship team seven games into this season.
“We’re in as much adversity as we could possibly have and two things happen when you’re faced with this type of situation," Wilder said. "Either you grow closer together as a team and you battle back from it. Or you split.”
Wide receiver Darrell Brown said the team won’t split.
“At this point we’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “We’ve got to have fun with it when we can. And we’ve got to get a win
“Winning is always fun. Once we get a win, the fun will come back.”
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu