Minium: Taylor Heinicke and Rick Lovato Both Approve of new S.B. Ballard Stadium and Freshman Quarterback Hayden Wolff

By Harry Minium
When Rick Lovato and Taylor Heinicke enrolled at Old Dominion University in 2011, they both had big goals. They dreamed of winning championships, setting records and going on to play in the NFL.

ODU was entering just its third year of football and both started four years. Lovato was one of the most reliable long snappers in all of college football and Heinicke broke all kinds of passing records. In 2012, they were part of ODU's Colonial Athletic Association championship team.

Both have played in the NFL, although for Heinicke, not as much as he would have wanted.

While they were fulfilling their dreams, they also became close friends. They roomed together as freshmen and chose to room together their next three years. When you walked around campus, if you saw one invariably you saw the other.

Lovato helped Heinicke get through the loss of his dad during his freshman season. Heinicke gave moral support to Lovato when, for a time, he was making pizzas in a family diner in New Jersey while waiting for an NFL team to call.

They've remained close for nine years. 

So I wasn't surprised that when I heard Heinicke was in the house last Saturday when ODU hosted Texas-San Antonio, that Lovato was also nearby. I found them in the loge seating mingling with fans, talking to former teammates and every few minutes, stopping to pose for photographs or sign autographs.

"It never gets old," Lovato said, as he posed for a photo with two young fans. "The fans here are still so awesome."

It was their first time back at ODU since the $67.5 million makeover of old Foreman Field was completed. And they both approved very much of the new Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium and of freshman quarterback Hayden Wolff.

"This was my first time seeing the new stadium and it's beautiful," Lovato said. "They did a wonderful job on both sidelines. It looks bigger and so much nicer. This is what ODU deserves."

Heinicke saw the stadium in the summer while it was in the final stages of construction. "Now that it's finished, you can appreciate just what an upgrade it is. Rick and I were talking and agreed we wish this was here when we were playing.

"But it's kind of cool that what we were part of the process of getting here."

Heinicke arrived a few days before the game and watched practice and went to quarterback meetings. He watched Wolff both on the field and in meetings and said "he really impressed me. It's not just that he's making the right throws or has a strong arm, it's because he wants to be perfect.

"When you see a young person like that, 18 or 19 years old, going out of his way to talk to people at different positions, take command like he does, you know he's going to be special.

"To be a freshman just starting to play this late in the season on a team with a 1-8 record, and playing as well as he did today, he's going to be a good one."

After hustling around the league for a couple of seasons, and making ends meet by working in the family restaurant, Lovato finally stuck with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016. He has a Super Bowl ring and a good contract and as long snappers go, is extraordinarily popular in the City of Brotherly Love. 

Heinicke signed with the Minnesota Vikings right out of ODU and has been on an NFL roster every season since. But he was the odd man out when the Carolina Panthers opened training camp with third-round draft pick Will Grier from West Virginia on the roster, in addition to starter Cam Newton.

Since being cut, he's moved back to his hometown of Atlanta. He's splitting time living with his Mom, Diane Dodsworth, and sister, Lauren Heincke McAndrew, "to save a few bucks," he said.

He's working out five days a week and waiting for an NFL team to call. He's had some tryouts, but so far no team has bitten.

He says that during his first three years out of ODU, "I got so stressed," he said, about whether he would stick with a team.

"But I told myself this year that I can't do that," he said. "There's no need to stress about it. You control what you can control.

"Going into training camp at Carolina, I saw the handwriting on the wall."

Heinicke had a very good preseason in Charlotte, especially against the Pittsburgh Steelers, when he completed 10 passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns. He also showed the kind of ability to elude defenders and make pinpoint passes on the run that we became accustomed to at ODU on a 2-point conversion.
Taylor Heinicke 2-point conversion video

I asked if he's thinking about the Canadian Football League and he said instead, he may enter the XFL supplemental draft.

"I just want to play some football," he said. "It's been a long time since I played a full game. I need to play four or five games in a row and get back into a rhythm."

Lovato is already in a rhythm. He lives in the posh Philly neighborhood of Society Hill, which overlooks the Delaware River. He's a household name in a hard scrabble city where the fans love their Eagles when they're winning and get down on them when they're losing.

The Eagles had a disappointing start to the season, but have beaten the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears (for whom ODU alum Rashaad Coward plays) in their last two games and are 5-4.

The Eagles had a bye week this past weekend, hence his presence at ODU.

"We've got the Patriots next and then the Seahawks," he said. "We're preparing well. We've looked a lot better in these last few weeks."

I asked him if he misses old Foreman Field.

"Foreman Field will always have a special place in my heart," he said. "But we don't want our program to remain the same. We want it to grow.

"As much as we loved that old stadium, this is good for the community, good for the fans and great for the players to be playing in such a big, modern stadium.

"It's a great step forward for this program." 

Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu