By Harry Minium
No one can say with certainty when or if the college football season will be played. Recent news reports on the coronavirus are encouraging, yet we likely won't know for sure how things will pan out until this summer.
But Old Dominion football coach Ricky Rahne is telling his players they must be ready to open Sept. 4 at home against Wake Forest.
"I've been sympathetic to them on the uncertainty, but I also know I don't want them concentrating on that," he said. "If you think this season may not happen and that allows you to hold back, then you won't be at your best and you will regret that the rest of your life.
"If we don't play, you'll be angry, but you won't have any regrets. As we grow and get older, we realize that regrets are the most painful thing.
"We've all had pain in our lives. Having regrets is something that hangs with us."
That's a message I hope every athlete, in fact every other young person, takes to heart. I can't tell you how many former athletes have said to me, "If only I had . . . "
Those memories stick with you, fellas.
Rahne and his family finally departed from State College, Pa., this week to move into their new home in Norfolk with no regrets, although there was some emotion.
Rahne was the offensive coordinator at Penn State last season and accepted his first head coaching job at ODU in early December.
After the coronavirus shut down ODU's campus, he went back to State College to be with his family. He was working from home anyway, so why not be home with his wife, Jen, and sons, Ryder and Jake?
The family finished packing up last weekend, even though Jen wondered on Twitter how her husband could use scotch tape while packing boxes.
While they were packing on Saturday, cars full of friends from their son's school arrived in a caravan that drove past their house waving signs and shouting "thank you" and "goodbye."
A little while later, youth league teammates of both of his sons also drove by and Jennifer was overwhelmed and shed a few tears.
Jen and the boys were headed to Norfolk mid-week, while Rahne stayed put in State College to supervise the movers.
"We're excited about the move," Rahne said. "We bought a house close to the University so that my wife and boys could be there as much as they can.
"We're really looking forward to it."
Rahne, as you almost certainly know, expected to be in Norfolk most of this spring, holding his first spring practice and spring games, hosting recruits on campus and then making the rounds in Virginia reach out to fans and raise money.
The coronavirus pandemic has made this the strangest, most stressful and most challenging of times for nearly all of us. But imagine being a first-year football coach and just three months into the job, the nation shuts down.
He and his assistants have been forced to recruit via phone and social media. They've been cranking out videos of campus on social media to recruits.
He's not only had no spring practice, but also no in-person team meetings with his players or coaches for two months. And he doesn't know when he'll be able to bring them all together again.
But he also doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for him.
"I still have my job," he said. "I still have the ability to do my job, albeit in a slightly different way than I had before.
"Quite frankly, my family is healthy. My team and coaches are healthy. I know I'm blessed. A lot of people in this country are suffering a lot more than me."
Rahne, 39, has the youngest Football Bowl Subdivision coaching staff in America and that's been a very good thing this spring. The staff is tech-oriented, hard-working and enthusiastic, all qualities that ODU's football team has needed.
They have been patient, likely more so than veteran coaches accustomed to decades of coaching one way – in person.
Team and position meetings are being held by Zoom. Strength and conditioning coach Dwight Galt IV has done individualized conditioning programs. Players are being held accountable academically – all ODU classes were online in the spring and will be again in the summer.
Amazingly, Rahne says the team has made great progress even though players are separated by hundreds of miles.
"I've been very pleased with how we're preparing," he said. "We don't know how many practices we're going to have when we come back. We've been making sure the schemes are tightened up. I've been really impressed with our guys."
And although leaving State College was emotional, Rahne said he and his family are more than ready to move to their new home.
"I can't wait," he said. "Honestly, it will feel like a final step, another sign of progression that the season is coming.
"My wife and kids are really excited."
As is all of Monarch nation.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: In Spite of Uncertainty, Ricky Rahne Still Preparing his ODU Football Team to Open Against Wake Forest
