By Harry Minium
LYNCHBURG – Let's start by stating the obvious. Old Dominion University's football team did not play well Saturday night at Liberty.
Defensively, the Monarchs didn't tackle nor cover receivers well. Offensively, they didn't pass nor catch well. They had too many penalties, including one for roughing the kicker that stalled a first-half comeback.
But let's also keep things in perspective. Liberty University is among the very best teams in college football. ESPN ranked the Flames the nation's 26th best on Sunday.
Liberty has most of the players back from the team that was 10-1 last season, beat Virginia Tech and Syracuse, upended Coastal Carolina in a bowl game and whose only loss was a one-point defeat at North Carolina State.
In Malik Willis the Flames have one of the best quarterbacks in the country and receivers who made some highlight-reel worthy catches Saturday night in Williams Stadium.
So, the fact that ODU fell to the Flames, 45-17, is not all that surprising, nor should it be disheartening to the Monarch fan base. Liberty was a 26-point favorite and won by 28 points.
Lest you need to be reminded, and a ton of you do based on what I saw on social media Saturday night, coach Ricky Rahne came to Norfolk 22 months ago to rebuild this program from the ground up.
ODU hadn't had a winning season since 2016. The Monarchs were 1-11 in 2019 and that was largely because they had not recruited well.
Liberty is a veteran team. The Flames had 12 senior starters, including an offensive line that returned intact.
ODU, meanwhile, has 52 freshmen and 16 redshirt freshmen, or 68 freshmen in all. The Monarchs have nine seniors, the sixth fewest in the country.
ODU is among three FBS programs that did not play last season, meaning for almost everyone on the roster, Saturday's game was only the third in two years.
Rahne is a first-year head coach and his coaching staff is coaching together for the first time.
By now you get the point. ODU (1-2) is rebuilding, and it takes time to rebuild.
I'm not saying this team won't be good this year. It will be good. It will win games.
But Saturday's game came on the road against what may be the best team ODU will play this season.
With that said, safety Joe Joe Headen volunteered that the Monarchs did not have a good week of practice last week. And when you don't practice well, you don't play well.
Frankly, that was a lesson for Rahne's young team.
Rahne keeps preaching to his players that they need to go 1-0 every day and 1-0 in every game. Focus on getting better today, every day.
"We have to earn the right to win games in practice," Rahne said. "We have to practice and play with great intensity and passion.
"I can't look back at this week and say I did a great job either. Certainly, this wasn't just the kids. The entire organization did not come through tonight."
Rahne said there are no moral victories and that he and his players enter every game expecting to win. He didn't make any excuses Saturday night. He never does.
And that's the way you rebuild a program. You recruit well and prepare and expect to win and eventually, you will.
Liberty (3-0) has great facilities, including a $29 million indoor football training facility, and some ODU players were asked their thoughts on seeing all the glitzy stuff on campus .
I'll let tight end Zack Kuntz, the Penn State transfer who scored his first career touchdown at Liberty, explain to you what really matters to college football players when they are being recruited.
"You can go a ton of different places throughout the country," Kuntz said. "You can go to Group of 5 schools, Power 5 schools, and everyone has nice shiny things.
"But 45 pounds is the same here as it is anywhere else.
"They've got some cool stuff here for sure. But that's all it is, it looks cool. All that matters is the guys you've got in the locker room."
Kuntz played at Penn State, so he's seen the best. And he calls the players in ODU's locker room his brothers.
Liberty comes to ODU next season and the Monarchs return the Lynchburg in 2023.
ODU will be a much more experienced team in both games.
Of Liberty's top 44 players, 15 are seniors, and Willis, though a junior, is surely headed for the NFL. Nearly everyone returns for the Monarchs.
On defense, eight of the nine linemen, three of the four linebackers and seven of the 11 defensive backs return. On offense, nine of the ten linemen, all three running backs, 12 of 13 receivers and both quarterbacks are back.
The next time these teams meet, ODU will be much better, playing in front of its fans and hungry for a little payback.
For now, the Monarchs are aiming to go 1-0 against Buffalo (1-2), which fell to No. 16 Coastal Carolina, 28-25, last week, and visit S.B. Ballard Stadium Saturday. The Bulls, who also lost at Nebraska, are better than their record.
They were 6-1 last season, with their only loss coming in the Mid-American Conference championship game, and they defeated Marshall 17-10 in the Camellia Bowl.
It should be a special night for ODU fans. The Monarchs will wear Hudson Blue for the first time. That's the sky-like blue that ODU athletic teams wore decades ago that is named for long-time sports information Carol Hudson.
Shortly after coming to ODU, Rahne enthusiastically endorsed the idea of wearing Hudson Blue.
"Our players are excited about it and it should be," Rahne said. "It's a cool deal. Everyone else on our campus has worn it before and they've looked good."
Headen said the players have been looking forward to it since it was announced this past spring.
"That's definitely exciting," he said. "I got to wear war it once for a photo shoot. I feel like the fans are going to feed off of that."
And helps the Monarchs go 1-0.
Minium was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot and won 27 state and national writing awards. He covers ODU athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU Football Team Did Not Play Well at Liberty, but Let's Keep Things in Perspective
