By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – It was only a few years ago that the college football recruiting season essentially ended in the first week of February with the official signing day.
The transfer portal has, of course, changed all that. Because the portal has caused a revolving door of players seeking greener pastures, Old Dominion will continue to recruit players for next season right into the summer.
The good news, as the Monarchs prepare for the start of spring practice next week, is they have so far been clear winners in 2021-22 portal wars.
Last season, ODU got some outstanding players – wide receiver Ali Jennings III from West Virginia and Zack Kuntz from Penn State to name a few were huge gets for the Monarchs – but also lost some good ones.
Yet after playing their first season with head coach Ricky Rahne and his staff, the vast majority of players have bought into the new "Care, Compete, Character" mindset that focuses not only on winning and taking care of each other, but also becoming involved personally with coaches and their families.
ODU lost a handful of players from last season, but no starters.
Those losses have been more than made up by three transfers from Power 5 schools – quarterback Brendon Clark from Notre Dame, cornerback Shawn Asbury II from Boston College and wide receiver Marquez Bell from Cincinnati.
All three transferred to ODU in January and will vie for playing time in spring practice.
Clark, who is 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, grew up in the Richmond suburb of Midlothian, where he was ranked the No. 21 pro-style quarterback in the country and the No. 15 player in Virginia by 247Sports.com. A former ball boy at Manchester High School, Clark was a four-year starter who led the Lancers to a 15-0 record and a state title as a senior in 2018.
He threw for 7,147 yards and 85 touchdowns, but he was also a threat when he tucked the ball and ran. He rushed for 2,067 yards and 34 touchdowns at Manchester.
Clark's ability as a runner fits the Monarch offense to a tee. He comes to ODU with sophomore eligibility.
After originally committing to Wake Forest, and then decommitting, he picked the Fighting Irish over Clemson and North Carolina.
Clark played little at Notre Dame, largely because of a knee injury. Rahne said while he's excited that Clark is at ODU, "we're also excited about the ones we have, too."
ODU returns starter Hayden Wolff, who guided the Monarchs to five victories in the seven games he started, and D.J. Mack Jr., the former UCF starter who started the first six games last season.
Although he's only a redshirt sophomore, Wolff has three years under his belt. He played in 2019 and 2021 and was on the first team coached by Rahne in 2020, which did not play because of the pandemic.
Wolff completed 157 of 253 passes for 1,933 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Mack completed 86 of 167 passes for 859 yards and five touchdowns.
"What we did by recruiting Brendon Clark is we gave ourselves more competition at that position," Rahne said.
"Quarterback is the most important position in football. So, you've got to have as much competition as you possibly can if you want to take your program to another level."
Quarterbacks generally develop a quick sense of camaraderie, and Rahne said that's been the case with Clark and the other quarterbacks. Although they have yet to practice together, the players have been involved in winter workouts and numerous meetings.
They have been watching film together and with new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Dave Patenaude.
"I'm excited to see what's already happened to the guys in that (quarterback) room," Rahne said. "It's been great to see them step up their game even more.
"I've really been happy with how those guys have been working."
Reese Poffenbarger, a redshirt freshman from Middletown, Maryland who displayed an accurate throwing arm and good running ability in practice last season, will also be vying for playing time.
"I've told every single person on that the team that if you expect to pick up where you left off, that's not going to happen," Rahne said.
"Every year you've got to rebuild your foundation on fundamentals, rebuild your foundation of knowledge.
"I'm excited for Reese. I think he can really make some strides this spring."
As for Clark, Rahne said "he knows it's going to be a hard-fought competition."
ODU will have good players in every position room. The Monarchs return nearly every player on offense, including four of five lineman, the top three running backs and every wide receiver.
Three of the four linebackers on the two-deep return, as do three of the four defensive linemen. ODU loses three of its five starting defensive backs.
ODU has signed 16 players, including four of the top 17 players in Hampton Roads and a wealth of talent at wide receiver.
Bell was named the 2019 Gainesville (Florida) Sun Big School Player of the Year and was a two-time first-team all-state selection in the talent-rich Sunshine State.
He is Columbia High School's all-time leading receiver with 148 receptions for 2,968 yards and 33 TDs.
ODU also signed its first four-star recruit out of high school – Peter Kikwata, a 6-1, 184-pound graduate of Northwest High in Germantown, Maryland, who turned down offers from Maryland, Auburn and more than 20 other Power 5 schools. He is the highest-rated recruit ever to sign with ODU.
Bell and Kikwata will be joined by Ahmarian Granger, a 6-1, 183-pound wide receiver from Norfolk's Maury High School. He played quarterback and wide receiver at Maury and had 1,264 yards and 15 touchdowns. He is the highest-rated recruit ever to sign with ODU from Hampton Roads.
"We got better at wide receiver," Rahne said. "I feel good about that.
"We needed to get some play making and we did that.
"I'm excited about Marquez. I've known him for a long time. I recruited him a little at Penn State. He went to Cincinnati for a few years, and I am very excited about how he handled his business from the day he committed until now."
Like Clark and Jennings, Asbury is a Virginian who transferred to ODU from a Power 5 school. When he has gone to the portal, Rahne has made recruiting players from Virginia a priority.
Asbury was ranked the No. 39 recruit and the second-best cornerback in Virginia while at North Stafford Hig School in Stafford County, Virginia.
He played in seven games for Boston College in 2021 and had five tackles and two pass breakups.
ODU's 16-man class is on the smallish side, but 247Sports rates 14 of the 16 as three-star recruits in high school.
Three of the recruits are among the top eight in ODU's history according to 247Sports – No. 1 Kikwata, No. 7 Granger and tight end Tajae Broadie from Middletown, Pennsylvania, who is No. 8 and had offers from Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Syracuse.
Recruiting is far from over for ODU. The transfer portal can both give and take away in the spring and early summer.
"We're going to continue to evaluate the portal," Rahne said. "There's going to be another wave after spring football. Every college football coach in the country knows that, so I'm not saying anything that's a secret.
"We will just continue to evaluate what we need. We're not going to take every player, but we're going to continue to take the ones that fit us."
Minium: ODU Football Team Enters Spring Practicing Having Done Well in the Transfer Portal
