NORFOLK, Va. – Players did not wear name tags when football practice began Wednesday morning at Old Dominion, but if they did, it might have been helpful. When you have 58 newcomers on a roster with 116 players, it's going to take a while for the newbies and holdovers to get to know each other.
Most of the 58 newcomers have been working out this summer with their new teammates. Still, wide receiver Javon Harvey, a returning junior, acknowledges he doesn't know every player's name quite by heart.
"I know all the first names," he said with a smile last week at Sun Belt Conference Football Media Days in New Orleans. "It's going to take a while to get all the last names right."
Given the turnover caused all across college football by the transfer portal and NIL, having 30 or 35 new players isn't unusual. But 58?
That means one of every two players at ODU played elsewhere last season, in high school, junior college or a four-year school.
"When people hear we have 58 new players, I think it will shock people. But it's a little more normal for college football than it was in the past," head coach Ricky Rahne said.
It helps that most of the newcomers were at ODU this summer and thus have been immersed in the team culture and its offensive and defensive schemes, and began to bond with their new teammates.
And while Rahne acknowledges it's not ideal for one of every two players to be ODU rookies, the Monarchs will have something they lacked last season – a ton of depth.
Depth, he says, was a major issue last season when, as key starters began to succumb to injuries, the Monarchs lost their last six games to finish 3-9.
"What we've done by bringing in so many transfers is that we just increased the amount of guys who can go in a game and perform on a level where we can win conference games and play at a championship level," he said.
"That's important for two reasons. It gets more buy-in from the entire team because more guys will be playing. It's hard to be fully bought in when you don't think you're going to play.
"I think the other reason is depth. It creates more depth over the entire season. So, in the ninth game of the year, you are going to have more guys available. Guys are a little bit fresher. Maybe they get to the ball half a step earlier. Maybe they break a tackle a little bit better.
"It also creates more depth on your special teams. We've been very good on special teams but I expect us to be even better."
Rahne said the depth was obvious during Wednesday's first practice.
"We were able to work our fours in today," Rahne said of guys working on the fourth teams. "We actually had to split up into two groups at one point. We've never been able to do that before. It gives those guys an opportunity to feel like they can move up the depth chart."
It is precisely because of all the newcomers that prognosticators may have gotten things terribly wrong when they picked ODU to finish last in the Sun Belt East.
We honestly won't know how good the Monarchs will be until they hit the field. That's often true for many college football teams. But it's impossible to truly predict how good ODU will be when half the team is brand new.
And while coaches and the media don't seem to think much of ODU, national college football sports writer Brett McMurphy has the Monarchs pegged in the Cure Bowl in Orlando.
The 27 transfers include players from brand-name schools, including Colorado, Colorado State, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Duke, Tulane, Temple, Cincinnati and Washington. Some of the newcomers have encouraging resumes and will fill a lot of holes, especially at defensive back.
Rahne expects all 27 transfers will play. And with only eight returning starters on offense and defense, ODU will need a bunch to step up.
At least four defensive backs have impressive resumes.
Safety Jeremy Mack Jr., a transfer from Colorado, was fourth in tackling for the Buffaloes last season. The 5-foot-10, 187-pound junior from Clinton, Colorado, had 46 tackles, including 11 each against USC and Utah.
Safety Demario King had 57 tackles as a sophomore at Cerritos Junior College in California, but was injured after he transferred to Washington, where the Huskies tried to turn him into a linebacker. He is back at safety at ODU.
Cornerback Langston Williams was a three-star recruit at Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, Colorado, who redshirted at Colorado State and played sparingly last season. He was also a wide receiver and track star in high school.
Finally, safety Ashton Whitner, a Greenville, South Carolina native, was a three-star recruit rated the 30th-best player in the Palmetto State who redshirted last season at Georgia Southern, where he had a 3.50 GPA.
The Monarchs got a potential starter with a ton of experience in linebacker Sayyid Stevens (6-2, 227, redshirt junior), a graduate transfer from Duke. The Midway, Georgia native played four seasons for the Blue Devils mostly off the bench. He had 12 tackles as a junior when he started against Miami.
The defensive line, which Rahne says is deep and talented, got a couple of likely contributors at tackle.
North Carolina transfer Jahlil Taylor (5-11, 285, Sr., Cordele, Georgia), played four seasons for the Tar Heels and his best was in 2020, when he had 18 tackles and started three games. Cole Daniels, a 6-0, 296-pound juco transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast College, had 44 tackles and a sack last season. He is from Sumrall, Mississippi.
ODU got another talented and versatile recruit out of East Mississippi in running back Kadarius Calloway (6-0, 210, Philadelphia, Mississippi), who had 462 rushing yards and 990 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns last season.
He was rated the No. 2 recruit in Mississippi at Philadelphia High School and originally signed with Alabama.
Rahne said ODU likely will run the football "by committee," meaning he will use a large number of running backs, and said Calloway is expected to be a member of that committee.
The offensive line gained experience and size from Tulane in redshirt freshman Keanon McNally (6-8, 326, Kearny, Missouri), Grambling State graduate transfer Chris Chernak Jr. (6-8, 316, redshirt senior, Brooklyn, New York) and Dartmouth transfer Michael Flores (6-3, 295, redshirt senior, Arlington, Texas).
Flores was a reserve as a junior but started 10 games for Dartmouth in 2022. He is a graduate transfer. All three are expected to play this fall.
Wide receiver Myles Austin, a 6-1, 180-pound redshirt sophomore, transferred to ODU from Pitt. A graduate of Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Austin was ranked the No. 9 prospect in Hampton Roads by The Virginian-Pilot.
He did not play as a senior at Ocean Lakes because of the pandemic. He redshirted at Pitt in 2021 and played in seven games last season, mostly as on special teams or as a reserve.
Most transfers did not enroll at ODU until the summer, but quarterback Grant Wilson, a transfer from Fordham, competed this past spring. Either Wilson or Jack Shields, who was a three-star recruit at Centreville High School in Clifton, Va., will start. Rahne said they enter fall practice dead even.
It's no secret that ODU's biggest issues last season came on offense. During a four-game stretch in the six-game losing streak, the Monarchs averaged just 8.5 points. Rahne was forced to replace his offensive coordinator just before the season began and the ODU O never really got into gear.
ODU revamped its offense in the offseason, hiring offensive coordinator Kevin Decker and offensive tackle coach Alex Huettel away from Fordham, which averaged nearly 50 points last season. All-American linebacker Jason Henderson said the spread offense Decker and Huettel installed will score a ton of points.
"Everyone on the team believes in this offense," he said. "We know we're going to score more points this season. Our quarterbacks are executing it well.
"The new guys are all fitting in well. We created a brotherhood this summer.
"We're going to be better than we were last year."
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Minium: Here are Some of the 58 Newcomers Who Will Play Key Roles for ODU Football
