NORFOLK, Va. – If you were among the thousands of people who hung in there through the rainstorms at S.B. Ballard Stadium last Saturday, congratulations. You, and others around you, played a role in Old Dominion's 38-31 football victory over Louisiana.
In all, 18,154 fans had tickets to the game, but brisk thunderstorms in the early afternoon flooded some tailgate lots and forced the cancelation of activities on Kaufman Mall. Fans were told to wait in their cars because of nearby lightning strikes.
It wasn't until shortly after 6 p.m., the scheduled game time, that stadium gates finally opened.
The game began an hour late and by then, many fans understandably had gone home. I expected the crowd to be sparse and subdued.
But I was wrong.
First, ODU students flowed in, nearly 4,300 in all, and thousands of ODU's hardiest fans also filled their seats. The 21,944-seat stadium was perhaps half full and most stayed in spite of persistent rain in the first half.
Under the circumstances, it was a great showing.
Yet the fact that the fans stayed wasn't as important as the noise they made. The crowd was loud and supportive. Fans stood and cheered on key third down plays and robustly celebrated all five of ODU's touchdowns. The students particularly made a ton of noise.
At times, the stadium sounded as if it was full.
ODU opened a week earlier, on Sept. 2, in front of nearly 66,000 fans at Virginia Tech.
ODU linebacker Jason Henderson says "I love Monarch nation."
ODU linebacker Jason Henderson said it best following the victory over Louisiana when asked to compare the crowds at his team's first two games.
"We heard the fans tonight," he said. "There might not have been 66,000 out there but you would have thought there was given how much noise they made.
"I love Monarch Nation, the support we get and that's something we're really going to need for the rest of the season."
Head coach Ricky Rahne said he wasn't surprised ODU's fans hung in there.
"We watch tapes from across the country, particularly in our conference, and I think we have one of the best fan bases in the Group of Five," he said. "When you watch our tape, our stadium is always filled. And you don't necessarily see that when you're watching tape from other teams."
Rahne and other ODU officials are asking fans to step up once again this weekend when the Monarchs host Wake Forest.
It's a rare chance for a Sun Belt Conference school to host an ACC school and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
While other networks, such as the CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports 1, have televised games from Ballard Stadium, they don't have nearly the audience of ESPN and ESPN2, which both reach nearly 80 million TV homes.
The last time either network televised an ODU home game was in 2012, when the Monarchs hosted Georgia Southern in the FCS playoffs.
ODU student support for football has been strong and growing in recent years.
Fans from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to tiny Bufort, Wyoming, will have a chance to in essence watch a 3 ½-hour promotional show on ODU. And a full stadium would do much to burnish ODU's football reputation.
And while ticket sales have been brisk, a sellout may not be in the works.
So, if you haven't been to an ODU game in a while, there is no better time than this weekend to give the Monarchs a fresh look. ODU has a new offense that while not quite then run and shoot, moves quickly and scores a ton of points. It's no huddle and moves fast. On ODU's first possession, it took just two plays to put together a 55-yard touchdown drive.
The Monarchs scored more points against Louisiana than they did in their last four games last season.
Perhaps you've forgotten what a comfortable place Ballard Stadium is to watch a game, or that you can now buy beer and wine. The noon start means your evening is still free. And you'll get to watch ODU try to upset yet another ACC team at home as the Monarchs did to Virginia Tech in 2022 and 2018.
Wake Forest doesn't have the biggest budget in the ACC but is truly a powerhouse program.
Coach Dave Clawson has worked wonders at the small but elite private school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Deacs have been to bowl games six of the last seven years and won five.
Two years ago, Wake Forest won the ACC's Atlantic Division and lost to Pitt in the ACC championship game. The Deacs finished 11-3.
Wake Forest is 2-0 and is a 15-point favorite at ODU.
Increasingly, Power Five schools from the ACC, SEC and other leagues simply won't go on the road to play schools from the Sun Belt, Conference USA or Mountain West. Of 16 Sun Belt games against Power Five schools this season, only two are home games for the Sun Belt schools – Wake Forest at ODU and Virginia Tech at Marshall next weekend.
"You don't get very many of these opportunities," Rahne said. "Very bluntly, a lot of (Group of Five) teams don't get these opportunities. You hear coaches across the county and even in our state bemoaning the fact that they can't get anybody to play them, and certainly not at their place.
"So, to have opportunities like this is awesome and it's something we've got to take advantage of not only from a team standpoint, but from a university standpoint and a fan standpoint.
"We need to fill the place up and have a great atmosphere."
If you're interested in helping fill Ballard Stadium, I'd suggest you get a mini plan. Just $99 gets you a good sideline seat for any three games of your choice.
My suggestions would be Wake Forest, App State (Oct. 21) and Coastal Carolina (Nov. 4).
Single-game tickets are also available.
Regardless, know that if you show up and make noise, ODU's players and coaches will hear and appreciate you.
"I couldn't be more thankful to Monarch Nation and all of the Hampton Roads community for coming out," he said.
"I love our fans and their enthusiasm for our program.
"I'm not naive enough to think that all our fans went to ODU. To a lot of these people, we're their second favorite team. And that's all right."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
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Minium: ODU Football Playing on a Big Stage, and Hoping for Big Crowd, When Monarchs Host Wake Forest
