Minium: Despite Being Picked Sixth in the Sun Belt East, ODU Has Potential for a Very Special 2024 Football Season
By Harry Minium
NEW ORLEANS – Old Dominion was tabbed by Sun Belt football coaches a year ago to finish dead last in the 14-team league. But even while playing a very difficult schedule, the Monarchs far exceeded those expectations.
They won six games, earned a bowl bid and were just 23 seconds away from playing for the conference championship.
Had the Monarchs beaten Coastal Carolina last November, they would have traveled to Troy to play for the Sun Belt title. Alas, the Chanticleers scored with 23 seconds left to claim a 28-24 victory.
ODU played one of the most difficult schedules in the Group of 5 – at Virginia Tech and Liberty and at home against Wake Forest. And the Monarchs had the most games in FBS decided by a touchdown or less since Division I was formed.
ODU won six of those 11 games. The Monarchs won for the first time against App State and Georgis Southern and beat three other teams that went to bowl games.
Not bad for a team picked to finish last.
Yet it seems that Sun Belt coaches aren’t impressed with ODU again this season.
ODU was picked on Monday to finish sixth in the East Division – ahead of only Georgia State – and was 11th among the 14 teams in the coaches’ tally.
And while I respect every Sun Belt coach, I think they missed the mark on the Monarchs once again.
Look at the ODU roster, and listen to Monarch coaches and players, and you see the potential for a very special season.
ODU has more experience, more depth, and more continuity in its coaching staff than any Monarch squad in recent memory.
Head Coach Ricky Rahne returns 11 starters, including All-American linebacker Jason Henderson and offensive lineman Santana Saunders, who traveled with him to the Sun Belt media days on Tuesday.
And he has 12 others who have started at least one FBS game, either at ODU or elsewhere.
The Monarchs have a seasoned quarterback in redshirt junior Grant Wilson, who started last season. In fact, ODU has a ton more talent at quarterback than the Monarchs have had in a long time.
Boston College transfer Emmett Morehead, a 6-foot-5 junior from Woodside, California, played in 10 games in 2022 and started in four for the Eagles. He lost his starting position last season and comes to ODU eager to prove something.
Redshirt freshman Colton Joseph, from Newport Beach, California, is smart and much improved. He may have the strongest arm on ODU’s team.
“We have three quarterbacks I’m confident could step in and play well for us,” Rahne said.
“We are much improved at quarterback over last season.
“Grant has done such a good job of working on his fundamentals. He is throwing the ball with more confidence than ever.”
And then there’s freshman Quinn Henicle, from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, who has been on campus a few weeks and has impressed with his throwing arm and work ethic.
Many Group of 5 football staffs have gone through massive changes in the offseason, but not the Monarchs. ODU is one of four Sun Belt teams that returns all three coordinators (Kevin Decker, offense; Blake Seiler, defense; Kevin Smith, special teams) and most of the rest of its assistant coaches.
ODU also returns strength coach Chad Snodgrass, head athletic trainer director Justin Walker and Tristin Iannone, director of football operations.
“This being the modern era of college football, we do have 56 newcomers,” Rahne said. “But there’s a lot of continuity on our staff. And that continuity will help us immensely.”
Rahne told the 100 or so radio, television, newspaper and internet reporters that this team is much deeper than it was a year ago. He can go two deep at safety and last year the Monarchs lost a step when the starters came out.
He pointed to depth at cornerback, wide receiver and other positions.
There are 26 returning lettermen, while that’s more than last season, even that stat is misleading. Last season, many of the lettermen were on special teams. The vast majority this year are position players.
He has 28 transfers, all of whom he expects will get meaningful playing time.
Henderson, who led FBS in tackles per game the last two seasons, is a bit of a question mark entering the season. He’s coming off an injury but says his rehabilitation has gone well.
Any time you rehab there is physical pain, but Henderson said the mental part of it, being told can’t do things, having to grind out things in the training room, was the bigger part of the battle.
“Once I got over that, things have gone well,” he said. “I’m ready to get on the field and do my thing.”
That is extraordinarily good news for the Monarchs.
ODU again, faces a difficult schedule, and the best home schedule ever since the Monarchs began playing football in 2009.
The Monarchs open at South Carolina on August 31, then host East Carolina and Virginia Tech back-to-back before they take a week off, and then play at Bowling Green.
ODU also has home games against Texas State, the West Division favorite, as well as James Madison, Marshall and Georgia Southern. There’s not a gimme game on the schedule, and all should generate great fan interest.
Of ODU’s 12 opponents, 10 went to bowls. And the two that didn’t go bowling were South Carolina, an SEC team; and ECU, which has a great football tradition but slumped last season.
“What are you trying to do yourself here, coach, with this schedule,” said ESPN sportscaster Matt Stewart to Rahne, during one two dozen or so interviews Rahne endured.
“Our schedule could be described as daunting,” Rahne said. “But the good news is that we play each game one at a time.
“I prefer to look at our schedule as an opportunity rather than a challenge. When people look at this team, they’re going to know we went out and played a good football team every week.”
When I asked Rahne if this team could be much improved over last season, he said that it could. Henderson said that’s clearly true on defense.
“What I’m excited about is our depth,” he said. “If our entire first team defense went down, our second team or third team defense would do just as fine.
“Everyone trusts everyone else to get the job done.”
Saunders said there are intangibles that also bode well.
“I think culture wins game and our culture this year is really good,” he said.
“That’s something we talk about every day, every hour. We’re focused on what’s in front of us, and that’s camp.
“We’ve done a great job of hanging out together, doing things together, more than we have since 2020. This team is very close.”
Rahne agrees.
“I think our guys have done a great job integrating the new guys and bringing them in and making think they are new guys for about 25 seconds and then treating them like they’re a part of the team,” he said.
ODU must use that unity and experience to play better in close games, Rahne said.
“What we went through last year was unbelievable,” he said. “I learned that I’d better keep doing cardio and keep a healthy heart.
“Even the Virginia Tech game, it wasn’t a one-score game, but we turned the ball when we had a chance to take the lead in the second half.
“We won our share of games. But we’ve got to play better when we’re winning. We’ve played pretty darn well from behind and did some pretty special things.
“It’s my responsibility to get us to do that when we’re ahead.”
And in spite of what Sun Belt coaches might think, ODU has all the tools to get it done.
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram