Minium: ODU Football pumps in Crowd Noise to prepare for opener at South Carolina

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Tens of thousands of fans could be heard screaming and stomping their feet as the Old Dominion football team carried out its last full scrimmage Wednesday night at S.B. Ballard Stadium. And the noise was at times deafening.

However, there wasn’t a single fan in the stands.

The Monarchs began practicing last week with simulated fan noise to prepare the team for their opener Saturday at South Carolina. The game begins at 4:15 p.m. and will be broadcast on the SEC Network. 

South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium is one of the most difficult college football stadiums in the country. Nearly every game at the 77,559-seat stadium is full and the fans are notorious for making so much noise that it forces opponents to make mistakes.

“We brought in speakers and turned up the volume,” said Tristin Iannone, ODU’s director of football operations.

ODU Head Coach Ricky Rahne employed the same tactic last season when the Monarchs opened at Virginia Tech, and while the Monarchs lost that game, the crowd had little effect on them.

“We’ve got to make sure they’re ready,” Rahne said. “We know it’s going to be loud down there.

“They have such great fans there. I have a lot of respect for them. It’s truly one of the best atmospheres in all of college football.”

Rahne was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt when the Commodores twice played at South Carolina.

“The two times I was fortunate enough to coach down there, their fans were really locked in,” he added.

Rahne was pleased with the team’s final scrimmage, in which the emphasis was less on hitting and more on technique and eliminating mistakes. Rahne deemed it a “no-tackle” scrimmage.

“I felt like we tackled pretty well during camp,” he said. “You never feel like you’ve tackled enough but I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job with that.”

VIRGINIA TECH TICKETS GOING FAST

If you don’t have tickets yet for ODU’s game against Virginia Tech and want to go, you’d better move quickly.

About 1,500 tickets remain for the Sept. 14 game and will sell out.

The only way to secure your seats is through the ODU ticket office as it apperars that single-game tickets almost certainly won’t go on sale to the general public.

ODU season tickets are still available beginning at $200 apiece, and because that price includes all six home games, it’s the best value around.

However, ODU began offering another choice last week --a mini-plan that can net you a ticket to the Tech game, plus two others, including ODU’s home game on Nov. 16 against James Madison. You pick one game from the Texas State, Marshall or Georgia Southern contests.

That mini plan starts at $115.

Meanwhile, single-game tickets for the Tech game cost anywhere from $119 to $299 on www.Seatgeek.com, one of the industry’s leading online ticket marketing agencies. Ticket prices are higher on other online retailers, including Stub Hub.

That leaves you with a choice of paying $115 for three games or $119 for one game.

I know which option I would choose.

ODU is also offering a three-game mini-plan that includes tickets to either JMU or ECU and your choice of two games from the Texas State, Georgia Southern and Marshall contests. Those tickets start at just $75 per plan.  

Rahne waxed poetically about ODU’s home schedule last week during media day at S.B. Ballard Stadium.

“I’m excited,” he said. “This is an unbelievable home schedule. I think you know my history of coaching (Penn State, Vanderbilt and Kansas State, among others).

“And this one of the best home schedules I’ve ever seen.”

To order a mini plan, season tickets or single-game tickets to selected games, CLICK HERE

RAHNE NAMES SIX CAPTAINS

Rahne announced ODU’s six captains at the team’s media day, and many of the names will be familiar to long-time ODU fans.

It’s no surprise that linebacker, Jason Henderson, a two-time All-American who is chasing the national tackling record this season; and quarterback Grant Wilson, who was named the starter on Tuesday for the second year in a row, are among the six for the second year in a row.

Offensive lineman Santana Saunders, a senior who was among the best recruits ODU has ever signed, and junior defensive lineman Denzel Lowry, a returning starter who had 46 tackles last season, are also captains. Both are from Virginia Beach.

They are joined by two players who stand out on special teams: Koa Naotala, a sophomore linebacker from Newport News, and punter Seamus Hall, a senior from Walla Walla, Washington.

REMEMBER THE BIG BLUE BEAST? HE’S BACK

The Big Blue Beast was a promotion unveiled by ODU in 1982 to try to attract fans to Scope, where the Monarchs played basketball for decades.

It was used largely in TV and newspaper commercials graphically to promote ticket sales, but ODU officials also unveiled a robot-like, headless Big Blue Beast with giant blue claws that roamed the court at Scope before games and sometimes at halftime.

CLICK HERE FOR BIG BLUE BEAST COMMERCIAL

And while it’s been 42 years since the beast roamed the court at Scope, you can relieve a little nostalgia by going to the website of Homefield apparel.

CLICK HERE FOR HOMEFIELD ODU NOSTALIC SPORTSWEAR

Homefield has teamed with ODU to create a selection of eight shirts or sweatshirts, and a hat, that harken back to the University’s esteemed athletics history.

Shirts are available that say, “I got bit by the Big Blue Beast,” with blue claws emerging from Scope.

One pays homage to the back-to-back national titles for women’s basketball in 1979 and 1980, one that celebrates ODU’s unbeaten record in football from 1941 through 1988 (when the University did not play football) and one that features the ODU “Racetrack” logo from half a century ago.

Even if you don’t purchase a shirt, looking at the website surely will bring back memories.

 Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram