ODU Football Keeps it Close For a Half but Falls to Virginia Tech Before Largest Home Crowd Ever

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. -- Defeating a Virginia Tech football team that many prognosticators think can win an ACC championship was going to be difficult under the best of circumstances.

But being forced to face the Hokies with two freshmen quarterbacks who had never played a down of college football made it a particularly daunting task for Old Dominion.

With starting quarterback Grant Wilson out with an injury, Quinn Henicle, a true freshman from Downingtown, Pennsylvania, came off the bench and quickly rushed 65 yards for a touchdown that gave ODU new life in the second quarter.

He then led ODU on a 69-yard scoring drive that allowed the Monarchs to trim the lead to 14-10 at halftime.

But the Hokies got their offense in gear, scored 23 unaswered points and claimed a 37-17 victory over the Monarchs Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 22,208, the largest ever to see a game at S.B. Ballard Stadium.

The victory was the first by Tech (2-1) in three tries in Norfolk. The Monarchs upset then 13th-ranked Tech, 49-35, in 2018, and two years ago, rallied to claim a 20-17 victory in Tech Coach Brent Pry's first game.

This was by far the best Tech team to play at ODU, which fell to 0-3.

Quarterback Kyrone Droves rushed for 117 yards and a touchdown and passed for 176 more and another TD. Tailback Bhayshul Tuten had 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns. 

Meanwhile, the Hokies dominated the line of scrimmage when the Monarchs were on offense. Tech had five sacks and seven tackles for a loss.

With Wilson out, ODU Head Coach Ricky Rahne elected to start Colton Joseph, a redshirt freshman from Newport Beach, California. Joseph led the team for two possessions but the Monarchs garnered just one first down, and he was replaced by Henicle.

On his fourth play from scrimmage, Henicle feigned a handoff and then rushed untouched for a touchdown. 

"We were always going to play Quinn," Rahne said. "I decided to stay with him because he gave us a spark."

Late in the second quarter, Henicle led ODU down the field again, as Bryce Duke, who played for Virginia Tech last season, began the drive with a 48-yard run, the longest of his career. That set up a 28-yard field goal by Ethan Sanchez that narrowed the lead to four, 14-10.

Duke, a junior from Leesburg, Virginia, led the Monarchs with 85 yards rushing.

As ODU headed into the locker room, the Monarchs thought that for a third week in a row, the game would go down to the wire. 

"We felt really confident," said running back Aaron Young. "It felt just like our other games, that we needed to find a way to get over the hump."

But the Hokies took control in the third quarter largely by shutting down ODU's offense. They continally applied pressure to Henicle, who didn't have enough time to set and throw and was sacked four times.

Rahne said the failure to protect the quarterback was a team failure, but that his offensive line played poorly. 

Tech built the lead to 20-10 on two third-quarter field goals and it could have been worse -- both times the Hokies were inside the 15 but were held out of the end zone by ODU's defense.

Tech was driving in ODU territory, and on the search for more points, when ODU cornerback Angelo Rankin Jr. intercepted in the end zone.

Then the Hokies finally scored an elusive touchdown, driving 59 yards on a drive cappped by Tuten's 16-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

It was 37-10 when the Monarchs finally scored on a 16-yard TD run by Tariq Sims with 3:32 left.

ODU was again without All-American linebacker Jason Henderson, who played sparingly in a 23-19 defeat at South Carolina and sat out last weekend's 20-14 home loss to East Carolina.

That meant the Monarchs were without both their offensive and defensive leaders -- Wilson and Henderson are team captains.

ODU has a bye week next weekend, meaning they have 14 days before they play their next game, Sept. 28 at Bowling Green. 

Bowling Green (1-1) led Penn State most of the way before falling to the Nittany Lions, 34-27.

ODU's next home game is five weeks away when the Monarchs host Texas State for Homecoming, which is favored to win the Sun Belt West title.

Rahne said he's glad ODU has a bye week.

"I mean, listen, we gotta player better, and that's the bottom line," he said.

"But the bye week can give us an opportunity to re-evaluate some things that we're doing to be able to play better football. The bye week can allow our guys to get healthier."

Asked what was most disappointing after three weeks, Rahne replied: "I don't think we've played our best football yet. And we haven't played a complete game that.

"And that's been disappointing."

Young said it's been just as disappointing to the players. The brother of former ODU linebacker Jordan Young, he transferred from Rutgers, where he said he experienced "some tough years."

"There are a bunch of guys on this team who are like that," he said. "They have that same story, where they had to go through adversity, where they had to push through something. 

"I think that's what makes our team so special. We have guys who have bought in and the young guys, they follow our leaders. We push the narrative of how we want to do it, how we want the season to go.

"We're going to be vocal and they're going to follow us."

Notes: Anthony Patt made his first career start at left tackle … Colton Joseph made his first career start at quarterback … True freshman quarterback Quinn Henicle saw his first career action late in the first quarter … Henicle’s 65-yard run is the second longest by an ODU QB in program history, second only to Grant Wilson’s 79-yard run in the Famous Toastery Bowl against WKU in 2023 … It was Henicle’s first career touchdown … Bryce Duke’s 48-yard run was the longest run of his career … Safety Jahron Manning recorded a career-high 11 tackles … Denzel Lowry recorded a career-best nine tackles … Angelo Rankin Jr. registered his first interception as a Monarch and third of his career … Bryce Duke had 85 yards on four carries for a 21.5-yard average … He had runs of 48 and 32 yards … Running back Tariq Sims scored his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter … Linebacker Seth Naotala had a career-high seven tackle … Ricardo Williams Jr. blocked ODU’s second kick of the season.