Minium: ODU Football Seeking to Avoid Turnovers at Indiana That Cost Them a Win at South Carolina

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – When the clock struck all zeroes a year ago this week at the University of South Carolina, my gut told me the wrong team won.

When I voiced the opinion in the press box at game’s end, that on this night Old Dominion was the better team, a ton of reporters who cover South Carolina agreed.

“They got lucky,” was the majority sentiment.

The Gamecocks claimed a 23-19, come-from-behind football victory, but in the trenches, the Monarchs outhit and wore down the Gamecocks and outgained them, 305-288.

Essentially, ODU’s defense only gave up three field goals and got a ton of pressure on  quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

The difference was two costly fumbles, both by quarterback Grant Wilson, inside the ODU 10. Both led to easy South Carolina touchdowns.

In all, ODU had four turnovers, and when you turn the ball over that many times, you’re almost always going to lose.

That lesson has not been lost on the Monarchs as they prepare this weekend for another big road opener against a Power 4 opponent.

The Monarchs open Saturday at No. 20 Indiana, and ODU Head Coach Ricky Rahne said at his weekly press conference on Monday that his team can’t have a repeat of the mistakes made at South Carolina.

“We had a chance to win that game,” he said. “But, you know, we made some mistakes and that cost us. That was a lesson for us. Anytime you play on the road, you’d better be as near perfect as you can possibly be.”

An aside here: Wilson played a pretty good overall game at South Carolina, completing 22 of 38 passes for 197 yards. He passed for a touchdown and ran for another.

Curiously, he transferred to Indiana, and although he isn’t expected to play against ODU, he played two seasons for the Monarchs and clearly knows the Monarchs’ offense well.

ODU’s turnover problem continued after Wilson was injured and lost for the season. And so, late last season, Offensive Coordinator Kevin Decker began a new regimen.

He decreed quarterbacks were to carry the ball at certain times during practice, even while on the sidelines. And at any time, a football assistant could walk up behind them and try to knock the ball away with a blocking pad.

Decker assigned assistant equipment manager Mike Berretone the task of running around practice, trying to knock the ball out of a quarterback’s hands. This spring, he was joined by Rico Arisiaga, a graduate assistant.

The math here is simple. When ODU doesn’t turn the ball over, the Monarchs are 7-0 the last two seasons.

“We’ve actually done a very good job the last two years of not fumbling the football as an offense and not throwing a large number of interceptions,” Decker said. “Where we’ve been the worst is fumbling at the quarterback position. And I take full responsibility for that.”

Which is why Berretone and Arisiaga have been given carte blanche to knock the ball away from ODU’s quarterbacks.

Rahne points out that not every fumble is one person's fault.

"Someone may have missed a block or a wide receiver may have not run a good route," he said. "It's rarely on one person. So when it comes to turnovers, we've been telling our kids that everyone has to do their job."  

Turnovers especially matter in close games, and ODU has led the nation in close games the last two seasons. Twenty of ODU’s 24 games have been decided by a touchdown or less and the Monarchs are 9-11 in those games, including a 3-6 record last season.

Northern Illinois, with 14 one-score games, was well behind ODU.

Berretone is known as “Dirty Mike” by the quarterbacks for his often clandestine efforts to knock the ball away from them.

“Coach Decker puts us through it. He really wants those quarterbacks ready,” Berretone said. “We do it every day.”

Yet neither he nor Arisiaga can recall many times that they’ve forced quarterbacks to fumble.

“It might have happened maybe once, maybe twice,” Arisiaga said. “But it wasn’t our starters. They know better. It was the young quarterbacks.

“Coach Decker’s got a way of making sure they don’t do it again.”

Berretone said Decker’s messaging to the quarterbacks is relentless.

“Coach Decker says we’re 7-0 when we don’t turn the ball over and he says it every day. I can’t remember a day he hasn’t said that,” he said.

Quarterback Colton Joseph, who will start for the Monarchs after a very promising debut last season as a redshirt freshman, said Berretone and Arisiaga have been a huge help.

“They’ve been doing it for so long subconsciously, I hold onto the ball more,” he said. “I don’t really have to think about it.”

He will face a defense that ranked second nationally last year in yards allowed and was sixth in points allowed. ODU, meanwhile, was 14th nationally in rushing yards.

Winning or losing your opener can have a huge impact on the rest of your season. The win over ODU helped South Carolina have a breakout season for coach Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks, who defeated three nationally-ranked teams, including archrival Clemson, to finish 9-4.

ODU finished 5-7, and everything else being equal, a victory at South Carolina could have propelled the Monarchs to a bowl bid and maybe more.

ODU has done pretty well against Power 4 schools under Rahne. ODU is 1-2 against Virginia Tech. The Monarchs were swept in two games by Wake Forest, but the Demon Deacons had to rally to claim a 27-24 victory in 2023.

ODU lost at Virginia, 16-14, in 2023 on a last-second Cavalier field goal.

In every game, the Monarchs were within striking distance in the second half.

“It takes good players and a good plan to win against a Power school,” Rahne said. “And we’ve got good players and a good plan when we’ve played them.”

ODU’s coaching staff has prepared the Monarchs to play in hostile environments by piping in music, with the volume turned up full throttle, in practice sessions to let their players know what they’ll be hearing.

The Monarchs have heard a lot of “Indiana, Our Indiana,” the Hoosiers’ up-tempo fight song, the last two weeks.

“I’ve liked (hearing it) at practice,” Rahne said. “It made me feel like I was at a college football game.

“That’s what makes college football different from the NFL. The bands, the cheerleaders Certain things you know, certain songs you know. That’s what makes college football so special.”

It will be ODU’s first meeting with a Big Ten team (ODU lost to Maryland when the Terps were in the ACC) but many of the coaches and players on both teams know each other well. Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti came to IU from James Madison and took many coaches and a ton of players with him from JMU.

The Hoosiers finished 11-2 last season and made it into the College Football Playoff for the first time, losing to Notre Dame in the first round; thus, what has long been a basketball-centric school has also become a football power.

As was the case last year at South Carolina, the Monarchs are more than 20-point underdogs.

Rahne experienced games at IU’s Memorial Stadium while coaching at Penn State, and he said he remembers the home crowds there being supportive.

“But very bluntly, I’m expecting a more raucous crowd than any I dealt with before at Indiana,” he said. “They’re coming off a little bit of a different kind of season.

“I’m expect the place to be popping pretty good. It’s a good environment. They have a passionate fan base. And it’s obviously changing from what used to be a basketball school into what it is now.

“Our guys want to play in these environments because that’s what college football is all about, right? When you’re a kid throwing a football in the back yard that’s the type of environment that you imagine.

“It’s what you dream of.”

The game will be televised nationally by Fox Sports 1.

“There’s another edge to it when you’re going into a Power 4 game,” Joseph said. “You’re facing better competition. And that means you’ve got to play harder.

“This is a great opportunity to show what we can do and put ODU on the map.”

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