By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Zion Frink announced shortly after the end of last football season his intention to enter the transfer portal, and who could blame him for thinking the grass might be greener?
He was coming off a very good redshirt sophomore season for Old Dominion in which he started 13 games. He was sixth on the team in tackling with 60 and tied for the lead with six pass breakups.
Had he entered the portal, surely he would have had some lucrative offers.
But a few days later, he sat down with ODU Head Coach Ricky Rahne and then with Blake Seiler, ODU’s defensive coordinator. And by early January, he announced he was staying at ODU.
“I had to figure out what was important to me in my journey, in what I want to accomplish,” he said. “Playing in the NFL, that’s my end goal.”
As Rahne has often said, you need film to get into an NFL training camp, and if you go to a big-time school, you might not play as much. So many young guys have left for Power 4 schools with stars in their eyes and ended up blowing any chance they had at a pro career.
Rahne’s pitch worked, but by itself, it wasn’t enough to convince Frink to stay.
“In the end, it was the relationships here, that was the most important thing to me, that convinced me to stay,” he said. “I talked with my family, with people I trust, and I realized just how important my relationships here are to me. The coaches, everyone here, they really care about us. And this is home for me.”
ODU is in the midst of spring practice and Frink said the most important thing is teaching the dozens of newcomers “the Monarch Way.”
“It’s not that we’re trying to get them to buy in,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure they understand how we do things here. On defense, everyone runs to the ball. From the opposite side of the field, everyone runs to the ball. Not every school is doing that. We’re trying to make them understand the pride we have on our defense, the mentality we have.”
Seiler agreed that “rebuilding the culture” is one of the most important things the Monarchs must accomplish this spring.
“That’s an every-day thing. It’s a living, breathing thing. You know how hard we play, how fast we play, how disciplined we play. Those are the big three for us.”
Although Seiler has five starters back on defense, which is more than usual, replacing some of the graduated seniors will be difficult, he said, especially guys such as Kris Trinidad and Ricardo Williams.
“They were great players, but they were even more valuable in the locker room for the leaders they were,” he said. “The camaraderie, the culture those guys brought their whole time here, that’s probably harder to replace than the production on the field, and that’s saying a lot, because those guys were really productive. We have some capable guys and do have some good returning guys, so the pieces are there. We just have to get them to grow up in a hurry.”
Frink, for his part, was in a hurry to play when he arrived at ODU as a freshman but instead, had to be patient.
The Chesapeake native played at Great Bridge High school before transferring to Wake Forest High in Wake Forest, North Carolina as a senior.
He had offers from a number of North Carolina schools but decided to come back home.
He signed with ODU, where he redshirted without playing a down in 2023 and played only at Arkansas State in ODU’s regular-season finale as a redshirt freshman.
Then last season he moved from safety to cornerback and won a starting position. In his first game, he had seven tackles at Indiana, which would win the national championship. He later collected 13 tackles in ODU’s victory over App State.
“This is really his year to grow into his own at corner,” Seiler said. “He’s been a young talented guy who played safety and corner. And what he did last year, when he really wasn’t healthy all year long, was amazing. We’re fired up to get him healthy and even more to let him settle at corner and then take the next step and grow into his own at that position.”
Rahne says it’s too early in spring practice to know much about this team, and especially the offense, which returns just one starter – tailback Devin Roche – and has a new coordinator and wide receivers and offensive line coaches.
Quinn Henicle returns at quarterback after leading ODU to a 24-10 victory over South Florida in the Cure Bowl. He was named the game’s MVP.
But Jaxon Potter, a transfer from Washington State, and Ryan Huff, the redshirt freshman from Pensacola (Florida) Catholic High, are also getting a ton of snaps.
“I like all of our quarterbacks,” Frink said. “Jaxon has a good arm. Quinn, being able to run the way he does, he’s really good. And I really like Huff. He’s throwing the ball well. I’m a fan of his for sure.”
ODU is coming off a 10-3 season that included a victory at Virginia Tech and its first bowl victory since 2016.
“Because of last season, I guess the expectations are higher,” Frink said. “But there are a lot of new guys who weren’t on that team. We want to repeat what we did last year, and we want to do even better. But we’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.”
Spring practice ends on Saturday, April 18, when the Priority Automotive Charity Bowl ODU Spring Game is held at 2 p.m. at S.B. Ballard Stadium. There will be a fan fest following the game in which fans can interact with players.
For more information on the fan fest, CLICK HERE
For ODU’s schedule, CLICK HERE
For information on purchasing ODU season tickets, CLICK HERE.
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
To see past stories from Minium, CLICK HERE