I'm Greg Madea and you are listening to the monarchist.
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Hey, Monarch nation. It's the monarchist. And we're here for UVA, Arkansas state review and preview. I am Mike and I am welcomed as always by Aaron Zelensky and Gary Williams. Welcome everybody. How y'all doing?
Good, Mike, how are you?
Uh, it could be better. Tough day yesterday, hot and an non ideal, uh, way to lose.
Well, the drive was safe home from Charlottesville. So I guess it was a good day.
Yeah, tough, uh, tough leaving Charlottesville. Uh, after another close game that we probably had a lot of opportunities to.
Absolutely. Before we get down to breaking down what we thought of the game. Um, what were your favorite moments of this?
We had a great crowd over on geld road, around the, uh, the vehicle with some good food, uh, from Wegman sponsor away. Feel free Wegman. Um, some good food over there had some great people come by, ended up having a pretty good crew up in the stand side. You know, for me, just hanging out with a lot of the monarchists, a lot of friends of, uh, a lot of people from the alumni tailgate group. So just a good, good meet with everybody was a good time.
Yeah, it was a great time. I think Monarch nation showed up. Well, we had a, a bunch of people in section one 11, also off to our left. That was probably one 12. I'm guessing there was a, a really large contingent. The band was making a butt ton of noise up into our left. And we had an awesome appearance by Hudson, which was pretty cool. I know Hudson tried to lick Mike's face off.
I got an awesome picture with, with my wife, with him and, uh, he made a ton of people happy in the stands, both old dominion fans and UVA fans, a.
Yeah. Still can't believe they, first didn't wanna allow him there. And then second, finally, succumbeded to the pressure of the. And made the right decision, but, uh, yeah, that was pretty special getting to meet him at halftime yesterday. got to meet a lot of people that I've either talked to on message boards at the Twitter for years. yeah, other than that, it was, the tailgate was awesome.
We also had a great dinner last night at south street brewery and then hit up the bars on the main street afterwards. But man, it was high yesterday. Wasn't it?
It was, it was hot. Hey, it was pretty cool, Mike. We got to meet David AGA old Monarch asylum, uh, precursor to this podcast. So that was cool talking with him being able to just kind of shoot the bull.
Yeah. Absolut.
And, uh, Kyle battle's mother, uh, Diane came over to hang out with us for a bit of the tailgate and then also at the game. Uh, always good to see her. I believe we were told to pressure Kyle into coming to the football game next Saturday.
I think that's kind of a quote, pretty much straight for Mrs. Battle's mouth.
I think that's a Twitter move for us. All right. So the game, Gary, you wanna give us kinda your recap and thought.
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a tough loss. Uh, there were a lot of opportunities for old dominion to go and win that ball game. Uh, uh, especially on the offensive side to only have, you know, 14 points, uh, was, was really tough, uh, to, to kind of go through that. Um, a lot of opportunities to win. I thought we played well in some areas we didn't play well in others.
I, you know, don't want to overreact too much of this cuz we do have to remember, this is a two point road loss against an ACC school. So like we're in year two of a rebuild. I don't want to overreact too much, but there's definitely some things that if they continue and become a trend could be a, a big problem. Um, I imagine if you're a UVA fan and. You watch that game. You're looking at the box score. You're rewatching it. You're probably like, man, we could have won that game by, by 20.
If we wouldn't have just malfunctioned in the red zone, admis of deal goal. So tough loss, definitely a chance, plenty of chances for old, we need to win that game.
Yeah, I know coaches will often say. A game never comes down to one play. There's lots of opportunities throughout a game and no single play causes a team to win or to lose, but it seemed like there were a lot of those individual plays where things could have kind of, you know, gone one way or another. I know we'll talk about some of them, but a number of individual plays that probably turned this game from a lost to a.
So one of the common discussions we've had, after the tech game and after the ECU game was the line. we need to give more time for Wolf to pass the run game, to develop. And we made a change, goes to from tackle the guard and Chris, Adam. Places, zoom at tackle. Um, this is the best. Our offense looked all season. We were moving the ball pretty well. We weren't doing great once we got into the near the red zone, but that was the most, our offensive looked like a, a machine all year.
So I was happy to see that change. Obviously we need to keep, make making improvements, but I'm happy that that change was made. I don't know what they're gonna do now that Adams got injured. Cause we saw he was helped off the field. And then on the sidelines, they gave him an air cast and carted him off. So we gotta wish him best health and hope he recovers quickly, but be interesting to see how they react to that injury. Moving forward.
Yeah, moving Sal to right guard. Putting in Chris Adams at right tackle, uh, seemed to work. I mean the offensive line looked the best. It has all. I know I've, I've been hard on Xavier black. Uh, the last two times we've chatted. I thought Xavier had a, a fantastic game. Uh, there was a play later in the game that I ended up getting, getting flagged. He basically got hands to the face.
His helmet was completely ripped off and he is still just absolutely driving the defensive line back, uh, seeing his progression from the tech game, where there were a lot of problems with the snap and blocking says this to where, like he's really established himself as the center. I'm, I'm happy to see his hard work paying off. Don't know what that mix is gonna look like, going into the Arkansas state game because Chris Adams did have that, that rough injury. we were right behind the ODU bench.
I saw him getting air casted and, and carted off. He just, you hate to see that. Cause I thought he played so well at right tackle, especially as, as a freshman coming in and playing a really key spot. But you know, talking about the offense, move in the ball when we were there in the stands, it felt like the offense wasn't moving, but kind of on the rewatch and looking at the. Four of our first six drives actually ended in UVA territory.
One of 'em being that touchdown before halftime, it was like we could get to the UVA 40 and then it just kind of broke down from there. If you wanna look at the first drive at the game, I thought we did some things we haven't done in the past. Ran a good bit of double tight, had some guard pulls and some creative runs. we had a handoff to kind of sweep to Spencer that did pretty well.
I, then we had one later the page, I feel like we were trying to open up that defense a little bit, especially on that first drive. It ends in UVA territory. We have a fourth and two, I like the call there to be aggressive and go for it. If you look at that drive, we've really been pushing UVA back fourth and two, really like one and a. Sims was in at, at running back, got stuffed. And it didn't work out, but I actually like that call to be aggressive.
It's just early in the game and pretty deep into UVA territory.
You beat me. Gary cuz I was just gonna ask you guys what you thought about that play, early on. Do you take those points and put something on the board? Get a early, quick win. But obviously we know Gary you liked the call there, Mike. I'd be interested in what you thought.
Well, hindsight is 2020 vision, right?
Okay. What, what were you, what, what were you thinking.
I always take the points. I, I like the idea. I like the aggressiveness. He's putting faith in his offense and offensive line. I like all of that stuff, but for team that has not scored consistently this season. You take the points.
Right after that play. They come up with a pretty big running play right after where there's two or three tackles that we miss and they bust off a pretty significant run. Um, kind of just slips the momentum. If I, if I'm remembering this correctly from being in the stands.
Yeah. I mean, UVA moved the ball down the field. After that drive, you know, they, they took over at their own 23. That was actually the start of UVA's first touchdown drive. They had the big. 38 yard run. Amor Morrison also got hurt on that drive kind of on the ODU sideline there. And first play after he came out, they immediately ran at, at his spot, and ended up, you know, getting in for a touchdown for their, their first one of the day.
Well, Aaron, what are your thoughts on the situation? What do you.
Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I mean, in that situation, it's a zero, zero game. The defense had come up with a stop before I probably take the points, but that's why I'm not coaching either. I'm a fan and not a coach. Like you said, hindsight's always 2020. But there was a flip of momentum and UVA went straight down. The first play was, Was significant. They went down, they got their, the seven zero and, you know, we never lead again. Well, we never led, but you know what I'm saying?
We did, we did, we did lead
That's true. You're right for,
40 seconds.
we did. And we were pretty hyped during, during that time. My voice is still trying to recover or. But, uh, I should say we're playing from behind. Like, we have so much of this season so far, which has allowed us to see how much fight this team has. The team, always knows that they're still in this game and they're gonna fight to the last second, but I look forward to, the first opportunity where they can really, put the pedal down and, exert their will on the opponent.
Yeah. And, you know, following up the. V touchdown ODU again, moved the ball pretty well. They moved into UVA territory. Unfortunately had to, to punt from the, the UVA 47, but they were able to pin UVA back. I mean, they took over at their own four. It was a three play drive. They only got five yards and punted again. UN unfortunately, you know, we, we had that great field position that we had established with Ethan Duane, pinning them deep at the four.
Punt goes, and it's just kind of a weird play on the punt. It, it wasn't really a must punt. It hit one of the blockers in the back near the sideline. I mean, you know, nine times outta 10, that ball probably bounces out of bounds. It doesn't get covered.
But that was, that was just a, kind of a tough, bad break for us because UVA was then essentially able to continue that drive, defense stood up, they went back out there, they played well and held them to, to just a field goal instead of letting them get. But that was kind of a, a rough sequence early in the game to put us down in a 10, nothing.
All right. So Wolf, I thought he made some really good progress this game. He was a lot more consistent, obviously, his movement in the pocket still. he's still got those slow feet or lack of movement that we could, we, we all all want to see him move better, but throwing wise and his decision making was pretty good yesterday. Nothing really glaring that you could say he needs to do this better or that better other than maybe moving in the pocket a little bit. And Kos finally.
Gets open and makes some plays this week. Awesome. To see Ali continues to be a badass. I don't know.
Yeah, I kind of talked about it last week. This could be a good game for Zach KU to break out based on how UVA had defended tied ends before ends up a six receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown. he was still getting a lot of attention. From that defense, but they had to kind of break it up a little bit and cover Ali and Ali helped free him up. And then Zach freed up Ali a little bit. Ali had a great game as well. Seven catch. 97 yards in a touchdown. Ali ran some amazing routes on Saturday.
I mean, just clean, crisp in the right spot, right time. The corner is still dropping back and he breaks off his route and runs it out. I thought that, that he was fantastic. We ran the ball quite well, too. I mean, we had to run it a lot and we knew we were gonna run it a lot, but I mean, Blake Watson getting 20 plus carries. You know, just under 8 79 yards of, of yards on the ground is, is, is pretty awesome. But yeah, this was a nice breakout game for Zach.
Yeah. So they ran the ball a couple times, a couple sweeps, which were successful. I think one for maybe nine or 10 yards, another one for like six yards, but it really kind of gave a different look. I was surprised that we didn't see another one. I think they were both in the first half if I remember correctly, but we didn't see that again.
Yeah, that's that's Spencer and Paige one were pretty close to each.
Yeah.
Yeah, we, we saw that in the first half. And a lot of that was outta that double tight. Where you can pull that opposite side tied in and along with either a guard or a tackle to go. And it, it opened up quite a lot. RI Sims gas carries out of the backfield as well. I thought he, he was, was pretty strong a few times. He got the ball in his hands with five yards or five carries and 17 yards. but we really went away from that in the second half.
I mean, most of our running plays were, were kind of that zone read right up the middle. I wanna point to the first drive coming out of halftime. We had a lot of momentum there. Ali makes that insane catch on a great pass from Hayden Wolf, right in front of our section where we were sitting. We're pumped. It's basically it's 10, seven going into halftime. ODU offense drives down the field. They, they get some good yardage. They're out near midfield, third and seven inside handoff, up the middle.
And it, it gets stuff UVA knew that was coming. They had eight in the box and I think they're gonna be about 10 UV jerseys around Blake Watson when, when he was getting tackled there. That was a tough one to. I don't know, kinda watching it, you think, and knowing our offense is an RPO type offense, or there's a lot of option for the quarterback to hand it off, to keep it and run, to keep it in pass.
You know, someone brought up a really good point to me, last night, you know, what, if that option is not actually there, that that is a straight handoff and Hayden doesn't have. The ability or permission, if you want to call it to take that ball back and run. And I look at that play specifically, because if you go back and watch that there is not a UVA player on that side of the field, on that play. So, you know, if Hayden is reading the defensive end, the defensive ends biting the linebacker.
Our one receiver on that side is running a slant to drop the corner in the safety goes side of the field. If he has that option, I have to feel like he would keep that if he had it. But I don't know. I, I don't know. I think that would be a great question for one of our members of the media to ask Ricky in a, in a press conference this week to see if Hayden has that run pass option.
Yeah, absolutely agree. Cuz that's the one thing that people keep wondering, obviously he fake the hand off to Blake quite a bit, and then you see him standing there. The field is wide open or you see him handed off to, and Blake runs in his wall and if he keeps it, there's nothing in front of him, but green grass. So I, that talk that talk, you must have had, it sounds like that person knew what they were talking about. That doesn't seem like something you just think up.
Yeah. It, it, it does make you kind of question if that is in place. Were a lot of opportunities for Hayden to take off for huge chunk plays and you know, it, Hayden does need to run a 4, 3 40. But I, I think with our offense, if he does have that option to keep and run, even if he gets three yards and falls down, that is a benefit for our off points that opens our offense up because it makes that defensive end hesitate a little bit.
Or if it's an outside linebacker makes him hesitate a little bit, but you watch, you know, in that second half, anytime that we were in any kind of run. The UVA defense was all over. I mean the offensive line, there's only five of 'em. And if you're blitzing eight, you can't block all eight. Especially when you know, you don't have to account for the quarterback as a run threat in the offense. That's one less weapon you have.
It makes running the ball harder, passing the ball harder, makes it a harder job for the offense line. So I, I, I would love to know the answer to that question. If Hayden has the ability to keep and run, I, I know there's, you know, potential injury concerns, all of those. But if you look at the other side of the ball and see what Brenda Armstrong was able to do, he killed us with his feet.
He ended up with 14 carries in 76 yards, and some of those carries were really important and important key points of the game. And I just feel like we are missing that in our offense right now, that additional weapon that could really open everything.
It only takes a couple times a game because you are absolutely right. The UVA offenders didn't even look at 'em. I mean, if you're watching, it's it's almost like, Hey, you don't number 11. Don't. Even if he's not throwing the ball, he, he doesn't have it, you know, type
other there's one other thing I'd like the media to ask about, and that would be, what did they see on the field that made that screen to Zach? Like a good play call?
Are you, you talking about the one, on the last offensive drive of the game. So I re-watching that, I actually think that was a pretty good play call at the time. I. What in the world are you're doing? I was screaming at the field. I fully admit that, but watching it, he was in single man coverage with, Langston their, their safety. He comes in motion and you see that its straight man coverage, Langston follows him.
If you look at the field, when you kind of zoom back on that Langston makes an incredible play to tackle Zach right? As he catches that ball, if he doesn't make that tackle or he gets chipped by someone, Zach has six because our two receivers pushing those corners in that safety down the field, there's a ton of turf. So at the time in the stands I was pulling my
Well, it wasn't just you, we were looking at each other yelling, but like you said, when you go back and you watch. You obviously were able to see a much different angle, much more global picture what was going on.
Yeah. I mean, Langs and long made a great play on that. But, Zach Koons got him back, for that touchdown path. He had a pretty little double move. That really just broke his ankles and Zach was able to get to the pylon for a touchdown, but, you know, I Lang and long played a fantastic game in the
yeah, I was about to say I heard my last name a lot during the game and I've never been so angry. he was fantastic.
Yeah. He was all over the field and I mean, they had him on Koons. They had him on Ali. And basically wherever he wasn't, that's who they were thrown to. You have to give the UVA defense credit. They were a dumpster fire last year. They looked much better against. O today much better than they did against Illinois, which they kind of got run through the ringer against Illinois. Cause their offense couldn't do anything, but they, they made some big plays. They schemed against us.
I thought something interesting that UVA did that is different. From what east Carolina, Virginia tech did. They were more willing to only rush four or maybe five. Instead of, you know, east Carolina and tech, they were crashing the middle and trying to go after us. They tried that early and it wasn't successful. I know one of the stacks that that came on for Hayden was actually a coverage stack.
We only had three wide receivers out and somehow they all ended up within five yards of each other in the middle of the field and UVA had it blanketed. They did a pretty good job in coverage. We just had Holly and Koons are just difficult to cover. Like Ali is a special player that we are lucky to have at ODU.
So a couple minutes ago, you guys were talking about how Armstrong just killed us running the ball. Our defense did come up really big on one of those scrambles. Robert Kennedy laid a nice hit on him. Dislodge the ball and Trey Hawkins came up. That was a, that was a huge play, in the second half to really give us a shot in winning this game.
Yeah. the defense, they were kind of bend, but don't break. I. Three red zone. Turnovers is huge. Ryan Henry had a massive strip sack in that game too. He came in Armstrong, didn't see him popped and ball came out. We recovered it. It ended up giving up over 500 yards of offense to UVA. But not that many points. That's that's, you know, I, I think that that happens a little bit in the style of, of defense that we. When we brought pressure, Armstrong was awful.
He couldn't get the ball out in time. He didn't have anywhere to run, but when we brought four or five, he was able to make throws down fields. There were some place where he was baking the cake back there. but also he did a really good job of when that pocket started collapsing to step up, take off and run. That added weapon of his feet really hurt us a lot, especially on third.
All right, fell. So is there anything else in this game that you think we need to highlight?
Yeah. I mean, I do wanna talk a little bit more about the defense. I mean, the been the don't break mentality, they weren't out on the field nearly as long as they were against east Carolina. but early in the game, We did not tackle very well. We had a lot of MIS tackles that broke some bigger plays, especially with, with their running back Xavier brown. I mean, he had nine carries for 90 yards and a lot of those, you know, were, were yards after first contact.
we kind of buckled down a little bit later in the game, but really a lot of missed tackles. We, we put some spies on B and Armstrong, they just, and they were in. They just didn't make the tackle. So there were a lot of these drives that got extended, just by, by miss tackles. And Armstrong is really elusive. He's fast, he's deceptively fast. So you know, it, it's not an easy task for me to say like, oh, just, you know, just go tackle the guy. Like it's, it's really difficult.
but a lot of those plays from Armstrong extended. The drives for us and eventually led to points. So I, you know, great job of the defense to, to limiting their time and the zone. And they only had one touchdown in, in the game and that's fantastic. but we really gotta buckle down on those fundamentals of, of tackling. I think that would help us quite a bit, but we, we had some guys that were out on some place too. And Morgan Morris got hurt early in the game. Terry Jones got hurt.
He did come back. Thankfully, Jason Henderson went out for a little while. I know he had, he, I think he was getting an IV is what they said on the broadcast. so we had to mix in a lot of guys there, but if we can tackle a little bit better and kind of clean up those fundamentals, the defense is gonna look even better, than, than what they did, against G.
So looking at the numbers. Jason with another 12 tackles. I believe he's now number two in the country in tackles, which we all know he's been playing great, but that puts it into a totally different light. I think he was three coming into this week. So now he is two.
He's incredible. He flies to the ball. He. Tackles. He probably shouldn't have, to be honest, as we move in the conference play, I would actually like to see his number of tackles go down and number of tackles from the defensive line. Go. UVA did a good job of kind of neutralizing our front four, especially when a Mor Morrison went out. we really weren't getting pressure fast enough with those front four.
I mean, they're working hard, but you know, they're outnumbered four to one and sometimes there's a running back back there to get two gets through, but I would like to see more tackles. From our defensive line and put a little bit less of that burden on Henderson and Henry, you know, our safety tag quality tackles in that game two and the running backs were getting into the second level. So it would, it would be nice to, you know, let, let Jason Henderson take a break.
Maybe only get 10 tackles a game, bud. Like let's the defensive line. Get a, get a few.
One thing that. You guys might not think is a big deal, but it really stuck in my CRA was that miss face mask, Hayden takes a sack. I think it's the first drive in the fourth quarter. So third and 15, He gets pulled down. It's pretty easy to see. I mean, we saw it from the complete opposite end of the, the field, but somehow the officials miss it. The announcers calling the game on the TV were amazed that it was missed on the field, but I think that's a significant play.
I think it's still a ten seven game, we're forced to punt there from, pretty deep in our own territory instead of getting 15 yards and having a first and.
And that was the first drive of the fourth quarter, where they missed that. And, you know, there was a sack on the play. It was third and four. It should have been a first down. It was a pretty clear face mask. But, you know, you're not gonna get, you're not gonna get all the calls, unfortunately. It's weird. It, it, it used to be that the away team had their conference reps. At those games, but these were ACC officials.
And I think we've seen that a couple times this year and I've noticed it in some games but not others. So I think it's kind of weird that that dynamic has changed a little bit. I do wanna give a shout out to the replay official. He had his work cut out for him, but, he ended up making a lot of really good calls and replay review.
Yeah, he was, I don't know how many reviews we had. It seemed like a lot, but every single one of them overturned changed.
Yeah, he was a busy.
but yeah, thankful for him. Otherwise we might not have had a chance to, to win that.
I mean, there were some missed spots. You know, Ali Jennings had a first down that they had marked short. There were. You know, Tom Brady tuck rule calls that that came into play a few other things, but I, I think they got the calls, right. Whether it was forced or against us, you know, looking, especially on, on second watch, like the replay review got those, those calls. Right. There were some, some interesting stoppages of play, especially in the second half.
I'm not one to, you know, go accuse. The other side of some gamemanship involving injuries. Cuz I would hope that any head coach of an FBS program would never instruct their players to go down.
But man, there must have been some, some snakes or some ice out there on that field about 10 to 15 seconds when we were in some, hurry up with some good momentum cuz had some guys slip and fall, but, but thankfully they all popped up very quickly, were able to run off to the sideline for one play and were right back in the.
It was a banana peel. I saw it on the field.
With Mario cart.
Yes.
Yeah, that seems to be a bigger problem in culture, this time of year, but every year it gets worse, a little bit worse.
Yeah. I think they're supposed to be, be cracking down on that, but before we kind of wrap up The breakdown and then throw the UVA game in the trash can and move on. Denzel Lowry had a great sack in this game. It was great to see him get some time on the defensive line. It was a great stunt call up front with the defensive line. He kind of came in on delayed blitz and just absolutely blasted Armstrong. and then, Ethan, Dwayne probably had to ice his leg a little bit afterwards.
He had eight punt averaged, 41.4 yards had three inside the 20. I thought he did a great job of flipping the field for us. and I'm excited cuz I, I, read that his. Parents are actually gonna be able to come see him play for the first time for the Arkansas state game and the Liberty game. So pump that his family gets to come and see him play. That's it's been a tough journey for him the last two years, you know, being kind of stuck here, not able to go home.
I know his parents watched the games from, from a bar, but, you know, having his parents in the crowd be a pretty cool thing. So, if you, you happen to run into any Aussies in the stands, make sure you shake their hands and, and say, thank.
All right. So we move on from UVA. This week, we got Arkansas state. The lines are out and ODU is finally favored in a game. The spread is three and a half points or opens at three and a half points over. Under what 50 is it? 57 and a half, or is it 51 and a.
It was 57 and a half when I saw it, which I think is, hi.
It's 57 sorry. Or no, it's 57 now. It's it opened at 57 and a half?
Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a big number. I think some of our friends that don't live in Virginia May have, jumped on that 57 in a hook.
Yeah, the smart ones did, I know they're experts on action like that under a lot. All right. So what do we know about Arkansas state, other than they're led by Butch Jones, the creator of the brick by brick mentality, the champions of the life. One of the best recruiters in the country that just happens to have questionable calls during the games and development.
We gonna wind Mike up and let him go.
Well, you know, he did such a great job at Tennessee that they played him for several years after he was no longer, no longer coaching there, entered the, the Saban rehab program. but you know, they're, they're a team that is kind of on the upswing. They were two and 10 last year. They're one in seven seven in the Sunbelt. they're a lot better. Interesting. They've got 17 of the 44 guys on their two deep are transfers, and most of them are coming from power fives.
They have 27 total transfers on the team. And again, most of them are from power fives. one and two coming into this game. They beat Lin. They, they, they beat the breaks off of, as, as you show with an FCS school, lost to Ohio state. They hung in there with Ohio state early in the game. kind of hard to get a, a read on their stats, just looking at rambling state and Ohio state. But they had a game against Memphis, yesterday, lost it. I think it was like 12 is what they ended up dropping it by.
Defensively, they depth chart. And I think their base is a four, three, but I saw a ton of 3, 3, 5 in that game. Which I, I think is good news for us in our running game at 3 35, it can be a little bit confusing cuz you don't know where that second level pressure is coming from. Typically there is a fourth person coming in, pretty much every play to, to put pressure, but we should be able to run pretty well against that should be able to defend against it. They gave up 547 yards to, to Memphis.
Memphis threw all over 'em 360 in the air, 187 on the ground on 45, Carrie. Memphis was five for 13 on third down, which doesn't bode well for some of our third down numbers. But they did give up three of their five, fourth down opportunities. It was a close game, really the whole way. Memphis got two touchdowns, in the fourth quarter. Really? It was kind of a, a crazy game. I mean, there were no points in the third and then just erupted in the fourth quarter there. They're gonna be tough.
They're gonna be looking for their first Sunbelt win, just like we are. I think they're kind. In a similar situation to us in that this is a litmus test game for them. Like they play rambling, they played Ohio state, like Memphis is kind of co kind of tough. They're not a power five. But I think similar to us, we're, we're kind of looking like this is a measuring stick game of where we are, where we're gonna be going forward. And we would feel a lot better about our bowl.
Chances if we're two and two after this game. And one and three, I know.
Yeah. Just looking at their offensive game plan. I mean they're early balanced. They threw the ball 34 times. They ran it 32 times. So I would imagine that's probably what they're gonna try to do. They're trying to stay balanced Memphis. On the other hand, they, they rushed the ball 45 times and only threw it 28. I mean, I think if, if Ricky and our staff had their choice, if we could be effective, we'd run the ball that much too, you know, vice passing.
So it'll be interesting to see if, if we really try to establish the run early and if it's successful, if we end up not quite so balanced, offensive tech, just like Memphis did
So I don't want to get hung up on Butch Jones too long, but, and I know we're talking about the Arkansas state team, looking at the roster, they got most freshmen in the country. They look a lot like we did last year. An even more crazier amount. Like they didn't have a COVID year to blame it all. They just went nuts with the portal, but Butch Jones, I want to remind everyone that he had the worst sideline gimmick of any coach in college history.
So we all know about the turnover chain, stuff like that. Right.
Yep.
foot Jones unveils, the Tennessee trash can. He, he gets checkerboard on it. It says team 1 21 on it. And it symbolized that season. So well, so well who picks a trash can. I mean, come on guys. Same
I've, I've, I've seen a lot of, a lot of interesting celebrations in football, baseball, but I mean, the, the, the trash can, I think once that rolled out, you kind of knew that, that it was gonna be curtains there, for Butch. But, I mean, he's in Arkansas state now. Hopefully they don't have a celebratory trashcan. If they do, I'm gonna do everything I can to hop down for my section and go make sure that it is a staple somewhere in, in Largemont.
Um, yeah, but, uh, defensively for Arkansas state Carucci and striker at their linebacker position, those are their two leading tacklers. Those are the guys that get a lot done that linebacker core anchors their. they've got a pretty solid defensive end and GERS. He's a Louisville transfer. He's got one and a half S there's starters out there. You see a lot of guys at power, five experience. They've got a couple guys from Tennessee. They've got Purdue, they've got Louisville.
You see 'em all over the place. You look at the offensive side of the ball and then their quarterback is James Blackman. He started at FSU. It was kind of a dumpster fire when he was down there with all the coaching stuff going on. But he's been pretty solid at, at Arkansas state. I mean, against Memphis, he was 25 for 34, 2 75, 2 touchdowns. No interceptions has not thrown an interception this season, including against a really good Ohio state defense. He's gonna protect the.
He's really not been much of a runner. He hasn't run the ball much this year. He didn't run it much last year when he did it was for negative yardage. So I think we will enjoy not seeing someone of the likes of a Holten AERs or Brennan Armstrong, but just because he hasn't run in the past doesn't mean they won't target that as an option against our defense because of how susceptible our defense has been to a quarterback that can break out the pocket on a running.
Offense is kind of similar to ours. It's an RPO concept, lot of 31 and 22 packages. They use a good bit of motion, to kind of, I guess, test the defense. See if they're in man or zone. They're not gonna see much movement for us, cuz we're usually in, in some kind of zone. And of double-headed monster running back, Johnny Lang from Iowa state Brian Sneed, who was originally at Ohio state and went to Austin P and did pretty. Out of the receiver position champ. Flemings the Oregon state transfer.
Surprise, surprise power, five transfer. He's their leading receiver right now. He is smaller. He's more like an Isaiah page. He's smaller. He thinks five, six. Got great speed. And then, tray O is there tight in, he has two touchdowns. He's, he's a six, four version of Zach Kos. Those are their, their kind of offensive weapons. Not nearly as scary as the six, seven monster that we faced at UVA and WIC.
And then, Thompson who is number 99 for UVA, who really lit us up and stretched the field, those types of weapons aren't there. But that by way means that this is gonna be an easy task for a defense because they can definitely move the football down the field.
So looking at Arkansas state over the last two years, they have a grand total of three wins. Two are against FCS opponents. the other is against Louisiana. But if you look at their scores, they played a lot of those teams. Tough. So, I mean, they lose a one possession game to Memphis last year, Tulsa, Georgia, Southern Louisiana, who was the, the Sunbelt west champs and the eventual. Right.
Yep.
App blows them out. South Alabama, blow 'em out. The Georgia state, another close game, Texas state, another close game. If that team learns to turn the edge, it could be pretty good, but who knows?
Yeah, let's not let that edge be this week.
yeah, they did have what? I don't know. I just, they remind me of us if we had not learned how to win last.
Well, hopefully they continue to remind you of us in the first seven games last year and take a big L on Saturday.
Looking further ESPN's F P their football power index is predicting them to win at a 53.7% rate. So, there should be a good one. I hope it's not, but it, it should be.
Yeah, I, hope we're relaxing in the second half, but, you know, based on our games so far this year, we haven't really had that. I, I know that the team will be working really hard this week. They'll be looking at a lot of film, correcting a lot of things. If you look back to last year, we were one and two to start the season last year, I feel a lot better about this one and two than I did the one and two last year, because we've played.
Two really good teams and, and one team that, that seems to be starting to turn it around. Once again, we're going up against a quarterback. That's kind of proven himself to be pretty solid. I mean, you don't start at FSU unless you you've got some skill to second year in this offense with Butch Jones and their offensive coordinator. I mean, it's, it's gonna be tough. Like we we've talked about this on every episode of this podcast, there are no easy wins. Like sure.
They were two in 10 last year, but they have a boatload of power, five talent. And they've got one more game together, and their one more game experience playing together. And I promise you that they're hungry to win. Like they didn't go to Arkansas state to go two and 10 again this year. Like they, they wanna win. They wanna go to a bowl, they wanna improve their draft stock. Like it's, it's gonna be another tough game for us. I just hope that we are also getting better. I know that.
Coaching staff really prides themselves on that one and no mentality and getting better week to week. And I hope they have a good week of practice. We, we finally got bit by the injury bug a little bit for the first time this season. So there's gonna be some shake up. We're gonna be banged up after games against tech, east Carolina and UVA. Uh, but so far we've been able to bring guys in off the bench that have kept the talent level up that have kept a motor up and have played pretty.
So, um, you know, it can be another, another time for the do, but I'm, I'm hoping to see some, some second string guys playing some lax, uh, play here late, late in the fourth quarter.
I think that's a Testament to how the off season went and conditioning program and all the practice. Is, there are a lot of guys that can step right in. And I think that's, what's gonna happen this week. I think guys are gonna be ready. They're gonna be hungry. And I think we're gonna have a good week. I think it's gonna be, I don't know, bounce back week is right where to say, because we were within less than a minute of winning that game at UVA. I think it's gonna be a good game.
I think things are gonna get back on track here.
I will add that. It looks like they've traveled quite a bit of miles this year. I mean, you had, Memphis is a cross town game for them essentially, but, or down the state game, it's, it's pretty close. But that trip to Ohio state is not a short one. And this trip to Norfolk is not a short one. So if there's any edge, that one will, could be a, a factor though. This being a night game, maybe that's not as much of a fair.
Well, we all know that college football is nutty. I mean, one Sunday ago we were thinking that the Sunbelt was gonna be getting a team into the playoffs because they were beating the breaks off of every power, five team in the country. It felt like. And then Marshall drops one to bowling green, Georgia state somehow loses to Charlotte. Louisiana loses to rice. App state needs a crazy hail Mary to beat Troy. Things can change on a, on a dime in college football.
So, you know, I think we thought last week that there's no way we beat a Sunbelt team because they had just crushed all these teams on the road. And now it's like, all right, maybe that loosens up a little bit, or, you know, worst case everyone's gonna get fired up on it. But, all thing we can do is just look at Arkansas. Prep the best that we can improve from what we learned from UVA and, and hope we pull out a nice win in Norfolk on Saturday.
All right. Sorry. I thought Aaron was gonna there.
we got the thumbs up.
Yeah.
This point. Do we wanna do a prediction?
see my prediction, my prediction was so bad last week, 34 to 10 ODU. I mean, not, not even, not even close.
Well, I jumped on, I jumped on your blowout train too, so I'm not looking any
I mean, I could go back to saying that we're gonna win on a 50 yard field goal by Ethan Sanchez.
don't think we would kick it.
I, I hope, I hope we don't. I hope he just has like about five or six extra points.
That'd be ideal. it does look like they give up a lot of points in yards, but again, it's tough, tough to say with who they've played.
And I do think that we're gonna try to run the ball a ton, which will obviously expedite the game. If we're running.
Oh, it's it's clear. Our mentality is we have a very good defense. we're trying to shorten the game, minimize mistakes, ball control kind of game that's. That's kind of what we are right now. And if that trend continues. it's gonna be a low scoring game.
We definitely did that against UVA and time of possession was pretty balanced. UVA had it for 33 32. We had it for 26, 28. So we were able to keep our defense. Little bit more fresh. I would love to swing, see that swing back in our favor with, with that time of possession of plays, but we only had 11 offensive drives against UVA, which is a pretty low number considering that you had the ball for 26 minutes. It really just took the air out of the ball and, and tried to run some clock.
I, I would love, you know, if, if you really look at, when we ran, hurry up offense against UVA, like truly a hurry. It was the last drive before halftime and the touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, things were clicking. We had UVA on their heels. They were had, um, uh, we'll just call it, quickly resolved cramping issues, with some of their players. but it, in that hurry up tempo mode it's it seems like our offense excelled there. We did it against these Carolina scores.
The downside of that is obviously we're scoring quickly. Our defense is gonna be on the field more so it's. Double edged sword kind of mentality. They're like, I don't, I don't know what the best option is.
So I would just like our offense to find balance, be able to score on a 12 play drive and if we need to score on a Fourplay drive, but finding that balance and being able to, to drive the ball down the field and score, get across midfield and continue driving to the end zone, like finding that balance. And that's, it's something that takes time. We do have a new offensive coordinator who. Younger than all three of us that are on this call.
And I promise you, I would be doing a much worse job if I was calling place for ODU. so hopefully with that experience, finding some balance, seeing continued great place in the offensive line will help us.
I'll add, Aidan also led a really nice drive against Virginia tech as well. He's pretty much for, for this year on two minute drives. Right.
Yeah. I mean, he threw some pretty balls on Saturday, the touchdown pass to Ali. there was an, really like gutsy call. You want to look at a gutsy call at UVA? We've got, I think it was like a third and 15 or something on that touchdown drive at the end of the game. We're on like our 22 and we could have punted. There was two and a half minutes left. We had two timeouts. We could have punted, let the defense come out, make us stop and get the ball back.
But we went for it and he threw a beautiful pass on an out route to, to Zach Koons who came outta the inside slot Koons made a great catch. Great pass on the money. Offensive line protection was great. We get that first down and the offense starts rolling. Like it was that play that just got everything going. And that was a gutsy gutsy play call that if it doesn't.
He I'm sure that he is getting blasted because people look at the result and, and not what was actually happening there, but that was a gutsy play call backed up in our own end zone. And it worked and we scored a touchdown. We took the lead and you know, this just did not work out there on that, that final drive for UVA.
And that jump. All the Kus was, was fantastic.
Yeah. I mean, he, he threw some great passes. He had some time to make some passes downfield a couple times where he took those S. He ate the sack instead of having a throw that would get picked off, like when they're dropping those seven coverage, like they've got some pretty good DBS. We were only really sending three guys out. you give Hayden time and, and he can throw the ball and they gave him time and he did, he certainly missed some throws. He certainly miss some reads.
We don't know if he's allowed to run or not. So I, I, I'm not gonna bury him for, for not running until I know that he has that. But we've also proven this year that we can score in a hurry when we need to. And that's a great weapon to have as we get in the conference.
Absolutely. Especially with this defense, this defense is gonna give us a chance to win. I think every game this year, so being able to score late in a close game is gonna be crucial.
Giving them enough time to get a rest on the sideline where they're not out there, 40 minutes a game.
All right. So there's one other thing I wanna talk about, about the Arkansas state game. Our group has a contest. If you go on Twitter or Facebook, you can enter by liking our page, liking the tweet or post. And combating with a picture of you and ODU gear. If you do all those things, you will be entered to win a tailgate package. That includes a blue lot pass beer, garden passes, and then two tickets to the Arkansas state game. You want to give this out by Wednesday?
So please enter, um, we're calling it a monarchist experience. So if you go on Twitter, you search. Please enter. We want to give this experience away. The people that wanted a tech loved it. And, um, I'm excited to see who our winners are this week.
Yeah. I don't know where we're cooking at the tailgate yet. I don't wanna cook any red wolves that's for sure. But maybe, some of Arkansas's finest cuisine will be fired up. They've got some good barbecue out there
We'll figure it out in the next two days. We'll have a menu published later in the week.
and fun, fun, random fact. I was born in Arkansas. Never lived there. But I was born in the fantastic state of Arkansas.
Okay. I have to ask the question. If you were born in Arkansas, you did live there for some period of time.
No. So my parents lived in Oklahoma right across the border, and they had two options. When it was time for me to enter the world, they could take a curvy road. It was a little bit dangerous and had me born in Oklahoma where they could hop on interstate 40 and go across the border, into Arkansas. they, you know, they chose poorly and they went into Arkansas and I have an Arkansas birth certificate.
Very interesting. Also one show on Netflix that everyone loves Ozark. Isn't that Arkansas? Or is it on the Missouri or is it on the Missouri side?
Miss you say Missouri Missouri's arc?
I think it's on the Missouri side, but I mean, it's basically the same. They're just on the other side of the water from each.
All right, fellas. Well, thank you for joining us. Do you guys add any parting works?
Just tune in. In the middle of the week, Wednesday, we'll have another one where we're gonna have Cara Richie, who does a lot of stuff with, Arkansas state. If you just go to Twitter and you look up Cara Richie, you'll see all the great stuff she does. It'll be a great opportunity for us to learn even more about Arkansas state.
Yeah, cause we're, we're clinging. We, we don't have much other than what Gary knows.
oh, see, that's my birthright. Cause I was born there. No, I would just say, you know, get, get over to SB Ballard. We only had six home games. It it's six Saturdays come enjoy the experience. There's a good fan experience there. The tailgate experience is great. We've got a nice new stadium. Like come have some fun, try to enjoy yourself, good chance we get a win this weekend. I'm not gonna predict anything.
Come out and support these guys, cuz I promise you that they are working hard 24 7. and they appreciate that fan support.
Thanks to all the tech fans who bought season tickets in many plans, there are a lot of cheap seats available and stuff up. So you really have no excuse not to make it out there this weekend.
Come out and make a lot of noise with us, help make, ODU a really tough environment for people coming in to play against us.
Yeah, I'm actually gonna be going into enemy territory on Thursday, up to Blacksburg Ford, Virginia tech, West Virginia. So I will be sure to thank them all for their contributions to our season ticket purchases. And, if I can pick up any free OD tickets for the rest of the season, I certainly will.
All right. Well that does it for us. Go monarchs.
Go monarchs.
Go monarchs.
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