Hi, this is Kara Richie and you are listening to the monarchist.
podcast
Monarch nation. After the Arkansas state game, we have a victory Sunday for the monarchist. All right. ODU wins 29, 26. How are we feeling boys? It's me, Mike. Aaron and Gary are on the call How are we feeling guys?
I'm feeling really good, but my voice really sucks. I screamed too much last night. When people listen to the Hudson interview, we just did. They're gonna think that I'm like a 12 year old boy or something, but it feels good.
Yeah, I think we're all a little bit hoarse, a little bit tired from, uh, from the game on Saturday, but definitely feels a lot better coming off of a win especially a nice comeback win there in the second half to put us two and two. And you don't want to know in the Sunbelt all time wanna know. So, feeling, feeling really good today, even if, I need. Some hot tea with some bourbon and a good night's sleep.
All right. So this was really a tale, two Hals. We had the first half and we had the amazing second half, in the first half. What are your takeaways?
Yeah. I mean, first half often struggled a lot. A lot of factors there, probably one of the more important ones is Blake Watson was not available for this game. Kind of really bringing that running back room down to, I think about three active running backs. Watson being out definitely hurts also their starting field position. In the first half, they had six drives. They're starting yards. They were on the 25, the eight, the 13 to 7 25 and the 22. So they were really in a hole, to get started.
Defensively though. I mean, they were on the field a long, long time and kept us in that game early and really shut down what Arkansas state wanted to do. But you know, offensively, it had some, some shades of the Virginia game where we did move the ball a little bit. We opened up the first drive with actually three straight passes. They weren't completed unfortunately, but we kind of got away from that. Let's just run the ball and, and, you know, try to get to a third Nate or something.
Second drive ended up getting down the field, had to miss field goal there, unfortunately, but, really just offense was, was stuck in neutral when they were able to get across mid.
So that fuel goal, I. Really good about that. Miss that was a 48 yarder with a lot of room despair pushed. Right. To me, I, I would get worried with you're going deep kicks and you start seeing that duck hook or the power slice. We didn't see that we saw a push. He just pushed it a little. Right. But the leg is definitely there. What I took away from that fuel goal.
Yeah, and I mean, freshman kicker, he is gonna miss kicks. I thought he was still solid on, on point. Afters didn't seem too rattled by it. That's a, it's a long field goal, especially going down to the open side of the field. It's tough to, to see the miss, but I like the way we moved the ball on that drive, even if it didn't result in any.
I agree. Yeah. I'm not worried, about 'em at all. And I like the call by coach. I mean, you gotta try to take the points there. It was the right thing to do. Didn't work out, but eight outta 10 times you come away with points and you're off to a good start.
I ran into John CLICO at halftime. And I said, how, how about that miss kick? He, he. He liked it. A lot said we kind of shared the same thoughts. And then he said, just watch out for this kid. By the time he's a senior, he's gonna be a monster. So, pretty cool to hear that All right, Gary. So is there, is there a certain drive you'd like to break down?
Yeah, I really just wanna keep looking at, at those drives in the first half, after the, the missed field. We were able to, to get the ball back. After that we got a nice stop. But unfortunately we were pinned back and, and started that drive deep in our own territory. Had two penalties. One of 'em being a hold in the end zone for a safety to put them up, two to nothing. There actually we started that drive on, on the seven. So that really kind of opened things up a little bit for Arkansas.
They were able to get a touchdown on their next drive to make it nine to nothing. Offensively, I kind of liked some of the things we did with getting Isaiah page involved, especially in motion from the backfield. When we had some success on those plays, he was able to get four or five, six yards. It kind of loosened up that defense a little bit. We continued to use that motion action behind the line of scrimmage to pull a safety or pull a linebacker out of that, that front, that was there.
So I thought we did a good job of at least trying to loosen up a little bit and not just running up the middle on every play, defensively. We did some, some pretty creative things with the zone blitz scheme to drop some defensive linemen, almost back into the second level and let Ryan Henry and Jason Henderson go eat. it, it showed up in the stats column. You know, Jason Henderson, a school record, 21 tackles Ryan Henry had 12.
You know, your two linebackers on the field combining for 33 tackles is it's a big load for them to carry, but they did a great job. They were, they were flying all over the place. Jason Henderson kind of seems like Roy Kent. You know, he is here. He is there. He is every F and where that's all I can think about watching him run around all night.
And Henry was punishing dude yesterday. He had some big hits.
Had a little bit of a, a scooping slam, I think there with Terry and later in the game. Um, but wanna, wanna talk a little bit about our fifth drive of the game? It was a little bit before halftime. Got Paige involved early again on, on some first down, through the ball. So it's Jordan Bly. We got into a third and two. We kind of called that read option, play up the middle. It was the slow mesh point.
The handoff was made on the third and two, Arkansas state had seven in the box and they all just crashed up the middle. Fourth and two, basically the same play call, same play design, again, slow in the mesh point. Arkansas state sent eight that time and stuff. It ended up being a turnover on downs. Really kind of, kind of hurt us there. Especially kind of where we were at that point in the game.
Cause I believe that, the next drive is when Arkansas state got the field goal to make it 12 to nothing. So a little bit of a, a deflating moment there. You know, I, I pose the question during the game. There's kind of two scenarios. It's one Hayden isn't allowed to keep on those read options. That's bad because you know, that's slowing down that mesh point, lighting the defense crash in, or scenario two. He's just not keeping, which is also bad, cuz it slows down the mesh point.
Lets the defense crash. Either way, if, if there's not gonna be a QB keeper option on those, we need to get away from that styled handoff, because all it's doing is just slowing down the action and letting the defense crash in, they were not set up to protect any kind of QB runs. We did go away from that in the second half, which I was very, very happy to see.
But on that fifth drive, when we did get some, some movement got onto the other side of the field, Not being able to convert a third and two and a fourth and two really kind of took the air out of the ball a little bit there towards the end of the first half. So another key play there in the, the first half was the roughing, the punter call that would've gotten the defense off the field. It was really close to being a block punt.
I mean, we're talking an inch or two off the fingertips, and then Sherry Hawkins kind of crashed into the punter at that point. If he tips that ball, it is no longer a penalty. You can blow that punter up. If you block the punt. So it was close. I mean, it was finger fingertip away. I thought that was a pretty big play. And then Arkansas state's last offensive drive of the first half. They end up getting a field goal out of it.
Uh, kind of the, the trend we've seen from the defense Arkansas state had a third and 17. We rushed just three and kind of dropped back. Arkansas state was able to get 11 to make it, a fourth and. Fourth and sixth comes up. Arkansas state goes for it. They're able to convert and eventually get into position, to kick the field goal. I will say a fun highlight from that drive.
If you want to go back on ESPN plus and watch it, they tried to throw the ball basically into the end zone to buy his Harris head coverage and kind of gave a nice over the board's hockey hit to the, Arkansas state receiver, sent him over top of the boards and out feed up in the. So it's a nice little Tobi, his hair as highlight thought he had a really good game. But the trend we've seen is that third and like 12.
We really just kind of drop eight in coverage and we've been eaten up on it, even if they don't get a first down on that play, they set themselves up for the, the fourth and short and last night, you know, defense held Arkansas state to four of 16 on third down conversions, but they were two for three on fourth downs. And that really hurt us, not being able to get that defense off the field.
Cause I don't remember the exact time of possession, but our defense was out there, I think for about two thirds of the.
So I had it right. Arkansas state time, possession 38 minutes, 16 seconds, ODU time possession, 21 minutes and 44 seconds.
Yeah, we gotta figure out a way to get that a lot more balanced. Our defense is playing so well, but as the competition ramps up, they've gotta be completely fresh and being on the field for, you know, two thirds of the game.
being on the field for 38 minutes a game, you're gonna get beat up. You're gonna get beat up in a regular season, no matter what. But being on the field for 38 minutes game, that is just gonna happen faster. And, as Gary noted during the game to me was we had some guys injured on the defensive line that weren't playing last night. And you could notice that difference early in the game. And luckily some guys stepped up and played really well.
A guy like DevApps had a, I mean, he's been great all season, but he had an amazing game last night.
Well, what. Happening when you're on the field that much too, you end up having guys get 21 tackles. It's awesome that Jason said a record with 21 tackles, but I don't want, 'em getting 21 tackles. And that means we're out there a lot,
well, I mean, that's kind of how our defense is set up. The old ODU defense, it was always a safety that was leading the way with tackles. So I'll take the linebacker leading the way that.
I don't mind him leading. I just don't want 'em to have 21.
All only three were solo. A lot of those were team tackles that he was helping finish.
Fair enough.
Yeah. And some of that was by design where some of those defensive linemen were dropping back a little bit. The second level, we were able to get some, some really great penetration and, you know, Jason Henderson, Ryan Henry are right there at the line of scrimmage making those. But those tackles add up like Jason, Henderson's a tough dude. He's nursing. I'm sure. A couple of injuries right now. I mean, it's nothing else.
Just bumps and bruises and you know, it, it's some, some violent collisions. We know Mor Morrison was out. We don't know if he will be back anytime soon. We don't know the extent of that injury. I have a couple other guys that are just banged up. We were able to rotate, I think, seven or eight defensive linemen in, I don't think I saw Stevie Williams the whole night. I'm not sure why he was out, but you know, that's a nice presence to have there in that line backing core.
And I think that's why you saw Henderson and Henry get, get some more snaps there. We're almost a victim of our offensive success in a way there two, if you look at our touchdown drives this season, we only have one touchdown drive that was more than 10 plays. And that was the second touchdown against UVA. We went 11 plays in 80 yards against tech. We had one that was nine plays, 74 yards. East Carolina. I mean, it was just score, score, score. I think it was two and four and five play drives.
And then Saturday night we scored six plays 78, 2 for 75 and four for 29. So we really haven't had those long sustained drives and being able to grind out the clock like we had last year with Blake Watson getting 20, 25, Carrie. So it, it's kind of a double edged sword. Like you, you need to score points. And the only way to score points is if you go quickly and score fast, but at the same time, that's throwing your defense out there over and over. I mean, 38 minutes on the field.
We haven't won a time possession battle this season, and it hadn't even been close.
Not having Blake out there last night, it's obviously a tough situation, but the silver lining on that is the other guy stepped up and they got, quite a few carries and some good experience. And hopefully that will pay dividends in us going forward in being able to lay the foundation for some of those more sustained drives to help the defense not be on the field quite so much.
Yeah, I would, say that was a really good game for OB Sai to gain some, learning experiences for the future. He had eight carries. I think he had one reception. So we always see Ws on the field, but Sonia getting that much volume is a good thing in a win. If it was a loss, we did be a little bit of a different story, but with the win I'm comfortable with, well, be getting that experience.
Yeah. And, and Keisha and w I thought played really well. Especially in the second half, we were able to loosen up that defense a little bit. He did a great job of being patient, working into space, breaking tackles. He busted off one run for about 15 yards. He's, he's got a lot of, of special ability there. And I think him getting more and more carries is just gonna benefit us moving forward. You know, especially if Watson may not be healthy or he may just need a break.
If we, we kind of figure out this running attack.
All right. So halftime score was 12. Zip
Correct.
final score was 29, 26. Are you ready to dive into the second half and all the beauty of it?
Absolutely.
All right. Second half starts out with a six place 78 yard touchdown from the monarchs. We started that drive out with actually a loss for five yards with a run to fly.
It wasn't, a great way to, to start off that drive by. I think if you wanna point to one play that ignited the offense. It's that third and 11 play, KU ran kind of a, a deep drag across the field. Made the catch. He was dragging two defenders, about nine yards down the field, got the first down. It was a 34 yard gain. And that changed just the whole attitude on the sideline. Everybody was reengaged. And then right after that, the big pass to Ali.
Well, but even before I'll leave, we have a 12 yard run from w which, what happens when you start passing ball. Run lanes open up and got a good one for 12 yards getting us down to the 33, which sets up that big pass to Ollie on the one, which we all thought was a touchdown and then called back. I think it was the right call guy in the booth. Did a good job there.
Yeah, it was a good call. I think it's the second time he's, had a touchdown taken away from that was right down there. One against tech. So he should have two more, more touchdown passe. But he did a great job on a nice double move there passes right on the money from Hayden. We gotta figure out how to do that in, in the first half and get things rolling. We've been so slow outta the gate in the first half.
It's almost like Hayden needs that big play to come from Ali or POS or something early, just to get that momentum. Cuz he, he looked like a different quarterback after that passed the.
So it's, it's now 12, seven. And Arkansas state hits right back with the three play 75 yard drive. Moving it to 19 to seven.
Yeah, and I mean, that was just a, a great pass by Blackman. A great catch by Freeman. I thought Tobias Harris had about the best possible coverage that you could have on a receiver. I mean, he was painted to the front of his Jersey, just a, a great play. Um, but that kind of. I think woke the crowd up a little bit to think, all right, we're gonna slug Fest. Now. This is not gonna be a knockdown grinding kind of game. We're we're gonna see some shots.
All right. So now we're at 19 seven ODU punches back, bringing it to 1914 after a beautiful two play 75 yard drive, which all of it pretty much comes on a pass to Ali from Hayden 77 yards.
I went back and watched this today. Beautiful double move by Ollie. The corner completely bit in the safety was on the other side of the field. Ollie actually got horse collar, tackled around like the four and still drug it into the end zone. I mean you just, you need to add something else to his draft package. There you go. Just dragon defenders.
I'm not quite sure how the officials missed that. I mean, we saw that from the 25 yard line of the opposite end of the field. I don't know. You guys had a different view from across the field from me too. Was it clear to you guys?
it was very obvious. So next four drives for both teams combined. We exchange punts then comes the interception. The beautiful, beautiful. I it's, everyone loves a big fat guy touchdown, and nothing better than Devon bras running it. How, how long did, how far did he have to run? Was it like 15 yards?
yard interception.
Yeah,
that's that's the second time that the DV Harris has done that he did that against the, against FIU last year. I think it was a 39 yard interception return for a touchdown. I mean, just, just awesome. The, the pressure on that play was incredible. Marcus Haynes was coming from one side, crushing, black and in the backfield, Chris Kane also had good pressure. They basically just Penred in from the outside and he threw it there.
And, and DV looked like he had, from the replacements, had all that Stickum on his hands, cuz the ball went up and just stuck. And he almost like surprised for about a 10th of a second. And then he was off and running. I think Terry Johnson had. Quite a block on that play if you go back and watch it too. The thick six as we call it definitely got the, got everything fired up and, and gave us our first lead.
All right. So Arkansas state response with a long 11 play 80 yard drive. Bringing the score to 26 to 21, black men extended that drive quite a few times with his feet, did a pretty good job for overall, in my opinion. And then AJ Mayer also came in. That was when they started cycling in Ajer and getting runs with him. Number
had heard about him when we talked to Kara Richie, she had mentioned him he was a real deal carrying the ball. I mean, I had shades of Thomas DeMarco, just knifing through defenses. I don't know if we saw him throw the ball one time though.
He didn't come up on the sta sheet at all with any,
No. And it, they, the first time that they tried, that was the play before the DV Harris pick. And I think it's kind of the old saying, if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks. I thought they had moved the ball pretty well with, with black men all night. I don't know why they decided to go to that, but that drive it paid off. We have really struggled to stop running quarterbacks this year. We faced some good ones, but we have a hard time containing.
We have a hard time spying, running quarterbacks have, have killed us this season and we saw it on display. Later in that second half, when it became pretty apparent that when he was in the game, it was gonna be some sort of read option. We just started sending eight. Basically we did to, to Arkansas state what they were doing to us when they knew we were running. And we started getting some stops that way, but he is athletic. He's elusive, and he's a strong runner.
I, I remember telling you why don't we just stack the box whenever he's on the field. It's obviously he's not gonna throw. And, we did so, and I think it was end up being a crucial point in the game. All right. So this score touchdown, we punt, and then they fumble, that fumble was huge. Sets up a short touchdown drive for ODU, which eventually ends up being the game winning touchdown.
That was kind of the start of the point of the game, where we started sending a lot of guys from the secondary to blitz, Terry Jones forced that fumble Biby recovered. We really started getting creative on the defensive side of the ball. Cause you can only blitz those linebackers so many times before they can't move their legs anymore. So seeing, you know, Terry getting back there on some blitzes, Terry Jones and they had a pretty clutch, double safety blitz towards the end of the game.
All right. So the game winning touchdown drive, we're gonna go play by play here starts out, Isaiah. Run for five yards. Second play Rhonda OB for two yards. Third, play Hayden incomplete fourth, play Hayden incomplete, but they throw a PI, on the, the corner covering Harvey, huge play. Arkansas state responds by calling a timeout first play after the time out. Zach Coon's touchdown pass. I, I still can't believe he made it in there.
I thought he was gonna fall, but, but what a run by Zach there.
Yeah. Talk about maintaining balance after he got. And just staying in, keeping the awareness of where he was on the field, getting his momentum turned back up the field and then making the dive to the pylon to get in there. It was pretty awesome.
Yeah, our receivers have done a good job this year of winning the position battle on corners, especially on fourth down, I think we've had four, four downs converted by drawing past interference. Some are pretty obvious, you know, Ali getting tackled toward the end of that Virginia game, because he was gonna get open, but Harvey did a good job of getting position on the corner corner, looks up for the ball and basically just runs him right over easy call. B Koons.
I mean, the, the nimble giant going down the sideline there breaking tackles that happened right there in front of our section and we were pretty pumped up. And then we go for two on this play, and this is probably one of my favorite play calls of the game. And yes, it was a run up the middle. You all can be mad about it all you want. Big Sal pulled from right tackle on that play and came inside.
And I, I don't know who number 21 is for Arkansas state, but he has gotta be in an ice bath because Sal absolutely leveled him and easy run into the end zone. After that Koons also pulled and had a big block. Using that tackle pull to open up the middle in an obvious running situation was huge and want to give a shout out to, to big sell. And also just the, the rest of the offensive line from Saturday. They were, they were back to the big nasty machine again.
All right. So after that, we're up 29, 26. There's still a lot of time left. There's over six minutes left on the clock. Next drive from Arkansas state is an eight play 21 yard drive that ends up turnover on downs. ODU takes it over. We run a few times, run a minute of clock off. So Arkansas state has the ball with a minute left and they're only down three.
They had every chance to tie it up or even take the lead at this point, but we put the, put the game in the defense's hands and they do not let us. Fantastic drive by the defense on that final drive. They were everywhere, especially Terry Johnson with that big tackle for loss. I love this defense.
Defense ends up with seven acks Gary. You maybe, you know, I do not. Is that, is that a record for, to you seven sacks in the.
I haven't seen anyone report it as a record. I know we had some games where we had quite a few, but it, it it's gotta be close. You're gonna get a lot of facts when the other team's throwing that many times. And I think they ran 83 or 84 plays. But the, the play on that drive that really ended it, like you could. You saw Butch Jones on the sideline screaming at James Blackman to get up, but he just got popped by Terry Johnson on a beautiful double safety blitz.
Like we, we kind of went away from what we did at the end of the UVA game that let them come down the field and get that game winning field goal. We didn't drop eight in coverage. We didn't drop seven in coverage. We brought six. And we brought him from places that they hadn't really seen blitzes from and got right back there. James blacken did not wanna get up. He didn't wanna run another play. He did it didn't go well, we win the game.
I think Butch Jones popped a couple more veins in the head. It was so impressive to see that defense go back out there. One more time, make huge plays to win that game.
Well, who didn't, what Jones yell at. He was losing his mind all game down right in front of you guys.
Well, I, I think that those Sunbelt refs got worn out from both sides of the field, coming out of halftime. I know Ricky was chewing their ear from the tunnel back to the sideline, on the, the, just the horrible spot. I think, Arkansas state had like a third and 17. They broke a run to the outside. They spot him in at like the 32, when he had really run out about 27. Ricky just stood on the spot and screamed at the referees throughout the entire review.
He was really animated in that second half, probably more than I've seen from him in a game before, except for maybe the second half of Buffalo, which this game felt a lot like in a, in a lot of ways. He was also the first time that I've seen coach Ronnie pull out a whiteboard and draw something up for the office on the sideline as well.
It happened more in front of where you were on, on that side of the stadium, Aaron, but had a couple people tell me about it, but he really brought some extra energy for this one. He talked about it a little bit in his postgame press conference of, of bringing that energy and getting a little bit more animated than his own will kind of even keel self. And, the players responded.
All fells. So we had an awesome game. Defense came strong from the kickoff to the very end offense comes together in the second half and puts together an awesome second half. Are there any players you individually, recognize.
Yeah, I've got two, Xavier black in the locker room. Postgame getting awarded the scholar. It's been a lot of fun watching him develop over the first four games. I thought he played his best game of the season. Last night. I mean, he was shoving guys around all over the place, calling protection, pretty cool video and info coming out post game that, he is now on, on scholarships. So very happy for, for him and his family.
I know they've, they've been, been working hard, to get him, get him to that point. So happy for him. The other person I wanna shout out is Ethan D. The, the amazing Oxy punter that we have now, that was the first time that his family has been in attendance. He's had a, a tough road at ODU with basically getting to campus COVID happening, not being able to go home. Team really rallied around him. I know Hayden and Hayden's family stepped up for him in a big way.
So did the staff, but to have them there and then also for him to have just an incredible game, last night, really that, that punt that he had towards the end, that pin. Arkansas state back within their own five was, was huge in helping out the defense. Also he had a, a, a punt that kind of blew my mind. He was standing at the ODU 20 and he punted it and it got fielded at the Arkansas state. 11 as the receiver was kind of backpedaling, almost fell down.
We, we didn't tackle real well into getting 14 yards, but that was an absolute bomb of a. So very happy for him to, to put on a great performance and have his family there waiting for him after the game.
And my shoutout is gonna be to the running back crew. So Blake was out of the game. So some guys had to step up, you know, it doesn't show up in the stats only. Officially 74 yards gained, but there were some big runs at big times. We've talked about 'em a little bit already, but a lot of guys that don't have a lot of experience, game time experience that came in and did what they needed to do when they needed to do it and made a big impact on the game.
And mine is gonna go to Ryan Henry. I have a lot of fun watching that guy hit people. three and half. He has, 12 tackles, five are solo, one sack, three and a half tackles for loss. He was, and he had a, a cubie hurry as well. He was a lot of fun to watch last night.
Yeah, he was, terrifying some people in the Arkansas state backfield. That was, that was fun. And yeah, he's he can, can take some people's heads off. It's fun to.
Hey, one other person I wanna shout out, and this is not gonna show up in the, stats either. It's both as a gutsy call by the coaches and then being in the right place and being physical and making things happen was Jovan Harvey fighting for position to get that PI call, that was a big PI call and. He didn't let the, the defender take advantage of his position. He held ground and got that call. And that was a really big.
All right, PHS. And before we go, I'm gonna just note Ali Jennings. He's number two in the country and yards right now. So between him and, Jason Henderson leading the, the country ins, we got two monarchs who could really make a name for him themselves this year, I believe already have. But now the focus we're on Liberty. Who knows when this game will be played and what the weather's gonna be like?
I have a feeling it's probably gonna stay on Saturday and it's gonna just be a sloppy mess, but I'm, I'm really excited about this game and what the opportunities lie ahead for us. Liberty's taken our lunch money the last few times out and it's time to exact some more revenge. What are your thoughts on this Liberty team, Gary?
Saw the, the line come out just a little while ago. Old, Dominion's gonna be a two point underdog at least to start. There's just a lot of unknowns with Liberty. They ended up having to start their third string quarterback on Saturday against Akron. It was Jonathan Bennett. Wasn't great. 13 for twenty seven, a hundred fifty two yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He actually got benched on their last touchdown drive of the game for a quarterback who did not attempt to.
More of a, a running style, kind of what we saw that, that alternate look from Arkansas state, that line could move drastically. Charlie brewer, is, is questionable, for Liberty. Obviously he's coming from, from power five. He's a, a strong passer. He got hurt. First game of the season. Caden Salter, has been their quarterback since brewer went out. He has a growing injury, unknown. If he's gonna play on Saturday, Salter could be a nightmare for Odus defense. He's their second leading rusher.
He's got 216 yards on the ground and two touchdowns and basically two and a half games passing wise completes 55% of his pass. His four touchdowns, three interceptions. So not, not a big passer, but definitely strong with his feet can create plays. And that has given us fits this season. Not quite Liberty that we saw last year that was ranked and, and just looked like world beat. They've lost some guys on that team, but they still have a boatload of talent, a boatload of transfer talent.
They're gonna be well coached. It's gonna be, Hey, if you haven't heard this before, it's gonna be a tough game coming up for us on Saturday.
Yeah. That's the song of the season for 2022, huh?
Yeah. What would you guys say? A, sloppy, wet field who does that favor?
The team went to running quarterback.
Yeah, I, I would agree. I think the team with the best running game is gonna win. Um, luckily we play on an artificial surface that drains really well. So it's not gonna be as bad if, as you know, if we were on a natural surface, but. Liberty has a great running back. Dayday. He went for one 18 and a touchdown on Saturday against Akron. He had a lot of carries his three touchdowns on the season. He's he's a really dynamic runner.
And if you've got a running quarterback paired with that, they're really hard to stop in the back field. Defensively. You know, liberties runs a similar defense. What we saw UVA run kind of some three, four looks some kind of weird 4, 2, 5, sometimes as well. You're gonna see a lot of different fronts there. They have two great defensive ends, trace Sean Clark and, Darrell Johnson. They've got combined six and a half stacks. They have 13 S as a team.
They've got some, some beef on the outside ends of those defensive lines that we're gonna have to, account for. And one kind. Interesting stat from, from looking at Liberty, they've scored 40% of their points in the fourth quarter. This season.
So to me that tells me that running game is wearing down the defense. And they're finally able to take advantage of that and blow up in the fourth quarter.
Yeah.
be without looking. That would be what I would guess is happening.
Yeah, that, that's what you've seen. A lot of, you've also seen a lot of nice comebacks in the fourth quarter, pointing to the wake forest game. They were a two point conversion away from being wake forest and being undefeated right now. And you know, wake forest went to over time with Clemson. They're they're a good team Liberty, just, they they've been winning the last couple years. They have that win winning mindset of like, we can go make plays at the. The way I feel about OD right now.
Like if we need a touchdown drive with a minute 30 to go, I feel confident that we can go get it. One kind of other person to watch for I'm sure. When you, you talk to Liberty's beat rider this week, they'll talk about Damario Douglas. Not a big guy, 5 8, 1 70. He's from Dubal shout out to the Jas for the win today. He's got four touchdown receptions this year, 20 catches for 312 yards. He's accounted for four of their six receiving touchdowns this season. So, he is he's super fast.
He's elusive. He'll get away from me real fast. He is someone that we're gonna have to account for in that defensive aside from, you know, possibly Salter coming back and hunter out of the, the backfield.
So I want to make one note. I might regret making this note, but we have a now six game home winning streak. Ricky has eight wins in his career at ODU. Six of them are at home. Clearly we're a better team under Ricky at home. So that that's at least one benefit. This is a home game, tough opponent, but I like that we're in Norfolk for this one.
Anything's better than going to Lynchburg and not being able to tailgate on a dry campus. So I'll definitely take the game in Norfolk, ODU fans and get your ponchos. Hopefully this game is still played on Saturday. But yeah. Get your poncho show up. Get loud. You could tell that defense was feeding off the crowd that was there on Norfolk, especially late in the game. All the guys putting their hands up on third down, getting loud.
They're they're gonna need it cuz I promise you they're gonna be a lot of Liberty fans buying Virginia tech season tickets on StubHub for, you know, 10 bucks there. Yeah.
plus plus $7 in fees. Hey, but the good news is I think the football field is the best draining spot in the entire city of Norfolk. So if you can make it into the stadium, you'll be all right.
The stands might be the only dry spot in that area. We'll see about the blue lot, you know, half that's underwater, someone flushes the toilet twice in a row. So. That might be the one dry spot for you to go to. But, hopefully that, that hurricane tropical storm will, will steer clear of us. Cuz you know, if it comes down to a running battle, we, we haven't performed well there this season. One fun note for you. Their field goal kicker is just four for nine this season.
So if there's maybe a last minute kick that needs to be made on a wet field, you know, Liberty probably doesn't want their kicker trotting out there for a 40, 45 yard.
So, I looked on stuff up, you get tickets for as cheap as $8 for this game.
That including fees?
No that's pre fees. A lot of tickets are about 11 bucks. Our section Gary is the apparently according to StubHub, the most popular section sales wise in the whole stadium for this game. So hopefully we have a packed blown on seven this time around,
It can't be a coincidence. It has to be because of you guys.
I think so. I mean, we're rowdy. We get loud. We get the other people involved. I mean, we had randoms hugging us after the game. It was, it was awesome. Also Jeff Jones, the basketball team. So I don't know, man. It's a good section.
Yeah. We, uh, we had a lot of fun over there on Saturday. I think we ended up on the broadcast a couple times. At some point I'm wearing, sunglasses. I shouldn't be wearing, but, we'll avoid that point.
Well between your outfit, Gary and Mike's mustache, you make for good TV
It stands out.
Have her own sitcom there.
Yeah. All right. So we did pretty well, not doing a prediction last week. I think we need to stick with that.
and having our celebratory pre-game fireball shot this week, which we didn't have before.
I made sure we had that this time around and we want, so we gotta do firewall. We might have to be at a bar somewhere instead of tailgating if the weather's that bad, but
I bring my water. A snorkel. You can just pour it right down there. We'll be, we'll be in good shape, but yeah, not, yes. Oh no, not
I might be taking my kayak to the game this time around.
They get a bike ride that you can lock it up to over.
just bring along rope in case that goes, the water level goes up.
I got paddle boards. If you guys ride with.
Oh, awesome. Yeah. I. I agree though. No prediction. But one thing I will say is that if Saltar starts, the defense is gonna have to find another gear on stopping or running quarterback. Cause if Salter's in there and he gets going with his feet, it could be a long day. We'll see who starts, I mean, growing injuries typically take a couple weeks to get fully, right. Cuz you don't know what they're like until you get out there and start running. So we'll, we'll see what they bring.
We'll see what the field is like. But as we saw with college football, this. Crazy stuff happens. It's been happening all season long. So suit 'em up, put your helmet on, go out there, hit somebody and we'll see what happens.
Groin injuries and wet fields don't tend to work well together
Well, I would also caution you guys to think, oh, does he have a rope injury or were they just kinda given a week off? So he prepare for a tougher opponent. That's also a possibility.
Yeah, he did come out, I think a couple times against wake. So I think there is something there could have been a precaution though, for sure. I think we're very likely to see Blake Watson back in the lineup on Saturday. But we'll see, you know, who else kind of emerges after, a tough game it's Arkansas state. Like we've been really lucky on injuries until the UVA game, lost Chris, Chris Adams, Maureen Morrison have the other guys that are banged.
But if we can get through Liberty, if we come out of that three and two, we go into a bi-week let some guys get healthy. And then we kind of jump right into the teeth of the Sunbelt schedule, which, who knows this guy, Wal thought app state was the best team in the Sunbelt. And then they blew a Falcon style, blew a 28, 3 lead to JMU. So it'd be interesting.
And Marshall beach, Notre Dame. And then they've had a couple. Yeah, it. Weird. It's a weird.
Also south Alabama is increasingly looking really.
Yes there. That's gonna be another tough row game at the end of the season for us. So we should try to get to six wins before we have to make that nasty road trip of app state in south Alabama, the Marshall, Last few losses. I blame those on, you know, go hers, please. Don't die on Twitter for saying that the only team they were worried about on the rest of their schedule is JNU after the Notre Dame game, you know, gotta watch out for bowling green and, a good Troy team. Troy's a good team.
They're probably the best team in the west right now
Yeah. Still shocked that U LM beat Louisiana, but what a year in the Sunbelt,
for raging review. Guys feel, feel for them after that one, after, being so dominant last.
and I think the biggest shocker the weekend had to be. Well, that halftime turnaround for JMU was great, but the MTSU like
Smoke in Miami.
after what, how they've played this season is just, I don't understand college football and the more I watch it, the less I understand that is one. I was like, there's no way. I mean, I did put money on MTSU on the spread, but I didn't expect them to win.
It's like someone is shaken up a magic eight ball every week and just it's crazy.
It's it's wild to watch. And, coach Seiler I'm sure was happy. getting out that game and watching, K state finish off Oklahoma again, the 4 25 defense that K state still runs is, is a beast for a reason.
I'm sorry, trying to hold it together. Aaron's video is glitching and all he's doing is this over and over and over again.
oh bet. We can have some public Photoshop. Yeah. We we'll Photoshop something else in there.
Aaron. It was glitching for like one minute of you just doing that over and over again.
well, thank God. This is an audio podcast, not a video.
Also, I told you guys the Raiders lose. You guys should have put money on that way. My teams go three and oh, every weekend. It's I?
Yeah, they're they're touchdown at the end, broke my perfect early game streak, but I, I guess I can forgive him for that. I, I sent you all the, what that ticket looked like when it got cashed today. So
All fell. Well, I think this is a good place to, you can chop all that stuff off.
What this part,
All of
you weren't shopping, buddy.
all of that discussion from you. Uh, shake Paul.
shaking the aid ball. All right. I'll see how it comes out.
Alright, fells. We have no idea when this game will be played. It's supposed to be Saturday at six. I hope it is. I'd much prefer that to a Thursday game. Cause I, I don't think anyone's gonna ask off early on a Thursday to get out on time and I would be worried about how empty Ballard would be if we're playing on Thursday. So hopefully I see you guys on Saturday in Aus Ballard stadium in the rain and I can't wait, go
Me go monarchs.
Go Monarch.
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