Hi, this is Basketball Hall of Famer, Nancy Lieberman, and you're listening to the Monarchist.
podcast
Hey, mon, our nation. Welcome back to the World's greatest ODU podcast. I'm Mike Langston, joined here with by Aaron Linsky and Gary Williams. Welcome guys.
What's up man?
Going on boys. Good to see y'all.
How are your bi weeks?
Oh man. Pretty good. I've been in the great state of Texas since Monday. I don't fly back until tomorrow. Out here for work a little bit and got spent some time with the family. very happy that I did not go to the OU Texas game on Saturday, coming from a family of OU fans cuz that was just a pure, obnoxious beat down, but got some briskets and tacos and have fun at Roadhouse Junior last night.
We had a week full of recording podcasts and releasing a mic. So it was nice to take a couple days at the end of the week to reflect and, get some feedback from people who have enjoyed the podcast, uh, Hudson earlier in the week. And of course, Deisha Milton Jones for basketball. And then Nancy Lieberman rounding. Last week was awesome. And then the family and I took off to the Blue Ridge Mountains this weekend and just had some nice time away and kind of disconnected the devices a little bit.
And now we're back because, Oh, do you use back next week, baby?
And you all have dropped some Kick Ass podcast this week. If you have not checked them out, you need to, There's some pretty important news dropping in that Nancy Lieberman one, and just, just quality across the board. And, make sure you check out the YouTube video for your Visual Hudson content of the week.
Appreciate that Gary. So me and Lauren celebrated our 10th anniversary and we had to hit up these spot LA Grand for our awesome anniversary.
Fancy Big Mac.
Fancy Big Mac and she got a brilliant short rib over, Stonehouse grits. It was pretty awesome and cut up on some yard work, other stuff, and watched a lot of football. So since ODU was busy, recovering and getting healthy and preparing for coast, A lot of Sunbelt games we could talk about this week, and let's talk about them first. So first up, Georgia Southern heads to Atlanta and loses the Georgia State.
I did not see this coming after Georgia State struggles early on, but Georgia State, handled that game for the beginning of the end.
Well, we've talked about a few times that we've thought all season long that Georgia State was gonna be a good squad and they were gonna kind of be the dark horse and potentially take, take charge of the east, but they came outta the gate and kind of struggled a little bit, but they came alive this week.
Yeah, I mean all, all out myself here. I figured if App State didn't win our division, it was gonna be Georgia State. doesn't really look like either one will. I mean, we're only a couple games into the Sunbelt schedule and I, I don't think the rules in college football matter anymore in terms of like what you did last week versus what happens this week. We saw that with a and m Bama. You saw it just across the board.
I mean, Appalachian State when we get to that in a minute, but it, it really is not a, a bad to have the one to no mindset because, I mean, just go out in the field and roll the dice, see what.
Well, you mentioned it. App State goes to Texas and comes back with a loss. Losing 36 to 24. It was, I think it was 24. Nothing at halftime, which was the, a shock, kind of refocuses everyone's energy on How good is this app State team? they were good enough to go into College Station to win, but they have not looked like that team since.
Not since the second half of that, you know, the game against the team, I'm not gonna say their name right now.
I mean, it just, it just kind of wild. You kind of have to wonder too, how much wear and tear is on app date after playing that brutal schedule. and then you, you have the longest road trip in on your, your calendar going all the way out to. To, to Texas, the San Marcos and play that game. But they, they just look like they got ambushed. They couldn't do anything. Right. you know, I think Texas State's first score was a big, interception.
and just, I mean, they, they got their doors blown off and, you know, it may refocus them or they may kind of continue the tailspin. They've been in for a little.
Next up a battle in the west. Southern Miss goes to Troy and loses. 27 to 10. Troy continues to show defensive dominance. looking ahead to that USA Roy game as the, the West Championship, pretty much.
Have three wins in a row by Troy. They're looking strong. I think they're gonna challenge South Alabama there both two really good teams.
Mean, Troy's a hail Mary away from being three and o in the Sunbelt with five and one overall, you, you probably have them ranked, if they're in that scenario. Cuz I, I don't think that southern myth is as bad as people have thought they were in the past. They've kind of, they're figuring some things out down there, and they could be a problem. but, you know, at this point in the season, I think it's two weeks from now, Troy in South Alabama are playing.
That's probably the best head to head Sunbelt matchup that we've had so far. This.
All right. Next up, the team, Aaron, does not wanna say out loud, went to Arkansas and took care of business, against the red Wolfs jamu winning 42 to 20. this game was closer than the score suggest, but ultimately Jammu was able to pull away and. Leave the Victor and now they are ranked 25 in the AP poll. Pretty impress.
it is. And sent was surgical. they played a really good game. It was a much closer game than the score, at least for the first half, you know, and a little bit more. But then ultimately they just kind of steamrolled 'em to the end. They, they, they kind of, Beat down Arkansas State a little bit, and finally they just, I won't say they tapped out, but they asserted their dominance against them.
And you could see towards the end some of those plays with like the tight ends on the sidelines where a state really just didn't have any fight left in them. I think. I think it all turned when that ball went into the water feature and then it was all downhill from.
Well, one score game after three quarters ends up a 22 point victory.
I mean, jme with almost 600 yards of total offense. I mean, that's a, that's a good way to beat down the defense of your opponent. Cento 28 for 37. 3 94. Four touchdowns. They're running back at 158 yards. Rushing on 21 carries for two touchdowns. I, I kind of envy JM US ability to finish a football game with the ball in the offensive hand. Arkansas State may have, may have given up on it, may have submitted, but they were forced to submit with that offensive attack from jmu.
well we know similar in a way to what we saw from Arkansas State when we played him, where they kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter, and we were able to take advantage of a lot of things. To put up 21 points in the fourth quarter and pull away on the road. pretty, pretty impressive, as painful as that is for me to.
Yeah, Blackman showed his legs a lot more in that game. I was watching it and he looked good and mobile, but ultimately, I mean, jam, you just kept bringing pressure and kept hitting him. It kept hitting him, and it just ended up being way too much.
Well, I'll say this, looking at the numbers, they only give up 20 rushing yards total, I'm guessing with the sacks and all that. But that they've been great against the run all season long, and this is showing a trend. we can talk later about their schedule and whether this is fool's gold or not, but let's go to the last game of. Coastal goes to Monroe and does something that's very hard to do. I've learned this, that Monroe is a very difficult place to win and coastal wins.
28, 21 in a close one. Monroe had a chance to win late and couldn't do it, but coastal moves to six and out.
And, you know, interesting game Coastal had 433 yards of total offense. but 323 of those came in the first. Coastal's defense made two four down red zone stops in the second half. They also forced two fumbles. it kind of seemed like Ulm figured out some way to stop them offensively. The coastal defense kind of saves the day there. And, you know, obviously we're gonna look forward to our game against coastal here in a little bit. But, Coastal had 13 penalties for 130 yards.
So, my, my preemptive players of the game for ODU Coastal will be the Sunbelt officials going for the record for number of penalties and penalty yardage if they're calling that on us. In that liberty game and then coastal getting, you know, 13 for one 30, interesting outcome there. But coastal deepen kinda stays the day there in the second.
They really did. I think they have seven or eight tackles for losses. So they, they were tough. I mean, Monroe. Held mcca and checked, and he had about 250 yards passing one touchdown. So, he's what makes that whole squad go and they really kind of bottled him up, hit about 40 yards rushing. So nothing that, nothing earth shattering a defense really won him that game.
I'll say this. they're up 20 feet, 14 and a half. There are position in the second. Three, three play, seven, play punt, three, play three play, nine play. So they only had two of their five drives in the second half that weren't three. and the two drives that weren't, one only went for 30 yards, the other one went for 50. But, their defense did a good, good enough job to not let Yom come all the way.
Yeah, and I, I actually watched a little bit of, of that game earlier today, and it seemed like Ulm came out in the second half. They did a good job of containing McCall in the pocket. In blitzing, basically putting more guys out there than they could block. And it made it really, really difficult for him and, and their offense to move the ball. but you know, as we've seen from coastal all year, they don't win flashy. They don't win fun, but they find a way and they win. And they're six enough.
Most wild thing about this game to is Monroe quarterback was for touchdowns quarter, and if you the second to last. They tried to run it over and over and over again. When your quarterback is 27 30 on the game, why are you running the ball?
Yeah, well, When you watch Coastal's Defense and you watch Old Dominions defense, they're similar in a lot of ways. They're kind of that bend, but don't break mentality for the most part. I mean, they're, they're allowing 64% of passes to be completed, which is 95th nationally. you can complete passes on them, but they're gonna be shortened underneath.
All right, so now we have Coastal at 29 and the eight people JMU at 25. say what you want about that and their schedules. That's a great thing for the Sunbelt. And provides a lot of opportunity for a team like Old Dominion who is unbeaten in conference play.
Yeah, kind of talking about good for the, the conference I was. Myself somewhat rooting for Texas a and m last night to come back and beat Bama because that would pump up a lot of things for the Sunbelt. They couldn't get it done. hard to believe that that a and m team that was won in complete pass away from beating Bama really got dominated at home by App State. but looking at coastal, They're really good on the offensive side.
you can question their schedule, I think as much as you can question maybe JMU and some other ones. I think Buffalo is probably their best win now with Buffalo being three and oh in the Mac. but they are seventh and yards per play, which is fifth. Nationally, they're converting 50% of their third downs, which is 12. Nationally, they're averaging about 480 yards a game, which is 14th nationally. They're really good on the offensive side, and I think it all runs through Mcca.
I mean, He, he is their, their lifeblood. They've got a whole page devoted to him on their athletic site for his Heisman campaign, and well deserved. I mean, he is far and away the best player on their team, and he is, I mean, my opinion, probably the best quarterback in the Sunbelt that we're gonna go face on Saturday.
Well, you just mentioned third downs and being really good on third downs. That's something I'm gonna be looking forward for us on defense, and we've gotta come up big on third downs and be able to get off the field a little bit more consistently that we have throughout the season.
So I wanna give a shout out to CJ Beasley. He's a Norfolk kid and he had a fantastic game yesterday. 15 carries 115 yards. he's, he's got a pretty good year this year. 524 yards on the season and six games. I'm not sure if he's been the starter all season, but he's having a fantastic year and he gets a shot, gets his hometown team next.
They really have a two-headed monster back there with CJ Beasley and Reese White. both of 'em are averaging over 80 yards per game. They're combined for five rushing touchdowns. they, they've, they don't run the ball a ton. they're, they're passionate about 60% of the time, but when they do. They are, are very effective with running. and they're getting, you know, 5.7 yards per carry, which is nice nationally, about 219 yards per game, which is 15th nationally.
So they really exemplify the use the pass to open the run. and then, you know, you look at the passing side of the ball, they're 9.7 yards for pass, which is six in the country. it, it's pretty, pretty tough sweating on that. Often. The side of the ball, they're, they're pretty. I will say, if you wanna look for one weakness, where we match up really, really well is that they are only scoring points on 71% of their red zone opportunities, which is a hundred and 13th.
Nationally, we're actually better than them offensively in the red zone, if you can believe that after all those numbers I just spit out at you. and O ODU use defense is eighth nationally only allowing 65% scoring in the red zone. So I think you're gonna see a game with a lot of yard. And maybe a lot of field goals. It, it kind of feels that way with, with both teams kind of being able to break down a little bit and, and stop in the red zone.
So I'm also looking at their, their stats for the season, and their receivers, specif. With one of our corners being very talented, very short, I'm always interested in the heights of their receivers. on one end you got Peaky, their leading receiver, six four. He's gonna be covered by Trey Hawkins, I would imagine most of the game. Their other receiver though, Jared Brown is six foot tall and he's our second leading receiver.
And that gives me a little bit of hope that we can do some damage on that side of the. Mobley is their third league receiver. He's another six foot tall guy. So, there's not gonna be too many height mismatches here to, take advantage of for Coastal, and I think that's a good thing for us.
we're gonna have to, to lock brown down. he averages almost 21 yards a catch. So that's gonna be a good matchup. Cause we wanted to watch for.
Yeah, and I mean, pink me, I mean, he's, he's the go-to guy. I mean, that's, that's typically who, who they're gonna be going to. And looking to make the most explosive plays with, But, yeah, I mean, Jerry Brown had some really, really important plays, in that m game, especially in the first half. But Ney and Brown have combined for, for nearly a thousand yards together already.
so that, that's gonna be tough, especially if you get, you know, if they get going on the ground with Beasley and, and Reese White, it's, they are, they're a tough team to look at on the off side of the ball. So far this.
You know what I find interesting with these guys is Pinckney's got 37 receptions, so he clearly, like you were saying, is the guy that's getting targeted the most. He's got one touchdown, Brown and Mobley. They have 39 receptions together, so two more receptions than Pinckney. They have seven touchdowns combined to those guys, so they're not getting targeted as much, but when they do, they're making a serious splash.
Pinney? The leading receiver
Yeah, no. Pink me is, he's got 37 for five
PI has 37 receptions. To put that into perspective Ali Jennings only has 32, so we know how much volume Polygenics has. I mean, it's in one fewer game though. I'm guessing OIE will have more than 37 after this game,
I hope so.
but that shows you the volume of peak.
Oh yeah.
very similar to O Jenns, and that means he's gonna be the guy we need to stop.
I agree. I'm just saying that those other two guys have seven times the amount of touchdowns that Pickney has. So they've got three guys. Clearly they can catch the ball and put it in the end.
Yeah, I think those other guys are probably a little bit more explosive. But he's their, their volume guy. He's their.
Yeah, and I, I would imagine he's seen probably a lot of double themes in the red zone, and maybe that's why they've had some issues scoring in the red. you know, and also the scoring a lot of their touchdowns from outside the red zone too. So I, I think the, the kind of mentality that ods defense has taken this year is that bend, but don't break. they're gonna, they're gonna sit back in the zone. They're gonna let be underneath stuff go, but then they're gonna lock it down in the red zone.
That could be. That's probably a key that we're gonna need to see a lot, if, if we want to, to go down to, to Conway and win, coastal defensively. I mean, they're, they're kind of in the middle of the pack when you look at 'em from a statistical angle. And if you look at Odus defense, you probably would think the same thing. you know, they're a little bit better against the run then they are the past.
They're ranked somewhere in the, in the fifties for a point, opponent points per game, yards per game, yards for play, things like that. But as you saw in that Louisiana and road game, you get down the red zone, you get on their side of the field and they start to lock things down. You know, getting to fourth down stops forcing to fumbles. And that turned out to be really important in a game that that was pretty close there in the.
So following your logic here, so we're bend on. They're bad in the red zone or they don't score a lot of red zone touchdowns, or you said they're one 13th in the country in red zone scoring. So I had to go look at who their kicker was and how well he's kicking. he's perfect on extra points. 27. For 27, he's only attempted seven field goals. This season, he's five of seven. He's perfect beyond 40 yards. three for three, so he can kick a long one, However, He is oh, for two, between 30 and 39
That's how we win. We just make them kick field goals from 30 to 30 night all night long.
I think it's a pretty good plan here.
I, this could very well be one of those games where the teams combined for like 1100 yards of offense, but the final is like 34 to 31, because it just turns into kind of who can, can kick those field goals. But I mean, the, the key for ODU defensively is they have to shut down mcca. A key is the real deal. He is probably better than Holden AERs, who absolutely tore us up, down in East Carolina earlier this season.
You're gonna have to find a way to do what Ulm did in the second half to contain him, not let him extend plays with his feet while also bringing pressure. If you rush three and drop eight and you're playing a zone, he is going to eat you a. He is gonna din and dunk and pick you apart the entire way down the field, and your defense is gonna be on the field for 40, 45 minutes. We, we can't let that happen.
We have to be willing to take some risks to send seven in some situations, especially on those third and long plays. To get pressure on him, get him out of his comfort zone, make him roll left, get him out of the pocket, but don't let him extend those plays. you know, it, it would be ideal if we had our full complimented defensive ends for this game. I think it's 50 50 if, if Morrison's back. but a player like Morrison could be a huge, huge boost for us on that defensive lines.
So question here you guys are talking about. red zone efficiency and not being as good in the red zone as they are between the twenties. So are they going for it a lot on fourth down when they're not scoring the touchdown? Cuz there's just not that many single field goal attempts or what? It does really interest me a lot to see what their strategy is when they get inside the 20. and whether they're treating it as a four down territory, most of the.
Yeah, they've, they've gone forward on fourth down five times this season, and they're four for five. so I, I don't think they're going for it a ton through six games. That's not, not too bad. But when they're in the red zone, they've had 23 red zone attempts. They've gotten point 17 times, but they're only 15 for 23 scoring touchdowns. and then you look at them on the defensive side. teams have had 23 attempts against them, and they've only scored touchdowns 11 times.
So, It's almost like a mirror image defense there of we're gonna let you get the underneath stuff you're gonna need to be patient as a quarterback. I think Hayden has shown his ability to be patient, hadn't thrown a lot of interceptions a call the same way, and that's why I kind of jokingly say you could see 1100 yards total offense here in a game that's in the upper twenties, lower thirties.
All right, so we've established Mcca as a problem. we've established that if we. Slow them down to the point where they're in the red zone, We have a shot to maybe stop them from scoring. now let's talk about the defense. What, what do you know about this defense, Garrett?
I mean, they're gonna play a lot of zone. They're gonna back away and, and kind of give up some of those underneath routes, those outs and those corners that you've seen. Eat, Eat us up a little bit. I don't know if they necessarily do anything special there. Other, when they get in the red zone, they like to bring a boatload of pressure and make those decisions very, very quick for the quarterback. you know, they're, they're, they're not a bad defense by any means.
I think they're probably better than Arkansas State's defense that we saw earlier this year. If you want kind of a, a comparison there, but there's gonna be, Ways for us to establish the run. There's gonna be ways for us to establish the short, intermediate passing game. It's just can we get one of those breakout plays to Ali Jennings? Can we get Zach Coots free if he is back on one of those seam routes against that zone?
You know, if you can get two or three explosive plays on either team, really you, you've got a good chance to win the game. I think whoever scores the longest touchdown in the game will probably.
We see one familiar face on their defense. Lance Boyn, former corner for Old Dominion. He is their star corner and he's gonna be the guy that's probably gonna be lining up with Ali all game long. So that is gonna be a very interesting matchup all game law. what can Lance do against? So, I'm really excited about that match.
Yeah, if he ends up on Ali, that will be very interesting. I would put a good bit of money on Ali to probably win that matchup, but. I, I find it hard to believe that any team that's left on our schedule is gonna be dumb enough to go one on one with Ollie. You're gonna see the brackets, you're gonna see a safety over the top. he, he's gonna be getting a lot of attention, and I think that is gonna leave some room for. Jovan Harvey to continue the growth that we saw from him at Liberty.
some of these freshmen who now have a bi-week to get installed on some more packages. I, I'm really curious to see how Old Dominion comes out after the bi-week because if it's similar to the way we came outta the bi-week last year, we're in for a lot of fun. These Final seven games.
You actually answered the question I was gonna ask you about, if they try to lock down Ali, which I'm sure they're gonna do, and throw a couple people at 'em, if they cover 'em one on one, then hey, I would love to see that, but I don't think it's gonna happen. And you named a couple people who potentially could break out there, but. Kind of the theme of the first half of the podcast so far has been talking about mcca and how dangerous he can be.
So I really do think the running game is gonna be important in this game, and us being able to establish that run and control the clock, time of possession and not continuously give. Call the ball, you know, a lot. Make him stay on the sidelines, make him wait his turn, and us have some methodical drives to go along with the ability to hit that quick strike,
and I, I think, you know, with our style of defense, it's helpful when we can. The clock, you know, the liberty game. We actually won the time of possession battle. We had those two kind of fluky plays, two or three fluky plays early. That gave them 14 points. But when you have a bend but don't break mentality on defense, when you limit the number of times that that really good quarterback can, makes a lot of plays, can go out on the field, they start rushing. They start trying to make that.
That downfield throw that when they should hit the the 10 yard out route. And if you can somehow, one, keep a call off the field as much as possible, but if you can force him to make that one mistake, which he, I mean, I think he's only throwing two picks this entire season. He's not likely to make him.
But if you can force him in a scenario where they have to throw deep, they have to throw down the field, you get him anxious wanting to make plays, you can put yourself in a great position because we do have some ball hawkers on that defense that will go up and make some big interception.
We, so we mentioned it earlier Rose quarterback 27 for 30 against them. Chandler Rogers is not a bad quarterback, but I, I would take, I would take Hayden over him he can go 27 30 against them. Hayden can do that as well and that can help us. If we can get the running game going, we can get that ball control. We have a shot here. If Monroe can play with them, we can too, and just hoping he can get those wheels moving again if he can do what he did last game against Liberty. We have a shot.
I mean, we, we saw a different Hayden Wolf against Liberty. He was aggressive, he was confident. he. Just a different heading wolf, like we've been waiting for him to kind of make that step. And I imagine that was significantly reinforced throughout the by week, along with probably adding some things in for him to use as weapons, on the offensive side of the ball.
But if he thrives in those environments where you want to give him the, the 10 yard underneath the seven yard underneath, he's gonna take him all day. He's gonna go through his progressions and he is gonna hit him. And if we start being able to hit those short, intermediate, passe, Guys like Blake Watson and Keshawn, Wix and Bani are gonna be able to feast running the football.
Now I think you may see some slightly different running concepts out of odu, as we come out of the bi-week and things that they've learned from the first five games that work, some that don't. We saw some flashes of it in our last two game with the lot of motion, getting wide receivers involved in the running game. You get that short, intermediate passing, you get a running game going.
You're on the field for 35, 37, 38 minutes, you put yourself in a much better position to possibly win that game.
we see hay. Take off a naked bootle and score another touchdown. I think we're gonna have to go back to the, Well remember the days where Taylor Heine, Keith's arm, Twitter account. Something might have to pop up with a Hayden Wolf's feet, or Hayden Wolf's legs or something like that. you know, if he does that once or twice in the game, I think it's important that teams realize it's real. It's a real threat.
It wasn't a one time fluke that at any given time it could happen, and just the thought that it could happen. I mean, he shows he's athletic enough to make it hurt. It's not like it's just gonna be two or three yards. He showed a little bit of a, a little bit of a step there, being able to get into the end zone before those two defender.
He's a big guy, but he's not slow. And when he runs the ball, I mean he, he can move out there and I think it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like you finally run, it's wide open and then you feel the confidence of I can continue to run. Cuz you saw later in the game after that. He was stepping up in the pocket and going and getting three or four yards on the ground when nothing was there in the passing game. Like, he's gonna protect the football. And I think that's, that's great.
Like we can't afford to have turnovers, but if instead of taking a 3, 4, 5 yard sack, he's getting a 3, 4, 5 yard game on those scrambles. And being able to go up the middle where the, the pressure is not, I mean, that's a, that's a huge weapon for us. It just forces everyone to, on the defense to just think a little bit more, hesitate a little bit more, make it a little bit more, Difficult to come in and stuff. The run, so hate Hayden's feet.
I'm gonna, I'll go and get that Twitter account fired up tonight. Like, let's, let's go Hayden's.
So he had his best game of the season and you think it's his best game of his career, and it was without coot. If we throw KOTs back into the mix of that, how much better could this game his game get? I'm excited to see if he starts running with KOTs in the game, it'll change the dynamics of that whole offense a lot.
Yeah, and we talk a lot about KOTs in the receiving game and he is a fantastic receiving tight end. He's also one of our best blockers on the line. That's tight end position. So getting him back is good in a number of ways, but Coastal's gonna run a lot of kind of zone. Those seam routes for Koons are gonna be there. And we haven't seen that, that develop too much this year cause it's been just bracketed.
But the, the Koons RPO quick zone seam hitter to Koons was like 17 to 20 yards on the money last year. And I would love to see that pop up again too, if he's healthy. I, I think he's back, but I, I.
I was told he is, that was about a week ago now. So things can change. We don't know, but let's just assume he is. And brighter days are ahead.
Yeah, well the good thing with the bi-week is a, a lot of the guys on our team just had like small injuries, bumps, bruises, wear and tear, and having the week off and extra days off is just nothing. But, but good for them. I mean, I, I don't know any official injury reports, but I find it hard to believe that Jason Henderson wasn't sore, at the very least, leading the nation and tackled. so getting him healthy, him a little bit faster is really nice.
I know Terry Jones, I think you would have to physically restrain him from getting on the field when he's got some injuries. So, Coming up a little bit fresh after Coastal, just played a tough road game in Louisiana is something that benefits us. Think it's in a way similar to when JMU went down to Appalachian State off of a bi-week and app was coming off of a pretty tough run of games. being fresh sometimes is, is really, really, I.
Yeah, you can't understate how important it is to be fresh. we've seen some really good teams struggle after because getting beat up throughout the year, and I'm losing to opponents that no one would expect them to lose to. and this should, I mean, at, at the beginning of the season, Phil Seale expected us to win this game. He thought we had a shot to win this game. And I don't see the reason why we shouldn't.
unless McCall just can't be contained by us, that's really what's gonna come down to, I think,
Yeah, and we, we have struggled this year. Stop mobile quarterbacks, but we did some pretty unique things against Liberty that shut down Salter, who is probably the most mobile of quarterbacks that we saw. Certainly was not the best passer by any means, but from an athleticism and mobility standpoint, he was really good and we were able to contain him in the pocket to make him throw. I think you're gonna have to do that. A call, but I mean, Mcca, this is third straight year starting.
He knows that offense inside and out, and he's played some really, really tough defenses, in his past. Maybe not as great a defense as this year, but I mean, you, you look at his track records, he can make some plays, contain and pressure aall, take care of the football on offense, take what they give. You gotta go back to almost those Taylor Heineke style days. I think we only had like 12 offensive plays.
We could call from the sideline the whole time Taylor was in school and he would come up and make some quick adjustments and take what the defense gave him. If that's an 80 yard bomb, fantastic. If it's a seven yard out or a four yard plant, great. Take it. I think that's what we're gonna have to do. Keep Coastals often and McCall watching from the sideline like the rest.
It's right. Third down. Third down is my call on this game. On both sides. Both sides of the ball. Here we've gotta be consistent on. Up third downs and having good opportunities at third and shorts. We're not coming up at third and 10. We're taking penalties and being third to 15, that we have achievable third downs. And then on the third downs that that coastal has, we need to get off the field when is we're expected to get off the field, not giving up those third and 10 plus type of place.
You know, when they're third and two, third and three. Okay, I get it. But we're just gonna have. It's gonna be a pivotal down. It's always a pivotal down, but this week es especially, it really is going to be,
If I. Man drop on third and 17 again. I'm gonna lose my mind.
You and me both. Gary. All right. any final thoughts on this game?
Nah, we just need to have lots of 30 to 39 yard field goals and we win the game.
Dominion needs to go win a road. That's what Old Dominion needs to do. I, if this year me no other. I mean, you look at all the games that are occurring across the country and weird stuff's happening, and what you did last week doesn't matter. OD needs to go down to Conway. And they need to win a row game. And I think if they can win this game, it's gonna pop off A lot more wins coming up for us against, again, some really, really tough teams. But you know, Coastal's, no Flash.
You know, eventually you are what your record says you are. They're six to know, and we need to go down to their place and we need to come out with the win.
Well, you know, one thing we haven't talked about that. Might help a little here. The first thing that comes of a benefit of having gone to that bowl game last year is a lot of our team has actually played there, so it won't be a mysterious type of first time kind of place. They've been there, they've seen the field, and it's gonna be a little bit familiar to them. So yeah, it's a road game, but at least they've stepped foot on that field before and it'll seem familiar for.
And hey, some of us even know how to sneak into the president.
There's that. Yeah, we all know that They don't guard it very well. I will add all of our fans should know how to actually get to the home stand now. now we know we have to walk up to that weird end zone section, walk across it, and then walk down again. Seriously, the worst ous and ingris I've ever seen in a stadium. I don't understand how anyone saw that and thought this was a good idea. I hope we, we show up really well in Conway, but I do not expect another 5,000 fans again.
I'd be happy with 1500.
Yeah, it's, it's think it's gonna be tough for a lot of people to, to get down there. I know. I just book my travel to go. Or Georgia State. so I definitely will not be in Conway this weekend. Or, if there's any coastal people listening, I will not be in UCLA either. you know, Upper Conway, lower Anor. But yeah, that was a very weird ingress egress there. But we had a, we had a good time at their place. hopefully something from that carries over to the guys.
and you know, it'd be nice to get an road win here and be three and.
So Mike, what's Vegas saying on this?
they opened up at 13. it unveiled on MGM at 11, and so that 13 was already hammered down to 11 before it even went on, mobile. The casinos already hammered it down a little bit. I'm guessing it'll close around 10. Nine or 10. What do you think Eric?
Yeah, I think it's gonna end up dropping quite a bit. And if you just look at Coastal's games this season, they won one game by 17. That was at Georgia. State, but the rest of their games have been fairly close. 10 point win against Army, four point win against, Gardner Webb, one by 12 against Buffalo. They've got four point win at home against Georgia Southern with seven Point win this past week on the road at Louisiana Monroe.
I have a hard time thinking that we are that much different than Ulm or Georgia Southern or Buffalo. so I think this ends up at a nice, pretty nine and a half to get some money going the other way. You know, Coastal's really done a good job of winning football games this year, but they have not won them pretty, They have not really been dominant in any way. So that that number opening up seems pretty high.
Yeah, it was influenza bets on old minion early. now once it gets hammered down, it'll go the other. Vegas will be protected.
Yeah, and I, I also think, you know, Gracee McCall has, has dealt with some injuries throughout his career. I, I don't know, and I don't think that he has anything going on right now. I know that probably the biggest thing that could impact that spread is if Grace and McCall ends up, you know, limited participant in practice one day you could see some really weird line movement.
And I, I'll add this, this will be their what, seventh straight game they've played this year. not easy.
Yeah. They're, they're going, going into a bi-week after this, It is their homecoming weekend. So they'll probably have a little bit bigger attendance than normal than they go into a bi-week. But yeah, I mean even, you know, they've had those closed games. They haven't been able to like go dump the second string and put in the bottom of the depth chart at any point. Even at the Gardner Web. That was a 31 27 game in Conway. so their starters have seen a lot of snaps so far.
Well, the weather's supposed to be sunny. Like mid sixties and perfect. So that's not gonna impact a game at all.
Other than that 30 degree weather we dealt with during the bowl game, freezing, the death and the tailgate lot.
Yeah, that's, That sucked
It's a noon kick. This game is on ESPN n u, Myrtle in this time of year is just about perfect. pretty close to what you're gonna get in Norfolk. Riding around now with just less, less rain. I wish I could make the trip. It's always a fun one, but, and the quarter has got me by the balls.
The.
Yeah, the, the work trip this week and then planning to go to Georgia State kind of has me as well. I think, uh, I think this weekend coming up is the only weekend that I am not on the road or at a game somewhere for the entire fall. but I believe there's a little watch party being organized on the, east side of Richmond.
Well, you talked earlier about the team being. Banged up after a number of tough games and the bi-week coming at the right time. I think it kind of did for us as well with regards to tailgating and all that stuff, and we, we will be fired up for that home game on the 22nd to bring the tailgating heat again.
Speaking of which, if listeners are interested in watching the game with some Monarchists this Saturday, let us know and maybe we can figure something. All right, fellas, we went one on one without doing predictions. Do we wanna switch it?
I'm not gonna predict anything. It's gonna be a good game. I think it's gonna be lower scoring than the yards would indicate. Grace McCall is a beast and we need to stop.
Yeah, my predictions suck, so I'm just gonna cheer really hard at noon and, um, if we score more points in them, then we're gonna.
That's a very salient point. can't disagree with it at all. score more than them, we will win. But, uh prediction No prediction for us this week. Just expect a great game and hope ODU comes home. Two and oh in the Sunbelt. Let's one oh baby on Monarchs.
all that matters right now, man. That conference record.
Yep. Everything is in front of odu. Go. Wanna know, be coastal and let's come.
All right. Go Monarchs.
Go Monarchs.
And go Monarchs.
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