Hello. I'm Keith Gill, commissioner of the Sunbelt conference, and you're listening to the monarchist.
podcast
Monarchs The Monarch Nation, the Monarchists are back to talk about the game against the Herd and next week's game against Southern Miss. I'm joined as always with Aaron. How you doing Aaron?
I'm good, man. I had a great workout this morning. So I sweat out all my anger from last night.
And we have some special guests because Gary is on holiday as they say in London. he'll be back in a couple weeks. We are joined by ODU specialists, ODU alums, ODU GOATs, Jared Brown and Jonathan Plisko. Welcome to the show guys.
Thanks, guys. Glad to be here.
Thank you.
All right, so I'm not sure how to start here, but I will say before we get going, we need to give credit to Cadareus Calloway. He runs 236 yards. It's the second best, or second most in school history. Only to Blake Watson's, 259 last year at Coastal. His 21 and a half yards per carry is a school record. Just, amazing game from him. All Dominion loses 41 35. I think we need to talk about what went wrong first. And we'll start there.
We can talk about what went right after and what it means going forward. So Aaron, let's start with you.
All right so we're in the third quarter. We're down by three points and we have a A string of a couple turnovers that are very costly. Towards the end of the third quarter, we have an interception and kind of, that really hurts us, but we're able to get the ball back. we have a fumble that's recovered by Wayne Matthews, returns it for 55 yards. It's, that's a real momentum swing back in our, our favor. It goes all the way down to the Marshall 14, which is huge.
It puts us in a great position to take the lead back. And we almost immediately throw the ball away. Not only is it an interception, but it's a pick six, and immediately we're down by 10. That's my most impactful time of the game. That really makes it a difficult one for us to win at that point.
So those two interceptions, the first one, Jack does not see the, I think it was a safety sitting in zone. It might have been a linebacker. I just know he had a 2 4 type number. Or maybe 2 9, something like that. He's sitting in the middle of the zone. He's trying to hit Dom Dunn on a slant. They showed an angle from the quarterback at one point. It showed you that even if the ball, if the safety had not been there, the guy covering Dom probably catches it because it was thrown behind him.
so timing was a little off, not a good throw and not a good decision there. Second one comes on third and nine, I think, and it's almost like a no look dump off to the running back that, puts him in an immediate position to go take it to the house. that one, you kind of want him to get settled and set his feet before he makes a decision to throw. can't have those no look passes.
Yeah, it was, uh, I don't say it was a backbreaker because we still had our opportunities, not the rest of, the end of the game, but at, the four of us were for chatting, in our, uh, our group message and we knew that the, the, the deck was stacked against us at that point. that's a real, really difficult thing to
It's really hard to change the momentum that many times, right? It's, uh, just keeps getting taller and taller order to overcome.
Yeah, and we talked last week about what would it take to win this game. Because Marshall was the favorite team, they're playing at home. they know how to win. And that's something we're still learning. But you need, when you're playing teams that are technically better than you, you need to minimize your mistakes. And you need to capitalize on their mistakes. And that series of downs is a clear example that we did not capitalize.
And we gave it right back and put them in position to take advantage. You can't give better teams more opportunities. And the few opportunities you get from them, you have to take advantage. And we just didn't do that. Alright, I'm gonna go to you, John. what is the one thing you want to focus on that did not go right?
Yeah, it's, um, you know, kind of piggybacking off of that. The little things, uh, you talk about learning how to win, you know, figuring that out, uh, the little things. And I think to really start the season, it's the little things that really hurt us. Uh, you know, the team played great, I thought.
Obviously, we didn't win, but, the missed throws, the penalties, kind of timely penalties, and those huge momentum swings, um, again, I think that's really the, we look at what the negatives of the game, that really kind of put us in a bad spot and ultimately led us to, uh, lose by six.
So there, there's one penalty early in the game that kind of stuck out with me.
after the, I think it was maybe the second or third drive, we're having a kind of moving the ball down the field and we get a run to the outside and we get called for a hold by Marquez Bell on the outside that wasn't really necessary and it was just a complete drive killer and after that, I don't remember the quarterback keeping the rest of the game, but he had been successful up to that point, keeping and, kind of disappointed to not see more, Option keepers the rest of the way.
Yeah, it's a successful to start the game at tech and obviously at the game of Marshall and definitely went away from that. Don't know what was seen on the field, but yeah, it was definitely a kind of limited us. I mean, obviously we still had over 300 yards rushing, so it's a great game on the ground by the team. But yeah, definitely kind of took out the guesswork on the defensive side for Marshall.
All right, Jared. where's your focus on what needs to improve
Yeah, I think so far this whole season, it's it's really been game management on the offensive side of the ball, just managing the time of possession, managing the situations. This defense we have is so good. Just individually, they you can see it every single game they come out strong. They're really shutting them down. They're Doing their job, but eventually you're going against another guy who is quote unquote just as good as you, right?
It's always another guy on the other team Guy on guy and it's who's gonna win and you can win nine out of ten times But that one time you get beat could be the thing that hurts you and the more you're on the field The more time that you're just sitting there, letting them go against you, go against you, you're going to get beat once. And our defense plays great, but they're always on the field.
And they're always on the field because our offense does not manage the game well enough, in my opinion. I think that our offense does a really good job, like, like Jonathan said, I mean, we 300 and some yards rushing is, is pretty awesome. It's a great day on the ground and we had huge plays yesterday, uh, but the drive where that didn't happen. They ended pretty quickly, they were a three and out, a turnover, a punt real quick, a missed field goal, things like that.
And if we don't manage those situations better, the defense is always on the field and it just is inevitable. You, you can't always be perfect. You know, you always want to be, but you just can't. And, uh, you know, as good as the defense is, if we don't manage the game better on offense, this is, this is what happens against good football teams.
So we had the ball for 18 minutes and 39 seconds, the whole game. Marshall had the ball in the first quarter, 11 minutes and 40 seconds, seven minutes and 31 seconds in the second quarter. So they had the ball in the first half for as much as we had it in the entire game.
Yeah. I, you know, I said this earlier when we talked, but.
Uh, not everybody can be Taylor Heineke as we know, but one of the things that I always remember hearing from my parents or people that were at the game or whatever is what people would say in the stands, they'd freak out, you know, Taylor's in college and he's not Taylor Heineke yet and they'd freak out if he threw the ball away in a situation or they'd freak out if he dumped it off for a small completion when they thought maybe somebody was open In the, uh, you know, in the, in the secondary,
but the good thing about that stuff was he limited turnovers, he kept the ball moving when we needed to keep it moving and our offense had the ball a lot and our defense, you know, wasn't as good as the defense we have here, but they could do their job because they weren't really on the field all the time and we want a lot of games because of it and managing those little situations, throw the ball away, roll out and don't try to you. Do something crazy all the time.
I'm not saying that our quarterbacks do, but just managing the situation is better could help the team immensely.
So, Aaron, what were you going to say there?
Yeah, I was gonna ask you a question, Mike, because we've talked about this a lot with tempo. Alright, so this offense is not necessarily designed to just, go fast, fast, fast. They may go to the line fast, but then pull the throttle back. Now, in those situations where... Coach Decker catches the defense in a position that he wants him to be in, and not being able to substitute.
Do you have the ability, when they seem to have caught the defense in a position where they want to be, they seem to go fast. Do you have the ability to pull the throttle back? You still have the defense that you want on that field, the personnel you want on the field. But by not going fast in those situations, do you negate somewhat your, your advantage over them because they're able to communicate and make some sort of adjustment even though they don't have what they want on the field?
Or can you throttle it back regardless and kind of try to play the time of possession game and still be able to take advantage of the personnel.
it's different with this new offense, but I will say for some teams, the tempo is very important. And if they kind of get into a groove, slowing it down can throw them off of their game. Jaden Daniels, the quarterback for L. S. U. Said when they try to slow it down, it just doesn't feel right. And you see them try to do it, and it looks bad. But that's not the case for everybody. I know we've tried to slow it down in the Wake Forest game and it did not work out for us.
And all of our drives were quick hitting touchdowns yesterday that caught Marshall in a bad spot.
Yeah, I think this might be, I have not looked at the numbers, this might be our worst time of possession game yet. Now what I will say is those three runs by Callaway, or if you listen to the commentators, Holloway, we're all 70 plus yards, rushes. If we're able to sustain those drives, obviously when the play is called, you don't expect three 70 yard touchdown rushes. Not like we were throwing long bombs on those. So maybe your time of possession is 20 or 22 minutes if that doesn't happen.
It's still very skewed. We've got to figure out a way to, even if we're not winning that, get it more balanced. Because the defense does
I'll say this, we did not have an effective passing game yesterday, like at all. And let's say we have a couple more of those slants or those pass pickups. That changes the time of possession considerably.
yeah, I'd love, I'd love to come back to that point. Um. Um, you know, the offense is designed to play fast, so it's, it's quick tempo. It's get up, get the defense vulnerable, hit them. Um, you know, that, that's the, the, how the offense is designed and it's successful. You know, I re I really think the, the key point, like I'm looking at the drive chart here, I was definitely curious. We had 16 drives. They were either, uh, 70 plus yards and very few plays.
Or they were under 30 yards and it was either a turnover or punt. You know, I think that's really the, the critical point that Jared was making is that sustained drive. I know our offense like, Hey, I'm not going to complain if we rip off a 75 yard touchdown, right? I think everybody's going to be super happy with that. Um, and if we did that every drive, Hey, we're going to win the football game. Uh, but when we don't have those big plays producing, even if it's up tempo, you still chew clock.
You know, hitting the guys first down sustained drives. I think Marshall had over 30 first downs and we had half that, right? So that's really where, again, like we'll love those big plays, like we'll take the home runs every day, but how do we build and sustain drives so that we can chew up that clock, give our, you know, amazing defense that breather so they can come back out after we score.
Maybe we pin them deep with a good punt, like, you know, creating that opportunity, that equilibrium so that we can really close out those games.
Yeah, 11 of 23 with three picks, not, it's just not going to get it. We needed balance to have that time possession improve and we just didn't have any balance yesterday and we just need to have the passing game be more effective. I will note, no Javon Harvey yesterday, no Isaiah Page. That obviously has an impact when your number one receiver is not playing. I know, I think Kelby Williams played, but he was not involved in the passing game at all yesterday. Melo Murphy only gets one target.
Those three are, have been our most successful receivers this year. They kind of disappeared yesterday, apart from one 42 yard catch by Ramello. passing game has to be better. And I think we've talked about it a lot this season, but it's not all on the quarterback play. And it's not all on the offensive line. Only one sack yesterday.
So, clearly, they can... block and pass protect, but the receivers aren't running crisp routes too long slow developing routes they're running and The quarterback is making mistakes on when to throw and missing throws. We saw one comeback route I think was to Marion Granger that was thrown over his head. He's wide open the intercept the second interception right before that designed rollout, pass dump off to Jalen Butler wide open in the flats. It hits right before his feet.
first quarter, I think there was a deep shot to Dom Dutton that should have been six, but it's a miss throw. we got to have better passing and better route.
can I ask you a question on that, Mike? All right. So that ball is thrown to Dutton. Is that a ball that would normally or should be thrown to the outside shoulder? Because he's the only guy can get it or is that a play like it looked like Dutton was Expecting it to be over his right shoulder and then he looks the other way in his left shoulder And then it was just then the ball was a little behind him So it was too hard to adjust and come back any from the three of you guys.
I mean, we saw where he he was open and where is running. Uh, but it's really the, the thing that none of us know, right? What was the design? Like, was he expecting that that corner route to fade off towards the sideline or was it supposed to go up the seam? Um, Obviously, they weren't on the same page and we missed that huge play. Um, but it, you know, you did expect him to see him shrieking up the numbers and lead him out there. But, definitely a huge missed opportunity there.
you got to leave the receiver and that was thrown behind him. underthrown, didn't have the arm strength or the timing right on that route at all. it's a tough throw though, too, because, I mean, that's a deep ball. Deep balls, I don't know what the completion rate on them are, but it's not high.
Yeah. And deep balls are even harder when your receiver is lightning fast, Plisko said, if he. If he throws it up the seam, of course we're all talking about a different game, but you know, maybe they weren't on the right, the same page and you know, he thought that the receiver's gonna go up the sideline and the receiver thinks, okay, it's going up the seam or, or whatever happened. It, it was really, I think just more of a miscommunication then a really bad throw or a bad route or anything.
Uh, because when you look at stuff like that, Uh, it happens all the time, college, NFL, whatever, where it looks like the quarterback made a terrible throw because the guy's not really close to it. But when you hear about it later on in the film room, it's, Hey man, what the heck happened here? And yeah, I really thought this was going this way. I really thought this was going this way. Hey, the, the, the defensive back, the corners playing off my inside shoulder.
So of course I went outside, but from where the quarterback stands, it didn't look that way. So he went inside. It's really tough and I don't think it was a terrible play. I think it's just a tiny miscommunication that results in a touchdown and most of the time. So, I don't think that was a terrible play. It just, it sucks because when it's a big play like that everybody, you know, the initial thought is, Oh my God, of course, if we had done that, we score a touchdown.
Uh, but a tiny little miscommunication like that is a big deal when you're going 40 yards down the field.
he's so fast, like he had the defender beat so much that if the ball wasn't under thrown, he would have still caught it because he had to come back. So he's looking right, he goes left, and now he's trying to slam on the brakes and come back to it. So if that ball is another two yards down the field, he probably still adjusts And he's so fast, he may still score.
yeah.
yeah. And if he didn't lose his footing, like, yeah, I think he, he catches that ball, you know, as, uh, again, with the adjustment and where the ball was thrown, um, again, definitely, uh, miscommunication and missed opportunity, but, uh,
I've never played on that field. All we know is that field, grass or turf.
oh, that's turf.
It was terrifying. We felt like I think you said it to me at one point, uh, place like somebody, it might have been, it might have been him, uh, kept slipping. Like what? It's not, that's just a losing footing. That's nothing that the receiver is doing wrong, but it's just, you keep slipping like, what the heck is going on? Change your, change your cleats or something because he did lose his footing a few times and it happens, you know, when that happens, that's just, it's really
Well, I mean, so Dom is a track star turned football player, and he's still learning the game and the position and a brand new offense. So I think there's a probability that sometimes a guy with his speed is sometimes playing too fast and he's not playing balanced. that speed is dangerous, but you need to keep good balance there or it's not going to be very useful.
Yeah, and I agree with what Ricky has said on a couple of occasions with, I think Dom is going to be one of those guys that gets a little bit better every single game. Because he's so young in the, his development that he's just going to keep, improving game over game. And if that's the case, we're seeing what he sees now, imagine how dangerous he could be later this season or, or next season.
Yeah. Well, you think too, like you said earlier, Mike, uh, the completion percentage for a deep ball like that, it's probably pretty low, even in, even in the NFL where these guys are the best at what they do, it's probably pretty low. So with a guy like that, I'm sure we do it more than, you know, than I'm thinking of right now. But if he's that fast, you got to try to get him into open space.
In the, in the short throws to let him run and let him get his confidence up and then maybe take a shot every once in a while. But I've seen a lot of times this year where we take a shot to Dom and yeah, it might not be a perfect throw. It might not be a perfect route. We don't complete it, but that's what happens on long route. And if you get a guy like that in open space. I mean, he's lightning.
We gotta get him the ball in the short little dump offs, a screen, a slant, something to get his confidence up, if that's how we think that kid's gonna be. If he's gonna get better every game because he's a little raw and he hasn't done it much, you gotta give him the good opportunities. And long balls are not good opportunities. I
Yeah, I will say that it was nice to see Jordan Blog involved. I don't remember ever seeing a game where he had eight targets in a game, five catches, 34 yards and the touchdown. And that touchdown route and throw was perfect. so gotta give credit there to both of, Jack and Jordan for, that was capitalizing on a mistake. We got the interception and they, they capitalized quick. but yeah, I think we missed Javon Harvey yesterday.
He right now is the best route runner on the team and he makes those catches when they matter most. So. let's shift. I think. Are we good with the negativity here or with the reality of what went wrong yesterday? Did we miss anything?
no, you know, I'm happy to, to bury that negativity and, uh, you know, look forward and talk about the good.
Yeah,
talk about good
Yes. So let's talk about what went right. And obviously, number one, the running game.
That was a tremendous. All around. And again, I know the O line has been taking some heat, uh, for their, their pass pro and even just, uh, on the ground productivity, I think they really answered the call there, uh, not only with, I think they had one sack on the day, uh, but 339 yards on the ground. Like that's, that's huge against the defense that, uh, was, you know, very highly rated and respected, uh, for stopping the run.
Yeah, we've been blessed, I really think, over, over the 14 years, or 13 years technically, I guess. Uh, regardless, we've been blessed with really, really good running back. If you look all the way back to the very first one, right, Mario Crawford, the guy was a hard, hard runner and he was gonna break big runs if we had given him that opportunity a lot and it just kept going. We always had these guys that could break these big runs, but watching Callaway yesterday.
That man runs hard, he runs very hard, he hits the hole, he doesn't, he does not stop, even if somebody's in front of him, and that's awesome. It's really great to see, like I said, we've had really good running backs for a really long time, and I'm not saying Callaway is better than all of them, it's one game, but man, he looked good yesterday.
yeah, he was the Ray Lowry since Ray Lowry graduated. that just break away speed and talent. I have been told that he's probably the most talented player on the team in any position. So, it's kind of interesting that this is the first game that he really gets involved in the offense heavily. And, but, it's exciting to see what he can do moving forward.
What year is he? Do we know? I don't know that one, I'm
So, he's a JUCO transfer, so I don't know with COVID rules and all that, what year he really is. But, I assume he's a junior.
Yeah, it says junior on the, uh, on the ESPN app. I'm looking at it right now. I clicked on his name. So, I mean, he's, he runs hard.
We have him listed as a junior on Old Dominion's
But we've been told in the past that that doesn't tell you how many years of eligibility they actually do have remaining.
That's true.
So,
That is true.
I don't know. I know he, so he was signed by Alabama out of high school as a cornerback. He lasted through summer camp and left before a game was played, I believe, and transferred to East Mississippi Community College where he went back to running back. And luckily he ended up at Old Dominion cause going to be a lot of fun to watch if he gets those touches.
Yeah.
Alright, also, I want to give credit to the defense. obviously, 41 points is a lot, to have score on you. But they only give up 34, because that pick 6 is not on them. and most importantly, in the fourth quarter, when we need a stop, so our offense can have a shot to tie the game, they get two humongous stops. To give us a chance.
And, when you're on the field that much, considering we've talked about it at length already, they're on the field, the whole game, and they still get two stops in crunch time when it
Yeah, that was, uh. That was huge. And, you know, the defense really answered the call to your point to your point still, uh, still a lot of points hung on the board, which, uh, you could argue most of those really wasn't on them when you're on the field for over, uh, two thirds of the game. Uh, that really starts to add up and I think they really answered the call and, uh, Marshall's a good football team. I mean, there's a reason why they're 4 0, right?
And I think they're really, really across the board. Everybody battled and the defense especially, uh, came up big when we needed them to keep us in that game.
Yeah, we got four guys in double digits with tackles. Of course, Jason seems to always have 16, 17, 18 tackles a game. He had two tackles for losses. those guys, what, Rasheed Ali. He have like 75 yards. the defense did a great job in holding and I'm looking that up right now. Unless you guys know off the top of your head how many he had,
Yeah. Yeah. 79. The quarterback at 102. Yeah. 2. 8 yards.
for like two and a half or 2. 8 yards per carry. I mean, that's, that's amazing. Because he's been I was not even just all conference, but I mean, just a real difference maker averaging over six yards per carry, I believe, and just being a touchdown machine. And the defense did a great job of really bottling them up. Fancher did what Fancher does with his legs. He beat us enough times on the legs to really make a difference.
All right. Well, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. We got to give camp pantry more credit here. He was 29 of 35 for two 78, two touchdowns. He was efficient all game long and he killed us was legs, but he was 29 and 35. It's kind of hard to be upset about that.
Yeah, a couple of those large ones were significantly blown coverages, though.
But we, we, uh, we showed up and said, Hey, Cam, you got to beat us. We're not going to let you know, your, your running game, which has kind of carried them. I think I was, I was talking to Jared yesterday. I was like, they have more interceptions and touchdowns or it was a very close ratio. Like we knew we had to stop the run. We stopped the run, uh, at least from the running back and, and. Cam, he, uh, he, he bucked up and obviously beat us through the air and with his legs.
Um, again, hats off to him. You know, never like to see that from the opposing quarterback, but he definitely can fault man.
I will add on third down. They seem to know I always, we want to get in third and longs to force them to throw and where we can send the, send the house at them, but they had really good play call in there where they were doing design rollouts to get him out of there. And in the open space, so you can either run or hit a pass without someone in his face. so their offensive coordinator did a great job in this game.
Yeah, again, I mean, it sucks to lose. We always want the boys to go out and bring home a win for us, whether at home or away. But, uh, that was an entertaining football game. I mean, you can't can't argue that. And, you know, looking back over some of the football games that we've been involved in. Um, you know, like to come out on top those entertaining games, but it was definitely good football game from both sides.
two other guys, we're talking about defense that... Deserved to be spotlighted a little bit terry jones with 13 tackles fumble recovery That was a important play in the game. And then of course we mentioned earlier wayne matthews 10 tackles and a big fumble recovery we talked last week about needing a turnover or two and obviously we gave up a lot of points, but the defense came up big and got those You know, they did enough to win this game
They did. And, that was Wayne Matthews first double digit game in his career. I will add that. I think we missed EJ green yesterday. he didn't play, I know he's dealing with some sort of injury. We don't know what, but he's been fantastic all season. And I think he would have been really clutch. Stopping Fancher on his scrambles. Jason was awesome yesterday, but he's got one side of the field to deal with. He can't be everywhere.
Sure seems like he's everywhere.
Yeah, he does. But, uh, Bancher killed us with his feet yesterday.
I do love seeing when, you know, whether the quarterback rolls out or it's like a little, uh, short intermediate route. Um, and they see number 42 tracking them down. for the tackle. They just kind of seem to either run out of bounds or know what's coming. They certainly don't get away from that guy.
Yeah. I mean, he, he laid the wood on Fancher once yesterday and I thought I, I would have been hurt. I'll tell you that because they're good for Fancher for not being hurt. But I think it was right after, uh, not what, what's his, what was their, their running back's
He hit all lead.
Yeah. Right after Ali got hurt and then Fancher rolls out and runs and Jason just crushed it
Yeah, it was too Two Jason phenomenal plays in a row.
back to back. Yeah, and when he does stuff like that, it's just fun to watch when we're in the stands. There's the guys that sit behind Sit behind me at the home games. We always just we turn I turn around to them It's like guess who guess who every time it's always Jason. It's just feel like he's literally everywhere all the time making great plays Another one that we didn't mention actually that I wanted to mention is LeMarian James. The kids had a good year so far He really has.
And then yesterday, when you look at his stats, he's got eight tackles and six of them are solo tackles and he's got two passes defended. He's got a half a tackle for loss. So one of his, uh, one of his assistant tackles is a tackle for loss. I mean, the kid is just, he works hard and he's in the return game and he's, I mean, he's just doing it, he's doing it all. And I really like to see that because I would say if you look at a specific position where we haven't had.
Standout players for, if you look at the whole life of ODU, uh, cornerback is probably one of those positions. We've had guys who are good, um, but we haven't really had a guy where we could say, man, every single game, that guy is, is absolutely crushing it. And he, I feel like he does, but Marion James always is crushing it. That's not to take away from our other corners in the past, by the way. Uh, cause they've, they've been good.
We've had really good corners that have had made really big plays. We've been a shut down guy, uh, but this kid, every game, I'm hearing his name. Six tackles solo. I mean, that's just, that's a good, that's a good day. And he's a good player.
So, question for the
Hold on, Aaron, before, you ask this question, I just want to add one thing about. So the announcers kept talking about special teams and how they were making plays and they expected us to make plays But that time possession comes into effect here. LeMarion is on the field all game long.
He finally gets a ball kick to him He's clearly gassed and he doesn't have the return that you kind of expect out of him So that's another area where the time possession kind of impacts you when that's the one thing. He's really amazing at But it is great to see him, improve. Alright. Aaron, what were you going to say? Sorry about that.
Well, let me ask the question. I was going to ask the three of you. You've got a guy like Clemmery and James and when you have time of possession, what it what it was and he's on the field a lot. At what point is his effectiveness as a kick returner go away? And at what point?
As a coach, do you have to maybe make a decision that he's not going to be your guy back there because he's been on the field so much that he's either not going to be as effective or perhaps he has an increased likelihood of getting hurt because he can't go 100%, because kick returns are, they're a violent, violent place and you have to be You know, 100 percent there or, you know, bad things
I mean, I don't know the Marion personally, but I'd love to hear his answer on. Hey, you want to go out there? Uh, you know, making, you know, Make another play. I have another opportunity to go take it to the house. Potentially. Um, again, you want to put your best guys in place. There is that kind of point where fatigue does play. Even, uh, you see that ball coming down, you know, you're ready to take it to the house. I'm sure the marrying push that aside.
But, um, I think it does factor and he plays everywhere and plays with passion plays, you know, 100 percent yeah. Uh, that does add up and it's really the question, you know, one of the things I saw and to kind of piggyback on the special teams, like, uh, are we better just taking those touchbacks?
I don't know how many I know we have a huge play potential with Lamarion, but near the end of the game, uh, if that ball is, you know, coming into the end zone, do we just take the touchback, get it on the 25 and get rolling? Um, you know, that's really a coaching question of like, okay, do we roll the dice or do we just let them be free and see what happens?
Yeah, I'm always just kind of interested, maybe have him stand on like the ten yard line. If it goes over your head, just let it go. if it goes out of bounds, even better. But, We do, we talked about Dom Dutton and his speed and how dangerous it is. Maybe that's a way to use his skills even more? I don't know.
Speed is huge on, uh, on those returns, but I will say even back when we played, uh, if you guys remember Colby Goodwin's returning ability. Colby, I mean, I'm not saying he wasn't fast. He is fast, but Colby just knew where to go. And he was never fast enough to really break away from everyone on those plays. I mean, I remember back in the, uh, in the film room watching those. And he, everybody would go, Oh, it's coming. Oh, cool. Oh, you got caught. Oh man.
And it, you know, he, he would get caught, but he'd have an 80 yard return. And so it's not necessarily just about being super fast. It's great to have that. Uh, but when you got a guy who, who just knows where to go and knows how to read the play, I mean, I think that's even better. Cause it's not like you got to score a touchdown every time. If we get 40 yards on returns, I mean, that's a huge return.
You know, and maybe Dom because he's so fast, but if he, if he's not adept at that, at that position, not the greatest idea. You can put the fastest guy in the world back there, but if they don't know how to read that play, a kickoff is a whole different animal.
Yeah. And granted, I just said that he's still new to playing football and then suggest playing one of the riskiest positions for turnovers. yeah, that's fair. but yeah, that's a good point, Aaron. I, I, maybe they need to have a talk with them and be like, look, if you're tired and you need a breather, this is your best chance to get one. I know he's going to want the ball in his hands just because that's the type of guy he is, but.
Sometimes they might just need to do a wellness check on him like, All right, is this guy ready to go?
Yeah, yeah. Especially when the defense is on the field that long and we have the ball for, you have a ball for 18 minutes. he is I can't even imagine how far he ran yesterday. How many miles he ran on the field yesterday in sprinting? and if you ask Lamarion, he's gonna be like, give me the ball every single time. But I guess as a coach, you just have to, you got to know when enough is enough. And that's why we pay those guys a big bucks to make those decisions.
and maybe as Lamarion continues to, mature and be an older player and knowing inside and, having trust with other dudes on the squad that they can, could be capable of doing that. Then, he has a discussion with the coach from return to return of whether he should be in there or not. I don't know.
it's, it's situational. I think if you're, if you're talking about a really close game, like it was yesterday. And we don't necessarily need a kickoff return for a touchdown to get back in the game, right? We just need a guy who's sure handed, he's not going to drop the ball, catch the ball, get your 20 25 yards, maybe just call the fair catch and make sure you get a hold of the ball. Um, if we got those guys in there, we don't necessarily need him to keep gassing himself.
So I think it's situational. Yesterday is a close game and I'm not saying it's, I don't really know if it had any effect on him yesterday. He played a great game. But. Um, if you don't need the big play at that time, maybe just put somebody else in like you're saying there and keep, keep him, keep him fresh because we're going to need him on defense. You know, there's so many guys in the return game that can just catch the ball and get the yards and do whatever.
They don't have to be able to break this massive play
Yeah, and not even just fresh, but the opportunity for injury where I don't know that we're extremely deep at the corner position. Mike, you probably have a way better view of it than me, but you know, Lamarion has become more and more important throughout the season. I think at the beginning of the season, we were uncertain because he hadn't played a lot. at that position, he'd been a special teams guy primarily, but clearly he's on the field. All the time.
it becomes more important as, especially now that we're in conference
So we know that secondary was a position of concern going into the offseason. And they did well getting some, some guys in, but yeah, the depth really isn't quite to where they needed to be or wanted to be. So yeah, losing him would be devastating to us. but while we're on the discussion of secondary, that Rashad recent interception might be one of the best we've seen in years. I know I've been waiting. We've had good corners over the years, but we didn't have guys that went up and got the ball.
And he went up and got that diving catch. it was great to see. And he's been pretty damn good this year. Um, throughout the season, he's, he's, also turning into one of our better guys in the secondary.
Yeah, it's great to see, um. Uh, again, the young guys are the guys who have kind of come up, you know, make those plays. And to your point, the ball hawking, uh, secondary really, uh, compliments the front seven or eight. Uh, again, we talked about the defense, a lot about the defense. Yeah. We had, we had 41 points on the board, but, uh, they played phenomenally in all aspects of it. A couple, you know, busted coverages in the back end there to, to let them squeak out of some things.
But I mean, yeah, that, that play. Jared and I were watching it, and I mean, that was a, that was a heck of a play right there to go out and get that ball, beat the receiver and make them pay for that.
I want to note this just because he's a Juco guy. Reeson is. Caderis Calloway is. Ramello Murphy and Kelby Williams are. Four of our most impactful new guys are all Juco transfers. And I've seen a lot of fans criticize recruiting out of the Juco's a lot. And I think you need to know that we're having success here with some of these Juco guys. And it's definitely a well worth going back to.
That's a great, great observation, Mike. And I think some of what the fans, their reluctance might be recency bias. Because I know Bobby was recruiting a lot of Juco guys towards the end, and it was not panning out well. for the most part. really not panning out well. But, Ricky and staff have done a very good job with
Yeah, it's uh, it's interesting. We, you look at our first teams, we were heavily Juco laden, right? This is pre transfer portal. Uh, I don't know the numbers of Juco guys, but you look at like some of our, yeah, like some of our early, you know, like our offensive
There was a
Jensen, like there are a lot of Juco guys out there that came in, uh, competed at a high level and put us where we were, um, you know, with our early team. And then you mentioned, okay. Uh, the lack of success near the end of Bobby's time. And then now with, with the guys now, like.
You know, it's crazy, like the, the recruiting and transfer portal, like what that does to the game, uh, every year, especially when you're non power five, like it's really, uh, uh, not a role of the dice, but the, the work that coaches put in, like, you really see that manifest on the field. Like we lost, like, I don't have the numbers in front of me. How many of our, our big guys left, uh, they had a great year and left, went to a bigger program. Uh, but then to kind of restack the deck.
Wow. Restack the deck. There we go. Um, with the players that we did and success that we've had again, we've been competing in football games. Um, I think we're a lot better than we were last year. Uh, and really to do that with all the churn and really find those, those talent. Whether JUCO, whether it was transfer portal, uh, really exciting to see from the coaching staff.
Yeah, to that, uh, point you made about, about Bobby Aaron, uh, he, I think kept going with the Juco transfers because it worked so well for us in those first few years. Like, like Pusko was saying, we had some ridiculous talent that came out of Juco transfers. Uh, I mean, a half of our team was like, I feel like they were from California, right? And back then it worked so well. I mean, why, why wouldn't you keep going with it? And I think, yeah, maybe it didn't work out for him in the end.
Uh, but I think that's really what it was in, in that recency bias is it's crazy because It didn't work out in the end, so people said, Oh, what the heck? Why would you do that? But they forgot that five years, 10 years before, or not 10 years, but five years before that, it was working really, really well. And it's working now. So JUCO transfers, I mean, I have no issue with JUCO transfers. I have no issue with transferring.
I transferred, you know, I, I wasn't a, I didn't come straight from high school to ODU. So, um, the JUCO guys is, is a huge thing. And the transfer portal, obviously us being the second highest amount of transfers in, in college football this year. You know, I like them. I think they're great. I don't mind it at all.
Kind of hard to beat Colorado on the number of transfers, huh?
And they, they, they beat us by 10. So they had 68. We had 58 new players. you didn't know the guys we lost that were transferring up. so Damien Charity went to Ball State. I don't, wouldn't really. Count that one. But Blake Watson goes to Memphis, Ollie Jennings goes to Virginia Tech. And, what was this? We had a couple guys go to Colorado, one go to Penn State, and then we had an offensive lineman go to UCLA.
all positions that, I don't know, it's, it's tough to just replace those guys, but Ollie Jennings is hurt this season. Not really. But it would be nice to have him back this year.
Yes, it would not that our guys aren't playing well, but he was just that kid's good.
So yeah, Chaz Wallace, Alonzo Ford, Kadir Kunta was the UCLA guy. I think we did really damn good getting what we did in this year. And, the offense is working. I think we need to know last year how bad this offense was and how hard it was to watch. Aaron, what, what was that stat you brought up earlier
Oh yeah, uh, we've, we've heard a lot of people talking about it and it's social media talking about, our offense this year and what should we do and do we like what the coach is doing and, blah blah blah. If you look back to the last five games of last season, We scored 54 points. That's not even 11 points per game. So as we talk about, we mentioned recency bias earlier. That recency bias is even more recent and people forget how anemic our offense was last year.
Especially the second half of the season leading into the season. So there has been real change this year. Is it where we want it to be yet? No, it's not. If we're real with ourselves and we have an unbiased, viewpoint on this and Mike and I get it all the time talking to our buddies who are podcasters for other teams like this past week and talking to the guys at Marshall, they don't have a dog in a fight and looking at Old Dominion.
When they look at it without bias and without the passion that we all have, because we're emotional. All of us are diehard Old Dominion fans, and the people that are on the message boards are, they wouldn't be on the boards if they weren't diehard Old Dominion fans. and myself as the Commander's fan, probably say they suck even more than they really suck. they have sucked over the years, but, probably not as much as I say they do. Because we care so much. So, 54 points in the last 5 games.
If we're honest with ourselves, we can see that there have been vast improvements in this offense. There's a lot more improvement to go. But, we're in a completely different position than we were, you know, back last November. When the season ended for us.
Yeah, that's, I mean, that's really an excellent point to look at the, the corner that we've turned and the momentum that we've had. And, uh, again, love the passion of everybody. Right. Um, you know, we're, we're not. a winning record right now. We've lost some games. Um, and it's easy to say, you know, fire the O. C. Fire the head coach short leash. Like again, love that passion.
Uh, but again, when you look at where we've come, the journey that coach Ronnie's been on first for the covid season. Uh, now we're number two in the transfer portal volume. Uh, and I think the product we had on the field last year to this year, like we've improved vastly. Right. Like we are competing and, uh, kind of the double it up here. Like one of the really, the positives of the Marshall game, again, we lost, we all want to win. I like the response from the team, from the coaches.
Like I was happy that we won the commerce game. I was also happy that it happened. That's a wake up call. Hey guys, like need more film time. We need to do better. Like we need to be more, uh, uh, execute better. Like really we had that happen against a not so great team. So we didn't get smoked. We won the game and we came back and really responded well against Marshall. And like I said, we're building that momentum.
We're competing, which again, if you looked over the past five or six years, there are some times where we didn't necessarily compete against these better teams.
Yeah, we've lost three games that we were in, you know, and we were winning two of them Virginia Tech this first game of the season to tap Virginia Tech. It's a lot of emotions. It's a brand new team. It's You know, there's just a lot going on. And yeah, we had a couple turnovers and we lost a decently close game, especially if those turnovers didn't happen. It's a really close game. Uh, Wake Forest, I mean, that's a good football team and we're beating them.
Tomorrow, was it 24 to seven in the middle of the third quarter? Like I We're playing well. And then yesterday, okay, we're up 21 3. I know we lost those games, but we're playing well. And it's a young team. Young in terms of how long they've been there. I don't know if the guys are... Those transfers, I mean, they're juniors. You can't really count that as young anymore. But they haven't been here for a long time. So they haven't built that momentum up as a team yet. But we're getting there.
You know, we're playing well. We're
to add to that? So, in two of our three losses, we had the ball with two minutes to go and a chance to go win the game. I don't know if you guys remember how bad last year was, but I many games were, we, were you actually still alive in the fourth quarter? It wasn't.
How many games were we at the game in the fourth quarter?
Yeah, we had great attendance last season, and if you looked at the stands in the fourth quarter, that attendance wasn't there anymore.
We were, okay, let's go get some pizza because we're down by 30. So, you know, that's tough. You know, you don't want to be that way, but it's tough to watch when we're playing like we played last year. And this year is a, it's a big difference.
Yeah, I had a buddy who said he saw kind of the turn happening between the second and third quarter, and he goes, I'm turning it off. And I said, this is not last year. We can score fast. We can come back and win this. and he's texting me in the fourth quarter. We're still alive. Yeah, so.
Yep.
to have this type of offense again, because it's been a minute where we can come back on anybody.
Yeah.
It's, it's
Um, if we figure the passing out, if we can figure the passing out, that just be mediocre at
Yeah, it's those, coming back to those little things, right? We're a young team. It's, uh, only a handful of games that they've played against, you know, non internal competition. Like, that's what you expect. Again, we all want everybody to be 100 percent successful and just crush it. But like, These little things happen with young teams, new teams, right, new coordinators.
Uh, if we hit on those little things or even half of those little things, like, we're, we're talking about our record a lot differently than what we are now. Which again, like, uh, I know Monarch Nation, I know everybody, like, I mean, heck, like, uh, we all want to win, but really when we, we kind of, uh, fact check ourself to, to where we've been, uh, and the journey that ODU football's been on. Uh, we're definitely on the up again.
A lot of good momentum, really excited to see what's happening on the field. Again, still love to win, but, uh, can only complain so much.
All right. I think we need to talk about Southern Miss at this point. we are going to Southern Miss game is on Saturday at 6 p. m. So be under the lights in Hattiesburg. This is a Southern Miss team who is 1 4 and on a 4 game losing streak. Their lone win came in Week 1 against Alcorn State. the week after that, they went to Tallahassee and like most teams in the Sun Belt, they got toasted. 66 13. They then turn around and come, play at home against Tulane, lose 21 3.
At home, and the slide gets worse. They, uh, play an Arkansas State team who everyone thinks Butch Jones is on the hot seat. Needs to go and lose 44 to 37 on the road. And this past week they played Texas State and lose 50 to 36. And I don't think that score is really indicative of that game. I don't think they were ever really alive in this one. This is a team that badly needs a win. And we're going into Hattiesburg, kind of feeling the same way, I think.
they were down 28 to 3 after the first quarter yesterday. So yeah, they were never really in this game. They scored 26 in the second half. it says a 14 point game, but that was not a 14 point game in my mind. just a lot of garbage points.
Short of the commerce game, we've been coming out really strong and scoring a lot of points. I'd really like to see us do that again, which I think we will. I think that's, that's how we play. Obviously the commerce game was weird. I think we overlooked them, but I think we will come out strong and score some points right away. I really want to see us just keep the foot on the gas we have. That's, I mean, I get it trying to be conservative and not make mistakes.
Uh, but against a team like this, that's one in four that has probably no confidence right now because the only team they beat was. If we can get those early points like we've been doing, and then keep the foot on the gas. I mean, I'm not saying we need to score 75 points, but it'd be nice to see us, you know, keep it up with this high scoring offense. Because it is high scoring, even though we don't keep the ball well, we still score a lot of points.
And, and do it in a game where our defense doesn't have to be on the field the whole time and see how they play. I mean, I could see us, if we do, if we can put those two things together. Against a team like this, we should be able to, to walk away with a, not an easy one, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, I'm looking at this game very similarly to the game. We just played it. Marshall except a team that does not have the defense that Marshall has. We've got to stop the run. You've got a very good running back and frank or junior. He's the workhorse. We've got to stop him and we got to make Billy Wells beat us. He was 21 for 44, 275 yards. He averaged a little over six yards per reception, two touchdowns and interception.
we've got to make him beat us, but we're going to be able to score the ball. if we bring our offense that we've shown that we have, we just did it. Marshall, we're going to score points. We did it against Marshall. He's got a. I'm much better defense than Southern Miss does. so I'm actually feeling, I don't want to jinx this, but I feel very good about this game. And I think that our coaching staff and our players should as well. They obviously have to put the work in this week.
They've got to, really put their nose to the grindstone and be prepared and know exactly what they're going in for. But if they do what we know that they can do. This should be a game that Old Dominion wins.
Yeah, I think it's, uh, the preparation, the mentality heading into that game is, is key. Uh, we, we've shown we can compete with, uh, you know, undefeated, uh, Sunbelt teams, you know, fight, uh, the, the top of the ACC. Um, but then we've also shown that we can come out and, uh, not perform so well. I'll just leave it at that. Um, so again, just, you know, the, the. We've learned the right way to prepare and head into this game.
Again, from a team physicality perspective, we know we're going to put a good team on the field. It's just how we show up and how we execute. Uh, again, I, I think the team's kind of learned the right way to do it. Uh, and that's, that's really the big question mark for me heading into the weekend.
I got a, I got a question that I want to talk about. Grant Wilson started off the season playing really well. You know, obviously against, against Wake Forest, that was tough. That's a good ACC football team. And he didn't have the greatest game, but we, we were in the game. You know, I would say the defense is what kept us in that game. And then he has a bad game. A really weird, bad game. And he gets benched in that game. And then yesterday, and you guys might've talked about this yesterday.
Come, it comes out and he doesn't get to play at all. What do we think, or do you guys know, Mike, have you talked to anybody they're going to do with, with him and Jack and the difference between the two guys? I like Grant Wilson. I think he's a good quarterback.
I think maybe he missed some, missed some, uh, plays he could have had in those two games and that's why he got benched, but I don't know if, if he's, if I wouldn't say Jackson better thrower than Grant Wilson and they're both quick, they're both mobile. Um, so are we going to go back to him or do we, are we saying Jackson starter from now on and it's this, that's it.
You wanna take this, Mike, or do you want me to
Well, I will say that this week in practice, I was told that Jack got all of the first team snaps and Grant got all the second team snaps. So there was no real competition this week. They were planning on Jack starting the entire week. Because if you're kind of not decided on the two of them, you're going to split those snaps with the first team between the two of them. So they were committed all week to Jack. Ah. But I don't know how it's going to go the rest of the season.
this was Jack's first start. That's worth noting. maybe you give him one more shot and see if it improves. And if it's bad in the first half, maybe go to Grant. I don't know. it's anyone's guess. They play their cards so close to their chest in this program that you don't really know. It's hard to get that information to know what's really happening. I know I've seen a lot of calls for Colton Joseph lately, but he's not getting those second team snaps even.
So even if he gets to play, is he even ready?
I don't know, question for you fellas, from a player's perspective, in a sports psychology type of question. Obviously, Grant started, Grant got benched after having a Let's just say a not stellar quarter plus play, and throwing three bad interceptions. And, so now Jack has his first start, and I'll say he has two poor interceptions. We won't even count the last one, because that, there's a number of different things that we could attribute to that one on.
If the coaching staff were to decide to Let's say, move from Jack back to Grant. Now, do you have two quarterbacks who are looking over their shoulders, they go, hey, the first mistake I have, I'm done. No, as, what, what's going on here, is the coaching staff almost in a position where if they, they think if they make this move, now, they don't even have a quarterback because your two dudes are uncertain as to what their futures are.
Well the old adage is, if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks, right? So that kind of plays into that point.
it's an, it, it's real interesting. Uh, never a situation to be in, but like. You want the guy that can bounce back, face that adversity. I mean, we look at, you look at any good quarterback, right? I mean, sure, you're going to have the quarterbacks that are stellar all the time. But how do you respond to that adversity? Again, both guys played well, and then they didn't play so well.
Uh, so now it's, are you going to throw them in for a dog fight, you know, put them head to head and say, Hey, best man wins. Um, again, give them that opportunity to reassert themselves and then go out and show us like, Hey, this is our guy. Uh, again, it's never an ideal situation, but, uh, again, I imagine those guys are competitors and, you know, throw them back in the ring and say, Hey, best man wins, like go out and get it.
Um, again, never ideal, but I think to have two guys that we, we see what they can do. Uh, which is they can do a lot. So, like, let's, let's encourage them, throw them back in, give them that chance and go. Sure, you're always going to look over your shoulder, but for the, the good quarterback, you're going to lock in and you're going to look ahead. You're never going to look back. I mean, you look at like Taylor, like those guys, like they never look back.
You go, you compete, you continue to compete, you continue to push, like never look over your shoulder. And I hope that's the response of whoever comes ahead. Like they lock in, like it's, it's been bumpy, you know, trials, tribulations, like first start, uh, you know, first start at FBS, like all these different things, like lock in, be the guy that the team needs you to be and keep pushing forward.
Jonathan, you make a great point there, and I guess I'm gonna take us a little bit off track, Mike, so pull us back in if it gets too far, but you talked about Taylor taking it and just never relinquishing it. obviously he wasn't planning on coming in when he did that first time. So you get put in a position, let's just say, hey, Now, Jack didn't come in because of injury, he came in because of play, but it's his job and he obviously doesn't want to look back.
But in a situation, looking through Grant's eyes, kind of the similar eyes as Thomas DeMarco, except it was the injury thing, as that other dude... how do you continue to prepare and be ready to be that guy, maybe from experience and watching Thomas on how he did that, to be ready at a moment's notice. because at some point, at some point during the season, whether it's Jack or it's Grant, the other guy is going to be called upon. Something's going to happen.
It's a long season, injuries happen, all kinds of illnesses happen. How do you be ready for next man up?
Jared, I don't know if you want to jump in, but I know I was just going to a quick point and then I'll kick it over to you, Jared. But like, uh, DeMarco went down with that high ankle sprain. Uh, we, we knew Taylor was there, but DeMarco was playing well. DeMarco went down. The thing about Thomas DeMarco. Right. He, he lost his spot because of injury. And then Taylor, you know, had the success that he did.
Taylor never looked back, but if Taylor did look back, Thomas was right there nipping at his heels, like Thomas was ready to go. And again, like he, he got thrown into opportunities that, that when they called his name, he was ready to go. So like, that's a big difference. Like those are two competitors and guys that help push each other. And again, Taylor moved in and kept pushing forward. But again, if you did look back, Thomas was right there, you know, chomping at his heels. I
Yeah, that's the first point I was going to make is the exact same thing. Thomas was always ready. If Taylor had thrown two picks in his first game, and I'm not saying bench Jack because he threw two picks. That's not our three picks or whatever it was. Uh, that's not what I'm saying. But if he, if that had happened, Thomas would have gone back in the game and Thomas wouldn't have let it go either. If he wasn't injured.
There's no way he would have given that spot back, you know, and that's the mentality you have to Um, you know pluska you never dealt with this. You never really had anybody behind you that Was ever gonna have a chance at taking your
Yeah, because he kicked the ball like 80 yards. I mean it was ridiculous
There was no chance Uh, I for me and you guys might even know this because he never really ended up panning out for odu But I had a guy, you know come in behind me that He pushed me a little bit, Ricky Seegers. Um, I know things didn't work out for him, uh, at ODU, but he went to Richmond and did really well. I mean, he made some long field goals at Richmond and that's the stuff he did at, at ODU in practice. And he came in in his freshman year.
And of course, when you're a freshman, you think you're going to be the best there is. And I mean, I even told Z at one point that I was going to, uh, I was going to punt farther than Pusko when I came in, when I transferred in, but, you know, as we know, that was never going to happen. Uh, uh, but you know, Ricky came in and, and tried his best to take my spot. And that was hard for me at first, cause that was just not something I was used to.
Um, but it 100 percent pushed me to say, look, I, I have to lock in. And I am not giving this away and then I didn't and they, you know, he ended up, uh, not getting the red shirt because I got hurt, uh, in the Georgia state game. And then the next year he was like, Hey man, I don't care if I'm getting a red shirt ever. I'm coming for you. I'll start. And Ricky and I are friends to this day.
You know, we still talk sometimes and, uh, he came out and he had a better camp than me in my senior year. And I was like, crap, I have got to push. Or else I'm going to get benched. And it pushed me and it pushed me to push me and I was not going to give it up. And I had a pretty good season and played really well and didn't get benched because of it. Uh, and that's just the mentality these guys have to have. It doesn't matter if you're the starter or you're not the starter right now.
Ricky came in and he was like, I'm not the starter and I'm going to be the starter. And sure. It didn't work out for him, but that boy was close and he was close because of just how hard he worked. He was never going to let me.
Take a break and have a bad game because he wasn't gonna have a bad practice and these guys It's a little different because they've both been playing and they're you know, playing well not playing well doing good things doing bad things but in my opinion Aaron to your question, there's no reason that competition like that and the fear of not playing should make you buckle And, and not play well anymore and be too scared of making mistakes.
If you're scared of making mistakes, you shouldn't be out there. You're playing in front of thousands and thousands of people, and you're playing to keep a program, you know, moving forward. You have all these things that you're playing for, and you cannot let somebody else's competition of you, you know, make you take a step back or get scared or whatever. They told us every single year, Hey, I'm bringing a guy in that's going to beat you.
Hey, I'm bringing a guy in, I'm recruiting a guy right now, he's better than you. He's going to beat you and you can't let it happen. Luckily for Plisco, he never even had the, uh, the opportunity for that. Nobody was close, but, uh, yeah, you just have to have that mentality of. I'm going to win no matter what, and I'm not going to make mistakes. And, you know, the competition is just better competition always pushed me. It always pushed Taylor.
It always pushed Zach. Zach came in and he wasn't the starter, right? He was a freshman. He wasn't the starter and he had a ton of guys. In front of him and behind him that were really good receivers. We had an incredible receiving core back then. And he said, no, I'm playing and I'm going to be the best. And he worked his butt off and he knew if he started dropping the ball, what's going to happen. You're going to get benched because these guys right behind me are really good.
If you don't let it happen, then, you know, you don't let it happen. So that's what these guys, I think that's what they have to do. They have to just have the mentality of, I'm going to win, and both of them should have that mentality.
alright, so we need to switch gears back to Southern Miss at this point, I think. thank you both for going into detail on what it means to be pushed. I'm looking at Old Dominion's offensive and defensive stats and Southern Miss's. So Southern Miss is scoring 25. 8 points per game. They are giving up 39 per game. Obviously giving up a huge spot to Florida State kind of skews those numbers a bit, but there are some issues on their defense that we should be able to exploit.
They are giving up five point yards per carry. And 197 yards per game, 13 touchdowns on the ground, over a thousand yards rushing on them already through their, was it five games they've played? yeah, if we can get Wicks and Callaway going, Roche going, it could be a lot of fun on Saturday. Their defense has put them in a bad spot.
They have one of the best running backs in mid major football in Francor Jr. But he's only averaging 66 yards per game because they're going to, they have to go to the pass so much in the second half because of how much they're down. they basically have to abandon the run because they got to score points fast and that's kind of the way to beat them. You get up early and you make them pass. So Frank Gore doesn't beat you. And QB thing.
Southern Miss has had their issues the past couple years of finding a quarterback. And finally, they've settled on Billy Wiles. But... Last year, the year before that, they had Frank Gore Jr. kicking ass, and their defense was playing well, but they did not have a quarterback. So it shows you kind of what happens if you can't find that guy, but Yeah, I digress. We got to run the ball on this team and score points. Put them in a hole.
to that point, excellent opportunity on that time of possession to flip, flip the script, you know, make a team pay, uh, you know, and fight like we have had, uh, you know, the stats you mentioned on, on the ground game and, uh, kind of one dimensional offense, excellent opportunity for the team to go out there.
You know, looking at their stats, in games, the other teams that, you know, that are running against them, they are giving up chunk plays. If you look at some of them, yeah, Arkansas State didn't really have it. But if you look at even Alcorn State, Florida State, they are giving up 15 yards per carry to some guys, 10 yards per carry to some guys, 12 yards per carry to some guys. Uh, and that, I think that just bodes well for us. That's what we do.
That's what we like to do is what we've been doing all year long. You know, if we can, if we can get those chunk plays, like you said, Mike, get, get those two guys going, Wicks and, uh, I almost said Holloway there for a second. uh, Calloway, uh,
one
uh, uh, those chunk plates could really blow this game open pretty quick. And if they give it up, we better exploit it.
Yeah, the other thing I kind of want to focus in on is, up until yesterday, we had been really good in avoiding a lot of penalties. I don't know if it's the crews we got or if we're actually playing good fundamental football, but that was a clear issue yesterday. And it appears it's an issue for Southern Miss. They are getting more penalties than their opposition, but they actually do have a good time possession. They're averaging 32 minutes a game or almost 33 minutes a game.
So another team that knows how to control the clock.
Something's got to give right?
Risky business for us.
Yeah.
When you go to the penalties, Coach Wilder used to say to us, uh, I feel like it was every game, but maybe not. Uh, but how are you going to respond when you get punched in the mouth today? Because you're gonna. It's football. You're gonna get punched in the mouth. Somebody's gonna do something to make you mad. Somebody's gonna hit you hard. Somebody's gonna, you know, beat you and score a touchdown. And hopefully talk a little bit of smack to you afterwards.
How do you respond when that happens? And like you said, Mike, we've been pretty good this year with those penalties. Obviously, yesterday we had a couple of dumb ones. Uh, but if we can... Punch them in the mouth early. We can do some of those things if they're prone to penalties. I know I keep saying it, but I just get excited when I, when I think we're gonna win games.
I think we can blow this game out with the way the, the way the two offenses look, the way the two defenses look in terms of the stats and those penalties. I mean, this game looks good for us.
Now, this is a game we have to, this is the type of game you have to win. so far we've lost three games in games where we were, the underdog by two touchdowns and we had a shot to win all three of them. this is a game where the spread it's not out yet. It's probably going to be either Southern Miss by a couple of points or us by a couple of points. It's going to be. I don't know who's going to be favored.
Maybe them just because of the road team and they'll give them the three points, but it shouldn't be more than like a three or four point spread here.
You think that's gonna happen?
What's that? I,
I think we got to be the favorite in this game.
I just don't know how Vegas views us statistically yet because they keep using last year's numbers against us. I mean, 14 and a half against Marshall. what was it? 17 that it opened for wake for us.
Hey kid, here you go. Here's ESPN's matchup predictor. I just clicked on that. You see that? I don't know if you can see this right here, but the matchup predictor on ESPN says 56 and a half percent to Southern Miss. I'm surprised.
The API still, it doesn't have enough data yet from this year to throw out last year's bad data.
sample size and to that point of this game, you know, you never want to say a must win, but you look at the remaining games on the schedule, uh, this is the most beatable opponent we have left, right? When you look at a strength of football teams on the field, uh, we definitely have a rough Uh, six games to close the season. So, you know, we definitely got to come out, go want to know, uh, against Southern Miss and, and take that momentum, uh, you know, the following week and a half
What do you got Aaron?
I was just wondering if this was the part mike will you ask us for our predictions or are we not there yet?
I I think we are there. We're at a minute and twenty... This is, this is the longest we've recorded in a long time. This is an hour and twenty minutes at this point.
We might we might have to split this bad boy into two
knew, uh, you know, the, the specialist talks so much, huh?
That's right
Hey, everybody knew I talked a lot. There's nothing we can do about that.
Alright. So, we're gonna go around the circle and, predict what we, we think, how we see this game going. I'm gonna give it to you Jared.
I gotta go first.
If you want to give it to Jonathan, that's fine.
No, no, no, no, no, no. We're, we're, we're, we're
Yeah, you're first because you kick off and then he's last because he punts.
there we go. We'll, we'll, we'll go with that. You know, I keep saying that I think we have the opportunity to blow this game out of the water if we play it the right way. I'm not saying I don't think we're gonna play it the right way. I think we're gonna score points. I think they're good at controlling the time possession, like you said, Aaron. Uh, so they're gonna wear, I, I think their running game could possibly help them a little bit in this, like you said, FCO Junior's really good.
I'm going to go 38 to 27, I think is what's going to happen. I think they're going to get a couple of field goals. I think they're going to get a couple of touchdowns. But I think we're going to score this weekend. I really do. I think we're going to score. And I'll give us a field goal in the end because I'm a kicker. So, you know, I like to do that. Uh, but, but, uh, and Ethan, Ethan's a, Ethan's a good kicker. I like him. Uh, so I'll give us a field goal.
And yeah, I think we're going to go 38, 38, 27 is my prediction.
Okay.
Alright Aaron, so you're second up since we're gonna let Jared go fourth as you said.
Alright, I'm very optimistic about this week. And I know I always pick us to win by three with an Ethan Sanchez field goal, but not this week. I think we take the momentum of what we did right in this game, especially on defense. We're gonna look to do the same thing in bottling up right gore. I have no, no reason to think that we're not going to. We've been very successful in doing that.
I don't know who's going to play quarterback, but whoever it is, they're going to play better than they've played the last two games. I see us winning this game by two touchdowns. 41 27 Old Dominion. We have yet to lose two games in a row, and this week is not going to be the week that happens.
Alright, I'm trying to look at total sacks. They have 12 sacks on the year, so we finally play a team that is not really that great against a quarterback, which is a good thing. we've shown our rushing game works, and it can be extremely explosive. I feel really good about this game. but this is really a gut check for both teams. You gotta win this week or those bowl chances just keep getting worse and worse.
they're 1 4, we're 2 3. It is gut check time for both of these teams and whoever wins this... Really came up to that, so it's going to be really interesting to see who does take this game. But, we got the better defense. Running game, I think, is comparable in both. quarterback play, they have the edge. Billy Wiles has been better than what we've put on the field so far. But, our defense is the difference in this one. I'm going to go 31 24, Old Dominion.
Guess I'll bring it home. Uh, yeah, uh, definitely. Yeah, I think it's going to be an entertaining game, right? The both teams will come out of the gate hot. They want to win this game. They need to win this game. Uh, but you know, to the points that we've previously talked about, I think that we're going to use our run game to really put the defense back on its heels, kind of sell it on the run. And then whoever is playing quarterback, uh, you know, hopefully we get our receivers back healthy.
I think we really start to show what we can do on both sides of the offense. Um, and then I think the defense is going to continue to do what they do, make them one dimensional and really capitalize, you know, those playmakers we have, uh, make a difference. So I'm going to go 45, 24 old dominion.
I think they're going to score some late points, but I think we're going to show what this offense really can do, you know, super excited, you know, here we are Sunday, I'm like, is it game time already?
Let's go!
I love it, fellas. we thank you so much for joining us today. And we'll remind you, Gary did pick Ultimate in to win this game by 14 points. He didn't give us a score prediction, but that is Gary's prediction for Southern Miss. Thank you for joining us, and Go Monarchs!
Go Monarchs!
Go Monarchs!
Go Monarchs.
it guys.
Thanks guys.
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