Hi, Monarch Nation. This is Krista Harrell, ODU Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations, and you're listening to the Monarchist Podcast.
Ricky Rahne:podcast
Mike:Monarchs Monarch Nation, we are back with you on a Victory Sunday. Old Dominion beats Georgia State 25 24 to become bowl eligible. What a comeback. OGU comes back down from down 21 0 to win. It's the third largest comeback in Old Dominion history. What a game. Let's talk about it. Gary, Aaron, how we feeling?
Gary:And. I gotta admit, I am physically, mentally, and emotionally drained after the past week, but man, it feels good sitting here, having that crazy comeback win, seeing a basketball win today in person, feeling, feeling awesome.
Aaron:Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. I was feeling drained before the basketball game. I think those guys gave me kind of a little shot of an adrenaline with the ending and winning. So I'm feeling okay at the moment, but yesterday was full of so many highs and lows and just weird bounces and so many things that had to happen just perfectly and in the perfect order. What a freaking game, man.
Mike:What a game indeed. I don't know where to start here. I think we should start in the first half and it wasn't pretty, but I guess we'll start with the toughest part of the first half is LeMayron James. A call that was originally called targeting. He gets knocked out, he's put on a stretcher and is taken off in the cart. Hard to see, but we were happy to see him on the field last night at the end of the game. It was. Pretty amazing that he made it back in time. Happy. It was nothing too serious. Obviously it was serious, but it's nothing like as bad as we all thought it could be. I'll add Georgia state's players dancing when the targeting rule was overturned, was really bad and tough to see and tough to watch. I still can't believe they were dancing. Like, even if you're happy. You gotta know to just hide it at that moment.
Aaron:Well, yeah, I think to be clear and to, you know, for folks who may not have been there or seen it, what Mike is referring to is Lemarian was still down. You still down on the field still being put on the stretcher had not been taken off the field yet. This was happening. It was, yeah, it was a bit. Actually, it was a lot more than a bit, but it was very disconcerting. That was a huge moment in the game. You know, he's got. Friends and family on the team, like that was a big emotional blow to not only the fans, who a lot of them are very invested in him being a, you know, a local student athlete that we, you know, really want the best for, but his teammates were visibly shaken some so much so that at the end of the game, we could still tell. But That was a big moment in the game from the very start.
Mike:I will add Ricky in a post game noted that he might be the most liked player on the team. No one dislikes slow Marion on the team, which when you have a hundred plus dues on your team and not one of them dislikes you. That says a lot about his character and who he is as a person. So very happy to see that it wasn't as bad as we all thought it could be.
Gary:Yeah, it was scary seeing him down like that, the face mask getting taken off and put on a stretcher and mobilized and going out. Big feeling of relief to see him on the field at the end of the game. Being able to, I think all of us went up and talked to him and he was good. We were happy to see that. I mean, he's definitely, I think a fan favorite along with the team favorite. You know what, I have a big issue there of that targeting call getting overturned. It was called targeting on the field. I think it was pretty clear on the replay review. It was crown of the helmet right into the head. I don't know What conclusive evidence you could find from that review that would overturn the targeting call on the field especially when you kind of see the result of the play and someone getting injured, you know The targeting was called the injury is there. There's nothing to overturn it I thought that was a pretty poor job of officiating, by the sunbelt which you know It's not Coming as a big shocker, especially as we go later into the game. But at the end of the day, though, I'm just glad to hear that Lemarian's all right. You know, he is expected to play in the bowl game when that gets announced. So just, I'm going to, I'm going to take away the good news there and save my heat for the officials, or maybe Mike, you got some heat for him.
Mike:Yeah, we're not done with the officials yet. Next play Javon Harvey and a cornerback get into it. Javon Harvey is on the ground. Whistle goes. Long after the whistle, the corner is still pushing down on Javon as he's laying on the ground. No flags, nothing. And at this point, it's clear the refs have lost control of the situation. And they're just letting it get worse. Like, we were really lucky. There was not a bench clearing brawl at this point. And that's all on officials. It's all on the officials. They have to keep control and just do their damn job. And they didn't do that in the early in this game.
Aaron:Yeah, I really think that they lucked out. I mean, that game could have really gone the wrong direction there, from, and gotten extra chippy, and it was a little bit. Fortunately, some players went by, and there weren't any things that went happen, and it just kind of diffused itself. But, it wasn't because the officials took charge of that game and made sure that didn't happen. Yeah, it was, it could have got ugly real quick.
Gary:And we also do know that some of that heat from what was happening on the field did kind of go into the stands a little bit. So we do know that was going on as well. I won't get into details on any specific situations. But I think some ODU fans let the Georgia State sideline know how they felt about that dancing when Lemarion was down. So kudos to those that were happy to voice their frustrations there with the Georgia State sideline. I've
Mike:Yeah. And then there's another tough part about the first half. Our defensive leader, our All American, goes down with a really tough injury. We see him later come out with a full leg brace on and he doesn't come back in the game. Those two guys going down for our defense, it's clear it just impacted everybody in that first half.
Aaron:Yeah, you got both those guys down and Terry Jones just pacing the sidelines just wanting to be in that game so bad. I mean, you could tell he was invested in every single play. You know, Gary was commenting to me, it's like, look, he's calling the plays. He, you know, he just was chomping at the bit to get in. Obviously, we'll probably talk about him a little bit in the second half. But yeah. Just about, not everything, but just about everything that could go wrong for us in the first half did.
Gary:never seen a player who wasn't able to play be more engaged than Terry Jones. Like, It doesn't necessarily surprise me or I think either one of you guys because we've watched Terry for a long time now and he is intense. He isn't had to win it. He will play hurt. He will probably play missing a limb if he had to. But he was, I mean, incredibly engaged and he did end up walking at senior day. I think we've probably seen him for the last time at SB Ballard, but man, that's, We'll talk about it more in a little bit when we talk about the end of the game, but just love that dude. That's all there is to it. Like he is a monarch through and through.
Mike:Yeah. Luckily the defense in the first half was able to force a couple of turnovers because other than that, there wasn't much that went right for us in that first half. What do we have, 15 yards passing at the half?
Gary:Yeah, first half stats weren't pretty, we had three first downs. We were oh, for seven on third down, oh, for three on fourth down, 44 total yards, 15 through the air, 29 on the ground. About the only thing that we didn't do in the first half was turn the ball over, which is good. We did force two turnovers in the first half, which I think kept this game within distance. I mean. You have to shout out the rally by the defense, losing Lemaria, not having Terry, losing Jason to keep it a three score game at halftime when your offense couldn't get out of the driveway at all. You know, big shout out to those guys taking that next man up mentality and playing really well to keep us in that game where a comeback was possible.
Mike:Yeah shout out to Nolan Johnson and Ashton Wittner, two huge interceptions that we desperately needed to keep it in arm's length to have a chance to even come back, cause if you don't get those, we weren't stopping them on the ground in the first half. And we weren't stopping them through the air very often either. So those two picks were humongous. Cause this could have easily been a 35 to nothing game at half.
Gary:I was cheering so hard for Nolan hoping he was going to score because I knew that our offense at that point was not going to get in the end zone. I was like, Nolan, you got to go just like pointing the other way. He got 40 yards in that return, which was nice. But yeah, just kudos to that defense for stepping up. That was tough to overcome. Not having those three stalwarts on defense.
Mike:While we're talking about that defense and how well they played, I kind of want to start with Jason's replacement for this game, Koa Natola. He was fantastic in that middle linebacker spot. Eight tackles half, or one tackle for loss there was only maybe one play I saw where he didn't get the play done. And that's saying a lot for a redshirt freshman who hasn't had a lot of run to come in and fill the biggest shoes that ODU defense has ever left unfilled. I mean, Jason is arguably the best offensive player we've ever had at Old Dominion. Once he's gone, the record books are just gonna be Jason Henderson almost every single category. And Cohen filled in very nicely yesterday to the point where I don't know. He was fantastic. It's just
Aaron:I know where you're, I know where you're getting ready to go there. I think a lot of us are probably thinking the same thing. I was like Jason is irreplaceable. He's, I mean, he's a dude who just, he makes everybody on the field, on our team better when he's out there. But of course he goes down and everybody's heart just drops because we're used to seeing him out there every play. We don't know what it's like for him to not be out there. And You know, Cole's putting in a tough position to, I'm sure he was not expecting yesterday to go like it did. And wow. What a game for 47. I'm excited to see him play more in the years to come.
Gary:And he's kind of following the Jason Henderson track of, you know, kind of flying under the radar. Like, I mean, no one remembers Jason Henderson as the G squat guy, but he was at one point and go from special teams contributing where you can then to play like that. I want to give a huge shout out to Wayne Matthews who ended up with 16 tackles and forced to fumble because he stepped up and also filled in that Jason Henderson role a little bit and played exceptionally well. He was great. Sean Asbury was great. And Sean Asbury is dinged up. Like he came off the field injured one time. We know he's been nursing injuries for several weeks now. You know, he missed the game with the team down in Lynchburg. But he has come back and we have. You notice that he's back and he played really well yesterday, had a huge play with Terry Jones at the end of the
Aaron:And before we move on, I know that Javon had a tough game yesterday. I know how close he is to Lemurion and clearly that situation rattled him. And made it, It made it difficult for him to really have his head in the game, but he came up in a big way again on special teams with you know, two tackles, one, a really big one. So I know, you know, hats off to him for fighting through everything and kind of being out there and trying to do his best. But that was an impactful, tactful tackle.
Mike:Yeah, so done 21 nothing at half. I'm not sure much more we can talk about this first half other than it was bad.
Gary:I want to erase it from my eyeballs and my memory. That and the temperature also dropped right around halftime. It was pretty cold in the stands just because the way the wind was blowing and then it got a lot colder. And just kind of, that was just such a bad feeling, such a bad vibe in the stadium. It's cold, we were getting crushed. It's not fun. But man. Those of you who stuck around for the end of that one, you were
Aaron:Are we going to talk much about the third quarter?
Mike:Well, we have to because late in the third quarter is when our offense finally struck the end zone.
Aaron:Well, it's a good thing that before that happened, we all decided that shit wasn't working where we were sitting. And, actually, now that I think about it, my entire crew, you know, abandoned ship because of the weather. They were cold. I think, Mike, I think yours did as well. They fought through for longer than mine.
Mike:yeah, they lasted until two minutes to go in the third And I called you immediately saying, where are you at?
Aaron:and I was with Gary and we were like, okay, screw this, we're going to the beer garden. We got to change something up. And we headed down there and I'm always concerned. I don't like to watch the game down there because I'm short. I can never get a spot on the wall. I can't see the game. And usually what happens is I end up down there and then I leave and I go watch the game by myself. But fortunately, Scott Jackson was there, and he had a seat right on the wall. And we were all able to just roll up there and do a perfect viewing position for the rest of third quarter.
Gary:And my crew stay with me and my parents have flown in from Texas or at my house for Thanksgiving, put, drag them to the game. They were freezing cold but they were happy. They stayed, they had a blast down there in the beer garden. I think that's a, it's where a lot of your hardcores were hanging out towards the end of that game. And I'm glad everything happened right in front of us too.
Mike:Yeah, I'm still kind of recovering from the cold. I don't know if my feet have warmed up yet, but. That third quarter, that last drive of the third quarter really started turning things around for us. The big play was that play to Raymello Murphy for the touchdown, 31 yards. He came through yesterday in a big way on two different crucial drives.
Gary:Yeah. And that touchdown pass, I think. It was funny how you go from the lowest of lows watching that game and thinking it's over and you're just kind of biting your lip to the end of it. And then that one touchdown gets scored and the entire momentum, the entire feel everywhere completely changes. And that was just kind of the spark that needed to get our offense going and our team going. The defense responded really well after that. And then then the magic started happening there in the fourth quarter.
Mike:Yeah I don't know what was going on with Grant yesterday in those first few quarters, but it was not easy going for him in the offense, but they came alive at the right time and that fourth quarter was so much fun and crazy. I mean, how many times do we think we had this game lost in the fourth quarter?
Aaron:over and over again. But, we don't ever leave a freaking game. Because these are the types of things you miss if you leave games. And fortunately for all these crazy comebacks that Old Dominion has, I think we've probably been to all of them. And it's funny that it seems like we talked to about 20, 000 people who said they're there too, uh, which we know is statistically not possible considering looking around and seeing how many people were still there making noise. But it was awesome.
Mike:All right. So after the third quarter, it is 21 seven on our first drive of the fourth quarter, we hand the ball off on second and four to OB Sonny and he goes 67 yards to the house. We are in this game 21 14. I mean, that one was when it's like we are alive.
Gary:It was one of the few kind of running plays up the middle that worked for us in that game, and I have to, the offensive line had a tough game. There's no getting around that. They had a rough game, but on that play, they blocked it perfectly, and the star of That play is Jalen Butler. We talked about him with coach Ronnie last week. We've talked about him on here before. His impact in the running game is huge and go back and watch that play and watch the seal block that Jalen Butler puts on that linebacker that opened the hole for OB Sonny. Sonny had a great run afterwards. He toasted some guys in the secondary, did an amazing job around the football. But Jalen Butler takes that play from being a one yard gain to being a touchdown at a critical time to put us within one score. So I cannot say enough good things about Jalen Butler and how important he is to this team.
Aaron:so we score a touchdown there. I mean lightning fast getting us back in the game 21 to 14. The you know, Ethan comes out, you know, I've got to mention Ethan because I always do. Someone's got to these podcasts and the defense comes out and you get a three it out. You know, we're really rolling. Adam's going here.
Mike:Yeah.
Aaron:Mike.
Mike:I remember telling you and they're like, We could go from not just barely eking this game out, we could maybe blow them out in the fourth quarter if we keep hitting and it did not take long for that dream to end. On second down, pass to Javon Harvey is I don't know, tipped to the defender and intercepted and our hearts all fall into our stomachs.
Gary:And this is like the third or fourth time in that game where we thought, Oh, well, we're definitely lost now, but wait, there's more. Defense gets a nice stand, holds them to a field goal. Clutch to not let them in the end zone. It would have been really easy to just let down after that and then give up the score and have this game be over. But you hold them to a field goal. You stay in the game. You stay alive. Still plenty of time left.
Aaron:Yeah, so at this point, we've got 10 minutes and 18 seconds left in the game and eternity at this point based upon how the game is going, but we're down by 10 points. So we still need two scores. We clearly have to come up with some stops. We clearly have to have a lot of things go the right way for us. Here, and you know, that 10 minutes and 18 seconds we get the ball, and we go to start the engine on the offense, and we get a sputter, a rattle, and not much out of it, and three plays later we're punting back to Georgia State.
Gary:Yeah, that was another rough drive. I don't exactly know how that happens with our offense and the options that we have and the way we spread the field. But it happened a lot. It happened right there. But once again, defense gets us the ball right back and the offense has another chance to go down the field and score. But unfortunately, we see kind of a similar story there where we actually go and turn the ball over on downs in our own territory.
Mike:So, I mean, honestly, yesterday, for the first half and first, in the third quarter, and on that drive, we lost on first down. We were just not successful enough on first down to set us up for a nice throw on second, or an easy run on second and third. We just kept having second and long, third and long, all game long. Which allowed them to send the house and hit the quarterback
Gary:no, and there wasn't much room in the running game either. I mean, we got beat up front a lot. I mean, eight sacks, you know, I know sacks are a quote unquote team stat, but at some point you have to kind of start looking at where your biggest liabilities are, and they're definitely up front. I think we had also a lot of very slow developing plays. Like we were not. Kind of going back to what works for us with short and intermediate passing. We were trying to run everything deep and we were just running right into the teeth of the defense. A lot of the time, it was really frustrating to see us almost getting a little too cute on the offensive side, instead of just taking what the defense gives us, which is what we've been successful with all season long on the offensive side of the ball.
Mike:So we turn it over on downs and we're really down on ourselves at this point. Cause we did not give them, we gave them the ball in a very good position. tHey don't really have to move the ball much at all and they're still in field goal territory. We think. Alright, now we're going to be down 27 14, right?
Aaron:This is with six minutes and nine seconds left.
Mike:Right. And Rashad Reason comes up with one of the crucial plays to the end of this game. He blocks the field goal, and we're in business. We're still alive, thanks to Rashad Reason's block.
Gary:Yeah. I mean, just a crazy play. Like again, that's another point. We're like, all right, we've definitely lost this time. And then somebody steps up and makes a huge play. And I mean, if there's one thing that we can count on is that this team is not going to quit, they're not going to stop fighting. And someone is looking to be the person that makes the play, not looking around to see who's going to make it. I don't know if that's a product of Jason Henderson being out and everyone knowing they have to step up, but man, yeah. Just so many people stepping up in crucial moments to make big plays for us down the stretch.
Mike:Now, before we keep moving forward, I want to pause because I'm not sure which kickoff it was. But there was a kickoff late in this game that we kicked it off to Georgia State and their player caught it on the one yard line or two yard line, backed into the end zone, and kneeled it.
Aaron:It's the next
Mike:I don't know,
Aaron:field goal. Oh,
Mike:it was after the field goal?
Gary:No, it was after the Obisany touchdown. It was, yeah, and he caught it on like the three, and they give you some leeway if the ball carries you into the end zone, but it maybe carried him back like a yard, and then he took two clear steps back in need in the end zone. Like, That's a safety. No matter how you slice it, that's a safety. There was no fair catch, no nothing. That was just another complete whiff on the part of the officials in this game, which was at a pretty critical moment considering we just pulled within a touchdown.
Aaron:So were coming over to talk to us on the end of the beer garden asking us did, did that just happen? did that dude just catch the ball back up? And then, and we're like, yeah. But,
Mike:Shout out to Alec Geiss for coming and talking to us about that, confirming that we were not crazy and we saw him do exactly what we thought. But yeah, so this drive, this next drive after the block kick was kind of crazy. Right? We all agreed that
Aaron:at 4.
Mike:this is a nuts drive. And it all started getting really weird on, I think it was second and goal. They put Santana Saunders split out wide as a receiver. And I'm thinking, Oh, are we about to throw a bubble screen to Santana Saunders? Like
Aaron:That's right, man. Play called McGriddle.
Mike:the biggest guy on the team. We're going to, uh, it ends up just being a run to Turk Sims. So I'm like, all right, well, we had a decoy play with the lineman. That's the end of that fun. Nope. Third down, we throw a lateral to Chris Adams, and he scores a touchdown. But before he scores a touchdown, the defender trying to tackle him gets pushed in the face, stiff armed, and Chris decides to grab the face mask. Instead of just shoving and walking through him, and it's called back for face mask.
Aaron:I mean, in all fairness to Chris, how many times do you think my man has split out wide, caught, we'll just say caught a pass, and been ready to go one on one with a dude out there to score a touchdown? In the most critical, maybe the biggest play of
Mike:And, I will say this. It was a lateral that if he doesn't catch, it's a fumble. And it was a heck of a catch, especially for a guy, his size.
Gary:It looked like he was a running back because he made the heck of a catch. He put the ball in the outside arm, was ready with a stiff arm he was face masked on that play as well. I mean, it happened right in front of us. We saw it. The guy had his face mask and yeah, I mean, Chris has probably could have just shoved his head off of the shoulders and gone right into the end zone again. Sunbelt officiating. That's not offsetting penalties. That's a 15 yarder on us. Takes a touchdown off the board. You know, it's. That was one of those deceptives that I'm sure that Coach Ronnie said he still had up his sleeve last week. I think it was the right call. Like, you can't judge on the fact that there was a face mask on it. Like, that was a touchdown. It was in the end zone. But man, he, you could have fooled me. He looked like he may have played some running back at some point in high school because he had that thing tucked in that outside arm and was trucking it to the end zone with a defender hanging on him.
Mike:And then
Aaron:I'm just curious if we are originally going to go to Santana on this play at 71. And he didn't end up getting it and afterwards I wonder if he had words for Chris being like, Yo dude, that was supposed to be mine.
Mike:I don't know, but it was fun to see them try it. Bummer. It didn't work out, but important here, clock is still running after this penalty and the offense comes out and hits a clutch kick with that's rushed. Really big credit to the long snapper, the holder and Ethan Sanchez for getting this field goal down because without it, we don't have a chance here.
Gary:The old fire drill field goal, run them out there on the field, kick it, save your timeouts. That's tough to do. I mean, that's really tough to do. The wind was blowing. Yeah, the wind was behind him, but still that, that can almost be worse when you're kicking shorter field goals. So yeah, kudos to that whole team of fire drill, getting out there and putting it through and putting us right back in position to be within one score.
Mike:Yeah, at this point, it's 24 17.
Aaron:With 137 remaining in the
Mike:so, we go with kind of a squib onside kick. I'm not sure what to really call it. But, that's what I would call it.
Gary:You're almost trying to kick it through the front line on the ground and then just take weird bounces, which it did on that first attempt. We had two guys that were over the ball. They just didn't see it to jump on it. We very easily could have recovered that first one.
Aaron:That first one, when I rewatched it, it almost looked like we were just trying to drive that ball, like, really hard, right into the receiver there. It just went just barely to his right, but it almost looked like we were trying to kind of whack him with it. And bounce it off right back to us. But, once again, I can't see crap from the beer garden, so.
Gary:What's that movie? Is it the replacements where they're going to kick an on site kick and the guy is looking at the line and goes Where's my bitch? Where's my bitch? There's my bitch. He kicked it right at him like a knuckleball at him that's kind of what it reminded me of a little
Aaron:That, that's what I
Gary:I mean, that thing was just dancing through the air. And then when it hit the ground, like who the hell knows where it's going?
Aaron:And here's the other thing. So, is this maybe the third game now? That. Ethan's been kicking off because he didn't start the season doing that
Gary:I think he started, then came off of it and he came back. I want to say for the coastal game is when he came back to kicking kickoffs.
Aaron:Yeah, so it hasn't been that long I think he's done a nice job with that oh, I think we've had more touchbacks than we've had and This first attempt of this kick Like you were saying, we nearly came up with it. I'm assuming, I'm going to go with the assumption that it was executed just like we drew it up. Because it almost worked. But unfortunately, something else happened. Right, Mike?
Mike:Yeah, Georgia State lined up offsides, which I don't think it's really that unfortunate because they did recover. It gave us a second chance at something. So, we onside kick it again. The guy who catches it decides to go down at the nine yard line, which is very important on the next two plays
Gary:Yeah, it was kind of a similar kick. It just had more distance on it and it got back there beyond. Basically, they had two lines to recover it up front and one guy back and it went to the one guy that was back. It got past him and probably a smart call just to fall on it because you have your back to the defense and you know they're screaming down there. But Covering that ball at the nine. I think we knew we were in some business there when we knew where that drive was starting
Aaron:Yeah, Yeah, we were talking about the time and I think mike was probably the first to mention it Saying hey, that's a smart play. I agree 100. I still agree that was a smart play by by the returner because there's so many things that could go wrong and things were going wrong For georgia state that I think it was a smart play for him And so now they have the ball with what a minute 13 No, i'm, sorry a minute 32 on the 10 yard line Yeah,
Mike:and all they really need to do is just hand it off to the running back and go up the gut and Just kill our timeouts. I mean and run a lot of clock off and then punt it deep, right? That's all we all expect to see But it should be noted Marcus Carroll left the game early. He's their starting back. He's their workhorse guy He was not available so they gave it to their all star quarterback Darren Granger and first play he loses what five yards
Gary:Yeah, they were backed up. I think just inside the five,
Aaron:yeah, I mean, he, you know, takes it and it's not an aggressive run at all. I mean, he's kind of just moving. Moving off to the left almost like he's just kind of trying to drain clock And the defenders get to him. He goes down fairly easily He doesn't want to fight that which is probably a smart play He figures the clock is either going to continue to run or it's going to force us to Call a time out, which I believe that's when we took our time out
Mike:and Then there's the next play and it's one that I called that all we need is a bad snap And I think you can verify that Aaron for me.
Aaron:I can. You did say that. Usually I'm the one going, Snap it over his head! You know, and like, it never works. But you did in fact say, all we need is a bad snap. And I, perhaps their center was listening to you, Mike. But, he snapped that ball, and Granger is what, 6'3 he's a big dude. And, he had to jump to catch that ball. And he did secure it, but unfortunately he secured that ball a couple yards in the end zone and that really slowed things down and, but Gary, what did we send a couple safeties up the gut there?
Gary:it was probably the ballsy as play call on the defensive side that I've seen in a long time, a double safety blitz. with a, with Terry Jones and Sean Asbury both screaming in the bad snap, the high snap disrupted their timing and caused Granger to basically stand in the end zone a little too long. And Terry Jones came in and popped them and Sean Asbury came and cleaned it up. Like, I don't know how Blake Seiler was walking around the football facility today with those giant balls of steel. Like, I don't know, but that is. That is such a gutsy play call in that moment because of Georgia State. Gets a first down, the game is over. Like it is over. We cannot stop the clock enough to get the ball back. So to dial up that blitz, dial up that pressure, have it executed by a fairly fresh Terry Jones who did not play in the first half for him to come in there like a madman and lay that hit and Asbury to be right there to clean it up. Huge. I mean, you could just feel any momentum that Georgia State have had was gone and they were looking into that beer garden and seeing all of us doing that. The move from the Virginia Tech game last year, you know, the choke look. Yeah. And they were looking right at us as they were going off the field, taking a look at that. And man, what, not only to get a stop there, but to get points and know that kickoff is coming on a free kick was just massive.
Aaron:So, at this point, it's 24 to 19. That was a two play, 15 second drive. That safety not only scores us two points to pull us within five, but it saves us a timeout. We have one timeout left on the board with a minute 13 left to go. And we're like, holy shit, we've got a real shot and winning this game because they're about to kick us the ball and we have the momentum.
Mike:Yeah. And they're kicking after safety. So they're kicking what from, was it the 10 yard line, right? Or the 15,
Gary:I think it's like the 15 or the 20. Either way, it's not the normal distance and you have to, I think, hold it. You can't kick it off a tee.
Mike:They kicked it off a tee.
Gary:Did they?
Aaron:into the
Mike:but it was into the wind and Isaiah page gets a nice return. We're in business at the 49 yard line and on the first play of this drive. We hit the most crucial play of the game. Grant Wilson to Ramello Murphy for 43 yards down to the six yard line. I mean, what a play, what a throw. I mean, I'm still shocked that this happened.
Aaron:It was a great throw. It was a great catch And he shed that tackler. And, I think we all thought the ball came out at that point, but it was just a hand warmer, luckily. It was like the 78th time a hand warmer came off in the game and onto the field yesterday. But we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw him continuing to run. And we were just trying to will him. Into the end zone but unfortunately He didn't quite get there, but we still had about a minute or go minute to go or so
Gary:And I was a little concerned. So like the play was great. The run after the catch was fantastic. We get down and think of it as at the five or the four yard line, but we are in hurry up mode, right? We get the big play. We want to go with tempo. That's the way we operate. And I was like, Oh shit, we're going to score too early. And we're going to have to go for two to make it a three point game and hope we can hold them one more time. So we kind of rushed to the line. We ran a play on first down, we ended up losing yardage. And I think we kind of said, okay. Let's slow down. Let's make, let's end the game with the ball in our possession, whether we get in the end zone or not, we're going to end this on our terms. And I thought they did a pretty good job of managing that in the final few plays.
Aaron:Yeah, that second down rush by obi sani If I remember correctly wasn't that one that he's right on the edge and he kind of completes his body to Get himself an extra yard or two Pretty sure he was gonna go for like no gain and he was able to just kind of Do the whole twinkle toes thing and spin his body around
Gary:Yeah, on on, on, on a first down, we threw a short pass to Granger for no gain. Second down was the handoff to Obisani. He got two yards off the right side to get us to the four. And then third down I believe that was Grant Wilson just kind of having to scramble to pick up a yard. And then ran the clock down to two seconds, called the timeout and said, Hey, this is one final play here. We're either going to win this game. We're going to lose this game. We're going to go to a bowl. We're going to be shutting it down at the end of the night. maN, you want to talk about some anxiety in that beer garden. I wish they were still serving alcohol then I needed some
Aaron:Did you hear the anxiety ramping up of the crowd at the coaching staff was letting the clock tick, tick, tick from like 20 seconds down, not calling that time out. I think people thought that the coaches didn't realize that, you know, Oh shit, the clock is going to run out. Obviously, you know, they do, but I think people were getting a little concerned there for a second.
Gary:Yeah, you could feel that, but I could even see through the beer garden that, that Coach Ronnie was standing right next to the official staring at the clock and just waiting to, to tee that thing up to call a timeout. But I love doing that there because you know, you erase any opportunity for another play after this one, like, unless there's a defensive penalty, that's going to be your ball game.
Mike:So for the second straight week, when we need a big run. We get it from Grant Wilson. Fourth down, three yards to go. Grant Wilson, right up the middle. Touchdown. Old Dominion wins. Crowd goes nuts. Team rushes the field. I mean, what a game.
Gary:Yeah, I was a little surprised Georgia State wasn't ready for that play because it's the exact same play that ran against Georgia Southern last week. We've run it before, but they didn't have enough guys up the middle and our offensive line just bullied their defensive lineman into the end zone and Grant went in. Pretty easy right in front of us fans. I think we're jumping over the brick around the brick. I don't know I saw at one point somebody did a head Dove head first back into the beer garden after being on the field pure pandemonium down there And I couldn't have been happier. That's one of the one of the happiest moments i've ever had at sv
Aaron:I think we do remember as things were starting to feel like they were going our way. The police officers were walking in front of us, imploring, saying, guys, please don't jump the wall and you know me and Mike we're Yes, ma'am. You know, we're it's not gonna happen. You know, Gary's a little wilder than us Sometimes he you know in a bless your heart for being honest. You're like, I can't promise that but Wait one thing I do want to we've talked about time of possession every podcast this season and We got crushed in time of possession again 37 they had it for over 37 and a half minutes We had it for 22 and a half But when push comes to shove and things are really important for our squad, you know, we have And that fourth quarter, we have the ball for seven minutes, 50 seconds. We win the time of possession game in that fourth quarter. And when it comes down to it, the most important play of the game, our offensive line is more fresh and imposes its will, just like you said, Gary, on their defensive line. And Grant comes through in the biggest of ways.
Gary:Two guys that walked at senior day, Leroy Thomas and Xavier Black, both had critical blocks on that last play to get in the end zone. So probably the last time we're gonna see them on the field. Actually, I know that's the last time we're gonna see them on the field and at the castle. But for them to have that moment to win us a game for bowl eligibility was huge and I'm very happy for them.
Mike:That's two former walk ons, right?
Gary:It is. Two former walk ons become the scholarship guys make it a crucial play to get us in the end zone at the end.
Mike:Yeah, I mean, that's a moment I'm going to cherish for a while. be with some of your best buddies watching that comeback. And the improbable happened. I mean, this was a miracle, all of the things that you needed to happen to get to this point for us to win. If you put it in a movie, they'd be like, this is so unrealistic, right? I mean, the blocks field goal, the safety, all of it. I mean, it's just so improbable
Gary:Yeah, that
Mike:enjoy it. We got to enjoy it with like maybe another thousand people.
Aaron:30 years from now, when I'm 78 years old, I'm gonna be like, Hey, Mike and Gary, you remember back on that cold evening in 2023? I don't even remember what team it was, but it kicked ass.
Gary:And we're all still thawing out from that game.
Aaron:Yeah, we're gonna have to come up with ways to stay warm 30 years from now. Maybe a freaking couple space heaters in the beer garden or something.
Mike:I Got a targeted ad today for a jacket that has space heaters in it, like little heaters. You just turn 'em on, you charge 'em, you charge your jacket, and then you go to the cold and you're warm because it has a heater in it,
Aaron:We might need that for the bowl
Gary:Do you think those would make it through the new open gates when you walk through, or are you just going to be too much of a fire hazard, walk around the stadium with battery powered heaters? Like you're not gonna be able to get on a plane with that. Come on,
Mike:sir. But this is my LED jacket. It's it's fine. Just let me come in now.
Aaron:with Bluetooth,
Gary:get a wire up some Hudson blue lights.
Aaron:Oh speaking of, you said, hey, you said the word Hudson, man. We saw him yesterday. That was awesome, huh? He's 17 months old, getting big, getting close to graduation.
Mike:Yeah, and we were invited to graduation by the great Brooke Corson, his trainer. I'm not sure we're supposed to say the rest of what she told us, but there's some very exciting news related to Hudson that will break in the next sometime in the future. I don't know how long it's going to take to come out, but it's going to be very positive news for everyone that loves Hudson.
Aaron:think he'll wear a cap and gown when he walks?
Gary:I think I got Hudson in trouble because when I went to go pet him, he jumped up on me and started licking me, but it's probably because I just smelled like turkey legs and he just, you just couldn't help it. No amount of training is going to break that from a dog.
Mike:If it makes you feel better, after you left, he was taking a selfie with a little girl and she kneeled down next to him to get that great, perfect photo. And he licked her face too. So I think that's just Hudson being Hudson.
Gary:Yeah, it was great to see him back out there. And I know there are a lot of fans. He has a lot of fans, not just at ODU. I know I get asked all the time by like Virginia tech fans East Carolina fans, UVA fans, like they want to know what's going on with Hudson, so. It was awesome to see him. He was on the field postgame celebrating, as I think all of us were as well. It was a fun time, man. That was a great night. I'm glad that my parents were able to stay through it. If they're able to stick there through the cold, I feel good about my future of
Aaron:Yeah, cause that's straight up Texas, right Gary?
Gary:Yeah, that's north texas and my sister just moved back to richmond from north texas. She was there as well She's an odu grad so yeah at the I use my extra tickets
Mike:Yeah. So me and Aaron since we had our media pass to cover the press conference, we're lucky enough to walk from the beer garden onto the field. And to the media room and that walk to the media room was really cool because we got to give Santana Saunders his props for the big win and going bowling. We got to talk with Coach Seiler, we got to talk with Jen Ronnie, LaMarion James, and Isaiah Page. it Was just cool seeing how happy they have, how happy they were after how much hard work they've all put into this season. I know we're all happy as fans that we're seeing this progress, but no one is happier than the guys in that locker room, and I'm so happy for them.
Gary:Yeah, i've got to give a shout out to isaiah spencer. I caught up with him on the field afterwards talk to his family Obviously, he's holds a special place for me being another guy from the middle peninsula being at ODU for six years. I think when I talked to him before the season, he's had five offensive coordinators in six seasons at ODU. You know, talking about somebody who's dedicated to the team and doing whatever it takes, special teams, whatever. I think he's had three position changes. So, you know, obviously his eligibility is up, but was happy to see him end his career with a fun win at home. And bring a, bring some joy to Gloucester, Virginia.
Mike:Alright, so, we're talking about bowling. I just got a text from a buddy who gave me the newest ESPN bowl prediction or projection. And Bonagura and Shalabak both are doing their own. Shalabak projects us to go to Frisco to play Texas State.
Aaron:Hey, we're staying at Gary's parents house.
Gary:They're close. I'm going to be like three miles from that place for work the week before that bowl. So
Mike:And then Bonagura projects us to go to New Orleans to play Western Kentucky. So we either play, if either one of those guys are right, we either play a conference foe, Or a team that we used to be in a conference with that, I mean, we all want something new, right? We all want to experience something different. New Orleans would be cool. Frisco would be cool. But could we play someone we've never played before?
Gary:yeah, you know, all those predictions that are out there are just mainly guesses because the Sunbelt had to go and get 12 teams bowl eligible and just completely muddy the waters. Cause I think Sunbelt only gets five guaranteed bowl games. And then we fill in for conference USA who. You know, no surprise. Didn't have enough teams. The American didn't have enough teams. I think there were a couple other conferences that didn't as well. So, I mean, you could be anywhere from Annapolis, Maryland to Hawaii. So anything you see out there, like, take it with a grain of salt that it's a guess. I would guess that the New Orleans Bowl is probably going to go to Troy, because typically the West winner goes to New Orleans, the East winner will go to Boca. Typically what happens, but they do get some say in it. We are one of the top five teams in the Sun Belt this year, based on our conference record. So we should, in theory, get One of the Sunbelt Bowls because we're one of the top five teams doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen. I would throw a little coin on the military bowl in Annapolis, actually being Virginia Tech and JMU. Like I'll throw a little bit of a couple bucks on that. But yeah it's going to be crazy how these get slotted out with the number of bowl eligible teams in the Sunbelt. It's wild.
Aaron:Well, I think the three of us, the three of us are just hoping that whatever bowl game that Old Dominion gets is one that is easily travelable. Is that even a word? People who are Old Dominion fans can easily travel to them. We showed up. The bowl game at Myrtle Beach. We took, what, about 5, 000 fans, I think, to that. And I know that Myrtle really liked that. That's attractive. If I'm Myrtle and I have any say so. But, Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, Annapolis, those are all super drivable sorts of games that we could take a lot of fans. And for Old Dominion Football, is still in our relative infancy of Where our program is growing, you know, only as it started in 2009, and especially with bowl games, it's important that we learn, you know, how to do this, our muscle memory of when we get bowl games, that we go and we travel, and, you know, if we're unfortunate enough to get something that's really difficult to travel to, say like a Hawaii, which makes it really just unattainable for a lot of regular fans, like the three of us That, that doesn't do much for the program, so hopefully it'll be something that's either drivable or a very easy and affordable flight.
Gary:Anything but Hawaii. I'll go anything but Hawaii. My wife would kill me if the first time we went to Hawaii was to go for a football game.
Aaron:And it wasn't a Virginia
Gary:Yeah, exactly. I've gotta go to two bowl games this year, so we'll see how that plays out, too.
Mike:So, my wife gave me carte blanche to go wherever. So, I'm in on Hawaii, I think. But, I'd like to save some money, and that does not save me any money.
Gary:Gonna have to sneak us on the team plane, I think. That's about the only way we're gonna be able to get out to Hawaii.
Aaron:Well, we could save a lot of money, and we could kill two birds with one stone if, you know, say they just chose us to play in the Military Bowl in Annapolis against Virginia Tech.
Gary:That would be interesting to have that rematch. But I think if you're the military bull and you have the opportunity to get two fan bases that are close by in JMU and tech that haven't played this year, you probably want to line that up. I would like to watch that game. That would be fun. Another chance to root against a JMU is fine with me.
Mike:Yeah, I would prefer Charlotte, Myrtle, and Annapolis. Something that we can bring a lot of folks to. Because we haven't built a culture of going to bowl games yet. That's something that's going to take some time to build. And until we do, we need close by bowl games to get people out there. Because it's important to travel to these bowl games, because it makes it easier to sell to the bowls. That we belong here and we're going to fill these seats with fans. It's going to make it a better product for you. So, yeah, one of those three, I'm happy. I'm happy no matter what, but I'd be very happy with those three.
Gary:Yeah, those would be good. I got, I have one other thing pertaining to the actual game that I wanted to talk about and we missed it. We were talking about the first half and I know that a lot of fans are going to ask about it because it was. Kind of a head scratcher early, and it was the penalty we got on the first defensive drive when Georgia State was punting and we got a penalty for having two number fives on the field. So my best guess on what happened on that play was that we were actually in a punt safe formation. So punt safe. You basically only put the returner out there from the special teams unit, and pretty much everybody else in the field is your normal defense. So Isaiah Page, number 5, comes into return. Jahliel Taylor is still out there, number 5, on the defensive line. Pretty sure that's what happened on that particular play. Doesn't excuse the fact that someone on the sideline didn't catch that and get Jahliel off or... Swap out or just kill the returner. One of the two. But I did want to at least throw that out there because I know that fans were asking a lot about that. They had some choice words for the coaching staff was a big miss that they didn't catch that in the moment. And it led to a touchdown, but punt safe was, I think the main reason that caused that penalty on that play.
Mike:All right, and if we're going to wrap up that game and give a couple shoutouts, I'm going to give a couple to some players. Ashton Wittner, that was his first career start. And interception. Nolan Johnson, first career interception. Obisany, 67 yard touchdown runs, the longest of his career. Tariq Sims ran for career high, 36 yards. Chris Trinidad secured his best tackle game of his career with 8. Sean Asbury notched his third double digit tackle game of the year with 10 stops. And obviously for Koa, that was his career high in tackles. All of it was needed for this to come to fruition. So congratulations to all of them. And thank you for getting us to bowl eligibility.
Gary:And that was just such a culture win for the program. Like, I think that's the hardest thing. For this coaching staff to kind of overcome is all right. We had this great winning culture when we started the program, we carried it over in the first couple of years of FBS, and we kind of lost that winning culture that we're going to win mindset. And we've struggled a lot because of it. And I know that this coaching staff has been trying to instill that and win on every play and that the whole want to know thing, you're starting to see that come through with our team now. And, you know, I don't know if there's any Monarch fan that would look at this season and like, be necessarily happy with where we ended up. Like we got to six and six, five and three, but I don't think we even got to like 50 percent of our potential as a team this year. We just started finding ways to win and finding that winning culture. And if our 50 percent of kind of peaking on this team gets us to be five and three in the Sunbelt. That's not bad like that, that we still have such a huge ceiling to go for there and I just, I want to shout out the coaching staff for continuing with this culture, not letting guys quit because there's so many times, even just in the fourth quarter, we could have just hung it up. We could have quit going into Georgia Southern after we got destroyed in Lynchburg, like, there's just no quit in this team. And that is not something that you can necessarily recruit like that takes a long time to fix from a culture standpoint, and I think you're seeing that and now it's. How do we go get more talent? How do we hone in our offense? How do we get them out of the mud earlier? Like those are fixable things. We don't have guys quitting on this team.
Mike:Yeah, Ricky told us about what happened at halftime in the postgame presser. He asked each player, he went around the whole locker room and asked each player to say, We will win this game. And the fact that he had the balls to do that and then they actually did it is a testament to your whole statement on how this is a culture win because they all believed and they kept fighting and that's, I mean, as a fan, who's been, we've been through some tough times as all dominion football fans, a lot of loss, a lot of seasons where there was no hope for a bowl game. aNd all I've wanted during that whole period was a team that never gave up. And we had it this year. Now we can start looking for more, but I am very happy as a fan with the way this team fought from game one to game 12.
Gary:And now we get a game 13.
Mike:Yes, sir.
Gary:I just want to shout out Ricky. Ronnie was on the sideline for basketball today, sitting courtside, very into the game and very into the officials. And I loved every single second of it.
Aaron:Yeah, he isn't as just as invested when he is sitting courtside at a basketball game on the officiating as he is when he's standing sideline during a football game. I mean, hey, let's just say it. I mean, some belt officials for basketball aren't, you know, haven't been any better than the ones in football and today in one of the many. Not so stellar calls. Ricky stood up from his seat, arms extended out, wide open, and you know, we were on the other end of the arena so I couldn't see his lips, but I can only imagine what he's saying to the officials. But yeah, it's awesome to see him there and you know, giving back to the various athletic programs around campus and trying to support everybody because he knows that they all support him.
Mike:All right. It was a great week. It was a great weekend on campus. Two big late game wins. I mean, hard to be upset right now.
Gary:Yeah. And it's, you see that through the culture of the athletic department of supporting the other programs. I know Andrew Griffiths was talking about that when I interviewed him before the field hockey NCAA tournament and how he was just phone was blowing up a text from other coaches within the in the program and they show up for other games. But I know we're talking about how happy we are for this game and going bowling. I think we had one call come in to the line and y'all gotta do better. Come on, call, say something funny, be ridiculous, use a fake name. I don't care. We need more calls, but I don't know if we want to listen to that one now.
Mike:Yeah, Aaron, why don't you play that for us?
Garrick:Hey guys, it's garrett here. Actually surprised my voice is doing as well as it is, but No need to talk about 75 of that game because that was easily the craziest 60 minutes of football I have ever seen. We can definitely chalk this up as not just another One score game, but another rough ugly yet gutty dub from this team if you're a cardiologist in the seven by seven and you haven't hopped on to become the official cardiologist for the cardiac monarch said What are you doing? Not going to take away from this, because again, this team had everyone and their mother stuck against them from the get go. And. There's been talk all year about who is the team? What is their identity? I think after last night, but really, we've seen it all season after last night. This team is just 1 that's going to fight until there's triple zeros on the board. Definitely hate. See Marianne go down yet again. Another blunder by. Bell officiating. Yeah, they've been atrocious all year, especially with what is roughing and running to the kicker, but also get it for Jason, who again, it's bad luck across the breaking attack record a 2nd year in a row. So, you know, it's all in an aircast. So, or just a break. So hopefully it's not too serious. And maybe we can see him for the bowl games. Likewise for the Marion, but fingers crossed for those guys. Thank you. Definitely got this team pulled out there for not only those guys, but themselves and the school. So, definitely proud to be a Monarch today. Looking forward to another bowl hopefully it's regional and we can pack that place like the Myrtle Beach Bowl and get a dub in there. So, looking forward to seeing everybody at a bowl and
Mike:And that is our favorite caller. Our most consistent caller, Garrick. Thank you for calling, Garrick. Anyone want to react to that?
Aaron:Before I let Gary react to this, I just want to say that Garrick was watching the game with us in the beer garden last night as well through some of the highs and through some of the lows. And he clearly is a passionate fan. I mean, he's a grad, he's been to a lot of football games in his life and yeah. Gary, what are your thoughts on what Gar had to say?
Gary:We've already touched on a lot of the stuff we talked about with the, you know, the officiating certainly being glad that LeMarian James is all right and was back on the field there at the end of the game thought really funny talking about the cardiologist, like if you're a cardiologist and you have an ODU fan that is a regular, you've probably ODAF because we have, they, we this team has definitely sent quite a few people to go get some EKGs and anti-anxiety medications and anything else you can think of. But, you know, it was good watching the game with him for a while there in the beer garden. It was a good time. But yeah, it's glad to see him excited and yeah we're thinking nice bowl game, get a good
Mike:Speaking of cardiologists, I asked coach Ricky after the game last night if he is concerned being an endorsing a local cardiologist because of all these close games he's put us in. He's definitely driving a lot of business their way. And he said, well, we live in one of the healthiest areas in the country. I think we're doing okay. We're a fit community.
Aaron:That's a Cornell graduate kind of answer, you know, very well thought out.
Mike:it's not my fault.
Gary:When this EVS merger is done, they're gonna have to open a cardiac unit immediately just to keep the money going back into ODU instead of out somewhere else.
Mike:Yeah it's going to be a great business opportunity for ODU and EVMS and Sentara. Future. So we can talk about we always in this show with telling you what's coming up tomorrow. Me and Aaron are going to be talking to coach Jeff Jones and director of basketball operations. Karen Donahue so that will be out on Tuesday. So listen out for that. And then I think we're planning on doing a bowl reaction episode to talk about how we feel about wherever we're going, whether it's Hawaii, Frisco, Annapolis, wherever. So look out for that next Monday. And until then, go to odmonarchist. com and read our content. We have basketball content, we got football content. We have it. You're looking for it. Come find it at ODU monarchist. com. I think that does it. Go Monarchs. Let's go bowling.
Aaron:Go Monarchs!
Gary:Go Monarchs. All season.
Ricky Rahne:podcast
Mike:Monarchs