Monarch Nation, uh, we are the Monarchists. We are recapping ECU and previewing Virginia Tech today. After a 20 to 14 defeat at SB Ballard Stadium. Um, I don't know where we want to start with this, but maybe we can start with Friday and start with something optimistic and happy and promote next Friday. Uh, what do you think guys? I think that's a great place to start, Mike. So we had our first ever pep rally at Afterglow on Friday. Uh, we had live music, a great food truck called Moon Tide.
The live music was by JP Lewis, who is an ODU alum. Fantastic, uh, musician really enjoyed his, uh, did a lot of country covers and some alternative songs. It was pretty cool, but turnout was, uh, pretty good. Hoping we can. Rebuild that a little bit, keep building on that, uh, for next week, but need to shout out some people that showed up, uh, the Barlow family, it was great meeting them and, uh, get to talk some football with them. Uh, Ben Henicle is there. Thanks for showing up.
And then obviously the Dingus family, second time they've been shout out this year on the show, but they showed up in full force. Uh, great seeing them. I'm hoping this can continue to build because. We don't have a congregation point for Monarch fans on Friday nights. On football weekends, if you go to a town like Blacksburg or Knoxville, there's somewhere where you can go to hang out with other fans and no other fans will be there. We don't have that.
So this is what we're trying to do here with that. Uh, it was a lot of fun on Friday night. They've got a lot of good beers over there at Afterglow. It's pretty just chill environment and there's nothing too crazy going on. Uh, it was nice that we were able to get the ODU Men's Soccer game, uh, up on the screen so we could watch that and, and hang out there, but. Yeah, that could definitely be built into something awesome. They have great outdoor space in the back.
Um, aside from the trains going by every little bit, it's fairly quiet and chill. Yeah, it really was a great time. I mean, it had a little trivia question, a trivia challenge that we got a couple of folks up on the stage that was fun. And just, you know, meeting a number of fans that were out there. Um, also want to give a big shout out to Harry McBrien for coming out. And Jude Brenya, uh, the not too distant future. We'll put out a little bit of promo stuff.
So you guys who weren't able to come to the event on Friday, kind of see a little bit of what that might look like, but we're hoping everybody comes out Friday. Uh, for the one before the Virginia tech game. And, uh, we're hoping to have, uh, you know, a little surprise, surprise guests there if you happen to show up. Yeah. We got a confirmation this weekend that Hudson too, and Mutz with admission will be there on Friday. Excited to see them and should be a lot of fun.
Uh, hopefully we can continue to build this into something great for all ODU fans. And if you're a Hokie, come hang, grab some beers. It's all, it's just, it's a good time to talk football and enjoy each other's company. So come on out. I had to wear my Hudson shirt today because I got to meet Hudson to going into the football stadium yesterday, which was the highlight of the day.
I think, in my opinion, that's when I was the happiest at S. B. Ballard, but went downhill pretty quickly from there. 1 last note before we move on to talk about yesterday was, um. If you come out to Afterglow, Afterglow just won an award, what, uh, for one of the best beer, was it, uh, what was that, Mike? So, yesterday there was a 757 Battle of the Beers in Virginia Beach.
Uh, all the local breweries took place, uh, took part in it, and they won the People's Choice Award, which I think is the, probably the best award to win, because that means everyone that was there that voted thought they had the best beer, instead of, like, a handful of judges voting on it. It was all the people that attended it. So they got, they got some good stuff going on there. And they got seltzers that people were raving about, uh, adult slushies.
Uh, I didn't, I haven't had either of those yet, but the beer is good. I can tell you that. All right. So let's talk about yesterday. Uh, Talgate was good. We lucked out on the weather. I think, uh, pretty nice considering how gross the morning was. Um, Crowd student section was phenomenal. That was the best student section we've had in a very long time. Announced sellout even though you could see some seats throughout the game. Pretty good crowd overall.
Yeah, and a shout out to the Alston family. Miles Alston's crew. I think they end up with like eight or nine people that came to the game. They stopped by the tailgate. Good to see them again. Saw them a little bit South Carolina too. Um, yeah, I mean, like the vibes pregame were really good. Like blue lot was packed, black and silver lots were packed. There were a lot of people around. Students absolutely showed up for this first game.
And I understand they've claimed all the tickets for Virginia Tech as well. So hopefully they come back for this next game. Um, man, really just from the jump, it looked like same team, different year of the defense playing really well, keeping us in the game and the offense just completely inept on almost every possession that we had yesterday. And that was. Painful on my eyeballs to watch both of the offenses operate yesterday. They're both pretty bad.
Uh, but I just, I saw the same things that we talked about. We needed to address and fix over the off season continue to be a problem for this team in week two. Yeah. I need to offer an apology. Uh, preseason. I was excited about this offense because we saw it in scrimmages and it works in the scrimmages, uh, against this defense. Uh, but we still haven't seen that offense we saw in the scrimmages in a game yet. Um, I'm not sure what we can share now because we've already had games.
So I don't think there's anything private we can't share. But Dom Dutton was a vital part of those scrimmages, taking a lot of slants and short passes and same thing with Paige and Vines. And we're just not seeing that even though our offensive line could use that quick hitting offense to be more successful. And I don't, I don't understand it. I'm just, I don't understand. I'm right there with you, Mike.
I mean, that's the last few weeks that we've talked about what are the things that this team needs to do to be successful. We've continuously harped on more of the short and the intermediate passing game, being able to get things going quickly out in front of grant, things that are easy to see guys coming across. And for whatever reason, we're, we're not seeing that. Um, I don't know why, but something has got to something's got to change. We've got to on offense.
We've got to we've got to do more. We've got to sustain some drives. We have got to capitalize on what the defense is doing. I mean, we'll talk about it more in a bit, but the defense came up with turnovers again this week, and we did next to nothing with them, and we have to get better at that. So, uh, our buddy Justice over at G5 Hive, I was talking to him earlier today, and he shared his stat with me that I thought was interesting.
He shared the snap counts of Dom Dutton and Kelby Williams from yesterday. Dom had 24 snaps, which is better than he had in the first game, but I still don't know why it's not more. And then Kelby had two and one of them is the biggest play of the game for the offense. Uh, I don't know. Logically I'm, I'm lost. Just the whole ecosystem of the offense is out of whack. Like there are things we could do to help the offensive line. There's things the offensive line could do to help the routes.
So like the whole ecosystem, it's like dumping bleach in a fish tank. Like it's just killing everything. Cause nothing is chemically right. So we saw from ECU yesterday when they rushed three, we had no problem handling that pass rush. All of these routes going downfield were able to develop and get set up and we were able to move the ball down the field with three man rush.
But when it got to four, five and definitely six, like there was just not enough time to let those routes go and develop downfield. And there were no short options. Um, it's just frustrating to watch that unfold, especially when East Carolina is very clearly showing what they're doing on defense. Like in the first half, they were attacking the right side of the line, especially at the right guard position, trying to go in there.
Second half of the game, you could see them line up three down linemen to the left of the center to go attack the left side. And the way you slow that blitz down and get them to stop blitzing as much and make them pay for it is to run those quick slants right to the area that the defense is vacated with their blitz. And I was kind of in the cat bird seat in the end zone, and I can see all these things develop.
And it's like so obvious that their linebackers are not respecting any pass over the middle. They're giving you the middle of the field and we are not running any routes to go and take it. Because those long developing downfield routes. When grants getting hit in less than two seconds or being flushed in the pocket, like he can't look downfield to go throw those.
So like the route tree shortening up and giving some short options will help the offensive line block better and discourage the defense from blitzing. I'm gonna start with the offensive line, but there are things we could do to make us smarter and put our guys in a better position to win, and we are not putting them in that position to win. And it's frustrating to watch that game after game of just not doing the right thing to help our team win. All right. So questions I'm gonna ask to you guys.
We know and we've talked about this offense and the receivers having to make choices on what they're gonna do with their routes. Now, how much choice do they really have? You know, is it is it a receiver not making the choice to break off and doing 1 of these or is it, uh, you know, coaching call that we're not calling those sorts of things? I mean, it's it's. Kind of got to be one or the other, right? I mean, some of our routes in our plays are choice routes, others are, are not.
Like, they're set to be a hitch or a slant or whatever it may be, screen, all those things. So there are some choices, mainly on like the outside receivers, but for your slot guys, like, they, they pretty much have established routes or it's something playing off of what happens to the other receiver. Like, there's not a lot of choice, but.
You can easily hot route or have a play call where, Hey, if you look up and the two linebackers are in between the defensive tackles, you should probably run to where they're supposed to be and be sitting there in a half a second for grant, because that's a one step bang right over the middle. And especially with someone like Dom Dutton, who's got that crazy speed, you get him in space with the ball in the middle of the field. That's chunk play. That's 20, 30 yards.
And even though we saw it, like, it was very obvious to see that that was that vacated space. We didn't go to it except for one time. It was on the second drive of the game. It's the third and short. And we were at the student section of the field. Isaiah Page ran a quick five yard slant, easy, quick completion. He took it about seven, eight yards off the field first down. And I didn't see us go back to that again. Like everything else was deep cross.
Yeah. And, uh, this is a reminder for any cardiologists in the area. If you are looking for an advertising opportunity. Um, hit us up or hit OD football up another one score game, uh, two already this season in two games, 11 last year. And now we have what a six and eight record in those games. Is that right? Yeah, I think you're, I think you're correct. No, it's yes. Six. Was it 13 games? I think we're six and seven. Yeah. Yeah. That's the opportunity.
Go find an O. D. U. Fan and refer him to your local cardiologist. Because, yeah, these games are a killer on the ticker. All right, but Aaron, what were you gonna say? I was gonna, I was gonna pose another question to you guys. So we talked about how important and how this offense is predicated on running the ball. So yesterday we really struggled to do that. If you take out grants runs and yardage loss from various things, we averaged less than three yards a rush, 2. 8 yards a rush.
And that's, that's not a custom what we're seeing. What did you guys take away from the game and kind of, uh, what you saw there and what we need to do to be more effective there? I think we need to give some credit to ECU's front four. They played outstanding yesterday. Um, they were winning the battle in the trenches often, but we weren't able to get to the outside at all. We were running A gap a lot and B gap a lot, but we weren't getting to that C or outside, uh, the tackles at all, really.
Um, I don't know. It was tough sledding for our running backs yesterday. They were filling holes and making plays. I gotta give credit to ECU's defense there. They did their job in the run game. Yeah, easy. You definitely had a great approach. They were also in those obviously kind of running downs where you would have four guys split out really wide. They were fine and content to keep six in the box. So then it just becomes a numbers game, right?
You got five offensive linemen, you got a running back and a quarterback. If they're got six sitting there waiting for you, you're not going to get much. Um, I am surprised we didn't bounce it outside. Like that's a really good call, Mike. Uh, cause the one big run that East Carolina had, or both their touchdown runs, actually, were inside runs that they bounced outside off the tackle and took for big gains because they had sucked the linebackers in.
So yeah, there was just no, no room to get outside. Like we were getting beat up the middle. We're getting beat on the outside. Like it's just tough. They did a lot of really great stunting in East Carolina, especially in that second half. The, the. I think it was second to last drive. Grant got sacked twice in a row. They did an incredible stunt on the left side that. Aaron Young went to go fill the gap and blocked like he's supposed to. And at the last second, the defender was no longer there.
Uh, so yeah, definitely credit the ECU's front four, but we got to be smarter in our running calls when we see sips in the box. All right. Well, I want to talk about this defense because again, they turned out a fantastic effort for us and gave us a chance to win a game and I'm still not used to it. Because I'm still used to that, the Bobby years where no D. U. was real, very real.
And being able to watch this defense where there's a chance for us to make plays throughout, um, has been a lot of fun to watch. The blitzing yesterday, when done, was just a beautiful thing to see. And then obviously, we're making plays in the secondary. Four interceptions yesterday, two by Jerron Manning. Selfish plug here, buy a shirt, the kid can play. He's a baller. All the money goes back to him. Jerron is a stud, man.
You could tell on film against South Carolina, and it showed in the stat sheet this week. Also shout out to him for making a really, really smart play at the end of the first half.
I tweeted it out and put it out there with like, Hey, go buy a shirt of, he got dinged up on that last pass completion and he was hurt, but he just stood up, stood on one leg, stayed as still as possible and made sure that East Carolina did whatever clown show that was, where they had half their field goal unit and half their offense. And they snapped it to an offensive lineman who I think spiked it, but it looked like a fumble. Um, whatever that was.
But because Jahron was smart enough to get up and not cause an injury timeout, that kept three points off the board. So in addition to every other thing that he did that was awesome on Saturday, made a really smart play to keep points off the board. And I want to go ahead, Mike. Uh, Justice from G5 High, second shout out for him. He sent me some, uh, defensive PFF, uh, numbers. Looking at the defensive grades for coverage, pass coverage.
Jahron is 89. 4. That is very, very, very, very good for a safety, uh, overall defense. He's an 85, eight, both are the highest on the team. The guy is just phenomenal and I'm happy he's here. We got to enjoy them all. We got them because with this portal being the way it is, there's going to be a lot of teams offering him big bags this off season. Yeah, I'm going to keep him under lock and key. I think maybe we should stop talking about it on the podcast.
So no one, no one realizes it, but yeah, he's, he's a fun one to watch. And he got a little more playing time in the second half yesterday. Uh, Patrick Smith young, I'm guessing went down with an injury at some point early in the second half. So he got more reps in past protection, made a huge interception when ECU was To keep them from getting a touchdown that would have put the game away. At least gave us a chance to have some drives to go win the game at the end.
Uh, but just read that route, jumped underneath it and made a great interception in the end zone. Just, we have some dudes in the secondary this year, like Patrick Smith. Young is really good. Jahron's really good. Like reason's really good. We are, we have some dogs in that, that secondary. I think we have great linebacking core, like even without Jason Henderson, being in there, this defense when unleashed properly and they can be aggressive. They are dangerous.
Just don't put them in drop eight. Cause that didn't go so well yesterday. That's the second game in a row where Patrick Smith Young has had huge impactful plays. And you just mentioned that linebacker core linebacking core. So, uh, you know, we've got a shout out koa. He came up with 18 total tackles yesterday. So that's I mean, that's his all time mark so far. He played really well there. Um, the ladies in our section just kept talking about how how much they liked his hair.
Um, so if that's why they want to cheer for him, that's cool. We'll cheer for the tackles. But what a phenomenal, phenomenal day for him. Uh, he wasn't the postgame presser with Aaron Young. You can see how much that loss hurt to those guys, but they're really motivated for next week's game, and they had a really good attitude about it. But, uh, yeah, great, great game by the, or good game by the defense. We left some stuff on the table, but man, are they playing so hard.
Um, there's a couple names I'd like to add to our list of, like, guys we should shout out. Marcus Knight, he's been playing well. Mario Easterly has been playing very good defense for us. And then Jamez Drummer, who we haven't seen much of, had a very good game yesterday, and so did, uh, Jeremy Mack Jr., the Colorado transfer. Both were impactful yesterday, and it was great to see.
We're, we're showing off our depth each game on the defensive side of the ball, and it's, it's really going to pay dividends the longer the season goes. If we can figure out the offensive side. Yeah, I'll put Will Jones a second on there as well. He had an interception and looked really good. I mean, it, it's, it's hard to track 'cause there are a lot of new guys and don't quite know the number with the name yet.
But it's also because we've been rotating so many guys in on defense and there has not been a drop off in quality and like that is, that's amazing. We're not seeing that on the offensive side. But on the defensive side we are like, they've built that depth, they've got the dudes um, just un unleash 'em. I think we only stopped them once on third down when we dropped eight in coverage and they got like eight or nine yards and it was like third and 15.
Uh, but when we blitzed on third down, man, we got pressure and that caused a lot of those interceptions, almost all those interceptions, you can go back and look and there's someone right in his face or bring him to the ground as he's throwing it like that is picture perfect defensive pressure, good coverage, leading to turnovers like. Four interceptions yesterday and we, we didn't, didn't win the game.
Yeah, I think, uh, if I'm not mistaken, I think four interceptions is the most we've had since 2009, our first season in football. That that's probably right. We have not been a big turnover team historically. Yeah, definitely tied for most. I can't remember what year it was, but it is at the bottom of Harry's article. It's at the bottom of Harry's article. Um, They had a bunch of notes in there that were pretty interesting, actually.
Yeah, and Aaron, you're talking about the postgame press conference. Uh, I watched it yesterday and coach Ronnie made a comment about how it seems like the media and the fans are pretty tired of hearing about the one and O mentality. Um, I don't know if that's necessarily true. I just think we're tired of hearing the one and O mentality and not translating to one and O on game day. I think that's where the frustration is on that.
Yeah. And I'm hoping that that's not creating a culture of, I went, want to know, not the team went, want to know. Um, but no, no one, I think the mentality is right. We just needed to translate the one on one game day. Yeah. A couple other things that came out of that post game presser. Go ahead, Mike. I got it. Sorry. I got to correct my stat that I just shared. We had three interceptions in the first half.
That's the most in and a half since the second half against Presbyterian in October of 20, 2009. So. My mistake there. I'm pretty sure Presbyterian was running the triple option then. So that's actually even more impressive. We got three picks in a game. They probably threw it six times. All right. All right. So no, that's okay. Uh, all right.
So a couple other things that got talked about in the post game presser yesterday and asked, um, and one of them we probably should talk about the other one I'll mention, and I think we can put to bed. Uh, the first one was Jason Henderson's health. So, of course, we know Ricky doesn't talk injuries. Ricky said we'll continue to evaluate based upon what we've seen in kind of. What makes sense? Um, you know, Jason still rehabbing from that injury. He came back and played in the first game.
Um, I know myself, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't seem to the Sunbelt. Who knows what's what it's gonna be. I mean, Ricky does not talk about that stuff. But, um, you know, it's a, it is a day to day evaluation thing. So for all the people that are reaching out to us, we don't know that's what the coaching staff is, but I would expect that we probably don't see him for a couple of games. I don't know what y'all think. Yeah. And you also have to play the long game too.
Like we're, Oh, and two at this point, we're not making the college football playoffs that we've missed our opportunity for that. So like what, what's next on our goal list? And that's. When the, when the Sunbelt East go to the Sunbelt championship game, when the Sunbelt, so kind of what you have to do for Virginia Tech and the bi week in Bowling Green is how do you best set the team up to go win those eight Sunbelt games, because those are going to be tough.
Like Sunbelt's kind of all over the place. I don't know what kind of crack everyone was smoking this weekend. There were some really weird scores, but, um, that's kind of has to be the focus. So you've got this gift of a two bi week season. You've got one coming up here after you played two power teams and a really good East Carolina team. You're beaten up. You've got injuries all over the place. I mean. Skylar Grant threw on an 83 Jersey and played tight end in some of our power sets yesterday.
That's about a 300 pound tight end. Uh, just cause we, you know, Butler is, is hurt. Uh, DJ is, is obviously hurt and still out. Uh, and we only really have one other tight end on the roster to play. Um, so yeah, you, you gotta just start conserving and thinking of what you can do in the Sunbelt. Uh, the. Biggest injury I think from yesterday happened right at the end of the game with Grant Wilson. He could not move that wrist or hand or something. It went into the ground.
He got hit by a face mask. He couldn't receive the snap. Um, that will be interesting to watch and seeing if he's not able to go Saturday, who we plug and play, a quarterback. You know, congratulations. Your first game is going to be against Virginia tech and their defense. Before we talk about what we might think might happen there. Um, the other thing with regards to Jason is obviously the coaching staff has Jason's best interest at heart. Jason is the dude is going to get on the field.
I mean, he's going to have his home and he's going to run on field if he can. So, uh, Justin Walker, that training staff, the coaching staff, they want to make sure that, that he is good to go. And he is. They don't want to do anything to jeopardize the kid's long term future because he's put everything into being a monarch and, you know, gonna make sure that he's good when he comes back. Um, before we talk about the quarterback position, the other thing that was asked about was the penalties.
Penalties were, they hurt, they always hurt. But yesterday we got him at the worst possible times and they were really impactful in the game. Let's let's talk about that for a couple minutes. Um, the ones I want to talk about the most for that punt return touchdown by Isaiah page to get called back. I went back and watch that. Uh, yeah, those were legitimate flags. But they really had no impact on the play. They didn't need to hold there. They didn't need to block in the back.
He was going for that touchdown without the holds and without that block in the back. Um, but I wish we had a Sunbelt ref crew yesterday because I'm not sure they call those flags at all because they were, they had zero, a little impact on the play at all. And we know the Sunbelt refs like to let them play. And if it's not egregious, They're likely not going to call it. So I think we missed the Sunbelt ref career yesterday. Cause I don't know. I think we need to, I would love it.
If in college football went to some proximity rules for these plays, if there's a hold on the other side of the field that has zero impact on the guy getting busting through, who cares? I, I agree with you. Like they, they didn't, would not have changed the outcome of the play, but. Some of these were so egregious and right in front of an official that they really didn't have a choice. I don't think, especially on the punt return, like that was right in front of me.
And we actually had two holds, both holding the gunners after Isaiah Page had gotten past them and down the field. Then we had the block in the back. But it was, it was clear, like, just not smart decisions. Like you just let the guys go, like, you don't have to touch them anymore. It plays over, go by. Um, a lot of the holds on the offensive line were, were just simply because they were getting beat. They were getting beat bad and they were no longer competitive in the play, in the grab.
And it stinks because it brought back some big plays. Like Grant had a really great run on the driver. We had a chance to take the lead. It got called back. Um, Anytime I felt like we finally got some momentum to go fast and we had the defense trapped on the field and gassed, we went a little too fast and forgot things like snapping the ball and getting set and not being in the wrong formations.
Um, just a lot of mental mistakes on those and then how you respond to getting beat, it costs the team quite a bit. Like it was, that was painful on a lot of those. When was the last time we had that many penalties in the game? It's one of our sloppiest games we've had in years. I'm thinking the Bobby Wilder era. But I don't know. I haven't looked it up. Had to be one of those. And we were just giving a lot of PIs in the secondary, but would have been the same, same era post Heinicke.
Yeah. Um, I want to note that we really do miss Devin Roche right now. It would have been nice to have his, uh, change of game speed yesterday. And we talked about it already getting out to the outside with his speed. He can do that. Um, I hope you can come back soon because we need that change of pace guy right now. Roche running behind Jalen Butler is something that I wish we would have been able to see on Saturday. It stinks that they're hurt and I know they're trying to get back.
They're doing everything they can to train staff, doing everything they can. It's just one of those things that you gotta, you gotta wait until it heals, unfortunately. And Mike, uh, We got a call or two. One's pretty good. Do we want to go ahead and play it and talk about it? Since it refers to this game before moving on to Virginia Tech? Sure. Uh, let's unveil fan calls for the first time in 2024. All right. What do we got? Hey, fellas. Garrett here.
Uh, first off, great to see everybody out last, last night and during the day. Tailgate was great. Uh, glad you guys can make it on over to us as well.
Um, Into the game, uh, just I assume you guys are going to talk about this a lot, but stagnant offense, uh, not capitalizing on turnovers, uh, if this, this offense can't have long sustained drives, keeping our defense off the field, uh, we've got to capitalize on those turnovers if, if we're going to do anything, um, it's really concerning that everything we heard in the off season, uh, a better offensive line, um, look, if, if, if this is going to be the situation with
Grant, we got to start moving the pocket. If there's a protection issue, you've got to move the pocket, uh, and get the ball out that way. Uh, also the run game, just two yards, three yards. Gotta find something going better there. Uh, defense, not good, but great. Or, sorry, not great, but good. Um, but kept us in the game per usual. Again, got to capitalize on the turnovers they're creating. Uh, I've never seen us though, get slashed so bad up front.
Uh, keeping, keeping people just running all over us. Uh, tech is gonna exploit that. Kyron Drones, uh, might not be the best passer in the world, but that run game they have is gonna exploit what we got. Uh, so Unfortunately on film for them. Um, another thing I haven't seen in a while. It's just so many penalties and too many costly penalties with having gone back and look film yet. But I would be curious to know if that was a true holding call on the Isaiah page.
Um, return, um, again, too many penalties. I will say highlight the student section, probably the best positive of the whole entire game. They stayed the whole entire game after halftime. Seeing them still be there was great. So kudos to them. Uh, but there's gotta be a better product on the field so we can continue to have them stay at games. Uh, so hopefully things can get turned around. Hopefully Jason can play next week.
Uh, but a lot of things got to go back to the drawing board, got to recover from this, uh, and move forward. Reign on. Hey, fellas, Garrick here. Reign on Garrick. Thanks for calling. Um, a lot of good points. It was great seeing you yesterday. So thanks for having us at your tailgate for a moment. Um, Aaron, Gary, you want to add anything to this call? Well, I think Pike had the fire truck in blue light. So that was, that was pretty fun to see over there.
Um, yeah, I mean, he's right about the offense. Like we, we've got to start adjusting what we're trying to do offensively for the personnel that we have and the things that we can do. Otherwise we're just going to continue to ram our head against the wall. Uh, unfortunately there was a hold for Isaiah Pidge's return. There were two of them, but, um, yeah, I mean, he's, he's dead on with the offense. Like if we don't fix that, like it's not going to matter.
And this defense is, it will get worn down no matter how deep they are by like game seven and eight. And that's, that's really bad from the end of the year. Um, we did have another call from Brian. Um, we're not going to play that, but he had a question. So he had a lot of weird occurrences with ECU fans, asking them, uh, when we were going to be mean to them, they were, they assumed we were going to be mean to them and Brian, there was no trash talk to lead up to that.
They are just thinking you're going to treat them like ECU fans treat people. That's it. They see how their fellow fans treat other visiting fans. And they assume that's going to happen to them when they're on the road too. So, all right, we're going to take a quick break here and we'll be right back. This episode of the Monarchist Podcast is brought to you by the Pride of ODU Collective.
Their mission is to elevate the experience of student athletes through name, image, and likeness, while also elevating the fan experience. If you or your business are interested in getting involved, you can reach out to us directly or go over to theprideofodu. com. That is the pride of odu. com. for listening and go monarchs. All right. So I think it's time to move on to mission three and now at home against Virginia tech. Gary, you had your spouse is a Hokie.
You probably know more about them than either of us. So give us the breakdown of what you see you've seen so far from this Hokie team. Yeah, a bit of an update there. Uh, the wife will not be sitting with me for this OD of Virginia Tech game, because anytime we've been together in the games of Norfolk, OD's won. So I think she's trying to change up the landscape there. You want to come over to my section, Gary? Oh yeah, I'll be. Yeah, we'll find, we'll find a spot. No, yeah. You've been exiled.
We'll squeeze in there. Um, yeah. So Virginia Tech, they're one and one. They lost their opener to Vandy. They beat Marshall on Saturday. Uh, I know everyone wants to kind of jump on the Vandy sucks. How'd you lose to him? I wouldn't do that too much in this situation. Vanderbilt hired their offensive coordinator from New Mexico State and they ran this really funky option and they brought with them Diego Pavia, who was their quarterback.
So Tech got hit with an offense that really had never been on film before. That's what put them in the hole early. They battled back in the second half. So far they've been a second half team offensively. They seem to make some good adjustments at halftime, rack up some points and go. Um, Offensively, it's going to look very similar to what South Carolina ran.
Like it's a lot of power option, running short passes, screen passes, looking for like leverage and opening and things like that, uh, drones is a great athlete. Uh, he's yet to show a lot of, a lot of accuracy with his passing, but he has shown it in bursts and he's made some big plays for them, uh, you know, the. When they played Marshall, they basically just went ground and pound. Like, Basiel Tootin had 22 carries and, uh, I forgot how many yards. It was well over a hundred yards.
Uh, he was 125 and he had a touchdown. So they really just kind of wore Marshall down. They shortened the game, limited number of possessions. Uh, that was kind of their, their path to victory there. Marshall, I don't know what they're doing on offense. So it's hard to figure out, like, is Virginia Tech's defense actually just really good? Or did they play.
You know, Vandy, who kind of carved him up the triple option and then Marshall who's trying to do an air raid for some reason, and that just didn't work out. Um, so I think it's a similar story going in South Carolina, right? Like our offense is going to struggle against their defense. I think the struggle is any defense right now, but I think that's your big focal point. Um, but the offensive Virginia Tech runs actually leans itself to our strengths defensively and like run support.
Uh, filling gaps and like being in, in a lot of single coverage situations to stop the run. So I, I, I feel like this is gonna be like a low scoring game again, like just that knockdown drag out 17, 13 thing that we've seen before, uh, playing Virginia Tech recently, especially like the last game we had against them. It looks like the line opened up at 13 and a half, 14, somewhere around there.
Um, my initial thought is with our defense, the way they're playing, that seems like a big number, um, especially at home. Well, I mean, we do have Hudson and that was significant last time and we still have the same damn elevators and that was significant last time. Ollie Jennings is still playing. He's in a different uniform, but I mean, we got all these one score games. What is it now? How many like 13 in a row? 13 in the last two years. The only game that wasn't was that Liberty won.
So until the trend changes, I mean, you guys are, you guys are betters, right? So do you go against the trend or do you wait until that thing changes to adjust? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's close. Well, the betting person in me is going to wait to see if it moves towards Virginia Tech some more so I can get a better number. Maybe if we can get like a 16, I'll be very happy as a better, but. As a fan, it still seems like a big number because we are a one score team right now.
Our defense is playing good enough to keep us in every game. And I don't see any reason that changes this week. Yeah. Well, you see that line. I mean, what, what would make that line change significantly? News comes out about Grant. Could have that, but I also think there are a lot of people willing to throw money to back Virginia Tech under two touchdowns. So. If you're a gambler that wants to bet tech this weekend, you have already bet them, or you're about to, to get that 13 and a half.
Um, I will tell you, Vegas is struggling with ODU and East Carolina and their advanced analytics to figure out what lines should be. Because last week when we recorded, ODU was a three point favorite. By the time the episode got released, they were a three point dog and it ended up coming back to ODU being about a one and a half point favorite kick.
That's a massive swing in college football in this day and age, when there's so much analytics, so many people betting and paying attention to that stuff, um, they're like, I'm going to be shocked that this thing doesn't get closer to 17 by kickoff. Like I know one score in our defense, but you look at our offense and you say, eventually that dam's going to break for the defense in a big way.
Like. We had to grind out to get the one short touchdown, and we had the one kind of busted coverage that Kelby got for the touchdown. Outside of that, the offense is pretty putrid. So, I think, do you think that ODU is going to fix their offense? That's, that's the question that makes your bet on either side of that. We already know how to fix it. And they know how to fix it. It's just more about execution and actually doing it now.
So. Um, it's definitely a wait and see position for me on the offense. Um, definitely frustrating because we've seen it work and we know it can work and it's just not there right now. Yeah. But we got to fix it like now, like now, like this is not an off season fix. Like you got to fix your offense to fit the personnel you have through from now to the end of the season. And you need to get it worked out so that that way.
That first game at Coastal Carolina and the next game at Georgia State, two winnable road games for us. We need those games because we talked about it in the first show that we did. Like there's a pathway where there's a big zero in front of our, in our win column for quite a while. And I mean, we don't be tech. We don't be Bowling Green. Coastal beats us. And then we lay a negative Georgia State. Boom, you're done. See ya. Did either of you guys get a chance to watch the Marshall Tech game?
I watched a little bit of it on my phone, but that was it. Yeah, I didn't get a chance to watch it. I was curious to see how Marshall did rushing the ball. And I mean, without watching the game, I don't really know what these numbers, what the context of the numbers are. I mean, on paper, they averaged 5. 7 yards per rush. They had A. J. Turner. I have. I have not seen the kid play, so I don't know what kind of runner he is.
Um, he busted one big run for like 70 yards and that was the majority of their rushing offense. Well, his other five, I mean, five for 40. So that's eight yards of rush there too. So, I mean, he was effective every time, just every time he carried the ball. Um, the other guys, you know, were three yards, two yards. Just don't share that with Marshall because they're trying to run an air raid offense. That's why they do it 36 times, despite having that kind of success on the ground.
So Marshall for, you know, until the end of this season, don't fix what's clearly the problem there. I will add, um, the PFF showed that yesterday's game was better pass blocking. Our group, we graded out better on the pass than we did on the run. Better than the run. Okay. Yeah. So. That's a big change from last year. We were much better run blocking unit than we were at pass blocking. Um, hopefully that was just an anomaly and ECU's front four were just that good.
Um, I've heard a lot of good things about them, but I don't know. Um, only time will tell. Well, they've survived 10 turnovers in two games and they've won both. So something that reminds you of the defense. Yeah, we knew we, we talked about that, you know, kind of reminds me of. That old Danny Green post game interview. We knew who they are, who we thought they were, and we let them off a hook. I don't know if I just butchered that, but, you know, pretty much what happened.
You got a pretty good, two weeks in a row, we've done the same thing. I mean, they, they did their damnedest to let us win that game. Like that offense sometimes was just like, here you go, throw it downfield, doing dumb stuff. But yeah, we had that. Fumble on the kickoff return was it was a kick in the nuts. I was tough with the wind at your back and the ball getting hung up there. But I mean, maybe it's because I play baseball. Like I kind of, kind of saw that was going short there.
Well, yeah, I mean, the wind was blowing the same way all game. So when it went up and it was like the ball's running away from him, you know, he's trying to get it, but as you get closer, it's just like getting further and further until you're at that awkward point where you're trying to feel the You know, baseball would have kind of been a short hop. You don't want to get short hop. You know, you're either going to take it and let it develop or you got to get there.
And it was kind of that weird in between. And obviously they put the ball on the ground a lot and the ball just bounced the right way and they were able to recover their fumbles when we had, you know, when things went wrong for us like that, we weren't quite so fortunate. It was just one of those nights. One of those, one of those fumbles was like, it was so weird. Cause it came from the other side of the body.
And like every defender is looking at the person who was the ball carrier and the ball sitting right behind them. Cause like, you know, we'd normally be looking there. Yeah. Couldn't get those balances. You're talking about the wind and the stadium. All right. We got to talk about like the whole stadium experience on Saturday. Cause I don't know what in the world was going on.
But when those clouds moved in and the wind picked up, like obviously the field goal net got stuck on the goalpost and that's going to happen with the crazy wind. They were kicking the extra point, whatever. It was, it was funny and the student section going nuts and they finally got it off there at halftime. It was, it was great, but we got a DJ and we got graphics on the board after we convert a first down. Telling the crowd to get loud and screaming and going nuts.
I know we've only had football since 2009, but has anyone actually watched the football game and understand like when we're on offense, that's not the time for the crowd to get loud and for there to be this, the decibel meter and the DJ screaming while we're trying to hustle after a first down to go run our tempo and we can't even understand what the play call is because there's so much noise in the stadium.
And then we ended up just wasting a first down because absolutely no one knew what the play call was. We got to get a little bit smarter and not, I mean, that, that's like embarrassing as a football fan to have your home soundboard and stuff, do that. Like you chalk up to the first game if you want, but we got to do a little bit better than that and show that we have some sense about us with football. It's situational awareness.
Mike knows exactly how I feel with regards to some of the, uh, DJ inspired. Who do you chance based upon basketball games? It's almost like you need to hire a former cheerleader who understands game flow and understands when you're supposed to do things. If you're gonna start, let's just say you're gonna start an ODU chant or a defense chant, whatever it may be that you're trying to get the crowd involved.
It's not only do it at the right point in the game, but you also want to do it at the right time. So like, if the, if the play clock hasn't even started yet, don't start the freaking stupid chant because the whole crowd is too tired to continue the chant by the time there's 15 left on the clock and then everybody shuts up and it's. It's just dumb. It does. We do have to get better at that. I mean, the cherry on top of a shit Sunday, Saturday, like that's, that's all it was.
Like we at least get the graphics. I mean, come on. And I will say, um, so there's a control center in the end zone building. Right. But then there's another one in the ginger administration building. And, uh, I feel like if we could have all the control centers in one place for the game day operation and ESPN plus. We'd probably be better off for it. I don't know. Yeah. Rewatching the stream. I understand why there were fans complaining about the camera quality.
Like there were, there were issues. And again, it's the first home game and I'm sure they got new people doing a bunch of stuff and it'll be better against tech, but like the graphic thing, like somebody had to approve for that to go up on the screen when we were on offense and that killed the drive because no one knew what the play was. It was just look at, look at the field. That's all I can say. So look and see what's going on. All right, um, are you doing predictions now? I mean, why not?
I don't even want to do the order this time. So obviously the suspense of Aaron's pick. We're all on waiting on bated breath to hear what you have to say this week. Okay. We should. It's, uh I take a lot of thought and consideration into these pics every week. Um, I have to, you know, because I know that I'm going to get measured by Mr. Asbury in his, you know, his articles each week and what my record is, which has obviously been the worst of the three of us throughout.
I don't really give a shit. So. We can do it whenever y'all are ready. I mean, who went first last time? Gary, I think it was Gary. Yeah, I went first last time. So Mike, I think it should be you. Um, what's the way our offense has played the first two games. I do not have the confidence to pick us against an ACC team. Um, it just, that's it. It is what it is. Um, I want them to prove me wrong. I want them to continue being undefeated at home against Virginia Tech.
I, that would make me the happiest person in the world. Uh, I think I've picked them each time we played them at home. That's the tough part here. But the offense is just, I don't have the confidence right now. And with Grant, not, who knows what's going to happen with Grant. It's going to be really tough to just pick Old Dominion here. So, Um, I guess I would take Virginia Tech to win, but I'll take that 14 points for ODU. All right.
I'm kind of on the fence here as well, because weird shit happens in this game, as we know. It's always been weird stuff. Always happens. It's like a voodoo on Virginia Tech when they come down to 757. Um, but I don't know. I'm with you, Mike. Nothing about this offense instills confidence in thinking that we can win. Like, if they were just a below average offense, we'd be fine. But, I don't know, I'm thinking more along the lines of like, 34 13 tech.
Like, I don't, I don't think we're going to cover. Um, but who knows? If, if Grant can't go, maybe we get coming out game if someone else is on the bench, whether that's Moorhead, Joseph, Quinn, somebody, just change things up. But, uh, I kind of got a, you put my brain into this and it's almost a 3413 deck. I guess it's my turn now. So you're waiting for it. I have actually been thinking about this a lot today and I get a lot of people that talk to me about these picks and I know that you guys.
Shit, you can't see that. You guys are expecting me to say that Ethan Sanchez is going to kick a 50 yard field goal to win this game. If Grant plays, that's what's going to happen, but I don't think Grant is going to play. I mean, the way that he was looking. I'm not a doctor, but I'm just going to say that. If he doesn't play, we're going to have a freshman quarterback who's going to score the winning points diving into the end zone.
That's Don't know the score, but that's what I predict is going to happen. Go Mars, baby. Three and 0 at home against Virginia Tech. Threw us a change up, man. I was actually not expecting that to come out of your mouth. Wow. I do love the vision of a freshman quarterback coming out and having his breakout performance against Virginia Tech. We know Colton is a gunslinger. And gunslingers do some crazy stuff in big games. Um, if that happens, that could be a ton of fun on Saturday.
Just, just curious in the history of ODU Virginia Tech, has there, has there been a situation where maybe a quarterback started the game and it was early in their career and it just didn't kind of work out the first few drives and then some other relative unknown person came in at quarterback and. May or may not have led us to victory against Gary. Now, now, you know, where I was going with this, that if it, you know, stranger things have happened.
And as we talked with our friends at South Carolina about it, if you haven't seen it in a football game, it's likely to happen in an old dominion football game, because this is where weird shit happens. Maybe that's a t shirt. Yeah. Yeah. Pastor La Russa, pastor La Russa, bless him. Um, he's in Chesapeake as a junior pastor. If, if you're interested. Yeah. So, Hey, yeah.
If Blake, if you happen to be watching this or someone shares it, maybe we need to get him out Friday night to the pep rally to help us get ready for this thing and share some good luck, some good vibes, some, all the things that made that, uh, that victory so sweet. I thought you were going in a different direction. Cause he does still have a year of eligibility left.
Could you imagine, would that be like a Stone Cold Steve Austin coming out of the back and break the glass music, you know, and all of a sudden, I mean, weirder stuff has happened. Yeah. That and some six foot four receivers would be in, be in great shape. It's just funny. Pastor Larussa condemned many Hokies back in 2016. Or 17, whatever it was. All right, fellas. Well, this is gonna be my last pitch. Come out on Friday to Afterglow. We're gonna have a lot of fun.
Let's talk OD football, drink some beer, listen to some good music, and just enjoy each other's company. And hang out with Hudson. Yes. Where else can you do all that in one place? Come to Afterglow. Go Monarchs. Go Monarchs. Go Monarchs. Be tech.