Episode 88 - Stuck in Neutral
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Aaron: [00:00:00] What's up, Monarch Nation? Welcome back to the world's best And only ODU podcast as usual. We've got Gary sitting there in front of his sweet flag, and we've got a surprise guest today. Mr. David Asbury. You guys know, David, probably from oduMonarchists. com is our football writer. , Mike is a little under the weather, so he's resting at home on the couch.
Hopefully he didn't hurt himself jumping up when he saw the Raiders come back in that amazing jaunt today. But, uh, yeah. How you guys doing?
David: I'm doing pretty good. You know, no one could ever replace Mike, but uh, I'll, I'll do my best to fill in for
Gary: him while
David: I can.
Gary: Yeah, I'm doing all right. Could not bring myself to rewatch the game from yesterday, but I got like a repeat performance with the [00:01:00] Jags today.
So my NFL Sunday did not make me feel any better, but. Hope I brought Mike Spirits up a little bit knowing he's home sick, but his Raiders got an upset and went over the roof, so excited Alright fellas,
Aaron: let's uh, let's start talking about the weekend. It started on Friday at Afterglow Brewing, the pep rally.
It's the second time we've done this. Um, it was a great time, and it's growing, which is super cool. As we've talked about in the past, You've heard Mike and me and Gary talk about the whole idea that event is for Old Dominion alumni. We're coming into town. They come in Friday night. It gives them some place to go and hang out with fellow Monarchs that that was the idea at the beginning.
But an interestingly interesting thing. That's interesting. is occurring that I don't think we really thought about is we're seeing other people show up at these events. Um, and it's a, it's a cool landing spot for them. So we've got some of the players, parents and families that are coming out. Obviously the [00:02:00] guys, you know, are at the hotel with the team locking in, but it's given them a good opportunity.
Um, I know, Gary, you've talked with the Barlev's a lot and with Quinn Henicle's dad a lot. It's really cool to see those folks out there. Um, the other thing, and I'll let you talk about this some Gary is we're seeing former players come back. And, uh, of course, friends of the show, Jonathan Plisco and he acted as a football Old Dominion football team magnet on friday night.
And we had like the O. G. Offensive line. They used to protect for Taylor show up and man, it was a pretty good time.
Gary: Yeah, it was a blast over there at Afterglow. Um, the outside space that they have behind it was pretty packed for most of the night, but yeah, I think the highlight there, um, there were some coaches there too, we'll talk about a minute, but, uh, DJ Morrell was back there, Bryan Morrison, Ryan Jensen, uh, that whole offensive line [00:03:00] crew.
And they came in from, from pretty far away. I know a couple of them live on the West coast. Um, I think DJ lives in Connecticut and Brian's up in Northern Virginia. So it's good to see them back and I talk about some of the old days of football and see what they've been up to. Um, but yeah, so former players, parents, and we also had a lot of coaches coming by, I know Tennant McVea and Josh, that whole staff was there and they were there for, you know, Quite a while, having a good time.
Uh, we saw Kieran there, uh, hanging out with us. And then, uh, Andrew Griffiths came in after the field hockey game where we'd been watching it on the TVs there. And after they had the sports on for us. So I got to talk to him a little bit about the game. Um, you know, I feel like he had two tough ones this weekend with I think number five Duke and number eight, Ohio State, but they were in those games, uh, to the end, but it was pretty cool just to run in and be able to have a beer and a conversation with some of those people and amazing how much has grown from the first week to the second week of having that pep rally.
David: Yeah. And Afterglow is just a really fun place to go to. Uh, I did miss the last pep [00:04:00] rally. I was there for the first one and I was there for the watch party against South Carolina and. You have live music, you have kids playing football at the big field, you have great beer, great people, uh, great food, because there's food trucks and Sanctuary Taco right there.
I can't talk that place up enough. Aaron, when will be the next, uh, pep rally be? Because I'm not missing the next one.
Aaron: Well, we're going to do it before every game, but we can talk about this a little bit later. I don't, I don't want to do too much of it now, but the actual next event at Afterglow will be next Saturday with the, uh, official beer release of the Monarch.
So we're pretty stoked about that. Uh, not many people have seen the label to that it's as what Gary is the children say, that's dope. I think at least we've heard some people say that, but it's pretty sweet.
Gary: I think it's got the Riz now is what the kids are saying. And yeah, we all just dated the hell out of [00:05:00] ourselves.
One,
Aaron: one thing that I've never been worried about is my coolness or lack there of coolness. So, but what I do know is next Saturday, I will be enjoying a cold one. And, uh, we got a little bit of a preview of it before the pep rally. Mike and I, uh, sat down with Josh, one of the owners and the head brewmaster at Afterglow.
We've actually done an episode that'll come out this week. Uh, Mike and Josh going through some of the beers in a flight and then talking about the beer release. So, it'll be a little bit, um, a little bit more information about that coming out this week to get everybody fired up for that event on next Saturday.
We will have Ricky Rahne will be there and we might have some other, some other guests depending upon the travel. So we're, we're hoping for, uh, for good, good thing there. Um, before we get in the tailgate, uh, I, I don't know that you guys got a [00:06:00] chance to make it there. Um, but I was, I was solo on Saturday, so I got a chance to go to the open.
the open workout with the men's basketball team at the Ted. And it was pretty sweet. I mean, there's a lot of energy around that program. Mike Jones and his staff. It was very encouraging. The team was very interactive afterwards, talking with folks. Um, if if you haven't gotten your season tickets for men's basketball yet, do it now because it's gonna be too late at some point because this team is definitely building and is moving in the right direction.
Gary: Yeah, excited to see that. I know I actually got my season tickets back this year. We have a whole row, it's gonna be Monarchists row behind ODU's bench. Um, but yeah, the momentum is there for this team. They just got another commit today. So very, uh, very nice to see that going on in men's basketball these days.
Aaron: And, uh, I don't think it's been put out yet, but, uh, we've [00:07:00] been told that the women's team is going to be doing a similar event, I believe it's October 5th. They'll be putting information out exactly more about that. It won't be paired with a football game. It's gonna be a thing all of its own is gonna be focused, you know, directly on women's basketball.
So stay tuned. You'll be able to get your first look at that squad on October 5th.
Gary: Happy birthday or belated birthday to coach Milton-Jones. She was at the game on Saturday. It's her birthday, which I think shares the birthday with David, who's Also celebrating on Saturday. Um, yeah, I'm excited for what the women's team is bringing.
They've got a pretty high level talents coming in there, so it should be another good season for them.
David: Yeah. Happy birthday to her. I had a great birthday, the game, you know, I said, all I wanted for my birthday was at the Monarchs win, but I was being a little realistic and, uh, being a little, uh, just tongue in cheek there.
We, I can't say, uh, I'm surprised with the results, uh, on Saturday, but [00:08:00] I still had a great birthday. It was a fun time.
Aaron: All right. Before we talk about that game, one last thing, let's, let's talk about tailgating.
Gary: Yeah. Well, I want to first shout out that you did get a win from ODU on Saturday. It was ODU Volleyball, who I believe now is eight and two.
They're off to the best start in program history. So congrats to Coach Chao and his team off to a great start. They're back in town Thursday, Friday, Saturday at the ODU volleyball center. So. Go over there and see them. Volleyball is a lot of fun to watch. There's usually great crowds there too. But yes, tailgating.
Speaking of great crowds, uh, we had probably the largest tailgate we have had at ODU. There's definitely some tech fans there, but we had people coming from all over. Uh, we went through more food than we've ever gone through before. I got 16 pounds of pulled pork and I think I came home with a pound or two.
Uh, full Jimmy John's catering got raided. We had fried chicken that was gone from Harris Teeter. It was. It was a pretty awesome out there. Um, a couple of the pilots who actually have done the [00:09:00] F-18 flyovers for us. We're actually over there at the tailgate for a little bit as well. Uh, and got them taken care of.
So just a cool tailgate experience this week. The lots are packed. I'm hoping that holds up, but we'll, we'll see when we come back and like, well, it's like a month till the next time we're back out there.
Aaron: I apologize for the, uh, crazy facial expressions that I just had. I've, I've got the men's soccer game up in the corner here in the office.
And, uh, George Mason just. Took one off the top of the crossbar or right in front of the net. But keeper came up big. It's still nil nil with about 10 minutes left in the first half. So if I jump out of my seat or I yell goal or something like that, you guys forgive me, understand.
David: Yeah. Back to the tailgate.
The tailgate was packed. A lot of, a lot of tech fans, a lot of ODU fans, a lot of friends. Uh, Gary, the food was excellent. Uh, everything was so much fun. And, uh, yeah, we've never lost a tailgate still undefeated.
Aaron: [00:10:00] That's right. Well, unfortunately after the tailgate, um, well, one last thing about tailgate. Just want to shout out.
Thank you to the Dingus's as a Jonathan Plisco. Um, they took care of us over there. Tailgate before we went into the stadium. All right. Now. Let's get to the game.
Gary: Do we have to? Um, I mean, I can't say we
Aaron: do.
Gary: I can't say I was surprised by the outcome. I mean, I think my projection for the final score is like 34 to 13. I think it was 37 17. So pretty close there. Um, and it kind of unfolded the way we thought the defense. Kept us in that game as long as they could. They made some big plays for us.
The interception on the deep ball, they were able to take away the deep ball pretty much completely from Virginia Tech. Uh, but eventually that damn broke there in, in the early part of the fourth quarter, uh, cause the offense just couldn't stay on the field. I couldn't get anything going on the offensive side of the ball coming out of halftime.
And then tech was able to run their power game, which is what they do best. [00:11:00] Uh, eventually wore us down and ended up putting the thing away. But a lot of, a lot of questions on offense, but I don't want the defense to get shrouded in the negativity here. Like they played really well. Like tech had to use some trick plays and get a crazy thing to get their first two touchdowns.
So. Um, shout outs to the defense, but man, we are, we're in trouble on offense. A lot of trouble.
David: Yeah, clearly the offense is the problem right now. Uh, first two weeks of the season, I was kind of hammering on the running game was not getting going. The running game was actually much better against tech, but the passing game.
When you start two freshmen quarterbacks and you're playing two freshmen quarterbacks, you're not going to have the best passing game. Uh, I believe we threw for a total of 50 yards, the entire game, 50 yards. I cannot recall the last time ODU threw for so few passing yards. I don't even think we did that in any game in the 2019 season.
Um, you know, the problems [00:12:00] extended to third down. We were two for 13 on third down efficiency. See, that's That's not going to get it done. Um, and I agree with you, Gary. Uh, you know, if you look on paper and you see the 37 points Virginia Tech scored, you may think the defense didn't play well. No, the defense played pretty well.
They, they were able to, uh, get some big stops against Tech. They made a lot of their tackles. There, there were a few mistakes, like the blown coverage early on, on number 25. Lane, uh, early and there's a few missed tackles, but overall the defense played pretty well and the defense played pretty well all three weeks of the season so far, um, the ants, but it's the offense, the offense needs, uh, to go back to, uh, the chalkboard and use this bi week to rework
Aaron: things.
Let me ask you a question real quick, Gary and David, you might, you might know, but yesterday in the postgame presser, uh, third down [00:13:00] came up, it was talked about and Ricky said, yeah, we, we were not good enough on third down. But an interesting thing that he said that I haven't had a chance to really dive into is he asked, well, how do we do on second down?
He got adventure to say if we looked at the data, we were worse on second down overall than third down. And so that was really third down was the symptom of the the illness, which was second down. So I don't know if you guys have seen that. I haven't been able to dive into it, but I thought it was an interesting, uh, interesting, interesting thing that he said.
Gary: Yeah. And I think you could say that that's accurate for both sides of the ball. Like on offense, we're not doing anything on first down, not doing anything on second down now are facing third and seven plus, and you're less likely to convert those, obviously. Then on the defensive side of the ball, tech had a lot of like third and one third and two, and they're able to just use their power game to get past it.
They were a little bit better on defense in that [00:14:00] space. But I mean, I, I think you can sum up the offense in one drive that occurred yesterday. And it's kind of been the thing that's, that's hurt us all season long. So we're in that game at halftime, right? We are down four. We've got a lot of momentum because we've blocked the kick.
We've been able to have Quinn go and make that amazing run for touchdown, come out of the locker room. You get the light show going like. That place was rocket. Like you could feel like, all right, we're in a special place now. And Koa even talked about that in the postgame presser about how they had that much juice.
The offense comes out, runs the ball twice up the middle and complete pass and punts. And you could just feel all the energy just gone. Um, I expected a lot more from this offense coming out of a halftime when you knew you were getting the ball first and having absolutely nothing other than like Well, tech made an adjustment.
They've got seven in the box and they don't care about the passing games. We can't throw it. We're still going to run right into the teeth of their defense. It just, it's just mind blowing. And that kind of killed the momentum [00:15:00] and started that downswing where we had zero yards in the third, the third quarter, zero yards, zero yards in a quarter in a college football game.
David: Yeah, that's crazy. And you could tell we were kind of afraid to pass the ball. I believe we threw the ball only 14 times. And we've rushed the ball 39 times. And we were down the majority of the game. You would think it'd be the opposite. Most teams when they're down, they have to throw the ball. Uh, you know, part of that is Grant Wilson's hurt and we're playing a freshman quarterback and you want to run the ball and get the offense going before and not have to rely on the freshman quarterback, but yeah, that when the running game isn't.
doing everything. You got to rely on the past sometimes and it just wasn't there.
Aaron: All right. So Gary, you made an interesting, uh, interesting comment there talking about zero yards in the third quarter. We got some calls this [00:16:00] week. Uh, one of them is, uh, one of our good friends who is a faithful caller in Garrick. Uh, he also mentions that zero yards. with some other numbers. So I think it's a good time to go ahead and play that call.
And then we can talk about it.
Garrick (Caller): Happy Groundhog Day, gentlemen. Um, undefeated in the tailgate. That's for sure. Great seeing everybody out. Great atmosphere. Uh, just want to go over numbers. Uh, the number zero. Zero yards in the third. Zero separation from receivers. Zero protection from the O line. And absolutely zero impactful in game adjustments uh, from the staff.
Other than the quarterback change, just nothing, uh, from that. The number 20. Uh, that's the amount of points that we have not reached all season. The number seven. That's how many penalties we're averaging per game, and by far, uh, the most undisciplined team under Ricky. [00:17:00] Uh, so I'll just leave it at that. I know you guys will go into depth a lot more, but, uh, to end on a positive note, again, um, student section showed out, stayed.
Uh, we were in the game for a little bit, and then again, zero impactful adjustments. We knew that Tech was the second half team. They were going to make adjustments, and, uh, We didn't match it. Uh, thank God we have a buy and, uh, we need it. Uh, we need it for, uh, players to get healthy and hopefully we can make some adjustments here.
Right on.
Aaron: All right, guys, you , heard Garrick there. He's got a lot to unpack. Uh, Gary, give me your thoughts on what you just heard.
Gary: I don't think he's really wrong in anything that he said. Um, the quarterback change was an interesting thing to bring up too. Um, I think the staff knew that Grant wasn't going to be starting pretty much all week.
Uh, I think Colton was the guy and maybe there was a little bit of a plan to rotate Quinn in. That's what Ricky said in the post game anyway. [00:18:00] Um, but then that was a quick hook on Colton with, with two drives. And then, you know, he did not have a good play on his final play. Uh, but yeah, you would think like, okay, if we've decided we're going to stick with Quinn the rest of the game, then you're going to model that offense to help him be successful.
I don't feel like we did any more adjustments. It was like, all right, we're, we can run the ball. We're going to continue to run the ball. No matter what's tech tech is showing us and just. Didn't make a, make a whole lot of sense. And I don't think it puts him in a great spot, um, man. Yeah. He's got some, some good numbers there.
David: Yeah. When he puts it like that, I don't know what else to really say. Uh, yeah, I don't quite understand why Colton didn't get more time. You know, I know he's a red shirt, freshman Quinn Hinnickle is a true freshman. We have two freshmen quarterbacks that, uh, you know, it appears the game plan was to go back and forth or yo yo until one can really, you know, You know, take the game by the horns or something.
Um, but yeah, you would have [00:19:00] expected Colton to come back in eventually. Uh, and I do want to talk a little bit about the offensive line. We made a switch at left tackle. Anthony Pat and Arizona transfer came in and I actually thought the offensive line played better than they did against East Carolina overall.
You know, there are still a few sacks. I believe there's four sacks or whatnot, but a lot of that was actually on the quarterback. Um, you know, they're freshmen. They're not that experienced. Uh, when 300 pound linemen are chasing you. The natural response is to run away. And we saw that a bit where the quarterback would see ghosts and he would run away and he'd run outside.
But that's not how offensive lineman protection works. When you try to run outside, you're going to run right into a defender. And there is a couple of sacks I was just caused by the quarterback seeing ghosts and getting angsty and trying to run outside, uh, that weren't really the offensive line's [00:20:00] fault.
Now we can talk about some that were the offensive line's fault and, you know, and what the offensive line can do better. But I actually saw, you know, to take a positive, I saw some improvement in the offensive line. And in the running game, we did run for more than 200 yards this game. There's some big runs with, um, Bryce Duke.
He only had four carries, but he made the most of them. Uh, you know, of course we got to talk about Quinn Henicle"s, huge run for a touchdown. Quinn Henicle"s fast and. You know, he's a true freshman. He may look at this game as a huge learning experience for him to come back and, um, and be much better. Um, but yeah, he has speed and we can use those legs in the future, hopefully.
Aaron: He's faster than I thought. Yeah, he really broke away and nobody was catching him.
David: Yeah, uh, and late in the game we saw, uh, Tariq Sims come in. The game was out of reach. Everyone was pulling starters. We were pulling starters. Virginia Tech had second string, [00:21:00] their second string team. Uh, Tariq Sims was, you know, the fourth string running back coming into the season.
Uh, he only got two carries late in the game, but he had 20, he made the most of them, he had 26 yards and a touchdown. And frankly, he had a very good spring game against second strings. I'd be very intrigued to see if he gets more carries and gets more, uh, reps with starters, because every time I see Tariq Sims, he looks really good.
Gary: I wanted to go back a little bit and talk about the quarterback play in the O line. Because I agree with you, the offensive line did look better, especially in run block. We were not getting beat on the outside at left tackle as much as we were before. Uh, Dubose started at right guard. He was inserted there after halftime in the East Carolina game.
And it seemed like that shored up the O line a little bit. They were outnumbered on a lot of those sacks. Uh, because it kind of goes back to when you don't have a passing game established. Then they're not going to respect those receivers that are 25, 30 yards away from the blind scrimmage. They're going to [00:22:00] put it in man when, and Virginia Tech has the talent at corner.
They could probably play man all day. But you know, you look at some of those sacks and the pocket is starting to collapse on Quinn and he does have a little bit of time, probably more than maybe we had against East Carolina or South Carolina. But look where the receivers are in that they are 15 yards downfield and three yards outside the numbers.
And when you have a freshman quarterback, like I can tell you that first snap, the, when he's getting it, the world is moving around him at a thousand miles an hour. So you need to kind of help that quarterback, get the feel, slow the game down a little bit. And I can promise you when you're standing in the dead center of the field and you look over to the sideline and you got the D line between you and you got corners over there, that's all feels a lot farther away than 2025 yards.
It feels like you're trying to, you know, Throw it a hundred miles into the ocean. And like, that is not a way to set up a freshman quarterback, whether it's Colton or Quinn for success. Like you have to have those relief valves. You have to have plays over the middle, the dump offs. Just [00:23:00] something to help.
And it seemed like we went to like max protect, we kept the running back into block and there were no safety valves that were there. I think the one time I saw us really attack the middle through the air, I was perfect. It was the third down. We ran a slant with the Conroy from the slot. It was great. The throat was a little bit high, kind of sailed and was incomplete.
But that's what I'm talking about. That middle of the field is vacated. It was vacated against East Carolina as well. And we just don't go attack it. And the mindset and the strategy behind this offense is great. It's make them defend the whole field. We're going to attack your weakness with our strength.
That makes sense, but they're not having defend the whole field against us. They're just defending outside the hashes in the passing game. And like, that is, is really what's killing us. Um, and it, it really hurt two freshmen quarterback who I think are good. Like I think Colton's good. I think Quinn's good.
They need to develop, but if you don't put them in a position to develop, they're going to transfer away and we're going to be on here talking about them in two years, how well they're doing beating other teams
Aaron: that never [00:24:00] happens with Old Dominion quarterbacks. I mean, when have we ever seen that happen?
Gary?
Gary: Oh, definitely not at Coastal Carolina or Maryland or anywhere else recently.
Aaron: Well, those guys didn't actually end up here. Almost, but there are some that were here, right?
Gary: Yeah.
Aaron: Yeah.
Gary: Yeah. We won't name drop.
Aaron: Hey, uh, David might be continue to talk about some of this call. But 1 thing that I want to bring up that, uh, that Garrick mentioned and we've seen it a lot on social media, which makes me happy because social media usually sucks ass.
Um, and it's really negative shouting out the student section. The student showed up early. They were loud. They were, they, they were awesome. I mean, I was on the field before the game and I had a couple of photographers come over. And specifically tell me about [00:25:00] how the student section was amped up and they were ready to go and they were and they were, they continue to be loud and they didn't go.
They didn't go home. I mean, they were there to fight right to the end. So, I don't, I don't know if Old Dominion is giving them pizza or points or extra credit on their grades. Or it's just a new crop of students who are engaged, whatever it is. It's awesome. And I don't know how many students we actually have listened to us, but if you are hats off to you guys.
Continue to do that. Continue to bring your friends. Continue to be loud. The team really does appreciate it. It's it's the second week in a row, um, where, uh, the players in the press conference have come out and talked about feeding off of the crowd and the students are always going to be the most important.
And most energetic part of the crowd. So hats off to all y'all. [00:26:00]
Gary: I also want to give a shout out to the staff that was running the in game like promotions and video board. We were tough on them last week because there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of things didn't go well. So I'm going to give them a ton of credit.
Uh, they weren't, they didn't just like not make the mistakes. They were going the extra mile. If you notice on the video board, we were on offense. There were signs popping up on the scoreboard that said, shush, offense at work. Like it went how it was supposed to, they were educating the fans and it worked.
So I crushed him pretty good last week. I have to give him all the credit in the world for going above and beyond this week. It was really cool to see that and I mean, just gave some legitimacy to us, even though it wasn't, wasn't great on the field at the time, but shout out to that staff for their hard work of that end game experience.
David: Yeah, they did a great job. We got a shout out to them. The students did a great job. The fans in general, uh, you know, I think, uh, the stadium is listed at 21, 900, but the capacity was [00:27:00] over 22, 000. Yeah. 21, 900 is, uh, what the capacity is listed at, but for this game, we broke that and it was a sellout crowd.
There's a lot of tech fans, of course, cause there's a lot of tech fans in Hampton Roads area, and they only have to shell out cash for one game compared to ODU fans who want to go to all six. Uh, but the students, they understood the assignment. I actually had breakfast at hair, the dog right across the street from, uh, the stadium, and it was already packed, filled with students.
And so they went all day and my hat's off to them. They did a great job. It was a great home field atmosphere, even with all the tech fans there. And, um, you know, we want to continue that and build off that. And, uh, hopefully the students keep coming out because the next home game is homecoming, if I recall correctly.
Aaron: I do have one grievance to air. [00:28:00] And I walked over to Gary last night. Gary calibrated me a little bit. and brought me down, uh, to earth, uh, so to speak. So I was a little perturbed at the number of tech colors that were throughout the stadium, a lot of which were in the season ticket areas. Now, what I'm interested in seeing in the next game and the following games are how many folks, how many of the same folks are sitting in those seats?
Like Ricky talks about, Hey, I'm okay with Old Dominion being your second favorite team because Virginia Tech has had football a lot longer than ODU has. So there's going to be Virginia Tech fans who have ODU as their number two. So if they show up and there are no Old Dominion stuff in those other games, then you know, Hey, cool hats off.
That makes sense. What appeared to me is we had a lot of season ticket holders who sold their tickets to Virginia Tech. people [00:29:00] just me looking in my section and section to the right of me and I get it that you can get decent money on the secondary market for the seats. That's, that's really disheartening to me if that's, that's the case.
Um, that's just my opinion. Also, I'll leave it at that.
Gary: Well, we'll find out at the Texas State game for homecoming. Uh, because I do know that a lot of Virginia Tech fans did buy season tickets because that was the only way you could get and guarantee that you were going to have a ticket for that game.
Um, so I'd be curious to see, like, I remember two years ago we had that and there were a lot of Virginia Tech fans that then sold their tickets to JMU fans who were coming later in the year. And I imagine the East Carolina probably picked apart that secondary market for week one and maybe we just didn't notice.
Also, remember, we sell a lot of blocks of tickets to sponsors of ODU. I may get 20 tickets, 40 tickets, a hundred [00:30:00] tickets. I can promise you, if you work for one of those companies and you're a tech fan, you're definitely putting your name in the hat, in the drawing to get those free tickets. So I think that has something to do with it too, but I'm, you know, I choose not to worry about the ODU fans that don't come, you can come from, don't come for whatever reason you want, that's fine.
Do what you gotta do. Uh, but the fans that were there for ODU were all in last night, like that moment with light shows going like that, it felt like a special place and like we could do more of that. But if you really want to get those ODU fans to get their butts back in seats, you got to fix what's going on in the field, because you're going to have to put that before, before you have to worry about fans coming back.
Aaron: That's a great point. Winning, winning solves just about any, any problem. Took the words out of my mouth. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, winning, winning solves problems. Winning covers up problems. Um, it, the last thing that, I mean, the last thing I'll say on the whole matter Like I said before, I [00:31:00] mean, I guess all revenue is good revenue, but empty seats, and that's kind of what I'm worried about in the back half of the season, empty seats is not a good thing for anybody.
It's not a good look on television. And, you know, we're not on national TV every week, not broadcast, but I mean, we're, we're on national TV. We're on ESPN+, so it doesn't look good on TV. It doesn't feel good as a fan. And certainly when the team looks up and they see large blocks of empty seats, they just see no one's there.
They don't have the context of, uh, that's a block of seats from X, Y, Z company. And. They didn't give their tickets out or no one took their tickets, you know, or it was a tech fan or a JMU fan that bought a mini plan or a season ticket. And They didn't sell their tickets, so those seats are empty [00:32:00] for five other games.
It's I mean, I get it. They've got to sell, you know, sell tickets there. But it's not the my opinion. It's not the best look.
Gary: Definitely doesn't look good. You're you're 100 percent right on that. And especially if this season continues on this trend, it's going to become even more and more noticeable as we get to the later games of the season.
David: Yeah, I will say the schedule is what we want, though. I will say like, yeah, we are facing Virginia Tech with a lot of Hokie fans in the area. You know, there's going to be a lot of JMU fans and East Carolina fans, but that's also good for us. I want to see us beat those teams. Teams. I want to play those teams.
I want to, you know, I, I don't have to travel to go see us play Virginia Tech or East Carolina. They, they're coming to our house and, um, it's, these are the type of teams that we want to continue playing and grow relationships with these other fan groups. [00:33:00] Uh, we just want to beat them. And I think it goes back to what Aaron said is winning solves all problems.
Aaron: Well, I hope you enjoyed that game because don't be surprised if in a couple of years we don't see them come back and not necessarily because Virginia Tech doesn't want to, but The ACC is cracking down on that stuff. It may be out of their control. So, you know, those of us who've been to all three, I'm pretty, uh, pretty happy.
I got those experiences.
Gary: Yeah, they were fun. And I, Oh, I don't think we come back to Norfolk for a couple of years. So I think the next two are in Blacksburg and like, you're also betting on, well, the ACC is still be this version of the ACC by then. I can't imagine Florida state and Clemson's lawsuit, uh, dragging out for quite that long, but we'll see.
Um, you know, there were a couple notes from yesterday from the game as I was scratching my head a lot. Uh, first of all, the flyover was sweet, so shout out to Harry McBrien for getting all that [00:34:00] organized. Um, he's one of the partners of the Monarchists as well. Um, yeah, those, uh, the pilots that were dealing with a lot of wind and a rogue drone that showed up, uh, down in the south end zone, or the north end zone.
Uh, so that was pretty, pretty awesome. Um, but one thing we talked about here last week when we did not have a lot of success in the running game is that we didn't really bounce any runs to the outside. And I noticed a huge change in that. I mean, we had some big runs bouncing outside, both with Quinn and then Bryce Duke getting loose a couple of times.
Um, I was just happy to see that. I don't know if you guys noticed that as well.
David: Yeah, I thought the running game was much better. Um, you know, Aaron Young, he, I think averaged 3. 9 yards per carry and he got the majority of the carries. Um, and he was mostly trying to go up the middle. Uh, but as I said earlier, Tariq Sims did great. Bryce Duke did great. Quinn Henicle had that huge run.
The running game was much better. And if we can continue that while fixing [00:35:00] the passing game, maybe the offense can, you know, start cooking with gas. Uh, but, but yeah, they have a lot of work to do still.
Aaron: No, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Gary. I'm curious. Curious on your second note.
Gary: I was just, I was just excited to see Sims get out there. Um, you know, Roche, he was back on some kick returns, but he did not come in at running back at all. Um, but he kind of looked like him. He was elusive. He was fast. He's been quick cuts and good reads.
Um, just kind of thinking of, man, that would have been another one to get some good rotation in. We just didn't have enough plays to really rotate those guys, but. Bryce Duke had a hell of a game. I'll probably, he probably wishes he had double the amount of carries against his former school there.
Aaron: I've been really happy.
I wish we used it less because that would mean that we were being more successful on the offensive end. But our punting game has been pretty, pretty good. I mean, we haven't, [00:36:00] you know, I hate to be as a commander's fan. Like, that's been one of the few things that we've been good at the last few years. Um, so maybe, maybe I'm, I'm calibrated to the wrong position on the field, but, um, it's been a good thing that we've had a decent, uh, decent run there.
David: Yeah. And Iowa, Iowa, which has had a pretty famously inept offense, uh, it just relies on defense. They, they're really good at punting and defense and they win games that way. And they have this like kind of a meme saying that says punting is winning. And, and, you know, there's some truth to that. If you're really good at punting, you're going to put the other offense in a bad position and, uh, you can control the game that way.
And, uh, you know, our punt unit has looked pretty good this season thus far. I agree.
Gary: Well, yeah, there may not be a lot of positives to talk about this, so we'll throw this one out there as well, but yeah, Seamus Hall, I mean, he's [00:37:00] a monster at eight punts yesterday. Average 44 and a half yards had three of 50 plus.
Have a day with that worn out foot. I hope it's getting some ice. So Jonathan, let's go,
Aaron: let's go sit in somewhere just with a, you know, a nice little smile going, all
Gary: right,
Aaron: son, not bad.
Gary: Oh yes. All right. Couple, a couple other notes here. Uh, just cause I either heard it in the crowd or heard it around. Um, the first touchdown that Virginia Tech had, I don't know if you all noticed, but it was a trick play that we should be quite familiar with.
Cause we did it some last year. Uh, trips right, you put an offensive lineman as the middle receiver and the offensive lineman goes over there and goes, Hi, I'm lost when the ball gets snapped. And we just didn't pick up the inside slot receiver who ran a seam was. at all for a touchdown. Uh, but that kind of made me think like Virginia Tech must have a lot of respect for what we do on defense for [00:38:00] them to use a trick play that I'm sure they probably rather use later in the season and not put it on film against us, but they felt that that strongly that this was their chance to go maybe get One of their only touchdowns of the game and to use the trick play.
And of course the second drive, I thought we had a sack down at the far end. I couldn't see all the way down there, but somehow Drones got out of it because I mean, he's, he's good. I mean, he looked pretty good on Saturday, uh, to get out of that, complete the pass, turn into a big gain, the referees completely botched how to blow their whistle, and then we got a penalty.
I don't think I've ever seen Ricky that mad, but, um, you know, Virginia Tech kind of had to pull out a lot of the stops early. And I think that just showed that they're going to empty their, their clip against us to make sure that they don't drop another one.
David: Yeah. Uh, Ricky had a right to be mad about that penalty for sure.
That was the guy was trying to stay inbounds. That wasn't late. The D and their [00:39:00] respect for, uh, the ODU defense, I think is earned. This defense is making their tackles. Jahron Manning had a really good day. Koa Naotala and his brother, Seth Naotala, who got in later on, they both registered seven tackles. Uh, Denzel Lowry and Mario Thompson were in their backfield quite a bit.
Uh, this defense actually registered eight tackles for a loss, which is Uh, pretty good. Uh, but to talk about that one blown coverage play that trick play, uh, the wide receiver that was running the scene was Jalen Lane and he was wearing number 25 and I don't know if you know much about Virginia Tech football, but number 25 is sacred to that team.
That was Frank Beamer's number and they rotate that number. To the best player, uh, or one of the best players, uh, on the team that week. And, uh, you shouldn't lose sight of number 25 when you're playing Virginia Tech, because if they think that player is an impact player, if [00:40:00] they're letting that player where that number for that week.
Um, so when seeing a number 25 wide open Virginia Tech player, I was a little frustrated by that. I won't lie, but, uh, other than that, I do think the defense played pretty well.
Gary: That's the first like big blown coverage that I can really remember. I think we, there might've been one in South Carolina, but the kid dropped it.
So it doesn't, didn't stick as much. Um, but I mean, the secondary is still doing a good job. Like you blow one coverage in a game. That's okay. Normally your offense can, can help you out with that. Um, but I think we only had, it looked like we only had three healthy linebackers for that game. I knew that Jason was out.
I didn't see EJ green out there and I could be wrong on EJ, but I don't think I saw him. And then Drummer was actually in a neck brace on the sideline. So we definitely needed a lot of guys to step up and tackling and you're going up against an offense that's running a lot of power in the second half.
Um, and we know we have three linebackers and three down [00:41:00] linemen. You got to get up and get physical. And I love the fight from our defense. Like after every three and out, they went out there and still hitting hard, running fast, swarming the ball, just doing a lot of really awesome stuff. Uh, they just.
Yeah, eventually wear down the damn breaks and when the damn broke it fully broke. And that was, that was the ball game.
David: Yeah. And, uh, the secondary, I do think played really well. Got to give a shout out to Angelo Rankin's, uh, interception. Uh, he made a great play on the ball in the end zone to, you know, flip the field.
Um, you know, they were playing Mr. Brightside when that interception happened. So it made me, you know, gave me a little bit of joy in a game that I thought maybe we. Can get back into, but ultimately not, but I agree with you, the dam just eventually broke. You can't, uh, can't go against the Virginia Tech offense like that and expect it not to, especially when them on the ground.
Uh, we held them to under 200 yards passing. Uh, but you know, Kyron Drones, he's [00:42:00] a dual threat quarterback. He can throw, he can run, and he's a good runner. And, uh, between them and their two good running backs, they were able to run the ball pretty well. Once that damn broke towards the end of the game.
Gary: Bhayshul Tuten is a monster of a running back. Like absolute monster. I was, uh, you know, he went down with an injury a little bit, but he ended up coming back and it seemed like he's okay. Um, but man, I mean, he just tough is given the ball and it takes three, four guys to drag them down. And that's, it's a hell of a running back that they have up there.
Their defense played really well too. Like I know we're talking about how inept our offense was and that's true, but it's also true that Virginia Tech's defense is really good. Uh, that's, that's without a doubt the strength of their team. So it was tough, but, uh, Aaron, you were in the post game press conference.
I watched it on the ODUMonarchistss YouTube channel earlier today. And just. Just heard some interesting things and then maybe you can share some light on the vibes that you felt being in there in person. But second game in a row that Ricky is kind of hinted at confidence, [00:43:00] player confidence and faith in the offensive system.
That's the second time I've kind of heard that Ricky didn't say offensive system just said faith, but you can put two and two together there. That's a little bit concerning to me that it sounds like guys aren't buying in because we're not seeing results right now. Was that kind of your feel listening to that in there, Aaron?
It was
Aaron: hard. It was hard to tell, um, whether he was talking more in general with regards to confidence. We've played three very good teams. We've played SEC team at South Carolina. We played an ACC team of very, you know, highly touted one in Virginia Tech and then a team that almost always is good in East Carolina.
So I wasn't sure if he was talking about confidence and that a you can compete with any of these teams. Take the take the jersey off of them, the mystique of them being in a [00:44:00] power for conference or whatever. Um, or it was more specific to the, to the offense, if it, if it is the offense, that's, that's a significant concern because you got to fix that somehow.
And there's only two ways to fix it. It either becomes successful or it changes. And I don't really know. I'm not, I'm not sure. Um, sometimes when you're sitting in there and you're trying to absorb it and you're seeing what's, what's going on and read body language, but I'm not really sure which way And I think he was going with it.
Gary: Yeah. I'm not sure that I'll tell you from just being in the fan, being a fan, looking out on the field. I don't think that the defense lacks one inch of confidence in anything that they do. And whether that's coaching, getting them fired up and pumped and knowing like, all right, we got to go back out there.
We got to do our job. That's what we hear from [00:45:00] Jason Henderson. Right? Like. Doesn't matter how long we're on the field, we're going to go out there and do our job on offense. You can kind of see a little bit of the lack of confidence and you can kind of see it when they come off the field. And I, I just worry that, you know, if we don't make the changes to what we do offensively in a schematic way, and we get to, oh, and four, oh, and five help us.
If we get to, oh, and six, you're going to see. You're going to see some ugly stuff and it's going to be an ugly season. So I'm, I'm hoping that with this bi week they're, they just reset. And he, and coach Rahne talked about that in the postgame press or two of like, really taking this bi week to reevaluate things.
And how do we actually put our players in the best position to win? So we could look totally different coming out against Bowling Green in a couple of weeks. I hope we do, whether that is. We're doing the same thing and we're finally getting a result or we have finally changed What we can do schematically to have the players that we have now be successful either [00:46:00] way It's it's got to improve and the bi week is coming at a great time to try to get that done
David: Yeah, the bi week honestly couldn't have come at a better time You know, we just as Aaron said earlier we faced three really good teams SEC team on their own turf Uh and a good ACC team Virginia Tech Is supposed to be really good this year.
They do have really high expectations for themselves. I don't think they're going to win ACC, but their fans have that expectation and, uh, they should be pretty good. Uh, they may get close. They may, they'll probably go to a bowl game. Um, and East Carolina is rebuilt. I know they went to in 10 last year and some ODU fans are really down that we lost to a team that went to in 10 last year, but.
East Carolina, they, they got a lot of good players and they went toe to toe with app state this past weekend. Um, so w you know, we went through a gauntlet, we're banged up, we have injuries, you know, the offense [00:47:00] needs a lot of work, the bi week couldn't come at a better time and, uh, we got to use this bi week to reset.
Get healthy, you know, try to get some of those players who, uh, have lingering injuries back on the field and, uh, work on the things that haven't worked so far. Um, and spend a little extra time on that. And, uh, we hope, and it's certainly possible that, uh, they're refreshed and they're recharged when they go to Bowling Green State in two weeks.
Gary: Yeah, and you're right about the bi week coming in a good time for sure because if you don't fix it now By the time you get to your next bi week It won't matter because we've got six in a row coming off of this bi week first three are on the road Um, we almost need to look at bowling green is that it has to be a get right game That's when the shit's got to click build the confidence in this team get right And then we're going to Coastal who's three and oh and we're going to Georgia State So guess what [00:48:00] upset Vanderbilt on Saturday, believe it or not The Vandy triple option and Diego Pavia finally met its match down there in Atlanta.
Uh, and while I'm excited for Georgia State, I have a little bit more scared about the fact that I already have travel and hotel book for that game. So it should be fun.
David: Yeah. And then we have a very tough, challenging homecoming opponent with Texas State, Texas state played Arizona State this past, uh, Week and it, um, on Thursday night football and, uh, they went toe to toe with Arizona state and they were winning at some points going back and forth.
And frankly, if they didn't throw an interception and, uh, and a late fumble late interception, a late fumble, they probably would have beat Arizona state. Um, they're going to be a very tough homecoming game for us as well. And then right after that, we have a short week with Thursday night. Football will be hosting Thursday night football on ESPN2 with, uh, Georgia Southern.
And they look like they have a better quarterback. [00:49:00] Uh, their quarterback looks better than, um, last year's. Um, So it'll be a really good matchup.
Gary: Yes. Well, talking about some other Sun Belt teams, there's one Sun Belt team that we don't play this year, but we actually heard from them this weekend, and this has been a very depressing episode because we've had three games that I think we're all frustrated with, and we're probably a little punch drunk from three straight, uh, you know, Road tripping and tailgating weekends, but some of our mustard buzzard friends down in Mississippi called into our, uh, our voicemail line and Aaron.
I'll let you tee up the rest here.
Thomas (Caller): Hey, my name is Thomas. Uh, Go Monarchs, first of all, I'm a Southern Miss fan. No question. Just a comment. Uh, we suck and just for the betterment of the Sun Belt, we need to fire Will Hall. So we're trying to spread the message. Anyway, um, again, feel monarchs. Hope you have a great show.
Talk to you soon.[00:50:00]
Aaron: All right, so that's Thomas, but Thomas is so passionate about this that he called us not once. But twice. So here's the second call
Thomas (Caller): is Thomas again, go Monarchs. Once again, Southern Miss fans reiterating, we should probably fire Will Hall for the betterment of the Sun Belt and Southern Miss football. Um, uh, you got some great shows.
Talk to you soon. All
Aaron: right, guys. Uh, we need to definitely talk about that, but let's go ahead and break for a second. I'm going to let y'all think about it. Compose your thoughts and we'll be right back.
Pride of ODU Collective (Ad): This episode of the Monarchistss 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 [00:51:00] is ThePrideOfODU.com. Thank you for listening and go Monarchs.
Aaron: All right. So,
um,
what do you guys think about that?
David: Well, Monarch fans, it could be worse, you know, there, there are other teams out there that, uh, are way more depressed and down on their teams than we are. Um, you know, my heart goes out to Southern Miss fans right now, before the season even started, uh, I wrote an article.
On oduMonarchists. com Where I put the hottest seats in the Sun Belt And it wasn't hard to come up with whose seat is the hottest in the sun belt. It was will hall. Uh Will Hall Uh, you know, he has been kind of pretty disastrous down there, you know, uh We beat them last year. Jason Henderson had a game saving [00:52:00] tackle to stop their running back Frank Gore You In the end zone.
Um, and they were one of two games, one of two Sun Belt teams to miss a bowl game. And the other one was ULM. It was just them and ULM and expectations weren't very high for Southern Miss and they just got stomped by South Florida and South Florida should be a pretty good American team, but you shouldn't, you should be competitive against them at home.
Um, and they just weren't competitive at all. Uh, so yeah, my heart goes out to them. What do you think, Gary?
Aaron: Well, hold on, Gary, before you give your thoughts, David. Okay. Look, you had Thomas call in to tell us like, How bad things are down there. I mean, it's coming on the Monarchists podcast, asking for Will Hall to be fired and actually, you know, saying, go Monarchs, but he wasn't the only one.
[00:53:00] There's another one I'm going to go ahead and play, play these two calls. And then Gary and David, you guys can give your thoughts on this.
Augustin (Caller): Hello, my name is Augustin, and in solidarity with my friend Thomas, I also want to spread awareness about how Southern Miss needs to fire Will Hall. Um, I am a Southern Miss fan, but we're just trying to get the word out that Southern Miss needs to fire, uh, Will Hall.
Also, uh, a few years ago when Old Dominion came to Southern Miss, I watched Matt Coutney put a ball, uh, over the Catholic Church in right field, uh, hit it over the pine trees. It was probably the farthest baseball I've ever seen hit. Um, that, uh, ODU team was insane. Um, Matt Gagliardi, uh, as well. Or I think his name is Gagliardi.
Either way, look, fire Will Hall, go Monarchs. Uh, yeah. Hope y'all have a good day.
Aaron: But wait, there's more.
Augustin (Caller): Hey, it's Augustin again. It was Brock Gariola, not Matt Gagliardi. was thinking. Either way, [00:54:00] fire Will Hall, go Monarchs. Hope y'all have a good one.
Aaron: All right, Gary. All you.
Gary: I just wanted to be known that I love Southern Miss fans.
And we have a lot of great fan base in the Sun Belt, but those, the mustard buzzards, just, just do it for me. They are my kind of comedy. They're my kind of reaction. I genuinely love Southern Miss fans. Uh, so we have a Matt Coutney home run reference and then it's Brock Gagliardi, but it could be Andy Garriola too, but I'm glad that our baseball program left that much of an impact on Southern Miss where they're confusing how many guys hit monster towering home runs for us.
Yeah, well, it's not we're not in great shape here, but hey, we're not calling into the Southern Miss podcast. So that's positive,
David: right? Right. And you know, it really does say a lot that they're calling us to tell us, like, we can do anything about Will Hall. It's such a good
Gary: bit. I love it. I love it.
David: And you know what?
That is some respect because Southern Miss [00:55:00] baseball, they're really good baseball program down there. So for them to, to remember us making an impact is, uh, is very respectful. And I appreciate that. And I, you know, I appreciate being in the same conference as them.
Aaron: I will say I never anticipated. Matt Coutney or Brock Gagliardi or Andy Garriola make an appearance on this particular show, let alone Andy Gagliardi or, uh, Brock
Gary: Garriola.
Whatever combo that was.
Aaron: It doesn't matter. They all hit dingers, man. Bud Bombers, right?
Gary: Yes. Get your Bud Bomber shirt today.
Aaron: Gotcha. Um, you guys have any, any thoughts with regards to Sun Belt football? Um, before we move on to kind of wind down the show.
Gary: Well, we talked about a couple of different teams, you know, App got a road win at East Carolina.
[00:56:00] Um, I think you are kind of starting to see some of the cream rise to the top, uh, even though we haven't started commerce play just yet, but App State. Being in good position, Texas State being in good position. I think the surprise for me is Coastal Carolina being three and out. Um, they haven't had a tough, tough schedule yet, but, uh, they've played well and don't show any signs of dropping off.
So that's a game that is not too far on the horizon here. Uh, one game after the bi week.
David: Yeah, Coastal Carolina has played really well the first three weeks. Their competition may be a little questionable, but they played Virginia this week, and that's going to be a very good measuring stick for them.
Virginia opened as a five point favorite at Coastal Carolina. You know, uh, that's going to be a big measuring stick for them to see if they're going to be a really top Sun Belt school and beat Virginia, just like JMU beat Virginia last year. Um, or if they lose to Virginia and maybe they'll come back down to earth, but [00:57:00] we'll find out that's a game I'm going to definitely be keeping my eyes on.
And yeah, we talked about it earlier, but we got to tip our hat to Georgia State. Georgia State had a lot of turnover, a lot of turnover on the head coach, coaching staff, a lot of turnover on offense, a lot of turnover on defense and expectations for them coming into the season were very low. They squeaked out a win against Chattanooga and then they hosted Vanderbilt and SEC team that beat Virginia Tech in week one.
And they actually made the upset and they beat an SEC team, something that even we at ODU can't say we've done yet. Um, so, you know, hats off to them. I know Gary's going to that game, right? Yeah. And, uh,
Gary: yeah, I've got, uh, at Bowling Green and at Georgia State on the list. So,
Aaron: yeah, you might have more people there, Gary.
Last time I know you had the run of the place, right? Pumped that they keep playing like this.
Gary: Yeah, that's a [00:58:00] big win for them. Um, and they played a good home schedule cause they had Georgia Tech, uh, which I guess wasn't home, but close by. Um, but yeah, for them to go and get that win, like. It almost made me mad because I'm like, we should have gotten the SEC win at the school that had game day on Saturday.
David: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, ODU Atlanta alumni chapter is actually pretty big and pretty good. And I think they should be hosting something for that game at Georgia State in a few weeks. Um, but yeah, that's going to be a tougher matchup than I previously thought.
Gary: Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure that crew down there in Atlanta will be ready to take care of ODU fans like they did a couple of years ago. Awesome. Well, any, any closing thoughts going into the bye week? I'll start with you, Aaron.
Aaron: Well, we don't have a bye week because we've got that event at Afterglow. So I would tell.
you know, all the fans where the team is on a, on a buy beer never stopped. So [00:59:00] come out to Afterglow Saturday night, we'll be, um, we'll be putting out more information and kind of promoting it on all of our social media channels, it'll be a good opportunity to come out and, um, get some of that, take some home, hopefully we sell them out.
It's got a really cool label. I don't, I don't know if it's just going to be on tap or if they're going to have cans yet. I look forward to turning it into our, uh, tailgating beer of choice. So that'll be a cool event that hopefully everybody will come out to.
Gary: I have a reason for everyone to cut out of work early on Friday, even though we don't have football, uh, field hockey is hosting Liberty on Friday at three over at L.
R. Hill. Uh, no love lost there. It's a conference game for field hockey, and it's an important one. Uh, it's usually it's it's either us or Liberty went in, uh, went in the Big East for field hockey. They could use your support. So if you need an excuse to cut out of work to get over to LR Hill, definitely go do that, [01:00:00] support that team.
They're, they're going to be really good. It's going to be a great game, a good atmosphere. So if you need your fix this weekend, uh, head on over to LR Hill on Friday at three.
Aaron: And Gary, I know you you're following the squad closely. They just played Duke and Ohio state, both. Both in the top 10, right? I mean, I think one, number six and no, with the other one.
But they, I mean they battled them tough. They lost 1, 2, 0 and they lost the other 1, 2, 1. I mean, this is a good squad.
Gary: Yeah. And Friday they hit Duke, who I believe is now up to number five. Um, and it was a one, one, nothing for most of the way. Duke got a penalty stroke and converted to make it two. Nothing.
Uh, but ODU had a lot of momentum to try to go down and tie that game up. And then, uh, with Ohio State, who's I think eighth right now in the country. Uh, it was a two one game. So clearly they can play with some of the best competition that's in the country. Uh, they, I think purposely scheduled these tough games in this, this span of three games to get them ready for it.
Uh, but they're a [01:01:00] fun team to watch. Uh, they're, they're full of personality over there. Just like we talked about on the baseball podcast, Hudson Homers, how you get to know them a little bit, and they're a lot of fun, uh, but definitely worthy of your support. They're starting a pretty tough campaign going into Big East play.
But, you know, they made the tournament last year, um, beating Liberty, it goes a long way into making sure that they can go do that again.
David: Yeah. And, uh, you know, we will release a whole lot more on the upcoming game with Bowling Green and two, two weeks. But if you want to check out that squad out, I believe they are playing at Texas A& M this week.
So they might get beat up playing SEC team this week before, uh, they have to host us in two weeks. So, uh, that would be a great game to watch at the beer release party.
Aaron: That sounds like a plan. Uh, Gary mentioned it earlier, but, uh, basketball squad did get a new commit today. Mike Langston's got an [01:02:00] article on ODUMonarchists.com, uh, with regards to Zacch Wiggins's commitment, a little bit about them and some highlights there. So check out Mike's article over at ODUMonarchists.com. You guys got any parting shots?
Gary: I'll say Matt O'Brien, who covers men's and women's soccer for us. We'll have some content up this week. I'll have field hockey and volleyball trying to keep you in the know, but use the bye week to go, uh, check out some of our other programs here.
We had some great ones.
David: I just want to shout out to you guys for, uh, letting me on the pod and giving my thoughts. So, you know, as I said at the beginning, I can't replace Mike. He's, he can't replace him. Uh, but I'll do my best to fill in whenever I can. Well, you
Aaron: did bring a mustache to the show. So we're not mustacheless.
David: Yes. Yes. That's a Monarchists rule. There must be at least one mustache per podcast. All right.
Aaron: I don't think that's in the bylaws, but we could probably do an amendment if that was necessary, but it won't be your [01:03:00] last appearance. I'm sure I know in October, I'm going to be out of country for a couple of weeks.
So I wouldn't be surprised if fans see you right back on the show then. But, uh, unless you guys have anything else. You know, I'm just gonna say what we always say going out. Go monarchs.
David: Go monarchs.
Gary: Go monarchs