The following presentation is brought to you by the Pride of ODU, the official NIL collective of Old Dominion Athletics. Be a Monarchist. Join the Pride. Welcome to the show. I'm here with Aaron. As always, Gary is not feeling well. So, he is on the IR this week but we have a special guest that we'd like to introduce. He is a future ODU Football Hall of Famer, Jarod Brown. Welcome to the show, Jarod.
Hey, guys. Thanks again for having us or having me this time. I guess I was supposed to get us not here but Uh, yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited. And you are
so used to being a test. We're always together. I
don't know what it is. Like, I don't know why. It just happens. Everybody thinks we're twins. Like, I don't get it. It's not true. Well,
Before we even start talking football. Okay, I see your name is up there. And underneath the I see something interesting. You have got to explain what that means, man.
Okay, look, I'm not delusional enough to think that a kicker is actually JMU's nightmare, but I will say The first time we played them at home, we were down 20 to 14 at halftime, and I kicked a field goal to make it 20 to 17, kicked a field goal to make it 20 to 20, and then kicked a field goal to make it 23 to 20, and we won 23 to 20. So there was that, and then the second time we played them at JMU, uh, they went up fairly early 7 0, we went 3 and out 2 or 3 times, just weren't playing well.
Uh, and then, you know, Taylor did his thing, got us in the range, end of the first quarter and we had a 47 yard field goal. I'm like, okay, like we got to get some points here. If we go four times, not score and start the game, like not good. And we go get ready to snap it. And I don't know if they had too many men on the field or whatever they had, but they called a timeout, but like called it right before we snapped it. So we snapped it and I kicked it and we made it 47 yard or smoked it.
And then I had to redo it and it's like, Oh, okay. They weren't trying to ice me or anything. It just, it was the first quarter, but they just, you know, happened to have the situation happen and then bam, nailed it again, uh, kicked the field goal. And then we ended up coming back and, you know, scoring back and forth with them and we beat them, uh, that second time too, so, and, you know, started off the scoring in that game.
Don't think I kicked, I don't think I kicked another field goal in that game, but started off the scoring. So I ended the scoring the first time, started off the scoring the second time. Thank you. So, you know, big to JMU, but that's all I got.
And, and that game, you guys were uncrowned, unofficial,
unofficial, ridiculous. That's why I figured I'd wear the old, uh, the old stuff today. This is my, you know, my old training hoodie from back in the day. And, uh, yeah, since it's JMU week, we got to pull out all the stops because we want this one bad.
So, uh, a couple of notes before we get started on football later this week, we'll be joined by Taylor Adkins of the JMU Sound Off. We'll begin their side of the story and what they predict in this game and learn a bit, a little bit more about this JMU Duke team. Um, also this week is our Toys 4 Tots drive. We're going to have military all over campus, AAVs, you name it. Harry McBrien, our guy, Major Monarch has set up a really great day for us.
To make this an awesome collection day for the kids, the 757. So if you're coming to the game, bring toys or be ready to give us cash, just pitch in however you can. We appreciate all the help and support and let's make it happen. I mean, Leti's
fired up. He's saying, Hey boys, new toys, please. No hand me downs. They've got to be new and please bring them unwrapped. That's gonna make the jobs of the Marines much better. Um, you know, we will be promoting it on social media. Like Mike said, if you don't have the time to go out and buy a toy or toys, the Marines will finally accept your cash to get more toys for the kids. But And we appreciate everybody's support every year. It's gotten larger and larger and larger.
And we hope that this year is no different that, I mean, I don't even remember exactly what the numbers were last time, but we're helping a lot of kids in the 757.
My kid is losing it right now. I think we raised like 1, 500 last year and. Hundreds and hundreds of gifts. Uh, I think we supplied toys for 300 plus kids last year. I think that was a number, which was our record. And we want to beat that this year. Let's let's get 400 kids gifts for this Christmas and make their day special. Um, it's our one chance as a fan base to come together and make it a special Christmas for the kids in Hampton roads as an ODU fan base,
those future monarchs. They are, they are, it's, it's great. I mean, we saw, you know, a lot of times with these things, you'll see more, more toys that are geared towards boys. I did for some reason, folks forget about the little girls. So, you know, if you're not sure what you're going to get, maybe grab something that would be good for a girl as well. That way, you know, we've kind of got a good mix of toys
or just grab two. I mean, what, come on, just grab two, grab one for a boy, one for a girl, bring them both. Then we're settled.
You heard Jarod? That's the deal. One for a boy, one for a girl. Easy. And dog treats for Leti. All right. So I mean J-M-U-J-M-U this week. Mm. This is a big one, right? Mike doesn't get much bigger at this point, this season
it's pretty big for us. Um, JMU's already punched their bowl. whole game, but they're not as much into the race for the Sun Belt Crown. Cause they lost to Georgia Southern and if they don't beat us, they're really, but so they kind of need a miracle to get through here. We need to just keep winning, handle our business. And JMU was the first part of that.
It's the first part of our, our little, uh, I wouldn't say wager, but our agreement, right? Mike too. First part of our agreement. We need it. Look, I really want to come to the watch party and I want to play golf. That's all I'm saying. I want to do it.
Me too. I'm ready to pay for gold. Let's make it happen.
I w I don't want to be over dramatic here, but for us, This game this week is kind of the linchpin of the season. The season is going to go as this week goes. As you know, Mike said, we win this game. We, we don't completely control our destiny because we've got to have, you know, Georgia Southern has to lose a game. Um, but we got to control what we can control. And what we can do is put ourselves in front of J. M. U. And they can't do anything about it.
And then we got Marshall the week after that. And it's gonna be the same sort of story that all starts this week.
Yeah, go ahead, Mike.
I think the bigger part of this is just bowl eligibility. You lose this game will be four and six and we have to win out against a very good Marshall team and Arkansas State team has been playing very well this year. on the road. Um, I don't think we want to go into another street final game of the season, having to clinch a win to go to a bowl game. So I think we need to clinch it before we go to Arkansas. Um, it would be awful to be four and six.
I mean, for a lot of reasons. One, it's, you know, it makes the road much more difficult for the team. I think it's important that we get this win this week, not only for the team and not only for those chances, but for the fan base. I mean, let's be honest that we've struggled. It's sporting events, the, the, the bigger sporting events of recent against the Dukes, as much as it pains me to say that it's been the case.
Um, and so our fan base, a win against JMU will go a long way to kind of making things right and getting the momentum going in the right direction.
Yeah. Uh, I would say most ODU fans did not make the trip to Harrisonburg last year for that great game where we lost. Very, very narrowly. So a lot of ODU fans, last memories of JMU football is a route where the game was over by what the end of the first quarter streamers are going crazy. Um, yeah, that is the last memory of people. Most people have ODU playing JMU in football. That's one we need to wash away. It ain't gone, please. Uh, this GMU team is pretty talented.
Uh, they are, they're seven wins in the season. They have two losses. They really messed up UNC earlier in the season and made name for themselves, but they are also capable of playing bad football, which we have seen in multiple games, notably against Gardner Webbb, Georgia Southern. Um, if you can slow down Alonzo Barnett, you have a chance.
Yeah, and he's been inconsistent at times. Kind of, one game setting the world on fire, another game was the opposite of on fire. I know, it's uh, you never quite know what you're gonna get. Hopefully, um, hopefully it's not the on fire one. We do have, I mean, our defense has been playing well, so
I
like our chances there.
Yeah. I think that, uh, with somebody like Alonzo Barnett, you can't rely on him to have a bad game. You can't just sit there and think, I'm not saying you are, but just sit there and think, uh, we hope that he has, he has a bad game today. I think it really just boils down to our defensive line. Maybe our linebackers, cause we do blitz a little bit, right? We, we throw the blitz in there sometimes. But our defensive line, our front seven, really putting pressure on him.
Cause it doesn't really matter who you are. If Patrick Mahomes gets a ton of pressure on him one day, he's not going to look like Patrick Mahomes always looks. He'll still do some things cause he's Mahomes. But if you put pressure on anybody, it forces them to make quicker decisions and it forces them to make. normally a little worse decisions than they would. So that's what we have to do. We got to put pressure on this kid because he's a good quarterback.
He's I mean, he's he can throw the ball, he can run the ball, he can do it all. And uh, the only way to stop him, I think, is putting a ton of pressure on him. It's
interesting that you say that, Jarod. So Gary has no voice and that's why he's not here today. But he did send some notes of of his to me and Mike. And that was one of the first big things that Gary mentioned. He talked about how the offensive line can be vulnerable at times. They've allowed a bunch of sacks. He also said that they struggle in blitz pickup against. Okay, I'm not the technical guy, but against the mug and bear fronts, which is a strong point for our defense.
So he's hoping that we blitz often and we force Barnett to use his feet.
Yeah, I hope so.
But a big part of blitzing successfully is containment. Once he's out of the pocket. Oh yeah, that's tough. Um, we've done that well in some games this year. I mean, we did it against Jordan McLeod. We did it well at South Carolina against LaNorris Sellers. We also saw Coastal Carolina, Joey Aguilar at app both have success with their feet against us. So that is going to be a big decider on how well our defense plays on Saturday.
Well, one thing we struggle with last week was turnovers. We did a lot of things really wouldn't, we should have won that game, but turnovers cost us that game. That's something that we're going to be looking for as that was Gary's number two, right there. It's JMU lead the country and turnover margin at plus 18. We can not turn the ball over and allow them easy points. I mean, that's, that's one thing that can put us in a bad position right from the start. And we do not want that to happen.
Mm-Hmm.
Yeah. I think the goal should always be to win the turnover battle. Um, but when you're playing against a team like that, that is consistently won the turnover battle in their games, I think the goal is still, of course, win the turnover battle. Uh, but if we can stay even. If we can just do whatever we can to stay even on the turnovers, maybe nick one here or there, uh, you know, and just not, you know, not give up free.
Free possessions on some, you know, I wouldn't say bonehead plays, but just some unlucky plays, things like that happen in the app game. I think we're going to be all right.
Um, looking at their schedule, one consistent thing about when they're having success versus not, and it's offensive production. So Gardner Webbb, they struggled. That was a 13 to six ball game. They won, but being held by two 13 points by Gardner WebbWebbb rough.
That's not good.
Uh, ULM beat them 21 to 19. and Georgia Southern beat them 28 to 14. So we need the defense to limit their offense because if they can get their offense rolling, we know what we saw at UNC, Coastal Carolina, Southern Miss and Georgia State, when their offense gets rolling, they score a lot of points.
When you did those games, did they, do you know if the games that they lost, did they win the turnover battle still? Or were they I mean, if they're plus 18 on the year, I would assume at least one or two of them. They probably still want the turnover battle.
So Georgia Southern, they actually won the turnover battle. They had four. They forced, I think they had a turnover advantage of four against Georgia Southern and still lost 20 to 14. Um, I don't know about the Gardner Webbb game, but I will tell you in just a moment.
Well, while you're looking that up, I look, I'm looking at the stats of that Georgia Southern game. And one thing that sticks out to me is Georgia Southern rushed for 190 yards. and running, running the ball is something that we want and need to do.
Um, in the game this weekend where they really put Georgia State to bed, Georgia State ran the ball for 46 yards, running the ball, controlling the tempo, that tempo, whatever our, you know, our staff wants to do throttling up when they want to, but just controlling the tempo of the game with the run. Um, that's really gonna be important this week.
So, uh, Gardner Webb game, they lost the time possession battle by seven minutes, almost eight. Um, they were three of 12 on third down. They weren't that efficient passing the ball. They only had 285 yards total. Um, they had, they had more penalties. They had one fumble, no fumbles for Gardner Webb. I don't see any interceptions. That's something we've seen this year from ODU. Changed the whole time possession discussion around Old Dominion football. We're starting to win that battle now.
And that's something we need to win on Saturday. You slow down the game, you get Alonzo Barnett off the field, and keep him off the field where he can't get into a flow. We just said the points, when they score a lot of points, they kick ass.
Yeah,
their defense gets excited. They're playing well.
Yeah. So if you keep them on the sidelines for a lot of the game, he can't get into that flow. And we have a real shot of winning an upset game here. Cause we are the underdogs in this game.
Yeah, for sure. I looked at the UL Monroe game as well as you were, as you were looking at Gardner Webbb, and they, they won the turnover battle in that game as well, even though they won, they lost the game, they won by one, they had a pick, they both, both teams had a fumble that they lost, but Jayme, you had an interception. And they still lost the game. So that's what I'm saying about, you know, a team like this.
Yeah, of course, to win the turnover battle, try to win it by three or four turnovers. Yeah, great. I just don't really see that happening. And, you know, unless it's just lucky for us. So as long as we keep it close, as long as we're not turning the ball over five times in the game on some unlucky plays, and then, you know, our defense just can't because of those plays.
Kind of like the opposite hand of when the offense is playing really well, the defense gets excited and they start playing well, but when the offense plays like, you know, has issues, I'll leave it at that. The defense is like, holy crap, we've been on the field the whole game. They get tired. There's not much they can do and it just doesn't work out for you.
So as long as our offense stays consistent and we're not turning the ball over, I think our defense, maybe you'll get a couple because they're good. So, uh, I think we just keep it close, keep that turnover battle close and we'll be fine in this game.
And ULM won the time of possession as well. Did they?
Yeah.
Yeah, not by much. 31 28. But it's enough to do what we're talking about, where you keep this offense off the field, where they can't get into that, because you keep them off the field, it's hard to get into that group.
It seems like there's a pretty consistent game plan against them when it's a really close game or a game that somebody's beaten them. Uh, it's, you know, it seems like teams are figuring out the method, but Executing that is a little tough, but
that it is, uh, I think health is going to be a very big key in this game. Uh, we've seen how it can impact our defense at Coastal Carolina. Um, we've also seen with a healthy defense, what we can do against great offenses. Um, so hopefully our linebackers are secondary or feeling good after this bi week because we need this to be kind of every man needs to step up and do their job this week.
Oh yeah.
They were nicked up on the offensive line as well. So hopefully we'll have Santana back. That would be, that would be nice to have there. It
would because he is there. He's not only one of our better linemen, he is a leader for that group that those guys look to. Um, and he is just a mountain of a man. And ever since they pushed him in the guard while he was beat up, the offensive line had played really well until he got injured. So Hopefully we can see him back this week.
Yeah. I ran into him when I was, I'm saying I ran into him when I was walking past the Mitch and, uh, he had a huge smile on his face. So hopefully, hopefully that's a good sign.
Yeah. Hopefully, uh, he did tell me before he missed the app game and he was playing next week, so I don't know if that can be anything. Um, he's always a positive guy and he's not going to make anyone else feel bad for him, but, uh, that's why we love him. So, Devin Roche, being back would be nice as well. We did not have him against App. And his speed difference is just, it's so huge. Yeah, it's
a difference maker.
Yeah. I
mean, you're worried about his speed, and if you choose wrong, Colton's speed. That's a lot of pressure, defense. Yeah.
And then you got Aaron Young running like a, just, madman. And, that's not fun either. So, you get beat up in the middle by that guy. And then you got to catch Devin on the outside. It's like, good God, that's not easy.
I'm interested to see how they defend us this week. Because, uh, I mean, I honestly haven't watched much JMU football this year. I watched the UNC game for a bit, but that's about it. Um, but we saw how differently we were defended at Georgia Southern and at App, and how different it changed our offense. So I'm really interested to see what they do. Especially with an extra week of that bye week for Colton had to be huge for a rookie freshman quarterback learning on the on the go.
I think it's going to be huge for him to keep progressing and we should see an even better cold this week than we have the last few.
I agree. I mean, our, our coaching staff has had tremendous success following bye weeks. Thanks, guys. And they're going to have, they have all that extra time with Colton as well. So, I mean, I'm not going to go against the, uh, the momentum. The trend
with the App game too, like Colton, I mean, you need 300. I'm looking at it right now at 332 yards, two touchdowns. You had the interception, but it's the last play of the game for us on offense. And he's just trying to make a play on fourth down on fourth and long as well. It wasn't like it was two yards you needed to get right. I can't. He's making a play. It didn't happen through a pick, like whatever the four fumbles it's shit, like we talked about it last week, Mike, you know, it's fumbles.
It's, it's just not holding onto the ball in the right spot. It's just getting hit weird one time. It's like those things get cleaned up so quick. I'm sure they went through some ball security drills and like, okay, that's fine. We're not worried about that. It's not like he's out here throwing picks. You know, I don't think Colton had a bad game at all against app state. Um, he's, he's fine. So a whole extra bye week.
After that, you know, after you're disappointed in a game like that, and then you think, Oh, I got to play better. I got to do all these things. But then when we go look back on it, we say, well, he didn't really play bad anyways. So he's, he's probably fired up to come out and really work hard. These next, these last week and this, this coming week to make sure he's ready for JMU. But I don't really think he needs that much improvement anyways. He's playing well.
There's one thing that we learned this last week and it's, it's Now I'm going to be focused on it a hundred percent on Saturday. It's how he moves in the pocket. So when things break down, um, we were told watch his feet. His first step is backwards instead of up into the pocket. It's backwards, which puts them off balance and kind of, and we know it's being worked on. So if they fix that and he's already doing this, who knows what the, like where the ceiling is. Oh, it's high.
So I got a question for you guys. This is obviously a huge game. It's a very important game for the team. Um, you guys have been in these situations before playing. How do you manage the excitement and that hype for the game? One it's JMU. So it's our arrival. Two, it's a home game. The guys have been away for a little bit. Did not come out to amped up. to be able to come out and execute what you want to do. How difficult is that? How do you manage it?
Mike, you want to go first? You want me to start talking? I, I got, I have a little story. So
you got, you're the football alum. You get first dibs here. All right.
Well, we had a game and I don't think, I think this was William Mary. We had a game where we were, it was William Mary the year, I think the first, so my first year playing, they beat us. On a BW Webb interception, Thomas threw a good ball. And that guy played in the NFL for a reason. He picked us off. Uh, we lost, we lose the game. And then the next year, maybe it was two years later and we played them. I can't remember exactly when it was with this one, but I remember the situation.
Um, it came out, uh, you know, William Mary's did the guys got interviewed. They got asked a question like, Oh, this is a pretty cool rivalry now. Cause obviously we're so close to them. And then they said, uh, it's not a rivalry until they beat us and Okay, so for us, like, you know how that goes. We weren't, we weren't happy about it. And the guys are getting excited. They're getting riled up and like, we got the game tomorrow, right? We're playing. It is Friday night.
We're all, we're all going crazy and Wilder. He did something that, like, I look back on it now, I'm like, I think it was more for exactly what you just asked Aaron, than it was for anything else but to us. It like got us like ready. It got us good to go. He said, Hey, first personal fouls on me. And he's like, everybody's excited. Everybody's going crazy. And he says the first one's on me, but the second one, calm it down. We can't have that. And we all said, okay, somebody is going to do it.
Somebody's going to pop someone at the very beginning of this game. Somebody is going to lay somebody out, but then we got to settle in and we got to get ready to go and we know that we have to take care of business. This is not. Just some crazy wild team that can go out and do stupid things and hopefully win the game with a bunch of penalties.
Cause that's what happens when you get too excited, you get penalties, whether it's for hitting somebody later, if it's for just jumping offsides or so many little things you could do, but Wilder gave us that. And I think it was Erik Saylor, as I think is who it was. It's just like, Oh, I hit a guy out of bounds or something. Like the guy's already out and Erik just crushes him. And he's like, Hey, first one's on coach. Right? Like I'm good. He's not getting in trouble for that.
And it fired us up and we're excited and we're all like, hell yeah, let's go. And then we come out and we win the game and we played really good football, the rest of that game.
And I'm not saying that that's what, you know, Ricky needs to do, but in those situations, there's, there's ways to get the guys to understand, like, this is a, this is a business trip or if this is like, that's what he would always say for away games Wilder, or this is, you know, where it's a home game, it's the same thing. It's, it's, we have to be locked in 100 percent of the time.
And, and there's ways to get them to, you know, You know, not be too excited, maybe give them, give them a little bit of excitement and then, you know, lock back in. That's what happened with us. And it worked. I don't know.
Yeah. I will add if you're too amped up, sometimes your body is moving faster than your mind can keep up with a hundred percent and you can whiff on a tackle, like you're just. You're not playing centered, controlled football.
You kick a kickoff out of bounds. I did that a few times when I got too excited, just, just so high and you just cannot control yourself. And you just like, Oh, how the hell did I just do that?
I would say there's certain positions that I don't mind the player being too jacked up, like the gunners on special teams. If there's two jacked up, that's a good thing. Yep. Is there going to be the guy, not if
you're the guy catching the ball,
not at all. Assuming they still pay attention to the halo rule. Uh, there's other positions like quarterback and offensive line. You need your guys to be focused and kind of centered and understand what the job is ahead of them. Cause if they get too jacked up, it gets ugly pretty quickly. Luckily for us, Colton, everyone we've talked to about him, he's like, never gets too up or too down on anything. He's at California. Cool. Like, all right, I messed up. Let's let's go out and fix it.
You know? Yeah. And that's why, uh, we've seen this kid hit the ground running almost immediately because the moment is not too big for this kid.
Yeah.
I don't know.
This week is that moment, man.
Yeah. I don't know if we really answered your question there, Aaron, about what to do in that. So what
I'm getting from you is if I were on the team, I should just go out there, give the gold Ric Flair,
just give them one, just give them one. No, I, you know, I just think that he, he's going to have to do something, say something to get the guys back to, cause you gotta get them excited, right? Everybody's get you, if you, if they're not excited, they're not going nuts in the locker room saying, Hey, let's go beat their ass and let's do whatever. And you know, all those things before the game, like that's not good either. I don't, you don't, you don't want the guys to just go into it. Like
it's just another game. How much in a game like this, how much of that is the coach doing that? Or how much is it? A player or players who are leaders in the team that are making that happen?
Um,
it depends on the the group
Yeah, I think I think so. I think it really depends. I think
nowadays with the portal and everything These rivalries mean a lot to us fans and it meant a lot to the teams sort of like Jarod where they were here for four Years, but all these kids they don't know anything about JMU. They didn't go to school in Virginia They don't know anything about like they don't have buddies on that team for the most part So it's It's kind of hard to hold them accountable for how much we hate JMU, right? Okay,
so when are we going to the locker room this week to have this discussion? God, let me in there and
fire him up. Come on.
Yeah, you gotta grab some of the dudes that have, you know, who have beaten JMU multiple times and go in and talk about it.
Yeah, it feels great and we hate them and we hate them so much.
But having said that about the portal and then not maybe hating them as much as we do, there are players on the team that definitely don't like them because of what's happened in the last two seasons. But this is football. If you don't care enough to go out and give your all, you don't belong at this level. So it doesn't really matter if it's a rivalry or not. They know what's on the line here. If they want to play for a championship, they have to win this week.
And that probably means a lot more than who the other team is.
Well, at least it should. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's spot on, man. Going back to what we talked about earlier. I mean, really the season goes as this week goes. Mm hmm.
Yeah. If you can't get amped up for a chance to. Continue this fight for the division champions like the division. And playing for the Sun Belt title. I don't know what is going to jack you up.
Yeah, I don't know that we have any guys on the team that aren't going to be excited for this one and hyped up a little more for this one. I think that the way that it looks like, at least our team still does a good job with that, regardless of if we have a bunch of new guys.
Maybe it's just because they're coming in and they're saying, Hey, look, this is my first year here and I want to impress and I want to, you know, I want to make it known that this is where I want to be now because I don't really want to go through that transfer again or for whatever reason. It always seems like the guys are really excited about it, really amped up, really ready to go, and that's what you need.
Before the game, that is absolutely what you need, but back to that other point, Ricky is going to have to do something to get them to get here, and then get right back to here, and then get, you know, Get to that point when we are just firing on all cylinders, executing, making the right decisions, but we're still ready to blast somebody. If you get the chance to blast somebody and you, you know, it's like, it's a fine line between it. And it's that little
room between lunacy and control where you want them, right? You don't want to be playing crazy, but you want them playing amped up a little bit where they know how much each snap matters.
Yeah. I think that, uh, that is a very good point or I guess a good, um, I don't know what word I'm looking for, but. You wouldn't want to have the coach's job, even as much as people talk crap about any coach that there is, any head coach that there is. Like his job is really difficult because you got to get the guys in the right mindset.
You got to do all of the things on top of the fact that you, yeah, you may not be calling the offensive players or calling defensive players or whatever, but you have to basically approve all of that. And you have to make sure that your guys are doing the right things. Your coaches are doing the right things, calling the right plays. And then you have to make sure that all of your players are ready to go.
You know in a game like this where it matters so much because obviously we've said it a few times This game is the one so that's a tough job and anybody can say what they want But I don't want to be that man this week. That is a tough tough job to have
Uh, this is a big one. Um, I think the line opened up at four and a half in JMU's favor It's gonna move quite a bit if betters are smart They'll let it get down to like two and a half because one score games is our kind of our thing. But uh I have a feeling a lot of the public will jump on JMU with that small number, just because of history.
Hey, I mean, we're two and two against them. So we are talking about recent history. You're not talking about history.
Yeah.
I don't care that they blew us out once, Mike. I don't care.
I care that still hurts. No, I just
mean in terms of the, in terms of the rivalry, in terms of the fact that, Hey, they've only beaten us as many times we've beaten them. So.
And the beauty is this year we win. We're up three to when you get are on the line
this Saturday. They are. I'm looking at right now, Mike, I'm seeing, uh, three and a half point dogs.
So that number is bouncing around quite a bit. I've seen it two and a half, five and a half, four and a half now, three and a half. So
it's funny because I think both of these teams You know, I'll say in JMU, we're both good enough to be some big names. We're also, you know, we're smaller teams and we can make the mistakes that some of these really big teams wouldn't make. And we could lose to some teams that we really shouldn't lose to. Um, and so can JMU they've done it, but both teams can, you know, can put up the numbers when we want to. And it's, uh, I think it'd be a tough one to make the line for this game.
That's why I'm really,
I could see this game being like a 40 point total. Or like 75, like I can see this being a shootout or a defensive slope fest.
Honestly, I don't care. As long as we've got one more point than them. Seriously, Aaron. Well, I'd prefer, I mean, I would love, I would love to not, you know, have a, put the cardiologist back in business this week, but it's probably not going to be the case.
It's going to be a close game.
It is what it is. All we've said so far, we need this to be a slug fest
that favors
Old Dominion in a big way. What we do,
I thought we needed to keep, keep Alonza Barnett off the freaking field. Yeah. I mean, slug just be us.
No, I'm saying a defensive slug fest where it's just a low scoring game. Oh yeah. Okay.
No, I
gotcha. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Keep,
we don't want a shootout. I don't think we wanted to go into a shootout with this team.
No, we not at all. I'd prefer not to do that. I mean, I'd be okay with winning like 40 to 0. Yeah. That kind of, uh God, wouldn't that be great? Okay, don't clip, don't clip that, like, you know, to take it out of context. That would be awesome. I'm not saying that I think that's going to happen.
Already clipped. It's over. It's on Twitter already. Aaron said. Yeah. Aaron's calling for a blowout on this one.
40 Actually, there's no way to get there with Ethan Sanchez field goals. 39 to zero, maybe not.
Okay. All right. Um, I think it'd be a good time to take a mini break to give our credit to the pride of ODU. What do you say, Aaron? I think it's a good idea.
Let's do it.
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. Thank you for listening and go Monarchs. All right, Monarchs.
Uh, so before we get back to the talk on JMU, we do want to tease. We have an interview with Ricky Rahne this week and Colton Joseph, that will be coming out. Uh, both interviews are focused on Colton and the impact he's having as a quarterback for old dominion. We're excited to bring that to you. Uh, it's all thanks to Jay. And Alex at the collective, they helped set that interview up and we're, we're really excited to bring it to you and hope you enjoy it.
Uh, I'm thinking that'll be around midweek or so. Uh, also we will have a season recap show with both soccer coaches coming out soon. We're not sure on the timeline yet. Then we'll have Mike Jones for the basketball show this week. So stay tuned for that. Uh, but back to the topic at hand, JMU. Do you have any other interesting stories from those games, Jarod? Cause this is the time to share them.
Yes. Well, I have, I have a story for part of the reason I hate JMU so much. It's the full world of it. Right. So when I was in high school, obviously I was going to try to, you know, get recruited to play football somewhere. Uh, and my older brother went to JMU and then I went and visited JMU with them a couple of times. I'm a junior, maybe when I was a senior, I don't really remember in high school. Man, this place is where I want to go, where I want to go play football.
That's where I want it to be. Right. And I think there's a pretty good reason for that. If you know what I'm talking about, you know, and if you don't know, then that is what it is. You can figure it out. Uh, but I went to their camp and I did okay. I didn't have the best day. Um, and they had had, you know, not one camp, they had five, six camps that they brought guys in to take a look. And they called me and they said, Hey, look, you were our number three guy. No doubt about it.
You did great, but we had some guys that are better than you. Uh, but our number one guy went here and our number two guy went here. Wherever the schools, they decided to go. He said, so look, give us a couple of weeks. We're going to prepare an offer and we'll give you a call. And then they just never called me back. And I ended up, uh, you know, going to West Virginia and coming to ODU. So thank you, uh, Clayton Matthews for not calling me back. Cause I'm pretty excited about that.
But at the time I did not like JMU and you know, that kind of ended up going all the way into the, you know, playing against them twice. Um, so, you know, and beating them twice, uh, and kick field goals to beat them twice, but whatever So, you know Yeah, you know
at their place as well that sucks man tell a kid that you're gonna call him and then you just ghost Yeah, at least man up and just say, you know what? We decided to go in a different direction. Even
worse. They already lost out on the one and two guy, right? Why even say he's number three? Like
you're trying to make them feel, you know, exactly. Makes absolutely no
sense. Hey, Jarod, you're a number one guy right
now. We're working on an offer. Just give us a couple of weeks, but instead they thought you're number three. Yeah,
it
was weird.
You
know,
that's how it goes. And then, you know, uh, Mickey, well, Mickey Matthews is the one that called that timeout. So, uh, you know, wasted a timeout and I still made the fuel anyway. So I, you know, it's just JMU. I just can't, I don't know. There's probably some stories in there that some things that happened, you know, what, you know, what, as I said it, I thought of this one, uh, in that game at home in the, in the one at home when we were down. 20 to 14 at halftime.
I'm fairly certain this was right before the half. Um, actually I had it pulled up a little bit ago where I can look at the box score from the old games and I want to see, give me like 30 seconds. I'll be able to get it. Not even 30 seconds. I'll tell you what was going on. We were at some point in the game driving down the field and it gets to, I think it was fourth down.
Uh, and you know, Coach Wilder, how he liked to do things, Coach Wilder just decided we're gonna just go for it for no reason on a fourth down, whatever it ended up. Yeah, so it was in the first quarter. It ended up. Um, oh, no, it wasn't. He scored twice. God, Larry Pinkard. What a guy. He was good. Uh, ended up being a 23 yard touchdown in the second quarter, but it was not really a 23 yard touchdown because Taylor, he fumbled the snap. The snap was off to his right.
He cuts back and spins, cuts back and spins. He cuts back and he's on like the 45 yard line now. And he just, yeah, falling backwards, whatever. I don't know how the hell he did it. Launched it up in the air. And I actually found, I found the picture for Larry and sent it to him. of him reaching up in between three JMU defensive backs and catching the ball and landing flat on his back in the end zone. Unbelievable. Touchdown. How hype were you
guys with that? That play was crazy. Insane.
One of my favorite ODU football photos ever.
Yeah. Of Larry.
Yeah.
Yeah. It's insane. I like, I think it's on my Facebook because back then I didn't know how to like send somebody something. So I posted a couple of pictures of like the guys from those type of games and was like, Hey, here, here's the picture of you. Here's the picture of you, whatever. And I found that one at Larry. I mean, what an unreal catch. I do. It was crazy. Um, and I'm sure I, you know, if I remember it correctly, we went crazy.
Uh, but you know, for me, I had to go out there and take the extra point right afterwards. So
actually, I just, I just pulled it up. No, I found it. Did you write? Brian Parsons has it on his YouTube. Mike, I should, I should totally share this right now. It's freaking crazy. Has the video or the picture? It's the video?
It's the video of the whole play.
It's the video. Oh, I would on YouTube. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't seen you want me to break. You want me to bring it up? Mike?
Sure. I mean, this is amazing play
me
Taylor's so good
Crazy, so he's on the 40 yard line, but it's only two whatever I said. It was three. It's only two. It doesn't matter Incredible
those black unis are sharp, dude. Oh, they were good. What is this cameraman doing? Come on, man B roll, he's gonna b roll the fans going nuts Yeah,
what a play. Oh, he fumbled that on purpose. Yeah, he did. He fumbled it. I thought it was farther out to the right. Oh, he shook him. Watch number six. Goodbye. Taylor, chuck it. Unreal.
Unreal. I guess I, I, I have Taylor in my mind of the landing flat on his back and the three, but it's just one of those things that I haven't seen the play in years. Uh, but man, that was insane. Larry was something. And Taylor was obviously, but we, we all know Taylor was, but Larry, man, that dude.
Yeah, you guys had some pretty kick ass receivers.
Oh yeah,
yeah. But, uh,
was it that game or the year after that Chris Burnette had that big set?
The year after that was at JMU.
Yeah, the big set. That needs to be mentioned because that was a huge sack.
Yeah, um, in that game, so the kicker for JMU then actually is a friend of mine who went to West Virginia with me and we both transferred. They chose, was he their number four? I have no idea. I don't know, but he, uh, him and I both said like, you know, the same time we're, we're, we're, we're leaving West Virginia, you know, nine kickers. There's no point in that. And, uh, so he, he ended up contacting JMU and I, I mean, I contacted coach Z right away.
Well, I didn't, my dad did, we didn't do anything illegal. I wasn't, cause that would have been illegal if I had called him, but I didn't. Um, but we, you know, made that connection and. I was coming here. I wasn't, I wasn't going to JMU. No chance after what they did. But, uh, Cameron ended up going to JMU and, you know, we both played all four years.
I think maybe he had to write, he had to sit one year and played three, but in that game, he had a chance to tie it like a 42, 40 something yard field goal to try to tie the game and Craig blocked it. And that's how we won the game. Last play of the game is how we won the game. Oh man.
Now I know the game in Norfolk, it was raining pretty much the whole time. Yeah, it was raining the whole time. It was one of my most favorite ODU tailgate memories of all time. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I was still a student at the time, so we didn't have tailgate passes, Craig's list. for tailgate passes. So me and a couple of friends, we get this tailgate pass in the lot that's near Hugo Owens house.
I think it's brown lot, but we go, we bring tailgate chairs, a cooler and like subs completely unprepared. You were highfalutin,
really
unprepared. This nice gentleman next to us welcomes us. It starts pouring rain. We're getting soaked. He welcomes us into his tent and his tailgate and the whole day is just made better immediately. This guy was pulling Grey Goose out of every, just pulling it out like out of nowhere, bottle empty. Just another one shows up somehow, uh, best host I've ever had at ODU Tailgate. And it, it got, that's kind of the moment where I'm like, I'm going to be that welcoming tailgater.
As soon as I get my passes. And that's kind of why we do what we do. Cause that guy was us in such a gross day. Um, so that's why we welcome people that have no home to our tailgates. Shout out to that guy. I had no idea. That's crazy. My, uh, a
fun fact about that day is my parents did not support the only games in my entire career that they didn't come to. Um, and it was because my brother, my older brother was like getting commissioned into the Navy that day. So it was like, okay, like you have to go, that's fine. Go whatever. And then it turns out that the game turns out the way it did.
Or I don't, I don't remember exactly how it all happened, but, uh, with my brother and all that, like why exactly when, what time the timing was, I think maybe they left at halftime or something. I don't remember exactly, but it was one of the only games that I didn't get to see, and I, kick a game winner and they didn't get to see it against frigging JMU, it's like a big deal for us. And I didn't get, they didn't see it. So that's crazy. And you still love them. Uh, yeah, I guess.
My mom, you know, my dad, Aaron. Just kidding, just kidding.
He's probably gonna watch this
now, I hope he does, so.
We know that game was aired, but who aired those games back then? I don't even remember. Was it ESPN3? Like,
Comcast Sports a lot?
Yeah, and every great once in a while, uh, they get picked up on a local, local channel, or Cox, pick them up every once in a while.
Yeah, the Cox local channel did a bunch of games. Yeah, because we didn't get ESPN plus. We weren't that cool. How cool is that now though? It's awesome. Even, I feel like even, I mean, a couple of years after I graduated, we still weren't getting that. I wasn't getting to watch every game, like every away game.
We were at Conference USA TV, or as Mike let us know, gas station TV. It was terrible. Yeah.
Yeah. They did have most of the football games on ESPN plus though, Conference USA. It was terrible.
Maybe it was the very early.
Yeah. It was like right after I like the year after a couple of years after I graduated, I just don't feel like I got to watch every away game, but now they're like, if I can't go, I still get to watch every game. It's awesome.
And for most sports, which is really cool.
Yeah.
Um, all right. Are you guys ready to make your predictions for this one? Well, let's start with Gary's. So we kind of teased it. I'm going to read it off. Um, he had one more note. I don't think we talked about when we kind of touched on it on our own. But he says, JMU has limited rushing attacks this year, partially because they've been ahead and they force teams to throw. So he wants us to establish the run, stick to the run, control tempo and the offense will find success.
He loves ODU plus four and a half. This should be a field goal game either way. He is calling for monarchs victory. They're going to cash his win total bet over four and a half and they'll stay in position to win the East. He adds a final go monarchs. I like that pick. Um, who wants next? Give it to Jarod.
All right.
Uh, you know, with all the things we talked about, I think the big keys are things that are fixable from last game. The turnovers taking the time possession from JMU. I'm not saying that was something we needed to fix, but taking the time possession from JMU, keeping the running game going when we're having success with it, things like that. I really think we can do it. I really think we're going to do it. I think we're going to play a complete game.
Um, but we are already, you, we are going to play it close. I'm not expecting another Georgia Southern blowout, right? So I'm not, I'm not going to go there, but I do think with the way this game has to go for us, I think we're going to do it. I think we're going to pull it out. And I'm going to say, I'm going to go back to that old first score. I'm going to say 23-20. I think it's going to be a close game.
I think like Aaron or like, um, Gary said, sorry, Aaron, uh, should be, should be about a field goal game. You know, they're never going to let us take it away. Uh, and you know, Ethan Sanchez can, he can kick game winner now and then. So that'd be nice to see.
All right, Aaron, you bet and clean up or
I'll go wherever you think that I fit best in this lineup. Let's see what you got. Well, like we've mentioned multiple times during this episode, this game is the most important game of the season. The guys know that, the fans know that, Ricky's coming off of a bye. We know how tremendous he's been coming off of a bye. Uh, what's, what's that record, Mike?
I don't remember the total, but I know it's unbeaten. He's never lost after a bye.
Never lost after a bye, right?
Believe it's five and oh, but I don't, the
record is, it's irrelevant. He's never lost. And that shit ain't changing this week. We're going to win. Colton's going to learn from the last game and to get some of those ball security issues taken care of. And Ethan Sanchez will kick a field goal. But it's not going to be needed. We win by 10. I like it, Aaron. 10.
1. Um, I'm feeling a little froggy right now. Unlike you guys, I've been staying away from predicting the points. The last few games it had worked until app app and those four turnovers kind of threw everything into the mud. So I'm back to on the point. I don't, I don't, I feel like we're going to kick their ass. We've had some talks with some players. There's some dudes that want to kick their ass and this is the best chance we've had to do that in a while. We're getting healthier.
We can control the trenches. This team got dominated in the trenches by Georgia Southern. What did we do in the trenches against Georgia Southern? We knocked their ass out to me. I mean, transitive properties don't always. Like, equal, right? But I'm using that game as a basis for why we're gonna kick their ass. ODU wins by a lot.
Save your receipts for those purple streamers. Shit's gettin taken back to Party City. Please take it
freakin back to Party City. I don't wanna see those damn things at all. They'll be bringin them. Oh, I know. Like we said last week, though, Mike, they can take them out afterwards, too. They can. That should be the rule.
You throw them, you gotta pick them up.
No, I mean unused, man. Oh, I know that. Unused. Oh, I know. I'm just having a whole nother discussion. Take them out of the stadium. Damn litter. Look like idiots walking out with your box of Oh, man, please. I will say
any JMU fan listening. throw your streamers Remember, you are a visitor here pick up your damn trash. It's rude. That's I mean, it's that's all it's rude It's it's cool. It's a cool tradition. It looks great on tv. It looks great in pictures But it's rude Yeah, have it
have it attached to you and reel that shit back in Be cheaper just have a reviews reusable streamer
Oh, you have beer on it wet. It gets wet and gross. I don't care. They
can wash it. He's selling that shit at odumonarchist. com.
Yeah, um, I'm excited for this one. Should be a great day on campus. Uh, sellout. Student section sold out. They're gonna be jacked up. Oh yeah. Four o'clock kick. ESPNU. We're not on the plus this week, which is nice. Nice. So hopefully put on a show for everyone that is watching on the U this week. And We can continue this momentum where we are playing for this division all season long.
I'd imagine this is going to be a I don't know how many recruits will be at this game, but I imagine there will be some, it'd be nice to be able to convincingly, to play a good game against a team that we're clearly recruiting against.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, it'll also be nice to see JMU fans leave sad. That's always fun. Great day. Alright, uh, you guys have got any closing shots before we close this out? I
would just like to bring up the fact that this game is Toys 4 Tots. I know we talked about it earlier, but I just wanted to have one closing salvo. We appreciate everybody's support over the last five years or so doing this. Thank you so much. Please, please help us as The Old Dominion Community take care of the kids in this community. We really appreciate it. You heard the man.
Yeah, bring one for
a boy, one for a girl. Bring them both.
I will. I'll bring both. So bring toys, boys and girls, or bring cash. JMU fans, if you're listening, we would love your support. You guys did show out really great two years ago. Um, and we, we appreciate your support of this. So if you are listening, please bring a toy or cash. The pitch in for these kids, because these are kids that don't have much. These aren't the kids down the street from you that have everything.
These are kids that have almost nothing and that they need to have a good Christmas. They need this. So pitching, if you
can. And like Mike mentioned earlier, if you're a Duke fan traveling, you don't have a tailgate. You know, you don't, you don't have someone that you know of. People are very friendly in our tailgate lots, walk around. People will be welcoming. You know, as much as we like to, you know, we want to win this game and joke around on the podcast, you know, it's all, it's all in good fun. I mean, we do want to kick your ass. It's all a good fun.
I'm not joking when I say I don't like, but we will share a happily shared beer or, uh, you know, whatever you happen to be having at your tailgate this weekend, Jarod. Yeah, something.
I don't love the school, but I've met some cool JMU fans, so.
Yeah, I mean, my brother and sister in law went there, so I don't have any issue with the people, the fans, like, no big deal at all. But, the football, that's where I draw the line. The football.
So, yeah, and if you have nowhere to go, I do have one last thing to
say, actually. Uh, Plisco said it last week, he's not able to be on here this week, but it was about this game, uh, because we had the bye. We need the fans, anybody who's listening, to get up and be loud in these games. Sometimes I feel like on, on my side, I'm one of the only people standing up yelling during some situation, like just going nuts, like losing my voice and whatever. See all these people just sitting down just going, Oh yeah, yeah, we're, we scored.
Woo. Yeah. You know, we need it loud. It is something different when that place is lit up and it's loud and it's tough to play in. It used to be tough to play in. partially because we were loud, you know, and, and we need it again. We absolutely need it again. And this game, if there's any time to do it, I know the students are going to do it.
The students have been doing it all year, but we need the season ticket holders that are going to show up to be as loud as possible because we got to throw them off their game. They're a good team. So please do it. Please be there. Show up early. Get drunk if you have to, to be loud. I don't care. Be loud. Figure it out. Go Monarchs!
You heard the man. Get loud. Bring toys. Go Monarchs! Go Monarchs!
Yes, sir. Go Monarchs!
And join the collective. We need your help.