I'm Isaac Weaver and you're listening to the Monarch podcast.

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Monarchs ConArgNation, we are back after homecoming, a 10 9, I don't know if you want to call it. It's a win for Old Dominion over the Commerce Lions. welcome back to the show, Gary and Aaron. How we doing today?

I feel like I've watched the same game twice in a row, on offense after just fig watching the commander's game. What I will say is, we did win yesterday, and any time you win is better than a loss, no matter how ugly it might look.

I'm in a similar boat here the Jags laid an absolute egg today against the Texans. So that was that was fun yeah, I dubbed this game the worst win in old dominion football history But I guess I will take it over our best loss. I mean, that's one way to look at it. But and that's uh, Scary scary thoughts going to marshall next week.

All right. Now, you say worst win in Old Dominion history. There's a couple that I can think of that are near that level. The Norfolk State win a couple years ago, their 1 11 season. That one was pretty bad.

That was bad, but at least we got a really cool photo of Eric Cuomo catching that one ball. But other than that, yeah, it was pretty horrendous.

Yeah, that one was that one was rough too, but I feel like this one's Worse for some reason, I don't know, but yeah, I don't really want to think about either one of these games ever again, after we finished recording today,

Sounds like a plan. So, how do we want to go through this? Do we want to start with the tailgate? Do we want to start with the bad? Then go to the good? And then talk about the tailgate? What do you guys think?

I feel like we need to purge the bad right off the bat. If you're listening to this podcast and you're coming onto it, you probably don't want to hear the fun and exciting fluffy stuff first this week. I think. Everybody in the fan base is a bit hot after Saturday.

Yeah, I agree. Let's do that, and then roll into the pregame, and then talk about the great stuff we saw yesterday.

Sounds good. Alright. So, How many bad things do you want to talk about?

How much recording time do we got? I can start as just the first offensive drive of the game where we take over on our own 27 after a great stop by the defense. We go three and out with two sacks. It happened right in front of me. I was down in the suites in the end zone basically bird's eye view on on everything that was going on down there and I saw really long slow developing routes for our receivers in the passing game that We did not have time for them to develop, offensive line just got collapsed right in on top of grant and he went down with a sack and no, no running plays were called on that. I don't think if there were, we certainly didn't take the option to have the run. but I think that first drive there just kind of set the tone of what we were about to see for the rest of the game of just completely being inept on the offensive side of the ball.

Yeah, it really did. And you're right, Gary. We didn't run it at all. Grant was sacked, had an incomplete pass to, uh, Marian Granger, and then he was sacked, or lost a 5, and Ethan came in to boot the ball.

And it. It wasn't like they were doing anything that special on defense. Honestly, they were playing really close to the line of scrimmage. Like they didn't have like one safety back over the top. It almost looked like a cover zero to some degree. And for some reason we were just not in a hurry to get the ball out of our hands, not running many short routes. It was just really frustrating to watch. Like we were going to run those three plays, no matter what the defense showed. And we did nothing to adapt to them. And we didn't win one on one battles. And there we go. We lose 13 yards on our first drive. We punted away and it was the kind of the beginning of the slide there for the offense.

So, all game long, I've noticed a pretty consistent trend of something where... We would run it on first down for two to three yards. Second would be a incompletion or another failed run. They'd be in third and long, which allowed them to pin their ears back and really come after the quarterback. Either making him make a dumb decision where he's thrown across his body, throwing it off his back foot, or taking a sack, which we all know they had eight sacks yesterday. putting us. Clear ahead of everyone else in the country in most sacks allowed. we got to do better on second down. That's the one thing I want to get out of this conversation today.

There were so many third and longs. I felt like every third down we had was. Third and long third and long third and long and then what were we on on third down? It wasn't wasn't good

5 of 12, I think.

of 12 on third down. We only got one first down by running the football in the entire game yeah, I mean it's The whole principle of this offense is you try to get half on first down whether it's quick pass or run or something like that So then you're in second and five you can do whatever you want But we were finding ourselves in third and 12 third and 17 sacks Quarterback running for his life most of the game. I mean it was I'm just, just shocked. I think I'm still in shock a little bit of how badly our offensive line got dominated by the front four of Texas A& M Commerce. I mean, we had some dudes on the edges getting beaten like a drum all game long.

I got nothing on that, yeah, they were getting pressure consistently on our guys. I don't know why that is. we had some receivers who were out, but, obviously that doesn't affect that.

It's a continuing trend at this point. this week, eight, last week, 10. And, we weren't, he was running for his life at Virginia Tech. He was running successfully. But he had to be on the move. Grant had to be on the move all game long for Virginia Tech. Louisiana is really the only one that didn't consistently get to the quarterback and that was when our offense performed the best. It was fluid and they didn't hesitate to make plays, make those throws and the throws were on the money. But I have said all along that this offense is based on the running game. And I don't, if we're running the ball, well, this offense works. We did not run the ball successfully enough or enough yesterday to make it a cohesive offense, in my opinion,

I don't know if it's a personnel issue up front. I don't know if it's scheme. I don't know if it's communication or pre snap communication. There, there is something wrong with the way that we are trying to protect the quarterback and also the way that we are trying to set up running lanes. It boggles my mind that our offensive line did really well run blocking against Virginia Tech, which has a good defensive line, Louisiana, which has a decent offensive line. They've got some, some boys and they got some big boys up there. Wake has a. Pretty good defensive line, and we were able to run some on them, not real effectively, but that was, we look like rock stars the way we performed in those three games as compared to this past Saturday, and a recently promoted FCS defensive line just ripped us to shreds, and I, Again, I don't know. There could be a number of different things. It could be schematically. We got to change stuff. Maybe there's, it's time for some personal changes. I don't, I don't know. I don't know what the answer is, but we have to figure it out before we head up to Marshall, or I don't know if we're going to have positive yardage as an offense against that team.

well, I know during the coaches show this past week, Ricky was talking about, how his day had started and how he had bad news after bad news after bad news, but then he had a discussion with a player and it was really good. And he had a discussion with another player and it was really good. And then he got together with the coaches and he had Thought that they had come up with something that I can't remember exactly what he said, but something to the effect of Something that was he thought would make a difference coming into this game in my mind I mean, I have no idea what that was I was just thinking it may have something to do with the offensive line like a a new New rink or new scheme or something schematically there, but if we did, you know kind of went the opposite direction, but You know, going back to it, we did win. So, guess we've got a week here to get ready and to try to make some corrections there before we head to Marshall.

And we definitely had some guys who are out on Saturday. I don't think that changes anything about the outcome or how we played, but no Harvey, no Bly, no page, Wicks was dressed, but was not playing them. If you follow him on Instagram, you know what happened there. He just kind of an innocent bystander that got into a. A car accident when someone else ran a red light, hit another car that hit his car. EJ Green was also out on the defensive side, but they didn't seem to really miss a beat there. So we were missing some skill players. We definitely went, went through the roster on our wide receivers. We saw Isaiah Spencer back, wind up summit tight end, but also summit wide receiver as well. just to get some size and experience. And Aaron, you had a great video from the sideline. I saw it, but didn't think to take my phone out and recorded of Isaiah Spencer. Really getting into the offense when they were sitting there on the sideline and just, just, I don't know what else to say, but just absolutely getting into their ass on the sideline. Uh, next offensive possession we have was the one that we scored the touchdown. So I was happy to see somebody fired up on that sideline and showing a good bit of emotion because. I mean, we were flat. I kind of, I tried to kind of warn on that, I think last week at the end of the podcast episode that when you come out, focus, execute well, we need to beat their ass and then let the, the walk ons play, but we didn't, we didn't do any of that. this is like varsity blues level stumbling out of the landing strip and going to play a football game style of offense.

I wish I would've got to that video sooner. I missed most of the good stuff, but Isaiah, he clearly was taking a leadership role there. And I will say, every player that was around him, and there must've been 20, they were all focused on him, they were engaged, and he was ripping one. But they ended up all together, and they ended up, even with my bad hearing, I could hear him say, family. It was family on, family on three. So, those players are together, and uh, I think things are going to be okay.

so you meant Gary mentioned the team being flat or looking appearing flat. we have a history of this world opinion on homecoming and I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the concert and it's probably sounds like an excuse right now, but. We had a long period where we could not even win these games on homecoming. maybe Ricky needs to push for the concert to be held after the game is over.

It doesn't sound like a bad idea. Yeah. The curse of homecoming, but Hey, you know, at least we somehow came out of there with a win. And, we got to talk about the quarterback situation though. Grant Wilson, not a banner day by anyone's standards. He was five for 1170 yards, three interceptions. Two of those were just awful interceptions. they decided to make a change. I think, Mike, you mentioned it that. We're kind of glad to see there be a little bit quicker trigger with the quarterback in comparison to the last couple years. I'll let you talk more about that, but Jack Shields comes in 14 for 20, 258 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked six times. Be a lot of questions on that moving forward.

Yeah, it was clear that, Jack had a pretty good connection with Kelby Williams. Kelby Williams puts in, I think they said the 7th best receiving day in All Dominion history, and considering our history of... Passing with Taylor Heineke. Top 7 is pretty damn good. 197 yards. 62 yards out of the catch. I know a few balls that kind of got slowed down by the wind maybe allowed his defender to tackle him. But he was, Kelby was fantastic yesterday. However, going back to the trigger and the switch, I was happy to see it. And I think it's a sign that things have changed. In the past two years, we've seen a reluctance to go to a different quarterback. Two years ago, it was D. J. Mack who was starting and struggling. And not really performing the way you expect a starting quarterback to perform. And that switch to Hayden Wolfe took longer than anyone, any fans would have liked to see. Last year, Hayden Wolfe had his struggles, and it took a long time for them to give anyone else a shot. Yesterday, we were all saying that, hey, it's time to give someone else a shot. After those first two picks, and then the third pick happens, and obvious things happen. Jack comes in the game, he plays well enough to get us the win. I think that alone is something to take away from that game as a positive. If you're not performing up to your duties, you're not going to be out there that long. Do your job, or the next guy will.

It also speaks to the depth that's in that quarterback room now as compared to some previous years. Jack Shields goes in into the game. There's really no change in the game plan. We're able to kind of plug and play. And then we know that Colton Joseph is also in the mix there. I think he needs a little more time to learn the offense, get up to game speed, but we know what potential he has. So I'm glad that we. We're able to work the portal and also just general high school recruiting to build some depth at that position because we didn't have the depth last year. It was, it was Hayden Wolfe and I was pretty much it. we have some other options and I was, I was glad to see that, when Grant was having a bad game that we were able to go in and make that switch. would love to know from you guys. What do you think, who do you think is starting from Marshall? Like, have we fully turned the page or was this a, Hey, your, your ace had a bad outing and we'll get them next time.

Well, that's, that's a great question, Gary, and that is the question that Mike asked Ricky yesterday in the postgame presser. And,

was Parsons that asked.

Okay, thank you for correcting me. I appreciate that. so Brian asked that question and Ricky said it's under evaluation So I know we talked about it a little bit after the game. It's it's one of those things I think in the situation grant had just such a an awful first quarter It's one of those things you just chalk up to a really bad day And you pull them over to the sidelines and just say hey, you know what today is not your day, We're going to give Jack a chance and then Ricky could go back to him next week. You certainly, that certainly could happen, but I, I really don't know. Looking into Ricky's eyes when he answered that question, to me, it seemed like he really didn't know. And it is truly under evaluation,

Yeah, he plays his cards so close to his chest that it's really hard to guess on what's going to happen moving forward. However, that's two straight games where, you wanted better performance out of the quarterback position that you didn't get. and Jack performed pretty well other than six sacks is a lot of sacks to take. not on him, but... Not a hundred percent on him, but that's a lot of sacks to take. I wouldn't be surprised if the changeover is, at least for the Marshall game, this is Jack's team.

It's hard to get a true evaluation on Jack too, because he was running for his life on every single drop back. So it's, it's hard to tell. What does he look like in ideal situations or we just have to adapt to the norm that are, they're just going to be under pressure the whole game. I thought he moved well in the pocket. I thought that he was a much more accurate passer. I think that's kind of been the trend with, with Grant Wilson over the past few games is losing some of that accuracy, losing some velocity on the ball, especially with how wide we split. Even if you're just throwing a pop screen to the outside, you're throwing it 20, 30 yards in the air out to him. And that needs to be a fast criss pass. And I think we've seen that slow down a little bit. could be an injury. Could be the fact that he's been sacked so many times, like that does take a toll. yeah, I, I think, I think we're moving forward with Jack Shields. I'm hopeful that Grant's able to keep his head up on that and be ready as a backup. Cause I don't know if Colton Joseph is there yet. He's going to be at some point very soon. I still don't know if he's there yet to be the backup. but. I mean, Jack Shields made some some good throws under pressure. he threw one big deep ball that ended up being our only touchdown of the game. I'm going to just act like the fact that the hand, the cornerback popping his hamstring is not the only reason we scored that touchdown. it was just thrown into the wind, but, I, I think it's Jack's moving forward. And I think he's going to get a full week with the ones.

you know, in all fairness, and I know that the three of us have talked about this offline is it was very windy yesterday. And so some of those balls the velocity on them certainly could have been affected by that. Does you know, Mike, we were talking about that earlier and you made those points to me. and that ball that Jack through was towards, the beer garden where the wind was less of a factor. So I will say that Dominic Dutton Speed probably calls that hammy to pop because once that dude realized that he was a, he was being beaten I think he probably tried to kick it into an, an extra gear and that probably happened I was looking at him feeling bad because I was totally envisioning myself Doesn't take that much to pop my hammy, but he was clearly hurting.

You know that wind was strong because Rigby kicked one out of the back of the end zone. I think that's the first time we've kicked one out the back all season long.

Yeah, shout out to Dom Dutton, his first career touchdown, or second, second touchdown.

was a big one. He made a good adjustment on that ball because it kind of floated towards the middle of field and he made a good play to go get it, get in the end zone because without that play, one we lose and two we lose that screen. Touchdown.

yeah. All right.

I feel better. I don't know. Do you guys feel a little bit better? Just kind of getting that all out.

Yeah, this this is this is kind of uh, Like therapy for me and we haven't even got to the good stuff.

Before we get to positivity and all that, We've talked all season long about how this unit played well, and then that unit played well, and this one didn't. Another game where we're wondering what happens when all of this comes together. We're still left wondering. And this was, this felt like that opportunity to see, the best opportunity we were going to get, where the offense and the defense all just clicked on the same day, and it didn't happen. And it's a little bit concerning.

I felt some disappointment for the guys that are further down the depth chart. Like this was their game. They were going to get some playing time. They were going to get to go get some game film, for the future, for themselves, show what they can do. I was really excited to go see what some of these humongous offensive linemen we have that are young, that are just new to the program, some of the guys on defense. I was really hoping to get Jason Henderson out of there sometime in the second quarter and let him take some time off. Same thing with Terry Jones, just a lot of those dudes on defense. They were once again on the field a ton. Got worse from an opponent, time of possession standpoint. but yeah, I, I, especially for the walk on guys who basically grind it out, like scout teams, special teams, and not getting a chance to like get on the field and get in the game. Like I, I felt like some people let them down on Saturday and I was disappointed to, to see that. Mapp.

Alright, is there anything else we need to cleanse from this game before we... Talk about the defense, because I want to talk about this defense.

Are we going to talk about the defense? Are we gonna talk about the pregame good stuff first? What do, where do we want to go?

I think we talk about the defense and put the game all together in one kind of unit. Yeah.

All right, let's do it.

Alright, so, we won 10 9, and without an amazing defensive performance, we lose this game. I don't think there's anyone that can deny that. And Jason Henderson, All American, everyone's favorite monarch. There's a big part of that 17 tackles, one and a half sacks, three tackles for loss. He was fantastic in this game and he was making plays all over the field as we're just so accustomed to. So while we're all upset with the performance of the game yesterday, I hope everyone is just enjoying getting to watch him play because having a guy like him on our defense is not going to be the usual. You gotta enjoy it while you have it, because once he's gone, he's gone.

Oh, no doubt. No doubt. he's always so fun to watch and yesterday, just love to see him move side to side on the field. You know tracking guys down if he's not there they get around the corner and make impact and yesterday There were multiple times where he was getting dudes before they could do that I mean we hit three guys that had double digits in tackles yesterday there were a lot of guys that played really really well on the defensive side of the ball

Wayne Matthews broke a man in half on that sack. I hate the quarterback. Didn't see it coming.

That, that is maybe the hardest hit I've ever seen in person, and seen the guy get up from.

I I said, I thought that he might be dead and the people to the left of me were like, oh my god who died I mean it was a it was a clean but just Brutal hit.

I think that quarterback woke up in shock, and kept playing through it. Because there's no way he just got up scot free from that hit.

Yeah, I think he was trying to tell his mom he had 10 more minutes of sleep before he went to school because I mean, he did not know what planet he was on. And that was that might be the loudest pop I've heard in SB Ballard. Like that was a just destruction of a quarterback there. Blindside and everything.

Yeah, this,

But, uh, s

defense, all game long, had their backs against the wall, and continued to perform at a high level. I did ask Wayne Matthews about that, about what kind of mentality that is. That makes that possible for them to keep performing at a high level when they're continually put in bad positions, and he goes Nothing special. It's just that one on one mentality. Do your job, go one on one. So I know I got the coach speak answer from him and Lemarion gave us a similar answer when talking about his interception to seal the game But it is kind of nice to hear these guys say, oh, no, it's nothing special. That's what we're supposed to do

it was, SED Stevens I thought played really well too. The Duke transfer, he kind of stepped into EJ Green's role. He hit the quarterback twice. linebacker Core man, we, that's a, that's a big time strength for us, and I'm glad to see them step up. But how fitting is it that. Two 757 boys make the plays to seal the game there with Lamerion James getting the pick and then Malcolm Britt Recovering the onside kick to make sure that we were gonna be able to kneel that one out The whole theme I know of homecoming was like, you know put on for your city That's what they put in the video and all that stuff It was nice to see 757 save the day and possibly the whole program for Old Dominion on Saturday

I'm glad you called that out to Gary because Malcolm is such a great student athlete. I mean doing amazing things in school and that was a huge play. I know a lot of people were filtering around, filtering out of the stadium at that point like the game was over and we're talking like the game is not over yet. We still have to do this. Anything can happen and he made a really nice play. charging that ball and securing it. And put, putting the game away for the win.

Defense just kept making plays, kept making plays, reminded me kind of the second half of wake where they kept making a play and getting the ball back to their offense. they were doing their job. They were doing it. they were pretty worn down there in, in the end of the fourth quarter to, to let commerce get that touchdown. They were doing some pretty creative stuff in the running game with some counters to, to attack where we, we didn't have enough bodies, but They stood tall when they needed to. And man, LeMarian James getting in front of that receiver. Cause I, from where I had moved down to the seats, for the second half. And I was kind of looking down that corner. I couldn't see it. I was waiting to see someone come up with it. And I saw his hands. I was like, Ooh, thank goodness. And I'll say this for LeMarian James. It's been fun to watch his growth and development as a corner. cause I, I don't think he was, was really sharp when he came to ODU at the corner position, obviously a great returner. He's improved a lot and he has been just a staple at the corner position this year, and I'm really happy to see him develop and continue to, to kind of be that lockdown guy for us and not have to worry about one side of the field.

One is, it's clear that he's gaining confidence. Like we've seen it in the last couple games. obviously the huge plays that he's been in a position to make. two for touchdowns in the previous game, and that game sealing interception on the two point conversion. But, It's so wonderful to see it because like you said, he, it's been a consistent theme since he's come to this program, how important it is to him to be home, be in front of family, how important family is to him and playing for the city that he wants to do it for the city and the city supports him. it was a fitting end for that game.

Sean Asbury is one more I wanted to call out on the defensive side. He came up and had some humongous hits in this game. Two and a half tackles for a loss, 15 total tackles on the day, seven of them solo. He's really solidified himself as a nice run stopper. And, he had the big hit in wake on the quarterback that led to an interception. he's really played well in the secondary to sure it up along with Terry Jones. happy to see him. I mean, he looks like he now really, really enjoys just absolutely crushing people when they get the ball in front of him.

And if we're going to give shoutouts, shout out to Ethan Dwayne, he had one punt with the wind that looked like a dead duck coming out and it even sounded weird when he kicked it, it looked like he got it off the end of his foot. And that punt was his best punt of the day. It sailed with the wind and went 56 yards. It was kind of a shocker, but with the wind, it makes sense. but however, he's continuing to be a great asset for us, especially as this offense continues to find its way.

It's going to be on him to flip the field.

Alright, defense played amazing, offense needs to figure it out fast. Because if, Marshall's defense is no joke, and we're playing them on the road, they don't have much time to figure it out, but they need to figure it out soon. I don't know, it's the, we're kind of put in this weird position of, you gotta get good fast. Or, this could snowball and become a lot like last year very quickly. And all the positivity we've had from the wake, And Louisiana games could go away pretty quickly and be forgotten.

Yeah, as a major monarch likes to say, we've got work to do. There's a lot of stuff that's going to be going on in the lab over at L. R. Hill this week. Because Marshalls 3 0, they beat, Albany, East Carolina, and Virginia Tech. So, they, they'll be hungry and ready to go. I

Yeah. I'm hoping that they're looking one further week ahead to when they go to NC state, maybe they, they sleep on us a little bit. but yeah, there's. It's so hard to pinpoint what exactly is wrong with the offense because everything is wrong with the offense. But when you have multiple failures like this, you've got to start triaging and start fixing things. And I think you, you make solving other problems a lot easier when you fix your protection. And if you can protect and you can run block. Good things will happen. And I mean, that's, that's going to be a brutal game film for those offensive linemen to watch. I think they watched it probably today. I would want to be in that room if I played on the offensive line, that game, cause I, some dudes are going to have some, some long, deep thoughts about that game for a long

So, here's a question I have for you guys on the Commerce game. And then we can kind of close the book on it and talk completely about Marshall. Did our coaches take Commerce too lightly? They, three of our top receivers, they say it's injuries, they're not playing. we run a very vanilla offense the whole game long. We don't change what we're doing at any point. other than substituting a different quarterback, it felt like, and then EJ Green, I feel like those were rest injury days instead of just strictly injury days. That was used like a preseason game, like, okay, we, what can be fine without these guys for one game against this team? It felt like we just kind of overlooked this opponent as a, as a coaching staff.

mean, it's certainly possible. like you said, trying to get those guys right before the Marshall game, you figure that we should be able to beat Commerce with a playing vanilla offensive defense, you're rolling out your starting quarterback. Obviously, you weren't planning on not having your starting running back. he would have probably played if that accident hadn't happened. and we're deep at the wide receiver position, so probably figured we're fine there. And we did roll out our starting defense from there may have been, one or two people. So it's certainly a possibility and maybe it wasn't even on purpose. I mean, maybe it was just kind of subconsciously like it We need everybody to be ready for Marshall and just kind of didn't go the way they thought it would go.

I do think there may have been a little bit of overlooking. I think we may be guilty of the same thing of thinking that we would just straight up, line up and beat them on every play. And we, we didn't, I got the feeling that everybody on the offensive side was looking around at everyone else for someone to make the play. Like that's all you needed. The one play that would kind of bust this thing open. I'm like, okay, now we're going, now we're going to crush them. Now we're going to win. And we never really got to that sense of urgency of like. Oh, holy shit. We might lose this game. We need to like, start really turning it on on the offensive side until like mid to late fourth quarter when we finally got, got the touchdown. it just kind of was a little bit of complacency and a little bit of shock and disbelief of like, how are we not already up by three, four touchdowns? We should be seven guys in. the coaches do have to do a good level of motivation pregame, but yeah, that's it. A lot of that just has to come from the players themselves. Like you're getting a suit up and go play football on a Saturday. you, you know, it's at stake, you can go out there and take care of business. They should have been excited to like pad stats in this game and just dominate people because they played such a tough schedule. I didn't get that sense. I just got the sense of that, they were going to go out there, go through the motions and come away with a victory, but Give, give some credit to Commerce here. Like they played tough. They beat our ass in a lot of one on one situations. And once we let them hang around and they started building some confidence. Like you could tell that our sideline was rattled. Like that last drive, we couldn't get them off the field. We were a little bit rattled. We didn't know what to do. And now I'm thinking they're going to go for two if they score. And if they get the two. Well, what are the chances we can get down somewhere to kick a field goal? And with the wind, are we going to make that field goal? So just kind of this constantly waiting for someone else to make the play before you make any kind of adjustments. And then we found ourselves trapped there at the end of the game. And thank goodness for LeMarian James. That's all I can say. You don't come back from losing that game.

Yeah, I don't remember the last time I thought about this, but I felt like every defensive drive, I kept thinking, I hope they just score a touchdown, the defense. It's, you're in a bad spot when you're hoping for like a pick six to save you.

Well, it felt like one of those games. I mean, I mentioned to Gary, we were at the three minute mark in the third quarter, three minutes remaining about the previous game, how we were in complete control or relatively complete control with three minutes left in the third quarter against wake. And we were in the same exact position. I was like, okay, well maybe it's our time to turn it on. And there's any time we had a, a kind of a momentum. Switching play that we thought it seemed like that's when we kind of hit a a turnover. One of our you know, three Interceptions or two fumbles? but like I said, this is the third time I've said it in this podcast is we won and I think you know as we move on and we kind of rip this page out of the out of the notebook and not the nice The nice clean one we had with the perforations, but just ripping it out of the one with the, the jagged edges, and tearing it up and throwing it away, we won. So we're 2 2, moving to next week.

where we thought we'd be right now. Two and two. I didn't think I'd feel this way at two and two, but we're two and two.

I'll take it, but uh, I kind of want to call this game the snake in my boot game. There's a snake in our boot and we're just trying to shoot it. Cause all we kept doing was shooting ourselves in the foot all game long.

That's accurate.

Yeah, have not heard that one, but it sounds, sounds like it hurts, and it, it did, it did hurt.

Alright, so. Sorry to bring this off track, we were, we were smoothly transitioning to Marshall and I just brought it all back. So let's go to Marshall, completely. Gary, you, you mentioned it already, they have a fantastic defense. we remember last year, they beat us 12 0. They pitched a shutout against us. Their offense did not look that great against us and it didn't matter because their defense was that good. And they're still pretty dang good this year.

Yeah, I mean, their, their defense is, is really good. They are deep at every position. They're talented at every position. They don't give up many big plays at all. I think they've only given up three plays all season of 30 yards or more. So those explosive plays that we've relied on to really. spark. Our offense are going to be really tough to come by. If we are even able to protect long enough for receivers to get 30 yards down the field, on the offensive side of the ball for them. The good news is, is they are not great with passing. cam Fancher had two interceptions against Virginia tech on Saturday. They just, they didn't throw the ball well at all. It only 166 yards in the air. but as, as rough as they've looked throwing the ball, they are monsters on the ground. they finished with 214 yards on the ground. Rasheen Ali had 174 of those for two touchdowns. He is back to form and an absolute beast. Uh, I mean, running for a buck 74 against Virginia Tech's front seven is not something that's done very easily. and they're, they've got some big boys in that offensive line. So it's going to be a challenge for the defense, but if we can stop the run, like we've had a lot of good success, stopping the run and make them one dimensional at passing, that's going to help us considerably. cause I don't know if they really have the ability to air it out a ton, from an offensive standpoint, but they are going to ground the pound. They're going to shorten the game. They're going to try to stay out there as long as they possibly can, from an offensive standpoint. it's. It's gonna be gonna be tough sledding out there on both sides of the ball.

So this is their homecoming. I feel like that should be motivation enough for our offense and our defense to just come out and whistle fire early in the game. They don't respect you enough. They think they should. Because when you have, when you set your homecoming schedule, you're doing it for probably your easiest game on the schedule because you want all those people coming back for that one game a year to leave with good memories of your team kicking butt. And we are their homecoming game this year.

We are sandwiched between Them playing Virginia Tech and then playing NC State So maybe maybe they watch too much of our game film against commerce and start game planning for Brennan Armstrong at NC State, which is by the way a game I think Marshall should and will win like they're I think they're gonna win both those ACC games So maybe we catch them sleeping and get some stuff together on offense

And I agree with you, Gary, 100%. The key in this game, in my opinion, is stopping the run. That's what scares me. Cam Fancher doesn't really scare me. obviously he's got ability, but he hasn't been consistent and he has shown that he will turn the ball over and if he's got to throw the ball more than, Coach Huff wants to do, then We could make some plays and we've, we've shown that we've got players on the defensive side of the ball when we can turn people over, it can turn into points. So I know it's gonna be a very tall test to stop Ali there. he's the one guy, man. he's got almost 400 yards of rushing in three games, averages over six yards of carry and has seven touchdowns. So Cam has got two passing touchdowns. Which one scares you?

I would love to see us keep Ali under 100 yards rushing. I think if we can do that, we have a chance to win this game, or at least stay in the game. I say all of this stuff thinking that our offense is going to magically fix itself within this one week. That's where I'm speaking from. But yeah, your number one priority has to be keeping Ali at the line of scrimmage or behind it. Because... It's big and strong as he is. He gets in the open field, see ya.

So I trust our defense to stop the run. But that requires the defense to not be on the field the entire game. And. Obviously, that has not been the case recently or this season. we're going to need the offense to put together multiple successful drives, whether they end in points or not, they just need to run clock to get this defense some rest so they can reload, re energize to stop this run. If that is the case, we will have a shot like we did last year, where 12 0 game, we were in it the entire game, despite the offense not doing much. If we can do anything on offense, we have a shot here, but that requires a much better effort than we had last week.

And Marshall's a tough defense to try to go attack. Cause I think they are strong at all three levels, but we've seen this offense pick apart good defenses before. especially with Louisiana. I thought we did some good stuff against tech. We did decent in some drives against wake. It's got to come together. Like you can't tell me this offense peaked in week two. that's nightmare scenario the rest of the year. So I'm, I'm hoping that it can put something together, be motivated Losing a game against wake at home and nearly losing to commerce at home. Like if, if you aren't motivated to go kick some ass at Marshall, like you probably need to ask yourself some bigger questions. but I, I, I would love to see them come out, fired up, but there's just nothing I've seen from our offense in the past two games that gives me a whole lot of confidence against the best defense we're going to face this season.

Well, Here's a possibility. So in this game, this past game against Virginia Tech, Marshall gave up 184 yards rushing on the ground. Actually, rushing on the ground. God, I sound stupid. There's no rushing in the air.

Well, you can rush through the air. I think Roche had a rush through the air for a little while on Saturday.

Oh, yeah, it looked like a box jump, right? 184 yards rushing in this game, 30 rushes, average of 6. 1 yards per rush. Now, 75 of that was from the quarterback, but we do have that ability, maybe not on the same scale as drones, our quarterbacks can all move. So I think it goes back to everything we've talked in the podcast and how, Mike has schooled me on our offense is everything keys off of our ability to run the ball. And if you can run the ball for 150 plus yards, you got a shot. And you're keeping the defense off the field as well.

Control that tempo. I don't mind run up to the line of scrimmage real fast and then waiting out some play clock, get the right call in. We haven't done that in two games.

So I'm looking at their team stats for defense on action right now. Red zone efficiency on defense, they are 84th in the country. Rushing yards, 85th, just like Aaron suggested. Turnovers, 91st, so they do not force a lot of turnovers. So that is good for us, considering we have been turning over the ball quite a bit. something's going to break there. However, they are fifth in the country in sacks on defense. We are first in the country in sacks allowed, or last. However you want to look at that stat. That's not a good combination there. We give up too many sacks, they get a lot of sacks. Owen Porter might end up winning Sunbelt Defensive Player of the Year just by playing us this week.

Got to protect. Yeah, that's. That's gotta be a scary combo if you're Jack Shields or Grant Wilson as well.

So, offensively we've had our issues. Give up too many sacks. Third down conversion's not good enough. Not enough first downs. Passing yards, we're not getting enough. We're running the ball pretty decently. and we're scoring pretty decently. And we turn the ball over too much. However, Marshall on defense is 107th in red zone efficiency. So they're not great in defending the red zone. We were really good at scoring once we're in the red zone. Except for this last game against Texas Commerce. Where we were 1 for 5.

And that was because of the landing strip.

Yes. Miss Davis, you got a problem with me?

they are 122nd on third down conversions on offense. So they don't convert a lot on offense, and we're, we're a pretty stout defense. First downs are 69th, passing yards 71st, rushing yards 64th. So that shows their balance on offense yardage wise. points 67th, 68th in turnovers. There are opportunities here on both sides of the ball for Old Dominion. But as we said, you gotta defend, you gotta pass block really well in this game. Or they're gonna have a sack party all game long and we're not gonna have any fun. I think that's really the key to this game. You gotta protect the quarterback.

You give Grant Wilson or Jack Shields time back there, and I think they can make some plays. they were neck and neck for the starting job until Jack Shields got an injury in camp. I think either one can go in and perform. I like the way Jack Shields throws the ball a little bit better. this will be, if he does start, it'll be his first road start that he's had in his career. gotta remember he's, I think, played what, three snaps prior to Saturday? And all three times is when Grant Wilson's helmet came off and he came in and... Did a read option, handed it off, made the right read and off field. So that's, that can be a challenge because I know that Marshall is going to have a huge crowd on hand. They get loud, not quite to the level of Virginia Tech, but it's not a quiet place to play a football game. They're going to make it challenging from the crowd, especially on homecoming.

And if Grant does get the start, I think the, uh, the whole idea is to learn from this week. making better decisions. He hasn't started that many games. I have to tell myself this is... It's not like this is his third year. that was really like his fourth game. So... Put that in the tool belt and go, those are things that I don't ever want to do again. throw the ball away, tuck the ball, go get a couple yards and get down, whatever it is. I think either way, whatever. Whatever direction the coaching staff takes on who's gonna start this game. there's opportunities

And you can't discount the fact that we've got four games on film now. Defenses know how to go up against our offense. So we have to be constantly changing what we're trying to do from an offensive perspective. Get different looks, run different reads, use that old game film to set up different plays. And they're going to try and take away everything that we want to do. We saw Wake do it pretty well. I think Texas A& M Commerce. Did a pretty damn good job of taking a lot of stuff away from us, too. Um, it wasn't just a bad offense, it was good defense as well. So we need to keep that in mind and we'll see how much Phil Marshall wants to watch. Maybe they're, maybe they went to the landing strip after they beat Virginia Tech, on Saturday. Oh, and, and on that note, right, how many more days? Like we're going to set an over under how many days until the ACC sends a check to Virginia Tech and tells them to stop playing Sunbelt teams on the road. That's got to be coming soon, right? Florida State's gonna lose their mind if they miss the playoffs because Tech lost to Marshall.

Yeah, it seems like the smart decision to avoid Sunbelt teams in general. Because it could have been, not just Marshall, but it should have been Wake Forest as well. so going back to this game, our opportunities, we talked, we got to protect the quarterback, but we also have to force them in the third downs, they're 122nd on in third down conversion rate. One of the worst teams in the country, if we can force them into third downs, we can get our defense off the field, which we've talked about at length. We need to do that for them. So they're not playing 65 percent of the game.

Yeah Not and not those third and ones and third and twos And we've got to play the run good on first down when they decide to do that and put them in passing Situations in those third downs because if third one third and two third and three, I mean all easy He's averaging six yards to carry. They're gonna make a lot of those third downs and So we got it. We have to have success early in those drives.

Yep, defensive success rate. Don't let them get half their yards on third down because they will go for it on

Alright, so, the Vegas line right now, Marshall is favored by 13. 5, the total is 46. 5. Before we talk about picks or anything, I'm gonna tell you, if you can bet on this game, take the under. Since Ricky and Huff took over both programs, the under is hit every time. first game, 20 13, Marshall wins. Last year, 12 0, Marshall wins. Those are gonna go under on every time, every time, on those types of games. And I don't think anything, we've seen anything to say this year will be any different. It's going to be a low scoring affair. Whoever makes the least amount of mistakes wins this game. Hopefully it's us.

I, I second that because when Marshall gets the lead, they run the clock. They will run it three yards, take 40 seconds, run it three yards, take 40 seconds. So it'd be really nice if we got the lead and forced them to pass it, along with all the other things we talked about. let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here, unless LeMarian James returns the opening kickoff for a touchdown.

Yeah, I have not looked into their kicking, their kickoff stats. Are they good at getting touchbacks?

That I don't know. But any team that is still kicking to LeMarian James should fire their coach. Because that's just one thing you can take off the table is keep the ball out of that guy's hands.

I'm looking for it.

Opponents have had two returns for 47 yards all season against Marshall.

Well, there you go.

Tells you they're getting a lot of touchbacks and Lemarion should not have any opportunities in this game unless wind is playing a factor. Alright, that's good to know.

There goes that idea. But we'll, we will have Paige back, returning punts. we did have a fumble on a punt return on top of everything else Saturday.

Apart from his fumble, I thought Kelby did a pretty good job filling in for Page. obviously that's a big mistake to get that one fumble, but otherwise he played pretty well and Ricky made sure to note that effort in the postgame.

I, I, I love

I mean Ray Mello, it was Ray Mello that returned kicks.

I was Romello back then, yeah.

Hey, one thing I really did like about Romelo, despite that fumble is how he really attacked the ball. he didn't sit back and let the ball come to him. He was aggressive in fielding it. both of them, actually. it's nice to know that if for whatever reason Isaiah can't return kicks, we have other options.

he took one return, almost surrounded by guys near the end zone, near the beer garden. It was the most casual catch I've ever seen someone do. It looked like he was just chillin in the park. It was... It was definitely cool. Like, that was a cool factor return for me.

And I don't know how because the way that that was kicked, that looked like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball up there in the air, with the wind and everything, so yeah. bonus points for, uh, for reeling that in because that could have, that could have been rough just because the way the ball was kicked. I

Yeah, I did not expect him to even try it. And he did, and then he was so cool and casual with it. It was, it was pretty sweet.

It's like Barry Bonds catching the ball on left field. You know how he just used to swipe his glove like it was nothing.

think Brumello also got, there was a huge miss pass interference on him that may have been a touchdown catch for him earlier in that game too. He got just basically just pushed out of bounds and the ref was looking at it was like, nah, I'm good.

Yeah, that had to be right in front of you, Mike, if you were still over there in the beer

Yeah, we were there for the first quarter. he got mugged. Rest of the game was in the seats. Alright, let's, let's get to picks. I'm gonna let Gary lead us off here.

All right, I got this. I also have to give you my Southern Miss pick after this too. And I, I just, I don't have enough confidence in our offense right now to say that we're going to win this game. So I'm going to go with Marshall, and I think it's going to be by two touchdowns. I'm going to say a 14 point 24 to 10 game.

Alright, tell everyone why, why you had to do the Southern Miss pick this week.

Yeah. So, uh, I am flying out Thursday to England for about 10 days. little vacation, but also going to be there to catch the Jags and Falcons game. so I will yell as loud as I can at Taylor Heineke and try to sneak on the field and all that good stuff. so be there for an NFL game, hanging out, but have no fear. The boys have lined up some. Pretty amazing guest to fill in while I'm gone. You probably won't even want me back, but that's okay. Um, uh, no, yes, I'll be, be over there. So not be on the next two podcasts. Hopefully I'll find a way to watch the game. I think it'd be kind of funny to walk around London and ask where I can watch the Monarchs play. Um, I feel like there'd be some very confused people in London.

Well, if you start talking about the Monarchist over there, that's a whole nother group. So if people don't know about that, you can Google it. but there's definitely a difference between us and them.

So maybe I shouldn't wear my Monarchist shirt when I, uh, go by Buckingham palace.

Google it first.

Gotcha.

Yeah, the Brexit weirdos might, might be all about it. I don't know.

If I get a fan club, I'll let you know. Tell them to donate to ODAF.

I wish I had a decal for you to put up somewhere on a street somewhere in London. It would, but I don't. I'm sorry.

I didn't even think about that because I do. So if you find your way down to the 757 before you get on your airplane, Gary, I'll give you one.

All right, I'll see, I'll see what we can do on that, because yeah, I would love to uh, graffiti something over there.

All right, Aaron, what do you think about this game?

Well, Mike, I agree with you. Definitely take the under. it's not going to be a huge scoring game. depends on how the weather plays out, but I'm thinking something like, uh, you know, 2017 Monarchs, Ethan Sanchez hits a field goal to win the game.

Any idea how long that kick will be?

Probably about 50 yards would be my guess.

Ah

That's bold.

do you want me to let the cat out of the bag on who's going to be filling in for Gary, Mike, or do you want to

I'll let you do that. I'll make my pick real quick and uh, we can move on to uh, closing business.

Sounds good.

So, me and Gary have, I believe we've picked every game right. Is that right, Gary? Or did you get Louisiana wrong?

I had, I picked ODU against Tech. That's my one

Okay, I have not missed yet. And I'm going to take a gamble here, given the offense's performance the last two weeks. I feel like Old Dominion, Javon Harvey's going to be back next week. Kelby Williams is coming into New Zone. Raymello Murphy's coming into New Zone. And Dom Dutton is just a weapon. We've established all of this. I feel like we're going to surprise a lot of people this week and beat Marshall. It's going to be a low scoring game. 21 17 sounds good to me. I want to believe it and I want to see it. All dominion wins. Let's go.

Yeah, I like it.

I like it. I hope you're right. I hope I'm wrong.

Now, the internet will implode.

I will say last year is 12 0 game and we did not have an offense that could do anything. We couldn't run the ball successfully at all last year and our passing game was, It was hit or miss, because of the lack of running game. and we were forced to throw the ball a lot because we had a lot of big deficits. But,, this year, the defense feels even better than it was last year. Our defense does. And it's giving us even more opportunities to put good offensive drives together. And I feel like, apart from commerce, because I don't know how to judge their quarterback, This is the worst quarterback we've played this season. and that's a good thing for our defense and our offense to put something together. It's going to be a struggle and I don't know, really believe it in the back of my head, but I think it can happen. I believe in these guys. I believe in this offensive change, despite the last two weeks, it's going to click sooner than later. And I feel like with Javon Harvey back on the field, that is much more likely to happen.

I love where your head's at on that, Mike. I hope you are right. I'm still gonna stay on my Marshall pick for this Saturday. but I'm gonna go ahead and throw it out there that we are gonna beat Southern Miss by 14.

I will hold my prediction for them next week. But they did just get beat by Arkansas State. Losing Arkansas State's first win of the year. And a week of solace for Butch Jones and his hot seat.

Yeah. Well, Arkansas State beat an FCS team last week. And now they've got their first FBS win. They are also two and two. And I don't know if you can have a more different two and two, considering the beatdown they took in their first two, but Hey, they're one and O in the Sunbelt. We're one and O in the Sunbelt, Georgia State's undefeated. What the hell's going on? It's weird.

Yeah, and South Alabama lost after beating Oklahoma State. It's a game that everyone

It's a Central Michigan.

yeah. Bizarro World, someone opened up I made the joke on the Twitter account that this game against commerce shows that we're living in a simulation. And someone hit reset at the wrong time.

Yeah, if you start trying to use the transitive property in college football, you can go down some really, really weird rabbit holes where there's like a D three national champion. It's it's crazy. But I think that proves your point of like anything could happen on Saturday at Marshall. We could get it together and look like an NFL team coming out there. Who knows? weird stuff happens.

Yeah, I just Helbie Williams was so good on Saturday. Javon Harvey, when he plays with his motivation, he is very hard to cover. Ramello Murphy has been consistent game in and game out. I like our receivers. I just don't know if we'll have the past protection to get them the ball that we need to. So it remains to be seen. All right, let's get into closing business here. Aaron, who are our special guests for the next two weeks going to be?

Well, I'm excited about this, and, so should every Old Dominion Monarch fan. Ramen. I don't know how you want to call it, but two of the best kickers that this, program has ever seen. We've got the hefty lefty, who used to boot the crap out of the ball. Jonathan Plisko, and one of the best place kickers, kicking field goals, Jared Brown. they're great friends. It's going to be a lot of fun. And they're going to help us go through the next two weeks.

Yeah, we can't wait. I ran into Jared yesterday. obviously. Polisco came and joined us at the edge yesterday, and we had a little bit of fun with him. But Jared Brown was telling me, Hey, why don't we do this in person? I don't know if we can make it happen, but, I'd love to make it happen. I'm very excited to get to talk football with those two. And get their true opinions on where the program is at. Cause they have no reason to lie about anything.

Yeah, it should be. I think it'll be a good time. I've got to figure out how to live stream you all watching that game. Cause I bet that would be must watch TV, but, but yeah, but speaking of the edge yesterday, we had an awesome time there. Obviously we tailgate lot shut down. We kind of took over the edge, a huge shout out. To them for opening early for us, getting us a free keg of ODU golden ale. I don't know if there was any left afterwards. Cause I know a lot of it was, was flowing. it was packed in there and kind of has me scratching my head on if that's not the way forward for our, uh, pregame tailgates, because that was a good time. And the scenery wasn't bad either.

Yeah, I had a good time. It was a good way to adapt to the tailgating, tailgate lots being closed. I will also give a shout out, college football tour came and hung out pregame. they were, those two guys were a lot of fun and really kind of wanted to experience what Old Dominion was all about. And I hope we gave them the right energy and gave the right impression off of what we are as a school.

Yeah, I definitely think that happened. I will say that's probably the most amount of old people. I'm included in that, that I've been in the Edge, maybe ever.

Oh yeah, I already, I said it last night, we broke the record for average age in the edge last night. by a wide margin. but we had fun. No one complained about the noise. It's good to see guys pushing senior citizenship, not complaining about how loud it is in there. it was cool.

That's cause I already have hearing problems, so it just, it's not too bad.

It brought back some very fond memories and possibly regrets from the undergrad days of, of going to the edge. it's a different place now. I will say, but I, I had a, had an awesome time. I thought it was a great atmosphere and with all the TVs on the wall, I think that's the one thing we missed at tailgate. We're not able to watch the other games, but I just kept spinning in a circle, checking out the games, getting some more betts in, all that good stuff.

Yeah, they did a good job with their floors. I was not, I was surprised that we're, we did not have sticky old floors that I'm used to in the edge. so props to them on upgrading and making the edge a nicer place to hang out at. And the co eds that were there did not treat us like we didn't belong in there. Even though we did not belong in there.

You're right, as I was walking out, I was walking behind you, Mike, and I'm thinking, Man, we really stick out here like a sore thumb, but we didn't get it, really. Well, at least I didn't see any side eyes, we may have gotten them.

Hey, they got in on that chant. They were all about it. And, I just had to talk to a couple people. Hey, we're about to get loud. We need you to get loud with us. And they were all about it. All right guys that does it for this week's Show we're gonna have our opponent Q& A coming up this week David's gonna have the recap coming out on Monday and a preview coming out later in the week so stay tuned to ODMonarchist. com Go Monarchs!

Go Monarchs!

Go monarchs.

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