ODU football notebook: Loss at Virginia meant long, quiet ride home
NORFOLK — The three-hour bus ride back from Charlottesville on Saturday night was, predictably, most unpleasant for Old Dominion.
The Monarchs had just coughed up a one-point lead when Virginia kicked a last-second field goal to win 16-14 at Scott Stadium.
The kick finished off a six-play, 56-yard drive that overshadowed ODU’s previous 80-yard trip, which ended with 1:01 left in the game and the Monarchs ahead 14-13.
After such a devastating turn of events, the bus was a no-nonsense zone.
“Nothing. Nothing,” ODU coach Ricky Rahne said. “Maybe it’s because I’m on one of them. I don’t know. I think they understand that I’d rather guys be reflecting on what it is.”
There was much to consider. Had they won Saturday, the Monarchs (1-2) would be above .500 and one victory closer to bowl eligibility for a second straight season. Combined with a season-opening upset of Virginia Tech, they would have knocked off the Commonwealth’s top two football powers in the same season, a potential in-state recruiting coup.
But the players generally don’t reflect on big-picture issues. It’s the moments that got away that follow them all the way home.
“The bus ride back’s a big reflection time for me — win or lose,” said left offensive guard Tyran Hunt. “I like to think about some of the plays I wish I had back, some of the things that I did well that I wanted to, some of the things that I could’ve done better. I think a lot of the guys kind of follow that thought process on the ride back, especially after a loss.”
‘Back at it’
The Monarchs won’t have long to reflect. They open the Sun Belt Conference schedule Saturday at home against Arkansas State.
It marks the first game at S.B. Ballard Stadium since the win over Tech.
Hunt said the quick turnaround would help ODU’s players put U.Va. behind them.
“Obviously, it didn’t come out the way that we wanted it to,” the Boykins native and Maryland transfer said. “But the beauty of it is we have another opportunity to go back at it again this week.”
Rahne said the week started with an impactful team meeting and a useful practice on Sunday.
“I know each and every one of us feels like there’s something else that we could’ve done to help us win that game,” Rahne said. “But the only way to fix that is by going back to work.”
Junior safety Robert Kennedy said the team’s maturity allows it to leave losses in the rearview mirror.
“I feel like we just go into Sunday with a clean slate,” he said. “We think about it as, ‘We’re going to work hard, so we don’t have to feel the same exact feeling of losing again.’ I feel like we just go straight into it and go straight to work.”
Stranger things
The Monarchs have never played Arkansas State, but that means little in terms of preparation.
Rahne likened it to last season, when he and his staff — coaching a season for the first time after the cancellation of the 2020 campaign — faced Conference USA teams for the first time.
ODU left C-USA in July for the Sun Belt, in part to establish more regional rivalries, meaning Rahne and his staff have to study a whole new league.
“So the only weird thing about this season is that we do that all over again,” Rahne said. “These guys in this conference are very familiar with each other. But we’re not familiar with them, and they’re not familiar with us.”
Challenge accepted
Hunt said his favorite hobby is cooking, and at 6-foot-7 and 313 pounds, he appears to be pretty good at it.
He said he can make homemade macaroni and cheese “blindfolded,” and he’s developed recipes for chicken cordon bleu and sushi.
The man Hunt protects, quarterback Hayden Wolff, is also a bit of a home chef. At his own hand, Wolff added about 20 pounds in the offseason by eating his homemade steak and chicken, in addition to various sides.
When it was suggested to Hunt that he and Wolff should have a cook-off, Hunt didn’t back down.
“I have no question that I would cook Hayden’s socks off,” he said. “No question. I would do that.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com
