Part One - Coastal Carolina
Part Two - Louisiana
Part Three - Appalachian State
Part Four - Arkansas State
Part Five - Southern Miss
Part Six - Georgia State
Part Seven - ULM
Part Eight - Marshall
Part Nine - Troy
Part 10 - South Alabama
Part 11 - James Madison

The anonymous people give their thoughts on last year's Sun Belt East bottom team, Old Dominion. Ricky Rahne's Monarchs went 3-9 and struggled mightily near the end. Will people think they do better this season.

A few troll answers deleted, but spelling and grammar were left as is.

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Not sure

I expect them to be in the bottom tier.

The east needs a bottom

They are still working it out. Give them a year or two and they should be alright.

I wasn't impressed last year and I don't think they improve this year or decline.

trending up

Depth will be a concern.

Inconsistent and a big question mark

About on Par with GA State. Could be good, probably be mediocre.

Will be a bad team. I think they have a lot of potential, but I don't remember them being good in recent memory.

Gonna lose a lot again

ODU’s first year in the SBC was anything but pretty, managing only 3 wins with one being against ACC doormat VT. It’s going to be a rocky season as they continue to settle into the SBC.

Going to be a tough year. Hopefully they can surprise a few with their new offensive plan. Struggled with recruiting and transfers. Going to have an extremely young inexperienced team at the start. Still need a quarterback to step up and take control. 6 and 6 on the season.

Will struggle to finish inthe top half of the league.

Middle of the pack.

Slight improvement but they need to improve dramatically to be consistent threat

Good Team should be in a Bowl

Lost a lot of players

2-10; horrible

they had three standout offensive players last season: hayden wolff, ali jennings, and blake watson. all three are gone. they still have jason henderson, but that’s it. they’ll be lucky to get

4 wins.

No identity.

Little below average.

Average

Very Good Team

About the same as last season

They started off 2022 with a bang. I thought they were going to be a team to watch. Maybe this season they will get it together and go to a bowl.
upswing year

Weak; 1-11

I don't much about Old Dominion. I didn't follow them much. I remember their OC leaving right before the season, and their offense not being very good. A P5 win was part of the SBC's best opening to a season ever. Happy to have Old Dominion here, but they had the least wow factor of the four new additions. Hopefully they can turn things around.

Cellar dweller

They have a fair football team and may pick up an extra win in 2023,

5-7

Bottom of the east for the monarchs

Question marks at every position on offense including OC. Might be better, might not mean more wins though. A rebuilding year after 3-9 sucks for the fans but that's the reality. 4th OC in 4 years can you believe it? VT is bad enough, they could still beat VT and go 3-9 again which would be pretty funny.

Don’t believe the hype.

Will beat someone they shouldn’t but will disappoint overall as usual

Could go either way. Good at times last year

Need to replace some guys but should be OK to pull off an upset or two.

Meh

I think their coach will be on the hot seat if he can't take them to a bowl this season, and I have a feeling they won't.

3-9

Dark horse, with some things to prove.

Somebody has to finish last in the SBC East and it’s either GAST or ODU. Sorry Monarchs.

Missing two or three positions from being able to compete every week

I think Old Dominion's the most schizophrenic team out of the Beast and maybe the whole conference! Looking at last year's schedule they start out upsetting Virginia Tech, almost beat Virginia, embarrass us at home, barely lose to Georgia Southern for the Monarchs' homecoming, score zero points against Marshall (Thundering Herd only scored 12 in the defensive battle), lose a close one to South Alabama on the road, etc. I'm not buying the doom and gloom for ODU if you can figure out their identity but unfortunately the scheduling gods do not favor them this season as they draw Louisiana and Southern Miss from the West with Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and Liberty out of conference & road games at JMU, Marshall, and Georgia Southern in division to force them to figure out who they are fast...

(06-28-2023 06:25 PM)El Chanto Wrote:  I think Old Dominion's the most schizophrenic team out of the Beast and maybe the whole conference! Looking at last year's schedule they start out upsetting Virginia Tech, almost beat Virginia, embarrass us at home, barely lose to Georgia Southern for the Monarchs' homecoming, score zero points against Marshall (Thundering Herd only scored 12 in the defensive battle), lose a close one to South Alabama on the road, etc. I'm not buying the doom and gloom for ODU if you can figure out their identity but unfortunately the scheduling gods do not favor them this season as they draw Louisiana and Southern Miss from the West with Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and Liberty out of conference & road games at JMU, Marshall, and Georgia Southern in division to force them to figure out who they are fast...

That's a very fair assessment of ODU last season and going into this upcoming season. Hopefully the new offensive coordinator and the more wide-open offense he is expected to bring will put up a lot more points for the Monarchs this season.

It’s late and I’m feeling blunt. Don’t get your hopes up for this year but don’t give up on Rahne either.

Rahne is a first time head coach. Rookie coaches need room to fail so they can learn from failure. His biggest failure so far is flat out bungling the OC/QB situation since he arrived. We have seen: a shady surprise firing, an unpopular hire followed by a shady surprise non-firing departure during training camp, a battlefield promotion of a coach who had never been an OC at any level. This sequence of repeated incompetence would be outrageous at my high school let alone an FBS program. But that’s what happens when you put someone who has never had to hire anyone in the big job.

Even though he is a QB specialist, he has never recruited or developed a strong QB. QB has arguably been our biggest positional weakness. Again, he always has been a QB coach and wanted to keep being the QB coach. The results show this has not worked in recruiting or on the field.

Ok that’s the bad points. Here’s why I am hopeful that this year can lay the foundation for improvement.

1) For the first time we have a real OC. Not an analyst, not a cast-off at the end of his career, not a positional coach trying to boost his resume. A real, competent OC/ QB coach who just sent his two time All American QB into the NFL.
2) Rahne has wisely relinquished the QB coach job.

That’s it. My benchmark for whether Rahne deserves to stay employed is whether he can keep himself from overly meddling in the QB coaching and if we actually see some improvement in the offense that can carry to 2025.

Realistically there’s not a lot of reason to expect a better than 3-9 again. OL/DL depth is diminished. Defensive secondary is diminished. QB is an unknown. I’m excited to see if our recruiting and scheming will give us some pleasant surprises in these areas.

What this program needs is stability and a positive trend. If we see that this year, the results will follow.

I feel sorry for Texas A & M Commerce. We are going to trounce them! How dare they use our logo!!!

(06-29-2023 02:31 AM)ODU2017 Wrote:  It’s late and I’m feeling blunt. Don’t get your hopes up for this year but don’t give up on Rahne either.

Rahne is a first time head coach. Rookie coaches need room to fail so they can learn from failure. His biggest failure so far is flat out bungling the OC/QB situation since he arrived. We have seen: a shady surprise firing, an unpopular hire followed by a shady surprise non-firing departure during training camp, a battlefield promotion of a coach who had never been an OC at any level. This sequence of repeated incompetence would be outrageous at my high school let alone an FBS program. But that’s what happens when you put someone who has never had to hire anyone in the big job.

Even though he is a QB specialist, he has never recruited or developed a strong QB. QB has arguably been our biggest positional weakness. Again, he always has been a QB coach and wanted to keep being the QB coach. The results show this has not worked in recruiting or on the field.

Ok that’s the bad points. Here’s why I am hopeful that this year can lay the foundation for improvement.

1) For the first time we have a real OC. Not an analyst, not a cast-off at the end of his career, not a positional coach trying to boost his resume. A real, competent OC/ QB coach who just sent his two time All American QB into the NFL.
2) Rahne has wisely relinquished the QB coach job.

That’s it. My benchmark for whether Rahne deserves to stay employed is whether he can keep himself from overly meddling in the QB coaching and if we actually see some improvement in the offense that can carry to 2025.

Realistically there’s not a lot of reason to expect a better than 3-9 again. OL/DL depth is diminished. Defensive secondary is diminished. QB is an unknown. I’m excited to see if our recruiting and scheming will give us some pleasant surprises in these areas.

What this program needs is stability and a positive trend. If we see that this year, the results will follow.

Good for RR on not tripling down on that OC/QB situation...i wonder if your AD stepped in a bit? Kevin Decker was a really good QB...gave us fits a few times!

(06-29-2023 10:23 AM)bcp_jmu Wrote:  We have seen: a shady surprise firing, an unpopular hire followed by a shady surprise non-firing departure during training camp, a battlefield promotion of a coach who had never been an OC at any level.

Campbell had to go. He was too loyal to Mack and he was a mess in the booth, overreacting to an insane level to any thing done incorrectly. Pnode gave us no choice but to push him out in camp. Reihner was thrown to the wolves and wasn't ready. It resulted in a predictable vanilla offense that held us back greatly. Both Reihner and Campbell may ultimately learn from those years and become good OCs one day but the risk of hiring such a young staff did not pan out with a reward in either situation.

QB recruiting has been a mess as well, with each committed guy we have had being flipped by late P5 offers. Colton Joseph could be the longterm solution to that issue but it wont help this year.

(06-29-2023 11:13 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  

(06-29-2023 10:23 AM)bcp_jmu Wrote:  We have seen: a shady surprise firing, an unpopular hire followed by a shady surprise non-firing departure during training camp, a battlefield promotion of a coach who had never been an OC at any level.

Campbell had to go. He was too loyal to Mack and he was a mess in the booth, overreacting to an insane level to any thing done incorrectly. Pnode gave us no choice but to push him out in camp. Reihner was thrown to the wolves and wasn't ready. It resulted in a predictable vanilla offense that held us back greatly. Both Reihner and Campbell may ultimately learn from those years and become good OCs one day but the risk of hiring such a young staff did not pan out with a reward in either situation.

QB recruiting has been a mess as well, with each committed guy we have had being flipped by late P5 offers. Colton Joseph could be the longterm solution to that issue but it wont help this year.

Hiring a young staff means they will take some lumps. It’s what we signed up for. I really hope Decker is the long-term answer to recruiting and scheming.

(06-29-2023 03:12 PM)ODU2017 Wrote:  

(06-29-2023 11:13 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  

(06-29-2023 10:23 AM)bcp_jmu Wrote:  We have seen: a shady surprise firing, an unpopular hire followed by a shady surprise non-firing departure during training camp, a battlefield promotion of a coach who had never been an OC at any level.

Campbell had to go. He was too loyal to Mack and he was a mess in the booth, overreacting to an insane level to any thing done incorrectly. Pnode gave us no choice but to push him out in camp. Reihner was thrown to the wolves and wasn't ready. It resulted in a predictable vanilla offense that held us back greatly. Both Reihner and Campbell may ultimately learn from those years and become good OCs one day but the risk of hiring such a young staff did not pan out with a reward in either situation.

QB recruiting has been a mess as well, with each committed guy we have had being flipped by late P5 offers. Colton Joseph could be the longterm solution to that issue but it wont help this year.

Hiring a young staff means they will take some lumps. It’s what we signed up for. I really hope Decker is the long-term answer to recruiting and scheming.

The tough part will be keeping Decker long-term. If he's as successful as people in that building think he can be, he won't be here long. The offense will be miles ahead on scheme this year from the predictability of 2022.

(06-29-2023 03:43 PM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  

(06-29-2023 03:12 PM)ODU2017 Wrote:  

(06-29-2023 11:13 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  

(06-29-2023 10:23 AM)bcp_jmu Wrote:  We have seen: a shady surprise firing, an unpopular hire followed by a shady surprise non-firing departure during training camp, a battlefield promotion of a coach who had never been an OC at any level.

Campbell had to go. He was too loyal to Mack and he was a mess in the booth, overreacting to an insane level to any thing done incorrectly. Pnode gave us no choice but to push him out in camp. Reihner was thrown to the wolves and wasn't ready. It resulted in a predictable vanilla offense that held us back greatly. Both Reihner and Campbell may ultimately learn from those years and become good OCs one day but the risk of hiring such a young staff did not pan out with a reward in either situation.

QB recruiting has been a mess as well, with each committed guy we have had being flipped by late P5 offers. Colton Joseph could be the longterm solution to that issue but it wont help this year.

Hiring a young staff means they will take some lumps. It’s what we signed up for. I really hope Decker is the long-term answer to recruiting and scheming.

The tough part will be keeping Decker long-term. If he's as successful as people in that building think he can be, he won't be here long. The offense will be miles ahead on scheme this year from the predictability of 2022.

Yeah. But that’s a good problem to have. If others aren’t trying to poach your coaches then they likely aren’t any good. I’d love it if he got us on solid footing, hopefully a couple of bowls and then left us in great shape to hire another great to replace him.

What’s the word about Rahne’s job security? Is he on the hot seat, and will another losing, non-bowl season see him given his walking papers?

In his defense he beat VT last year, and if he does it again (this season) he might even be given an extension.

(07-04-2023 02:53 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  What’s the word about Rahne’s job security? Is he on the hot seat, and will another losing, non-bowl season see him given his walking papers?

In his defense he beat VT last year, and if he does it again (this season) he might even be given an extension.

IMHO, Selig (our AD) has a tendency to keep coaches way too long. In my mind, Rhane probably has through this year to finally get things figured out, and assuming we don't go to a bowl and/or show significant progress (5 wins and keep our best players) he should be on the hot seat in 24. 2024 should be bowl or go. But with Selig you just never know.

(07-04-2023 02:53 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  What’s the word about Rahne’s job security? Is he on the hot seat, and will another losing, non-bowl season see him given his walking papers?

In his defense he beat VT last year, and if he does it again (this season) he might even be given an extension.

Standards? We ain't got no standards! If you're in tight with ol' Wood, anything goes.

Their defense is, for the most part, really good. They showed their capability against Coastal but didn't capitalize on that.

Most people seem to have forgotten that they fired their OC just before the season started and were rolling with a High School OC all year long.