ODU Monarchs Survive Thriller in Norfolk over Virginia Tech 20-17 (9-2-22)

By: Tyrone Montgomery Jr.

All Photos Courtesy: Corey Allen-LMS Network

Football is officially back! The ODU Monarchs had quite the year last season. They started the season on a rocky path. They juggled between QBs all season long and struggled to figure out who they were. They didn’t have an identity offensively and that lead to the inconsistencies. One thing they were able to do was to hang their helmets on the defensive end.

ODU opened up its season at home against the Virginia Tech Hokies. Hayden Wolff now has the keys to the car as the team has turned to him. He was the one to lead the charge in their late-season turnaround last year. The Monarchs have continued to ride that wave to start this season. 

Hayden Wolff struggled tremendously in this game. We all know what he is capable of after his performance last season. So there’s not much reason to be alarmed there. The only spark offensively came from their running game. Blake Watson was able to explode for a couple of good runs in this game, where he rushed for 59 Yards and scored the only offensive TD for the Monarchs. 

VA Tech looked like the better team early on in this game despite being down 10-7 at the half. This was the perfect scenario for ODU because of the QB they were facing. Grant Wells has been known to be a gunslinger in his college career. The Monarchs were able to take full advantage of that. In a world of football where offense means everything, ODU’s defense gets the game ball here as they forced 4 INTs in this matchup. They completely gave Grant Wells fits all evening as they prevailed to a 20-17 victory to start their season.

Winning games like this show good coaching. It shows good poise. All of that starts and ends with the unquestionable leader of this group of men, Head Coach Ricky Rahne. He was able to keep this team to remain positive despite their rocky start last year and we see that he has them fully engaged no matter how the game is going. The culture is changed in ODU and this is only the beginning for Monarch Football.