ODU Starts The Season Off Showing A Bit Of Rust (9-2-23)
By: Tyrone Montgomery Jr.
Headline Photo Credit: Katie Lovell-LMS Network
Have you ever taken a vacation or been away from work for awhile? Upon your return to the job, you wake up obviously on the wrong side of the bed. It’s always hard to get back to work after enjoying time off. You may need not one but two cups of coffee that morning. You get back into the swing of things and you realize that you are a bit rusty from being away for so long.
That was the case for the ODU Monarchs. Last season, they hosted the VA Tech Hokies in a game that they got the best of them as ODU won 20-17. This season, things went completely different. The Monarchs were on the road as they traveled to Blacksburg, VA. While this is a familiar opponent, ODU failed to deliver in this game as they lost 36-17.
Now, there were a couple of takeaways from this game. It’s only week one, so it’s wise not to overreact. ODU looked a bit too comfortable in this game. They were relaxed and showed a lot of signs of rust. They simply didn’t look like themselves. They tend to lean upon their defense. However, giving up 36 points hurts them tremendously. Also, there’s a new QB behind Center. Grant Wilson is a junior, however this was his first career start for the Monarchs. He finished with just 94 passing yards on 13/25 passing with two TD’s. Now, he was able to pick up a lot of yards on the ground as he ran for 81 yards and was the leading rusher for both teams in this game. Maybe the Monarchs will utilize him a bit more in a Lamar Jackson sort of role. That could be extremely beneficial for ODU. The Monarchs will host Louisiana next week on Saturday September 9th at 6PM ET.
