Old Dominion Monarchs College Football Pregame Quote, 11/22/2021

Excited for this week. Another opportunity to go 1-0. It’s been our motto all year and it’s something we’re going to continue to do and believe. Really excited this week for the Oyster Bowl, being able to give back to Shriner’s Hospital so I’m hoping that we can have a full stadium to give these seniors the send-off that they deserve based on what they’ve given to Old Dominion throughout their time here.

Can you talk about the seniors? And what they’ve been through in their time here and what they’ve done, just your thoughts on the seniors.

Yeah, I think the senior class, obviously they’ve been through some ups and downs and been through a lot. They haven’t wavered in their belief of what Old Dominion can be and their loyalty to this program. Great group of young men that I’m blessed to be able to coach and they’re some great players and like I said I’m really hopeful that we can have a full stadium, a very raucous crowd and give them the atmosphere that they deserve.

Can you give us a collective temperature of the team? Just the excitement level given having won four in a row in the last few games of the season coming up.

Yeah, whether it’s to take credit or blame, it’s probably a little bit of both, but you know the 1-0 mentality makes it so it’s not different in excitement level from week to week, game to game. I mean they are very aware that I’m going to talk to them about that all week, they’re very aware that that’s how we’re going to approach everything. While my message is different in terms of the semantics from day to day, they know the overall messaging is going to be very similar in what we’re doing. Obviously, we have a different game plan, different way that we know we have to win the games and different things we need to concentrate on each week, but overall, we also know that it’s about going 1-0, it’s about playing with technique and fundamentals, playing hard good team football. They’re going to continue to do that and because of that, the level of excitement stays pretty steady. I’ve really been more proud of that with this group than anything is just the consistency in which they have had their emotional stability.

Even when you were losing?

Yeah. I think that’s what’s allowed us to play better football as we’ve continued on this season. There weren’t guys that were down in the dumps, they were attacking the weight room, they were attacking practice, the film room, study hall, all those sorts of things. Do we have our ups and downs and our areas where we need to be more disciplined across the board? Absolutely. But that’s where I’ve seen growth each and every week and that’s where I’ve probably been the most impressed and pleased with the team is we have gotten better each and every week.

You were talking about the seniors, given the state of the transfer portal, what was your sales pitch to keep them here?

My sales pitch was that I was going to do everything in my power to make sure they reached their maximum potential. Hopefully they can all say that that’s what I’ve done, everybody’s potential is different, but I told them all from the way we approach practice to the way we approach meetings to the way we approached weightlifting to community service, everything. That I was going to help them maximize their overall potential. And I was going to always be honest with them, and that’s kind of what I did. I don’t know if Id exactly call what I do in recruiting a sales pitch, probably should get better at that. I’m pretty bluntly honest with people and I try to be as genuine as possible so that when they get here, they’re not surprised. I do think that that’s part of the transfer portal too, that’s when people are here, they should get the same thing they get when I am recruiting them. I think that being able to provide that is what’s going to get people to stick with us through the inevitable valleys that come with everybody’s collegiate career.

If you look at your starting lineups all season, it’s been pretty consistent. How important is that?

It’s critical. I think that we’ve had our injuries and those sorts of things, but we’ve been able to stay fairly consistent. That’s a testament to Dwight Galt IV and his strength staff, that’s a testament to Justin Walker and his training staff and everything that they’ve done. It’s also, I think, is an incredible testament to our players and just how much they’ve bought in to how they need to take care of their bodies and do the things necessary in order to play all 12 weeks. That’s something that going into this season I was a little worried about because it’d been a long time since we’ve played ‚Äì since we’ve practiced in consecutive days let alone playing in consecutive weeks. So that was something I was a little nervous about and the guys have proven that my worries were misplaced at best. They’ve come out and they’ve practiced hard and played hard and worked through the bumps and bruises that have accompanied any football season and have done a really nice job with that.

Coach, in the locker room its 1-0, all this week its going to be 1-0, practice reps it’s going to be 1-0, it’s the same thing you guys have been doing. Outside the locker room, I think you’ve got a sense of what the fans are going to be focused on, what people in the area are going to be focused on, it’s this team was at one point 1-6 and now has the chance to play for a bowl game. Do you at any point think that this could be one of the bigger games in the stadium’s history? Just the feeling again outside the locker room, again putting aside what the team will be focused on.

I hope the people outside this locker room people understand that it’s one of the biggest games of the stadiums history because you’ve got guys like Isaac Weaver, you’ve got guys like Nick Rice, you’ve got guys like Jordan Young playing their last football game in this stadium. You’ve got guys who have played through some severe injuries this year that I haven’t talked about nor will I after this so don’t even bother asking, that have done some things that guys on our team know what other guys on our team have been through, and their literally superhuman, what a couple of these guys have done. That’s what I think that the outside world needs to be focused on. Just that these are some unbelievable young men that they’re getting an opportunity to cheer on one last time, and just like our guys its always a 1-0 mentality. Our fans are going to look back at some of these guys and realize, man I think I probably should’ve appreciated that guy a little bit more when he was here. I hope they don’t, I hope they realize that before we play this last game and give them the sendoff that they deserve.

Coach, do you notice a difference in confidence level between coming close in several games to winning four in a row?

We remained remarkably confident even when the results weren’t dictating that. So, not really. Our guys are confident in the schemes, our guys are confident in their own ability, if there’s been any increase in confidence, it’s probably been in their belief with their teammates. I think we have a lot of very self-confident guys on our team and a lot of guys who really believed in the scheme. One thing I think that we’ve had to grow into is belief that my teammate is going to do what he needs to do in order for me to be successful. I think now that confidence has probably grown exponentially, throughout the entire season. But that hasn’t grown because we’ve been winning, its grown because of what these guys have seen the guys do in practice week in and week out and how they’ve watched them watch film and how they’ve watched them just mature in general. That’s something where a lot of that confidence has come from.

Have you given five minutes of thought, or even two minutes of thought to where your team might go, should it go to a Bowl game?

No. Zero. Not even a little bit. I’m sure guys on our staff probably have, I haven’t. Its funny, I never did that, ever. I’ll tell you a quick story, when I was a graduate assistant back in the day. When I was a graduate assistant there was two of us. Me and Scott Frost. Those are our graduate assistants at Kansas State. I’ll never forget our head coach calls us in one day and he’s like, ‚ÄúThe bowl game’s going to be announced in four days. When we get back, I want to break down the game. Because they were on the road recruiting. I say okay well who are we playing? He goes, ‚ÄúWell one of these five teams.‚Äù So, I broke down 20 games, and we didn’t play any of the five. So, then we finally get the Bowl game and its Rutgers, who jot jobbed out of a better bowl game, they were 10th in the country. It was their best year ever. They had mutants all over the field. I’m watching tape and I have it all and I knew exactly what they were doing on every play. I could tell you exactly what they were doing on every play based on how they were aligned. Coach is like alright, I tell him and he’s like, ‚ÄúAlright.‚Äù And also, we’re not going to gain a yard. I thought I was going to get fired. And I was right, we gained about six, I think. It was one of those things where I tried to be so prepared that ever since then I have absolutely steadfastly refused to guess. Now, in retrospect I thank coach Prince for that experience because it taught me more about going 1-0, but it also was kind of cool getting to watch five different teams, I learned a lot of football in that time period. I don’t know if my graduate school classes and professors would’ve agreed with the effort I put in that week, but I think everybody else was alright with it.

You recently talked about how underrated your offensive line is, with Isaac back there how much of an anchor has he been for that group?

The best. I think he should be looked at by a lot more things. I think he should be going to the senior bowl. I take that as a personal failing on my part. He’s been unbelievable for us. When you look at him and Jordan Young and Nick Rice our captains, and what they’ve met and how great of leaders they’ve been throughout this thing, I’m going to have a hard time, and I’ve been around some great people in this game, some great kids in this game. I’m going to have a hard time getting around better ones than those three.

What are you expecting to see from the fans out there? I know you talked about you want them to appreciate the seniors, for the atmosphere what are you hoping for?

I mean if that place is full its going to be loud. It’s been loud and it hasn’t been full yet. I just want it to be full because I know its going to be loud. Anybody who hasn’t come to a game yet and has been kind of holding off and those sorts of things, lets fill this thing up. Let’s prove to the nation what Hampton Roads can be. I know that we can have the best home field advantage in almost any conference we ever play in. I don’t care what conference we play in. We can fill this thing up because this whole region can get behind this football team and it can be great, and it could be something really special and it’s been there before we need to get back to it. We have a nice stadium; I mean when it was like that before the bathrooms didn’t work for crying out loud. Now we’ve got a beautiful place, so let’s fill this thing up and get going. I think that that would really send a message to the rest of college football on where we’re going.

What do you see in Charlotte and what kind of challenges do they present?

The quarterback has played a lot of football for them, and he is a tough kid. Really tough. He knows where the ball should go, sometimes he gets the ball out lightning quick, other times he knows to hang in there and take a shot so he can get the ball down the field. He can run he’s mobile, have a ton of respect for him. We’ve played some great quarterbacks this year and he’s just another example of it. You know their wide receiver core, great ball skills. They will find the ball and track it, they do a very good job of creating pass interference calls and doing those sorts of things which, they’ve been valid. They’ve gone back up through the guy and done some good things. Obviously, that’s one of Coach Healy’s specialties is wide receivers so he’s done a nice job there. Defensively they’ve got a great defensive end who creates a lot of havoc. He’s not the biggest guy in the world but he plays a lot bigger than he is. He’s very quick, very powerful. They’ve got some linebackers in there that have done some really nice things, that are very versatile that can run and hit and can cover people in man coverage but can also play the run in the box. Then their secondary has played a lot of football for them, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us and we know that. They’re a team that plays with a lot of passion and energy. We need to match that passion and energy, but we need to maintain our composure and that’s going to be one of the keys to the game.

We all know how enigmatic this team was for a year and a half. Does this season exceed your best hopes going into this game? To even be thinking about a bowl game, which you’re not.

I’m still wrapping my head around enigmatic, that was awesome. What this team has done with my hopes and expectations on this year has been that they’ve gotten better each and every week. That was my expectation, that has been my hope, and that is what they’ve done. I never go into this year looking at the schedule ahead saying ‚ÄúOh we should win that one, we should lose that one, I mean I’m never going to do that. I’m going into every game knowing that there’s a way that we can game plan, prepare, and play in order to win. My expectations are that we get better each and every week and we continue to get better throughout the year, that we give maximum effort each and every day in practice. Those are my expectations. And that, for the most part we have met.

Ricky, you don’t usually think of place kickers as guys that are loud in the locker room those sorts of things. How does Nick differ from that stereotype?

Nick’s different. I like Nick a lot, he is a character. He’s a guy who is very much himself. He’s very comfortable in his own skin and people like him because of that. He works hard at his craft, and that gives him the right that he can be a little bit boisterous and those sorts of things. Everybody on our team respects how hard he works at his craft, and I think just like an offensive lineman, just like a linebacker, just like a defensive lineman, they know ‚ÄúHey, that guy works really hard.‚Äù And performs at a high level and comes through in the clutch. He’s allowed to be a little loud and different because he’s earned that.

Has your experience with most successful kickers kind of been that way? Comfortable in their own skin, kind of laissez-faire about everything?

I’ve seen them in all different shapes and sizes really. I’ve been around some guys who are very type A almost like a robot have been awesome, also have been around guys like Nick, like our punter we had at Penn State whose now in the NFL and doing a really nice job, he was kind of another different dude. I’ve been around all different types. My punter in college my freshman year, he would punt the ball … I was backup so I wouldn’t do anything, so he’d be standing next to me for most of the game and every once in a while, ‚Äì he was a big giant human. He was like 6-4, 250 as a punter. He had the best arm on the team and all these sorts of things and every once in a while, he would tell me, ‘I’m going to punt this, then I’m going to go knock somebody out on this punt.’ I’m just like alright man don’t get hurt we don’t have anybody else that can punt. And he would, he would punt it then run down and hit somebody and yell over at me like I was supposed to be impressed, I’m like dude, do not get hurt! We had zero other punters, and unfortunately, we punted a lot. So, it was one of those things where … yeah. They’re all different, it’s kind of like any position. I think people like to lump them into a certain thing and its like, as long as they work hard and their consistent in what they do in that moment and have a routine, they’re going to be successful.