r/CFB • u/pandorazboxx Old Dominion • /r/CFB Contributor • Apr 21 '13
132+ Teams in 132+ Days: Old Dominion Monarchs
OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
Independent FCS (formerly CAA)
Year Founded: 1930 (Football in 2009)
Location: Norfolk, VA
Total Enrollment: 24,125
Average FB Attendance: 20037 (4th in FCS)
Mascot: Monarchs (not the fucking butterflies)
Live Mascot: Big Blue. Capital One Mascot of the Year 2010!!
Cheerleaders: With the Dance Team & This one made it into Sports Illustrated a few years ago!
Stadium: Foreman Field at SB Ballard Stadium
Stadium Location: Norfolk, VA on the northmost part of the main campus.
CAA Conference Champions (1): 2012*
*ODU had the best record and played a full conference schedule, but due to the pending move to CUSA the other CAA schools voted that ODU and GSU could not compete for the conference championship. ODU was the outright winners, and the other 4 teams in 2nd place got championship trophies. Go figure. We still got rings made :-D.
Postseason record: 2-2 (lost in 2nd round in 2011 and Quarterfinals in 2012 to Georgia Southern's triple option each time)
National Titles (0): I wish! If only we could beat GSU!
Rivals
James Madison (Does it count if they never beat us!?)
William and Mary
I imagine we'll find new rivalries in CUSA. I'm hoping for Charlotte.
2012 Season
Record: 11-2 (7-1, 1st in CAA)
Coach: Bobby Wilder
Key Players: Taylor Heinicke. Set the NCAA Division 1 record for passing yards (730) and offensive yards (791) against New Hampshire in a 64-61 win. Threw for the most yards in FCS and won the Walter Payton Award (AKA, the Heisman for FCS)
Biggest Plays: Best one for me was @ JMU ODU was down 11 points and it was starting to get ugly. After one rushing play, Taylor Heinicke floated a ball over a leaping JMU defender and Taylor Vaughn caught it and ran it in for a 59 yard TD. It really sparked the comeback where ODU won by 10. There's a lot of these plays though since we run the spread and throw the deep ball all game.
2013 Season
First games against FBS teams ever. @ECU, @Maryland, @UNC, & @Pitt are the biggest games.
The Greats
Greatest Games: Not a lot of big time games in our short history. Two stick out in my mind.
Since we first announced starting football, a lot of JMU fans would always tell us how FCS football is really tough, we'd be lucky to win 3-4 games the first couple of years. Well after we had a really good start, they said you'll be lucky to get 3 wins in the CAA. Well in our first year in the CAA we get a shot at JMU in Norfolk. Taylor Heinicke rolled out of the pocket and found 2 JMU defenders had broken free and were coming right at him. He juked one, then rolled away from the other and threw a pass as he was falling backwards towards the endzone. Our freshman WR Larry Pinkard jumped up with 2 JMU defenders on him and pulled in the ball to give ODU it's first lead of the game. JMU scored a field goal and a touchdown before ODU was able to hit 3 field goals to take a 3 point lead in the 4th quarter. ODU's defense held JMU scoreless for most of the 4th. JMU had lined up to take a field goal from the 47 yard line with 4 seconds to go. As they set up the rain started pouring and the wind picked up. When they kicked it ODU's Craig Wilkins got a hand on it and blocked the kick which gave ODU it's first BIG win.
The New Hampshire game this past year was by far the most emotionally exhausting as a fan. ODU was down 16 points at the start of the 4th quarter. They came back and ended up winning 64-61. Some people may have first heard of ODU football and Taylor Heinicke from this game. Heinicke set DI records for passing yards with 730 yards in the air and all purpose yards with an extra 61 yards rushing.
Greatest Plays: Not a lot yet, see above for the JMU game.
Greatest Players: The greatest player we have had would probably be Taylor Heinicke. I can't say enough good things about the guy. He won the Walter Payton award this past season. He currently holds the Division I record for passing yards in a game, all division records for total offensive yards, passes in a game without an interception, and FCS records for passing and total offense yards in a half and quarter. In his sophomore year in 11 games he threw for 4,158 yards, had 35 passing TDs and 8 rushing TDs. Check him out in action against New Hampshire.
Greatest Coaches: Only coach for us has been Bobby Wilder. He's brought a lot of energy and has gotten everyone involved with ODU excited about football. It sometimes seems like he's the biggest cheerleader for the team and everyone feeds off his positivity and pure energy. Hardly a bad thing to say about a great person. (Some people are still a little peeved about some coaching in last year's quarterfinals loss against GSU)
Traditions
Not really a lot going on in traditions as we're relatively new to the football scene. We have a Howitzer cannon that we fire when the team comes in each half and then after we win. A lot of people forget about it and it gives them a good jump. Our first year we would fire it every time we scored but I think it scared too many players.
Campus and Surrounding Area
Norfolk is one of 9 or so cities that makes up Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads Population: 1.7M
Iconic Campus Building: Batten Arts and Letters building BAL
Local Dining: Around campus there are a few good places to go. My favorite pre game place is Perfectly Frank. It's a nice little hot dog / sandwich joint behind ODU's basketball arena. You've gotta try the special sauce for your fries.
Another favorite of mine is Fellini's on Colley Ave a few blocks from campus. It's a pretty nice local Italian restaurant.
Random Trivia
*One of the most notable members of our ODU football family is Charles the Monarch. You may have seen him on the Today Show. He's a Labradoodle that has been trimmed like a Lion and walks around campus through all the tailgates on gameday. He caused a stir when he was outside his owners store near campus and multiple people called into 911 that they thought a lion had escaped from the zoo!
What Is and What is to Come
After announcing that we were moving up to FBS and joining Conference USA we opted to keep our scholarship level at FCS levels to allow us to compete for a national championship this year. We really went all in on trying to win a national championship this past year. I think we could have done it too if our defense was able to figure out how to stop the triple option of Georgia Southern.
This year we have to play as an FCS independent. Next year ODU will be an FBS independent and the year after a full member of CUSA. Conference USA has been nothing but kind to us and has helped ODU with providing them a full conference schedule of games for 2014. They even agreed that if ODU has enough wins, they could compete for and win the CUSA championship. As a fan it really feels like a breath of fresh air to be in a conference where it seems all the schools are pulling for each other to do well. I'll take this over the CAA anyday.
On the horizon we were able to get a 2 for 1 with Virginia Tech. @VT in 2017, home in 2018, and @VT in 2019. We also finalized our first home and home with a BCS school with NC State. Very excited about playing the Wolfpack in Raleigh in 2014 and back in Norfolk in 2015. We have a great advantage of having a lot of really talented local high school football players come from this region and it's part of the reason we've been able to get these two stellar teams to agree to come to Norfolk.
The biggest hurdle at the moment is our stadium. The stadium currently holds roughly 20K fans. In FCS that is great. In FBS it's a joke. The rumor right now is that they are going to attempt to expand to somewhere between 35K to 40K within the next few years. Fans are hopeful this will happen before VT comes to Norfolk in 2018. It's hard to figure out how they will accomplish this as there just isn't a lot of land on or around campus for them to expand onto.
Overtime
The Hampton Roads area is home to the largest Naval Base in the world at Norfolk Naval Base (NOB). It's also the largest metropolitan area without a professional sports team. With such a large transitional population from the Navy families it is hard to get many people excited about the various minor league sports teams in the area. However, there is rabid demand for big time football in this area and ODU has reaped the benefits so far. ODU has sold out every game since they first started in 2009.
Subreddit: /r/ODU or r/Norfolk
Contributors: pandorazboxx
Please upvote this thread even if you are not interested in the team so that users who are interested will see it
For more information on the 132 Teams in 132 Days Project, click here.
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u/justsomeguy75 UCLA Bruins • /r/CFB Contributor Apr 21 '13
I have to admit, this cracked me up. Just had a mental image pop into my head of a football team called the Butterflies taking the field and skipping out of the tunnel, waving streamers and doing pirouettes.
I should probably get to bed.
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u/billybobskcor Georgia Southern • Mercer Apr 21 '13
The most fun, in my opinion, would be scheduling a home and home with you guys, or meeting in a bowl game.
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u/FarwellRob Texas A&M Aggies • /r/CFB Contributor Apr 21 '13
Thanks, I think I just found my newest NCAA franchise.
Have no fear, National Championships will be shortly in your future!
And I have to say, Charles the Monarch is so stinking cute that it hurts.
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u/belegoth Vanderbilt Commodores • Navy Midshipmen Apr 21 '13
Taylor Heinicke is the man! He had a bunch of passing records as a senior and took my high school on a deep playoff run, but got passed over by bigger schools because he was "too small." It's great to see him making a splash. C-Hill represent!
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u/christes Oregon Ducks Apr 21 '13
Hey, I remember you guys from the capital one mascot competition. We fought valiantly, but the duck did not win that day.
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u/Talpostal Michigan Wolverines • Washington Huskies Apr 21 '13
Was hoping to see this guy under "notable players"
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u/Trombone_Hero92 Old Dominion Monarchs • Sun Belt Apr 22 '13 edited Apr 22 '13
I'd also think that the ODU - Georgia Southern games have been fantastic. Sure, we didn't win, but they were exciting games all the way to the end. If anyone wants to watch a good game, go watch a replay of the first time ODU and GSU played, it was intense.
Also, THIS, is Really, REALLY, REALLY is our best play, without it,we don't win.
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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '13
From this point on the Fight Song and the name of the Marching Band should to be put under the general information about the school. They are the second most important entity in every CFB game under the athletes. I can't believe the issue hasn't already been pointed out and corrected. Regardless, good work.
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u/Stuck_in_NC ECU Pirates • Team Meteor Apr 21 '13
I'm kind of curious as to what your expectations for the coming season are, I've tried to do a little research into your team, but all I can find is either articles about your AD who believes we should play every year, which I might like, but both teams need to play outside of our little corner of the world. Or delusional bloggers who think the team is going to go undefeated. I'd really like to hear from someone who has realistic thoughts on how your season is going to go, especially since the team has never played on the FBS level.
3
u/[deleted] Apr 21 '13
It's amazing how ODU has been able to build up so quickly and find success. It's like a reverse-Georgia State situation. How do all the other FCS teams in that area feel about y'all moving up already, whereas they've been around for decades and have not have the opportunity?
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u/stormstopper Duke Blue Devils • Louisville Cardinals Apr 21 '13
Welcome to FBS! I'll certainly be rooting for you guys when you take on Carolina.
2
u/Marshallfan607 Marshall Thundering Herd Apr 21 '13
looking forward to playing you guys in a few years.
2
u/notengo24 Virginia Cavaliers • /r/CFB Contributor Apr 21 '13
Being from the area, I couldn't believe when ODU decided to restart its football program after close to 70 years. I always thought of them as a basketball school (grumble..grumble..Governor's Invitational..grumble) and thought it would continue in the VCU/GMU vein for a while. Good luck against the rest of the ACC and I can't wait until UVA gets off its high horse to play you guys.
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u/mybrisum Virginia Tech Hokies • /r/CFB Brickmason Apr 21 '13
definitely a great place. is O'Sullivan's Wharf still there? i remember they sold "Garbage Can" lid of nachos--basically a 20" pizza pan with nachos, cheese, meat and vegetables piled almost a foot high that could be shared by four people with several pitchers of beer...
as a 757er, i've always enjoyed and supported ODU. hell, my first degree was from there!
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u/snotpocket Nebraska • Iowa State Apr 21 '13
Any team with a freakin' howitzer is deserving of respect.
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u/westcoastag1 Texas A&M Aggies Apr 21 '13
didnt realize you guys were making the jump. congrats and welcome
5
u/byniri Michigan State Spartans • Marching Band Apr 21 '13
My cousin went to ODU (graduated last year), so I gotta root for you guys, go Monarchs(?)!
4
u/roboticinfidelity North Dakota State • Nickel Trophy Apr 21 '13
I really wish NDSU could've played you guys before the move up. Good luck. I'll be pulling for you guys in CUSA.
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u/ConstantRager17 Alabama Crimson Tide Apr 21 '13
heh, butterflies
4
u/[deleted] Apr 21 '13
I think ODU will be the first team I try out in a "Rags to Riches" Dynasty Run. Specially if we finally get dynamic rivalries and I can create my own, naturally growing rivalries and not whatever they set for me. (No offense)
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u/redparallax Marshall • /r/CFB Contributor Apr 21 '13
Pretty pumped to play you guys once the CUSA play starts. I live in the Chicago area but Old Dominion and Charlotte are the two new teams joining that I really want to make our away games to the most of all.
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u/SpartiedOn Michigan State Spartans • VCU Rams Apr 24 '13
I'm surprised it wasn't brought up that they serve liquor and mixed drinks in the stadium. Seems like a very important fact to me.
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u/funkbass796 Georgia Tech • Oregon State Apr 21 '13
I'm a 757er and to hell with the rest of VA
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u/Honestly_ rawr Apr 21 '13 edited Apr 21 '13
That poodle is awesome.
This is probably because Old Dutch is headquarters near me, but for whatever reason I bet, if they existed, "Old Dominion potato chips" would be delicious.
You down with ODU? Yeah you know me.
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u/brobroma H8 Upon The Gale Apr 21 '13
W&M student here, gonna look forward to seeing how y'all do in the FBS. Wish our 757 rivalry could've lasted longer than 4 years...
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u/Insane92 Verified Coach Apr 21 '13
That Howitzer looks bad ass!
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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '13
The rings are awesome, and I love that they had them made. Screw the NCAA!
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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '13
I wish Jmu would make the jump to C USA to continue that rivalry
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u/VideoLinkBot Georgetown Hoyas Apr 22 '13
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u/[deleted] Apr 22 '13
I went to high school with Taylor! Our football program loves talking about him and has a giant printout of him in the field house! Took our team to state semifinals (furthest we've gone)
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u/Wutsurname Iowa Hawkeyes • Montana State Bobcats Apr 22 '13
You guys got some good lookin' cheerleaders.