Looking into the possibility of going to Norfolk this weekend and I'm surprised at the ODU football ticket situation. They've sold-out all their previous home games.....and "sold-out" = 19,728! This kind of venue will be a new experience for the Camels. The largest crowd at a Campbell road game last year was 4,128 at Dayton and attendance this year at Davidson was 4,236 (and that included quite a bit of orange).

Here is the pre-game info from odusports.com.....

http://www.odusports.com/sports/m-footbl...09aad.html

Take note of all the "What's Going On" section. Reminded me of 7778's comments in the Barker-Lane lights thread regarding night games being more of an "event".

ODU decided to enter football on a much larger scale than CU. Former NCSU coach Dick Sheriden was one of their consultants. I predict ODU will surppass William & Mary and Norfolk State in short time for football relevance in the Tidewater area. As for the game against our Camel I'm afraid it won't be pretty. What is pretty is that facility they built at ODU.

I agree. ODU took this venture into football more seriously and they soon will be one of the powers in not only Virginia but also in the I-AA (or used to be I-AA) in my opinion. They are well funded and well thought of. I also think this one could get ugly and quickly. The facilities for ODU look very nice. I would want to go there if I had to choose a between Campbell and ODU for football right now. Not only are they offering scholarships but they have brought football in the right manner with the proper support staff. I have to say I am impressed with everything I have seen on their website and everything I have heard about them.

I don't know much about ODU, but I had heard about their athletic program due to exposure with basketball and girls basketball for some time. Prior to last year, I had never heard of Campbell. Not knocking Campbell at all, but I would guess (only a guess) that they are maybe a larger school, more athletically inclined from an administration standpoint, and have a bunch more resources than Campbell. If so, could help explain why they have great facilities and scholarship program. Hope the Camels stay competitive for a while...

Campbell is a much older school than ODU. In the words of a administrator at a younger rival school I was told about Campbell, "never underestimate the power of old money at a school". Campbell as some old money and some great benefactors. It was just simply a decision they decided to go small.As my recollection of the newspaper accounts football coming to Campbell wasn't exactly a easy sale among the trustees. They decided to go a cheaper route unlike the other sports at CU. Was it the right decision? I don't thinks so. It reminds me of a old service card playing expression, "Go big or stay at the house." Now I know CU couldn't go big in the sense of D-I but I think if they were going to go with football they should have made a even bigger commitment to it.

Anyone know if ODU is coming to the Creek next year, or is this just a one-time deal? I know Georgia State is coming next year. To have the Monarchs here, too, will be a heck of a home schedule.

yes they are coming to the creek. its a home and away for gsu as well.

We could learn a lot from ODU in how to start a program.

Unfortunately our window of opportunity as a start up has closed; we now find ourselves in the what next phase.

Well it was closer than expected but as you say CU is in the what next phase where what some may consider a moral victory they got beat by another start up program

Considering that ODU is scholarship and they had won 5 games before playing CU and beat a lot of schools with much more experience. I think being in the game in the 4th quarter and only losing by 11 is great news.

I thought ODU was going to win by 40 or so. [/b]

I agree. This was a huge accomplishment and step forward for our team. A loss is never good but this is the sort of progress I am looking for. It proves to me that maybe the coaching staff has an idea of what they are doing contrary to popular belief on the board.

Losing by 11 points I suppose is better than getting blown out but you know what? It's still losing. This team should be getting better though. Still I prefer to credit the players who have worked hard for over two years now. The coaching staff are paid professionals who have yet to meet minimal winning expectations among other things. They still have a long ways to go. The players who only get personal pride for their accomplishments, should be applauded.

I do applaud the players. It is ultimately they who have the greatest outcome on the game. I will also credit the coaching staff for finally coming up with a formula to keep the games closer. A loss is never great but I am willing to take these more competitive games in the second year. Next year who knows maybe we can win some of the close games that we seem to be losing in the second halves. Heck, last year we weren't even getting to second halves with it being close.

We'll see how close the rest of the PFL schedule goes. The offense has made significant adjustments from last year by not thinking they have to pass it every down particularily when the running game is there. Too many times last year they were fairly succesful on some running possessions particularly in the scoring zone only to fail by attempting to pass and having it intercepted. But that was last year. This year I don't think the defense could make a significant stop against a really good high school offense. Just keeping it real.

I give more of the credit to the players. I think the players are doing a better job and it shows.

I think that 10-7 in the third quarter against ODU at their place with 20,000 fans and scholarship players is an improvement from the defense to stop somebody. I agree they have not done this all year. They did not in several early games. I will admit they did a better job against Dayton. The defensive play calling was the problem. We hardly ever blitzed and never touched the QB. He beat us.

On offense there are times when it is second and 3 that we need to run on 2nd and 3rd down and make sure we get the first down rather than trying to pass for a big play - incomplete the pass and get stopped on third down and punt. The idea is ball control and limit the possessions of the team we are playing against. They can't score if we don't turn over the ball and they are not on offense. These are coaches decisions with the play calls. We also run sweeps to the short side of the field a lot and the sidelines is another defender. That is not real smart in my opinion. We also need to understand what backs should be carrying the balls on sweeps and who should be pounding the ball up the middle. We don't always get that right either. Again - there are coaching decisions.

Overall the players effort and results as well as some of the coaching decisions are getting better and we are in the games. I have noticed a vast improvement. We did not win last week but we did not get blown out by 40 and that is what I thought we were in for.

I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. We were in the game for much of the game and had a chance to win. Last year we were not in the game and did not have a chance to win. That is big change.

Maybe we can get a PFL win before the end of the year. That would be a big step forward.

camelfan , I hear what you're saying and agree somewhat but again scholarship players or not, ODU is a first year team.

I went to the game and I'm proud of how our Camels played. Looked like the CU players enjoyed the larger-than-usual stadium/crowd. The "bloodbath" predictions that were thrown around prior to the game never materialized.

Expect a bunch of ODU fans in the Creek next Sept. 11th.

Here is a link with a good pic of Milton Brown....

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/10/odu-runs...r-one-2817

Hey OrangeCamel,

I couldn't be more proud to be wrong. The game sounded exciting and was much closer than anticipated. How was the facility? Was it as nice as it looks in the pictures?

"bloodbath" I don't know if that was generally predicted. I think everyone pretty much knew that ODU would win the game. On the "Unofficial PFL site" the predictions were generally 28-14, 35 -14 somewhere in 14-21 point range. I don't think it was predicted that it would be a blowout because it because it was ODU's first year. I'm glad to hear that the Camels looked good and gave a good account of themselves.

(10-22-2009 10:44 AM)camels7778 Wrote:  Hey OrangeCamel,

I couldn't be more proud to be wrong. The game sounded exciting and was much closer than anticipated. How was the facility? Was it as nice as it looks in the pictures?

Old, refurbished stadium looked brand new inside. Nice field and cool (hi-def?) video board. A hot dog, popcorn, and two drinks cost $18! Despite lousy weather, the stadium was probably 80% full.

At the half, overheard a surprised ODU fan say "I thought our lion could beat their camel".