The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I wonder, based on the current basketball attendance, what happens if we have a bad season, 5 or 6 wins?
We are entering unknown territory.
This past season we beat only the second level teams, of which we had to pull out in the last seconds. We had little success against good FBS teams, with the exception of Univ. of Idaho (1-?)and were embased by Maryland, and NC.
Now I understand that we are in transition and don't have the horses to compete at the next level.

I think people understand that its not always going to 8+ wins every year. I think we need to bridge to gap between a FCS and a Competitive FBS team, with at least around a .500 team for a couple years. Possibly getting into a bowl. Agreed we did not fare well against FBS teams this year but it was a pretty tall task. But we did compete is 2 of 4 FBS games, winning 1. If we continue to get the recruits and are able to hold on to Coach Wilder, being at the top of C-USA is a real possibility. Also I think ODU football is the hottest ticket in Norfolk especially if VT or UVA is in town. The future is bright

(12-11-2013 01:42 PM)Oduhs Wrote:  I wonder, based on the current basketball attendance, what happens if we have a bad season, 5 or 6 wins?
We are entering unknown territory.
This past season we beat only the second level teams, of which we had to pull out in the last seconds. We had little success against good FBS teams, with the exception of Univ. of Idaho (1-?)and were embased by Maryland, and NC.
Now I understand that we are in transition and don't have the horses to compete at the next level.

Nice screen name. JMU Pukes fan?

I think the fanbase understands we are a young program and moving up a division. They will have patience for a couple seasons. I actually think we will do OK next season. CUSA isnt the SEC. The bigger questions is when does our defense step up, and how good will Bentley/McCarley/Washington be as QB. Sounds like we have three great looking options to take over after Taylor is gone. If we have 3 or 4 bad seasons in a row, then things could look bad. Football is as much about the spectacle, the festivities, the band, the tailgating etc. as it is the game itself which helps keep attendance up too. ODU needs to remember that when thinking about tailgate lots, flyovers, fireworks etc.

People will pay their ODAF donation and buy their season tixs, I have no fear in that. Guess the worst that will happen, would be people leaving early like a JMU game. If it ever got real bad, we could put tickets on sale at one of the area's seven military bases. One 4 miles down the street has 100K servicemen looking for something to do on the weekends.

Lean times will come on the field at some point, certainly. But the progress off the field should continue at a steady pace. Advertise the games, keep building our gameday tradition and atmosphere, and continue to develop student-athletes that are the pride of the university, not just the football team.

Its a learning curve. First fans need to realize we are not going to win all the time anymore. We are going to now have to bust arse to be competitive continually. The defense has to work extremely hard over off season. The o line as well.

We can't think oh at the fcs level blah blah blah. This is big boy ball. its different. Accept it for what it is. Complain on valid points and embrace the good. We need the community to get involved. No we don't have tickets but why not celebrate there's a home game this week at odu on Friday nights and encourage watch parties in the local area at the sports bars?? In most towns the home games are broadcasted on local tv and there are huge parties for them. When we open are stadium with 30k why not have a waiting list of 15k because of the demand. I know some colleges who have waiting list of 6 years or more.


I just hope the community that doesn't have tickets and who isn't involved starts gettiing excited about odu football. Watch parties, parties and happy hour specials for odu games. Granby street decked out in odu colors and people from the oppoing team walkiin around with odu people. That's a college town.

Wouldn't it be cool

I really spend 0 time wondering about something like this happening. We will be in a bowl game in 2 years.

(12-11-2013 01:42 PM)Oduhs Wrote:  I wonder, based on the current basketball attendance, what happens if we have a bad season, 5 or 6 wins?
We are entering unknown territory.
This past season we beat only the second level teams, of which we had to pull out in the last seconds. We had little success against good FBS teams, with the exception of Univ. of Idaho (1-?)and were embased by Maryland, and NC.
Now I understand that we are in transition and don't have the horses to compete at the next level.

Not sure. We've never experienced such a thing. Ask JMU.

(12-11-2013 02:12 PM)paintedblue Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 01:42 PM)Oduhs Wrote:  I wonder, based on the current basketball attendance, what happens if we have a bad season, 5 or 6 wins?
We are entering unknown territory.
This past season we beat only the second level teams, of which we had to pull out in the last seconds. We had little success against good FBS teams, with the exception of Univ. of Idaho (1-?)and were embased by Maryland, and NC.
Now I understand that we are in transition and don't have the horses to compete at the next level.

Nice screen name. JMU Pukes fan?

Oduhs What a jm Poo Poo troll....... go play on the Poo Poo board

The 4 FBS teams that we lost to are all top-50 teams and going to bowl games. We were competitive in 2 of them. One of the two that we were not competitive in, we weren't the same team, as we had 25 injuries, suffering numerous more during the game. There is no shame in this.

ODU will be competitive in Conference USA because most of the teams are bottom-40. If you look at what C-USA east will be next year, only Marshall, WKU, MTSU, and FAU are likely to be any good. If we lose to ALL of them, we still likely beat FIU, UAB, Hampton, Eastern Michigan, and there's a 50/50 chance we beat our C-USA west opponents depending on who we get dealt.

If to you, a 6-win season is bad (which I think it is most certainly not, next year), then I'm not sure what to tell you except to maybe lower your expectations a little bit. We likely win anywhere between 4 and 7 games.

I believe we have the longest string of sellouts at 35 in the mid-atlantic states, NJ, Del, Md, Va and Nc, bet you could add the North East. That's pretty cool. As we are sitting within 500 miles of half the US population.

(12-11-2013 01:42 PM)Oduhs Wrote:  I wonder, based on the current basketball attendance, what happens if we have a bad season, 5 or 6 wins?
We are entering unknown territory.
This past season we beat only the second level teams, of which we had to pull out in the last seconds. We had little success against good FBS teams, with the exception of Univ. of Idaho (1-?)and were embased by Maryland, and NC.
Now I understand that we are in transition and don't have the horses to compete at the next level.

It's a legitimate question. We will be fine next season, but if McCarley/Bentley doesn't pan out and the defense doesn't improve we could be looking at some long seasons beyond the TH years.

(12-11-2013 03:15 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  It's a legitimate question. We will be fine next season, but if McCarley/Bentley doesn't pan out and the defense doesn't improve we could be looking at some long seasons beyond the TH years.

One way or another we will have a quarterback that can throw the darn thing. It might be David Washington.

I think we'll take a slight step down in C-USA year 2, obviously because we're losing Heinicke, but I think we will find a good QB among the rest, and having better players at every position will help make up for it. Should only get better from there for a couple years.

The question is what is JMU going to do if they stay in FCS? Attentence has been on a steady decline. They missed the FCS playoffs 4 of the last 5 years. They think they're FBS ready and just need a conference of their peers...

Bobby's system work with Tommy, it worked with Taylor, it will work with the next guy.

(12-11-2013 02:12 PM)paintedblue Wrote:  

(12-11-2013 01:42 PM)Oduhs Wrote:  I wonder, based on the current basketball attendance, what happens if we have a bad season, 5 or 6 wins?
We are entering unknown territory.
This past season we beat only the second level teams, of which we had to pull out in the last seconds. We had little success against good FBS teams, with the exception of Univ. of Idaho (1-?)and were embased by Maryland, and NC.
Now I understand that we are in transition and don't have the horses to compete at the next level.

Nice screen name. JMU Pukes fan?

As bad as basketball and its attendance is, it is still far better than the couple thousand that show up at their **** hole.

(12-11-2013 03:40 PM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  Bobby's system work with Tommy, it worked with Taylor, it will work with the next guy.

+1