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

This was an incredible season. The team and staff exceed any reasonable standard and show amazing growth through the course of this season. We were a completely different team, getting noticeably better every game (sans WKU) through the final 3/4 of the season. It has been very interesting, and exciting to watch the way that not only the players, but coaches have gotten better.

Perhaps the most interesting, and impressive, thing to me is seeing the growth of the coaching staff. I don't think they were ready for FBS post TH. The system they used in FCS needed to be overhauled. Schemes needed to be more complex. Adjustments needed to be made more quickly, and I think they struggled to get a hold of all of that last year. We saw some growth as the season went on, but it really all came together this year as DW and the staff grew more confident together. The play book opened up, and in the end, they had created another powerful offense that doesn't at all resemble what they started with. The players and coaches could have gotten frustrated and turned this thing into Marshall, but everybody kept chopping away until it all came together. What an impressive testament to the leaders, both players and coaches to pull this off.

On the defensive side, it has been a long time coming, but the commitment to Nagy, and to redshirting players has led to something that looks like it could develop into a dominant defense in the coming years. Take a step back and think about how incredible that statement is. Just a year ago, every person on this board would have called me crazy if I made that statement.

In the end, watching this thing develop has been one of the most fun, intriguing, exciting sports experiences of my life. THANKS TO ALL THE COACHES, PLAYERS, AND STAFF THAT HAVE MADE THAT HAPPEN!

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bravo on the post and the message it conveys

Very well said. Outstanding post!

Truly a very good coaching staff. There have been growing pains, but BW has constructed a top-notch group of coaches. Hats off to each of them!

We did pretty well all things considered

Great post! I grew tired of reading some people write about needing an FBS coach. Wilder brought us into FBS with great success at the lower level and he deserved a chance to build an FBS team as well. Appreciate all the work the staff has done to get us where we are now.

Agree with the opening post also. And will add that I'm not sure what a FCS coach really is, given that most of the great ones around the US have had FCS jobs early in their careers. Proud of these guys and look forward to even more program growth.

The sun always shines on ODU sports and we are still just getting this upside started.

Good post. It's going to be interesting if ODU can keep the coaching staff with the success they have had. (Though many here have called for their heads due to the Vanilla play calling early in the season). I smell some pay raises coming soon.

Only thing I don't agree with is the sans WKU part. Unless you are talking about the skirmish between the two teams.
They are one hell of a football team and did better than 3/4's of the teams Bama went up against this year.
It'd be interesting to see how ODU would have done vs WKU had the game been this week, as ODU has only gotten better.

Hopefully the success will land some good recruits next year and that ODU/VT score for the home game on the stadium thread pics could come true? :)

Yeah, the staff did a fantastic job. The transition is tough and especially so when you play young players instead of all JUCOs. They decided to try the long term sustainability of playing freshman. We finally got to the point where we could redshirt virtually every freshman on the roster (sorry Cate). I'm sure the coaches "got better," but a lot of it was just the experience of the players on the roster as well. (Which is why Wilder was so thrown off by the 6th place prediction).

Now, we have to worry about retaining the coaches. Wilder isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but calls are going to come for Whitcomb and Scott.

Our coaches did a great job this season. They were also doing a very good job the 1st half of the season. As many have noted our youth is a real problem that can only be overcome by age and experience. No surprise, as the season progressed so did our team as these issues were mitigated against by the games played. Also, to be fair we got some breaks with the schedule and coaching issues at other schools. Some of you will also decide our coaches are even better next year when our team has matured up another year and yet again in 2018 when we finally have our 1st class of FBS recruited 5th year seniors. While I am sure our coaches are learning all the time (all good ones do) and they make decisions I disagree with, they are a good set of people and we will be lucky to hold on to all of them until next season. Now on to our first bowl and hopefully our 10th win!