ODU football coach Bobby Wilder talks with reporters on Monday. ODU (2-0) hosts N.C. State (2-0) on Saturday.
Good afternoon to all our 12th Monarchs out there and Monarch Nation! We are coming off a 24-10 home win over Norfolk State which brings our record to 2-0. We want to give a big shout out to all our fans and the administration for handling a tough night with a couple weather delays. I thought the fans were great and hung in there, and our administration and game management staff led by Bruce Stewart did a phenomenal job organizing the teams and the fans. It was great to get that home opening win.
We started this game really fast; that opening nine-play 72-yard drive with a mix of runs by Zach Pascal and Ray Lawry got us off to a great start with an early 7-0 lead. Then the defense came out and got a three-and-out three-play stop, and our offense comes back out and goes 10 plays for 55 yards, but we didn’t score after setting up with a first and goal on the six yardline. Then we missed a field goal, and I felt like the momentum really went against us at that point, which was self-inflicted. We got our first punch in the mouth this game with the blocked punt; we had a missed assignment on a punt and let a guy through. They blocked it and returned it for a touchdown. But our defense continued to play well and we answered with a 16-play 80-yard touchdown drive.
Probably my favorite play of the game was Ray Lawry’s one-yard touchdown on fourth and goal where he went one-on-one with Deon King, their outstanding linebacker, who I believe is good enough to play at any level of football. He had 21 tackles in this game and they had a massive collision on the goal line, but Ray managed to get in to put us ahead 14-10.
Overall, an interesting stat from this game was that we played with 48 players, and 31 of them were freshmen and sophomores; so we only played with 17 upperclassmen. We are growing and learning. We had a lot of players get in their first home game this weekend. We are a solid team at this point, but I still feel like we are four or five games away from being the team we are going to be at the end of the year. The kids are playing hard and competing, and they are listening very well. They came in on Sunday and watched the video, so hopefully we will keep getting better.
On special teams, I thought our kickoff team was outstanding. That had a lot to do with Ricky Segers starting for us. He kicked the ball high and deep, and we had a 10-yard improvement from the Eastern Michigan game. In that game, their average drive started at the 33, but against Norfolk State, their average drive started at the 23. So we had better kicks and better lane discipline. The blocked punt was unacceptable, though. They had their “punt safe” on the field, which means they had their defense out there in case we faked the punt. We completely missed that guy as he came through the right side untouched. Kickoff return was solid in this game, and since their punter kicked the ball really high, Marques Little didn’t get the chance to return any punts for us.
Defensively, we had an outstanding performance. We only allowed three points the whole game by the defense, which is equivalent to how we played against Eastern Michigan last year. The defense only allowed 266 yards and had a huge turnover. The defensive line was solid all night and pressured the quarterback, forcing him to throw on the run. I thought the linebackers played really well. The play of the game happened when we were up 24-10 in the fourth quarter and Kohl Adams-Hurd stripped the ball from the running back, and Marvin Branch recovered it. Our secondary was also solid in coverage all night. Justice Davila had a huge play coming across the field to force Funderburk, who got to the outside and made a 51-yard catch, out of bounds at the two yard line.
Offensively, we were outstanding running the ball; we had 338 yards and 460 total yards of offense. I thought the offensive line was very good all night at both run and pass blocking. Ray Lawry had another outstanding performance; he leads the nation in rushing with his 31 carries and 215 yards. Pascal also had eight carries for 69 yards, which is something we have added to our repertoire, offensively. Kesean Strong, a true freshman, came in the game after Lawry got facemasked and had a first and goal on the six. He carried it to the one and then punched it in the endzone on the next play for his first touchdown.
I thought Bentley played a really good game, even if it didn’t look like it statistically. He was right on all of his reads. He had four balls that he threw too high, but that is something we can fix, mechanically. We are just trying to get his feet adjusted properly. Right now his brain is a little bit ahead of his feet when he sets them to throw. He had four balls that were dropped, and then he tried to force one pass to Washington and paid for it with the interception. But overall, that’s two weeks in a row he’s been on what he needs to be on and did a really good job on his base read. I know he will continue to get better.
Looking at this week’s opponent, N.C. State is 2-0, and the team is coming off a 9-5 season in which they won their bowl game. We had a great game with them last year at their place. We led the game 21-18 at halftime and still led midway through the third quarter, but I feel as though we got worn down with our lack of depth on defense and special teams. That is an area we are better at this season, though.
Offensively, they are averaging 42 points a game with a real good mix of pass and rush. They have 225 rush yards and 221 pass yards. Jacoby Brissett, through two games, is completing 84 percent of his passes; he is an outstanding quarterback. Matthew Dayes is a really good running back; he is averaging 121 yards on limited playing time. They also have 12 guys right now with catches, so there is no one receiver for us to focus on. They are spreading the ball around.
Defensively, they are allowing 10.5 points per game, 78 rush yards and 130 in pass yards, which is outstanding. They are fast and athletic on defense. They have a really good scheme on defense and do a nice job mixing up their pressure and coverages. Obviously, we are big underdogs going into this game, and we know we have to play well to win. So why not? That’s why you play, to win.
Q: How and why have you gotten so many ACC teams to come out and play at ODU?
A: I think there are two big reasons for that. First, our university has done an unbelievable job, from the start, of supporting and marketing our program, and in return, I think the fans have come to watch. The fact that we have sold out 42, and this will be our 43rd consecutive home sellout, is remarkable to me. I’m still in awe of the fact that our fans have shown such great interest in our program. The second reason has to do with this region. This area is known nationally within coaching circles and for recruiting; everybody knows the 757. There are national-caliber players coming out of here every year. Teams want to come play here because they want to recruit in this area. And, from the start, we have made it pretty clear that we want to play ACC teams. We want to play teams in which our fans have invested interest. When we switched to Conference USA, there wasn’t enough name recognition among the teams we were playing; a lot of our fans still don’t know the teams in Conference USA. That will come, though. But all the fans know the teams in the ACC, so we want to give our fans what they want. Playing teams from the ACC is critical for building our program to the level of success we want to have, so we are going to continue to pursue them. I can’t say the name “Virginia Cavaliers” enough. We are working on that; we are still trying to make that happen. I really think we need to find a way to make that happen.
Q: What was it about Zach Pascal that made you think he could be effective as a running back, and how long had that plan been in the works?
A: We wanted to take some of the load off of Ray Lawry. As much as we can do to give the ball to Lawry or make people think we are going to give it to him, that is what we are going to do. Zach Pascal really proved to be a guy who can run the ball; we saw him run on kickoff returns against Eastern Michigan, and the offensive staff added it to our game plan. That package, where we send Duhart across in motion, is going to continue to grow.
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