ODU’s Rahne earns trust of recruits

All 18 players in 2021 class have yet to meet head coach in person

NORFOLK — It’s a class diverse in positions, skill sets and geography.

Yet all 18 of the players Old Dominion coach Ricky Rahne signed Wednesday have one glaring thing in common: They’ve never actually met the man.

Rahne, a former Penn State assistant with a calendar year and no games under his belt at ODU, and his staff were forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to do all their recruiting virtually.

That meant no official visits, no dinners with the parents and no tours of the campus. Since ODU officials punted on football season this summer due to the pandemic, there were also no games to attend.

“There was a lot of Zoom calls, a lot of FaceTimes, a lot of text messages, a lot of group texts – all those sort of things,” Rahne said. “But there was no face-to-face interaction.”

Still, Rahne said he was pleased with his haul, a collection of mostly t wo - a n d three-star recruits that includes eight offensive and 10 defensive players. The regional class brings in six players from Maryland, five from Virginia, four from Pennsylvania and three from North Carolina.

“We were able to recruit kids we knew,” Rahne said. “We were able to recruit from coaches we knew and coaches we had established great relationships with. So this is a class that I think brings a great mentality. You’ve got to have a championship mentality before

you have a championship reality, and I think that these guys give us that.”

Among the new players are just two from Hampton Roads: Stephon Dubose, a 6-foot4, 296-pound offensive lineman from Indian River High in Chesapeake, and Denzel Lowry, a 6-2, 283-pound defensive lineman from Landstown High in Virginia Beach.

Notably, the group did not include any quarterbacks, though Rahne said he and his staff plan to address that in this recruiting class.

Also among the signees is 5-10, 172-pound wide receiver Jordan Bly, a Charlotte native and the son of former All-Pro cornerback Dre Bly, who is from Chesapeake.

Rahne declined to single out any of his incoming players, instead saying that each newcomer will complement another unit on the team.

“It’s a team game,” he said. “I’m really excited about this entire class. Really good kids. They care about the game of football, which is very, very important to me. I think it’s become maybe one of the No. 1 things I look for ... is a passion for the game of football. And then also, I thought they were all kids of great character, which was awesome.”

Old Dominion signees

Chris Adams, OL, 6-6, 273, Hagerstown, Md./South Hagerstown

Jordan Bly, WR, 5-10, 172, Charlotte, N.C./ Myers Park

Kris Caine, DE, 6-3, 208, Waldorf, Md./ Westlake

Taevion Clarke, DE, 6-3, 204, Baltimore, Md./Dr. Henry A. Wise

Stephon Dubose, OL, 6-4, 296, Chesapeake, Va./Indian River

Tahj El, S, 6-2, 187, Charlotte, N.C./Myers Park

Skyler Grant, OL, 6-3, 295, Fredericksburg, Va./Riverbend

Khian’Dre Harris, CB, 5-10, 171, Fairless, Pa./Conwell Egan Catholic

Jason Henderson, LB, 6-1, 221, Dingmans Ferry, Pa./Delaware Valley HS

Denzel Lowry, DT, 6-2, 283, Virginia Beach, Va./Landstown

Wayne Matthews III, LB, 6-2, 219, Largo, Md./Charles Herbert Flowers

Jalen McCain, CB, 5-10, 183, Bowie, Md./ Charles Herbert Flowers

Curtis Nixon II, TE, 6-5, 227, Waldorf, Md./ Maret School

Daniel Ogundipe, OL, 6-5, 291, Upper Darby, Pa./Imhotep Institute

Jon-Luke Peaker, RB, 5-9, 187, Philadelphia, Pa./Northeast

Jahaad Scales, S, 6-0, 186, Winston-Salem, N.C./Robert B. Glenn

Tariq Sims, RB, 6-0, 175, Leesburg, Va./ Loudoun County

Kris Trinidad, DE, 6-5, 210, Richmond, Va./ Lloyd C. Bird