Team bonding shows most in Monarchs’ spring game
NORFOLK — Over the past month, Old Dominion has used 15 precious spring practices to partially install a dynamic new offense, answer questions at some positions while finding more at others and generally work toward improving upon last season’s unsightly 3-9 record.
Yet the Monarchs’ most significant development in that time may have come off the field.
It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to credit coach Ricky Rahne’s interior design instincts with it, but it wouldn’t exactly be wrong.
ODU’s players, citing subtle tweaks Rahne has made throughout the program this spring, believe they’ve achieved the coach’s goals of cohesion and brotherhood.
The former Penn State offensive coordinator, who’s entering his third season on the Monarchs’ sideline, takes it a step further.
Asked what his team’s biggest accomplishment was this spring, Rahne only hesitated for a short beat.
“I think we bought in to everything,” he said after Saturday’s Priority Charity Bowl Spring Game, an 80-minute situational scrimmage. “I think we came more together as a team. This team’s as tight as I’ve ever seen a team.”
If those seem like strong words from a man who’s been in college coaching since 2004, consider the takes of some of his players.
“We’re a family out here,” junior defensive tackle Devin BrandtEpps said. “Everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows everything about everybody.”
Added junior receiver Javon Harvey, a former Lake Taylor High star: “This is the closest we have been since I’ve been here at Old Dominion. It’s just a sense of together.”