NORFOLK — Leave it to Ricky Rahne to go 1-0 against Milk Duds.
On the heels of Saturday’s 24-21 rebound win over Appalachian State, the sixth-year Old Dominion coach used his least favorite Halloween candy to make a point about extremes.
They are, he reiterated, rarely justified in football or anything else.
Rahne’s “1-0” approach, which he urges his players to apply to academics, practices and games, has been a staple of the program since he took it over before the COVID-canceled 2020 season.
Beyond a brief and compulsory nod to the previous week’s outcome, it’s often difficult to tell from Rahne’s weekly news conferences exactly how his team is faring overall.
And that’s just the way he likes it.
“In everything we do in society, I think we’ve lost our ability to have logical middle ground,” Rahne said Monday. “That’s how I think. At least, I hope I do — except for some Halloween candies. Like, Milk Duds are the worst candy. That’s without question. No one can debate that. But most other things are kind of good and kind of not good.”
Whether the Monarchs (5-3, 2-2 Sun Belt) are coming off a blowout win or a blowout loss — and they’ve had their share of both this season — Rahne and his players rarely nibble when presented with the bait of a big-picture query.
After a 47-7 win over Coastal Carolina improved ODU to 4-1 and created a bit of a national media stir, Rahne pointed to the fact that his team had been picked to finish fifth in a league preseason poll.
“I mean, if you’re not going to pay attention to it when people are telling you that you’re ugly,” he said, “you probably shouldn’t pay attention to it when they’re telling you you’re pretty.”
When James Madison handed the Monarchs an unsightly 63-27 loss to drop them to 4-3 two weeks ago, Rahne cited the inherent fluidity of college football as ample reason to remain engaged.
“(A championship) is obviously still in play because we have no idea what’s going to happen the rest of this season,” Rahne said.
If “1-0,” which is intended to whittle his team’s focus down to the task at hand, seems like a bill of goods, then consider Rahne its Billy Mays.
Saturday’s win over App State came after ODU lost consecutive games by a combined score of 111-51.
The only way to move past it was to live in the present.
“We’ve got to remember who we are, find our identity and just keep playing the ball that we know how to play,” said junior safety Mario Easterly. “Every week of practice, we’re just going out there and we’re trying to go 1-0. We’re harping on the 1-0, but it’s truly what we do.”
With the Monarchs one win away from being bowl-eligible as they visit Louisiana-Monroe this weekend, it’s natural that Rahne was asked Monday about his take on the big picture.
The only surprise in his answer came when he brought up another holiday.
Milk Duds, incidentally, were so named because their original manufacturers found it impossible to make them perfectly spherical.
Similarly, from the outside, it may appear that ODU is playing to achieve any number of long-term goals. From Rahne’s seat, just winning today is enough.
“I’m not really worried about bowl eligibility,” Rahne said. “That’s so far down the road. I mean, that just gave me heart palpitations because that means I’m closer to Christmas, which means that I’m closer to my wife asking for a dog, which means I’m closer to me having to say no, which means I’m closer to being in trouble for an extended period of time.”
That, for Rahne, is as big as the picture gets.
David Hall, david.hall@pilotononline.com.
