By Peter Miller
Correspondent
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Old Dominion couldn’t have wished for a better start.
On their own 25-yard line, Monarchs quarterback Colton Joseph faked a handoff to Maruki James and rushed 75 yards down the throat of Indiana’s defense to take the opening play of the season for a touchdown, a start which stunned the home crowd at Memorial Stadium.
The Monarchs’ defense stood strong on their opening drive too, keeping the Hoosiers out of the end zone and forcing a turnover on downs from the 1-yard line.
Old Dominion, for a moment, had the Hoosiers on the ropes. And Joseph seemed to be primed to cause the Hoosiers a major problem.
“This is a great opportunity to put ODU on the map,” head coach Ricky Rahne said in the lead-up to the trip to Bloomington.
But the Monarchs couldn’t put themselves on the map, beginning their 2025 season with a 27-14 loss to No. 20 Indiana.
Joseph couldn’t do it all on his own, proving the difficulty of winning without a full team performance.
Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph, center, celebrates after running for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage Saturday in Bloomington, Indiana. (Darron Cummings/AP)
The rushing stats were impressive for the quarterback. His 179 yards led the team and thesophomore also found the end zone twice on two rushes of over 75 yards.
Through the air, though, Joseph was held in check. The Hoosiers intercepted the Newport Beach, California, native three times and kept him to less than 100 yards passing. Of course, workingwith an inexperienced wide receiver group that came into Saturday with a total of two collegiatereceptions combined proved difficult.
Outside of the first drive, the Old Dominion defense didn’t give Joseph much help. After the opening play, Indiana scored 27 unanswered points, rushing touchdowns from quarterbackFernando Mendoza and Kaelon Black — a former Salem High star out of Virginia Beach — plus a 91-yard punt return by Jonathan Brady.
Brady’s return simultaneously got the Hoosiers on the board and erased any momentum Josephand Old Dominion had built.
Indiana running back Roman Hemby is upended by Old Dominion cornerback Brandon Crutchfield during Saturday’s game. (Darron Cummings/AP)
From there, the wheels came off. The Monarchs couldn’t get out of their own way. Old Dominionwas flagged nine times, many of which were mental mistakes — false starts on third down, hitsout of bounds, illegal blocks.
The penalties weren’t the only mistakes. Joseph was also intercepted three times — twice in thefirst half. The second came deep in their own territory at the ODU 27-yard line and got returnedback to the 10. To worsen the blow, Tre Brown was sniped for a block below the waist on thereturn, setting the Hoosiers up just five yards from the end zone.
The result was Mendoza’s rushing score, which gave Indiana a 17-7 lead and the cushion it needed to cruise to victory.
Indiana running back Roman Hemby is tackled by Old Dominion safety Mario Easterly during Saturday’s game in Bloomington, Indiana. (Darron Cummings/AP)
For ODU, it’s a missed opportunity to take advantage of a quick start and steal a win from adifficult four-game slate to begin its season that features another Power Four opponent in VirginiaTech.
But if there’s any redeeming factor, it’s that Joseph has shown he can be an X-factor. He willlook to build off his impressive individual performance on Sept. 6 against North Carolina Central when ODU players its home opener next Saturday
