NORFOLK — All was mostly quiet at Old Dominion over the past week, even in the wake of one of the program’s most significant victories yet.

The Monarchs followed a landmark 45-26 win at Virginia Tech on Sept. 13 with a bye, meaning practices weren’t accompanied by the typical buildup to a game week.

Instead, as sixth-year ODU coach Ricky Rahne and his staff hit the road to recruit, the hype had to come from elsewhere.

Rahne heard it at an in-state high school football game, though even that was hardly unusual.

“Were there random people yelling stuff at me? Yeah. That occurs,” Rahne said Monday during his weekly news conference. “But had we lost, they’re probably still yelling, just with a little bit more vitriol to it. Other than that, it was about the same.”

The victory was the first for the Monarchs (2-1) on the road against a Power Four school since reviving their football program in 2009.

It resulted — or, rather, served as the final straw — in the firing of Tech coach Brent Pry, a longtime friend of Rahne’s who was off to an 0-3 start in his fourth season.

How thorough was the beating? After the Hokies kicked an extra point to pull to within the final margin with 1:56 left, ACC Network cut away from the broadcast — without so much as a goodbye from the announcers— to show “ACC After Dark,” a Boston College at Stanford game. Coverage continued on ACC Network Extra.

Old Dominion running back Maurki James (5) celebrates after a touchdown Sept. 13 against Virginia Tech during the first half alongside receiver Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding. ROBERT SIMMONS/AP

ODU’s players then spent a rainy few days going through typical bye-week workouts as they began to prepare for Liberty’s visit to S.B. Ballard Stadium on Saturday.

Rahne, a former offensive coordinator at Penn State, has long given his players 24 hours to celebrate a win.

After that, there was little they could do but work and wait.

“I’d rather have just played another game,” said offensive guard Maarten Woudsma, a junior out of Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake. “I mean, the bye week is really boring to us. So we’d rather just play a game every week if we could.”

Seconds after the Tech game ended, Rahne paused for an interview with an ACC Network reporter.

Standing by on the field were Pry’s wife, Amy, and their two daughters. Rahne, who worked with Pry on the staffs at Penn State and Vanderbilt, then hugged three people he had known for years.

Rahne reiterated that coaching changes take an unseen toll on families, pointing out that his own children, like Pry’s, have had to uproot at times.

It’s why the postgame hug was so meaningful.

“They were excited for me, but I think we all knew what might happen,” Rahne said. “And so that was a very sobering moment right there. It obviously says a lot about their character to congratulate me.”

The Monarchs are 4-0 immediately following bye weeks under Rahne, whose team did not play in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But not having a game on the schedule is no reason for the work to stop.

“It’s a bye week, not an off week,” said junior safety Mario Easterly. “So we still have to get better. We still have to prepare.”

Liberty (1-3) has dropped three straight, including Saturday’s 31-13 home loss to James Madison.

Rahne said he wasn’t aware that ODU’s road win over an ACC program was the first of its kind until just before he sat down in front of the media Monday.

Not that it made a ton of difference to him.

“It’s big because it was a win,” Rahne said.

“Whether it was Power Four or not, that doesn’t matter. It was about playing well from start to finish in the game. I think that’s the key thing.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/09/22/monarchs-follow-signature-win-with-relative-silence/