ORLANDO, Fla. — It wasn’t without hiccups, it didn’t have a definitive star and it turned out better than many expected.

All in all, Wednesday brought an entirely fitting end to Old Dominion’s football season.

Backup quarterback Quinn Henicle passed for 127 yards and ran for a game-sealing touchdown to lead the Monarchs to a 24-10 win over South Florida in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl at Camping World Stadium.

The bowl victory was the second in program history and the first in head coach Ricky Rahne’s five seasons on the sideline. It gave ODU (10-3) its first double-digit win total since 2016.

Henicle, a redshirt freshman playing in place of transferring starter Colton Joseph, scored on a 51-yard run up the middle to account for the final margin and remove all doubt with 2:24 left in the game.

Henicle did his damage on 24 rushing attempts. Running back Devin Roche added 100 yards on 19 carries for the Monarchs, who outgained USF (9-4) 382 total yards to 333.

Trailing 17-10 and facing fourth and 6 on their own 47 with just under four minutes left, the Bulls ran an ill-advised fake punt that ended with an interception near midfield.

Henicle followed with an opportune sprint that sent the faithful few who made the four-state trip home satisfied.

With ODU hanging onto a 17-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the Bulls’ Christian Neptune muffed a punt after calling for a fair catch. The ball ricocheted off Neptune’s chest and into the arms of long snapper Brendan Durkin at the USF 38, setting up a golden opportunity.

But six snaps later, Nathanial Eichner’s 36-yard field goal try missed left with 5:54 to go, keeping it a one-score game.

Eichner’s 24-yard field goal stretched ODU’s lead to 17-10 with 3:27 left in the third quarter. It came after a strange sequence, involving a targeting penalty on USF and a pair of injuries to the Monarchs, slowed the second half to a crawl.

Henicle, a Pennsylvania native, was making his second career start after Joseph, the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year, opted out of the bowl game in favor of the transfer portal.

The Bulls were in the same boat after starter Byrum Brown opted out. Backup Gaston Moore passed for 236 yards and a touchdown in his stead. Moore left the game with an injury early in the fourth quarter.

Trequan Jones went 22 yards through the heart of USF’s defense to give the Monarchs a 14-10 lead with 10:06 to go in the third quarter. It came three plays after sophomore safety Jerome Carter set his team up with his team-leading fifth interception of the season, an overthrown gift delivered to his breadbasket.

Trailing 10-7 in the closing seconds of the first half, ODU botched the snap on a 37-yard field goal attempt that would’ve tied it.

Henicle completed 9 of 18 passes for 115 yards in the first half, badly missing open receivers downfield on at least three occasions.

Moore’s 31-yard touchdown bomb to a wide-open Jeremiah Koger put the Bulls ahead 10-7 midway through the second quarter. The play followed a successful flea-flicker for 25 yards.

Henicle’s 10-yard touchdown run — untouched on a quarterback draw — gave the Monarchs a 7-3 lead in the first quarter’s final minute. The score came one play after USF roughed Henicle.

Nico Gramatica’s 29-yard field goal gave USF a 3-0 lead with 5:18 left in the first quarter. The sputtering teams had combined for 67 yards of total offense to that point.

The Monarchs’ path to the postseason was circuitous and, at times, a challenge to the footing.

After a 27-14 loss at eventual No. 1 Indiana to open the season, ODU cranked out four straight wins — three of them blowouts, and one of those at Virginia Tech — and began to get consideration for the national polls.

Consecutive lopsided losses at Marshall and Sun Belt champion James Madison changed the narrative, but not for long.

The Monarchs entered Wednesday on a five-game winning streak, including the last four by a combined 136-26.

USF, which finished fourth in the American Athletic Conference, picked up early-season wins over Boise State and Florida to reach No. 18 in the AP poll.

Losses to Memphis and Navy derailed the Bulls’ AAC title hopes before they ended the regular season with victories over Alabama Birmingham and Rice by a combined 100-21.

The game, sponsored by a medical career placement company, exists for the purpose of raising funds for cancer research. It’s approached $7 million since its 2015 inception, a tie-in that made the event additionally meaningful for several in ODU’s travel party who have been affected by the disease.

The 60,000-seat stadium, formerly known as the Tangerine Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl, had its lower seating bowl dotted with fans enjoying the 72-degree weather in the middle of a workweek.

Both upper decks sat empty, giving the former home of the NFL’s Pro Bowl all the ambiance of a spring game. One notable difference: During some timeouts, a gentle breeze carried holiday music from the P.A. system through the warm evening air.

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more, including postgame reaction.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/12/17/odu-beats-usf-to-win-cure-bowl-complete-10-win-season/