NORFOLK — Ricky Rahne didn’t spill Spot remover on his dog and watch as the mutt disappeared, but it was close.

The Old Dominion coach, six years and now 23 wins into his tenure at the school, was as pumped Saturday night as he gets in public.

Never mind that it came across with all the fervor of a Steven Wright bit.

Colton Joseph passed for 271 yards and three touchdowns, and ODU used a 14-point second quarter to glide to a decidedly unglamorous 21-7 nonconference victory over Liberty at soggy and sparsely populated S.B. Ballard Stadium.

The victory, in which the Monarchs set a team record with 210 yards of total offense allowed to an FBS team, was the 100th since ODU revived football in 2009.

Rahne, by his subdued standards, could hardly contain himself.

“I don’t know if people always look at this the way that I would like them to, and I know I don’t necessarily sound like that right now, but guys, I’m really excited,” Rahne deadpanned to the assembled media. “I mean, I’m being honest. I’m jacked.”

The Monarchs (3-1) won for a third straight time and remain poised to contend for a Sun Belt Conference title as their league schedule begins with next week’s home game against Coastal Carolina.

ODU’s lone loss came in the season opener at Indiana, which is now ranked 11th in the Associated Press poll.

Ja’Cory Thomas caught five passes for 114 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 55-yard bomb down the left sideline to account for the final margin with 13:17 left in the game.

A heavy afternoon rain mostly subsided into the evening, but not before leaving The Steve’s playing surface soggier than microwaved pizza.

Neither team scored until Joseph connected with TJ Johnson for a 22-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter.

The Monarchs won despite losing three fumbles inside the Liberty 10-yard line. They missed field-goal tries of 52 and 32 yards, the latter after a bobbled snap with 4:33 left.

“The turnovers were a little sloppy,” Joseph said. “We’ve got to fix that, for sure. It was a great team win besides the turnovers and some of the just miscues on offense.”

The Flames (1-4) extinguished their last best chance to get back into the game when, trailing by the final margin, they lost a fumble near midfield with 4:03 to go.

The victory came two weeks and an open date after ODU handed Virginia Tech a program-altering 45-26 loss on the road, resulting in the firing of Hokies coach Brent Pry. It came three weeks after the Monarchs perpetrated a 54-6 beating of FCS program North Carolina Central to open the home portion of the schedule.

Liberty pulled to within 14-7 on Julian Gray’s 4-yard touchdown run with 9:11 to go in the third quarter. Gray’s diving effort came three plays after Michael Merdinger’s 53-yard bomb to Donte Lee.

The Monarchs squandered a late first-half chance when Joseph lost a fumble just before crossing the goal line, a play that was scrutinized by replay officials for several minutes. ODU settled for a 14-0 lead going into halftime.

The Monarchs held a 271-74 advantage in first-half total offense.

ODU missed its best early opportunity when Ricardo Williams recovered a Liberty fumble on the Flames’ 3-yard line a minute into the second quarter. But the Monarchs’ Maurki James fumbled it back at the 2 just three plays later.

The weather, even with mid-70s temperatures as rain poured over the Southeast, left most of what was expected to be a sellout crowd doing other things with their Saturday.

The stands on both sides of the stadium were merely dotted with the poncho-draped brave, even as the downpour slowed to a trickle well before halftime before resuming briefly

Liberty quarterback Ethan Vasko, a former Oscar Smith High star whose status was questionable because of a nagging shoulder injury, did not play despite his expectations.

The Monarchs, who last had a winning season in 2016, have begun to tiptoe into the national consciousness. They entered the weekend ranked 50th in ESPN’s College Football Power Index.

Few on the roster are surprised.

“I’ve been around here a long time,” said defensive end Kris Trinidad, a senior from Richmond. “This is the closest we’ve ever felt, and this is the most in-sync I’ve ever been with a team. So it feels good. It feels great.”

Rahne, a former Penn State offensive coordinator who improved to 23-31 with ODU, to be fair, is prone to neither extreme highs nor lows.

He said he planned to walk to his Larchmont home and celebrate with family and friends after the game.

During his weekly Monday news conference, Rahne volunteered his condolences to the family of Central Florida assistant Shawn Clark, who died suddenly last week at age 50.

In the glow of Saturday’s win, Rahne again remembered his friend, a former head coach at Appalachian State, to put the game and the sport into context.

“I think that coaches are some of the best people on the planet, myself excluded, obviously,” Rahne said. “But there’s a lot of really, really good men in this profession that, unfortunately, in our drive to coach and win games, we make some sacrifices that maybe when we’re about to go to the end there, we wish we wouldn’t have made. So every single time we win, it’s going to feel real good. Real good.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/09/28/odu-holds-off-liberty-for-third-straight-win-2/