NORFOLK — Uncertainty grasped at Old Dominion’s football team Saturday afternoon, and it had nothing to do with the potential outcome of its upcoming game.

The Monarchs, riding the wave of a four-game winning streak, were about to play lowly Georgia State in their regular-season finale, with virtually all possible big-picture team accomplishments in the bag.

ODU was going to a bowl game, a fact practically guaranteed by its sixth win nearly a month earlier. The program’s first winning season was locked up with a 33-0 triumph, its seventh of 2025, over Troy on Nov. 13 that played out before a Thursday night audience on national TV.

The doubts that led to a moribund quarter-and-a-half Saturday stemmed from a picture larger than anything renderable from within the walls of the Monarchs’ facility. Players leave programs when they want to these days, an irrefutable fact of life for college coaches striving for elusive continuity.

As Georgia State jumped to a stunning 10-point lead before ODU’s eventual 27-10 Sun Belt Conference victory, the Monarchs couldn’t help but wonder who among them might not be around the next time they suit up.

“I think there’s a lot of emotions going through people’s minds,” sixth-year ODU coach Ricky Rahne said when asked about the difference between the start of the game and its dominant finish. “You know what I mean? There’s guys who you know are playing their last game. I mean, let’s call a spade a spade: There’s some guys who might be thinking they might be playing their last game who aren’t seniors. I mean, that’s just the reality of college football nowadays, right? It didn’t used to be like that, but it is.”

Under relaxed NCAA transfer rules, players are free to move on to the next school for better opportunities to earn more playing time, exposure, wins or NIL money. Coaches, essentially, have always maintained that right.

Upon deciding to transfer after a regular season, some players decide to sit out bowl games to reduce their risk of injury or decreasing their market value.

The Monarchs (9-3, 6-2 Sun Belt) will learn their bowl destination next Sunday, after the nation’s conference champions are crowned. They might not learn which players will come with them until days after that.

According to 247sports.com, which tracks pending transfers, as many as 105 players around the nation had entered the portal last week alone, with more sure to follow. No ODU players were yet on the list as of Sunday.

Against Georgia State (1-11, 0-8), the Monarchs broke through with a Nathanial Eichner field goal with 5:34 left in the second quarter to temper what had been a 10-0 deficit. Devin Roche’s touchdown run tied it less than 90 seconds later, and ODU won the second half 17-0 for its fifth straight victory.

Asked about the difference between 10-0 and 27-10, junior linebacker Jahleel Culbreath paused before complimenting the question.

ODU’s defenders had expected the Panthers to pass early. They ran instead.

The linebackers and defensive linemen, perhaps creaky on a night when temperatures reached the 30s by the end of the game, received a talking-to at halftime about the importance of winning up front.

Transferring, presumably, was not discussed.

“Coach did a great job of making sure that we kept our heads on straight,” said Culbreath, a former star for Ocean Lakes High in Virginia Beach. “There was never a doubt in our minds that the game would go left for us. So we always kept our head on straight. We were focused on being more physical, being more dominant at the line of scrimmage. I feel like that’s our brand as a defense.”

Rahne, a former offensive coordinator at Penn State, has for years stressed the importance of reaching the postseason. Not only does it elevate the profile of the program; it gives coaches and players, including the lesser-used ones, an invaluable few bonus weeks together.

Projections, many of them educated guesses, have the Monarchs possibly playing in bowl games in New Orleans, Orlando, Montgomery, Alabama, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, or Boca Raton, Florida. Surprises in conference title games and the broadcast desires of ESPN, which owns several bowls, can render even the most informed bowl speculation — now a cottage industry — moot.

At least one projection has ODU playing in Boise, Idaho, which might not align this time of year with Culbreath’s preference.

“Somewhere warmer than today,” he said.

“I hope it’s in a nice place. Please, God.”

ODU played in the Myrtle Beach Bowl in 2021 before competing in the Famous Toastery Bowl, a one-off replacement game in Charlotte, two years later. The Monarchs lost both.

Before Saturday’s game, the school honored 22 seniors, including five lifers who came in with Rahne before the 2021 season.

Rahne, who is 29-33 in five seasons on ODU’s sideline, said he’s accepted that some of his other players might move on. Moments after a comeback win in which some of them apparently got their minds and their feet geographically aligned, he wasn’t prepared to think about it.

“Listen: No head coach in the country wants, no one wants to deal with that right now,” Rahne said. “I’m just being honest. And that means I don’t care if it’s one guy, eight guys, 10 guys, zero guys. That’s one of the least fun parts of my job, right? One of the most fun parts of my job is coaching them every day and seeing their smiling faces when we win a game. So I’m going to enjoy the fun parts of my job right now.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/11/30/thoughts-of-portal-may-have-led-to-slow-start-for-odu/