NORFOLK — A poor start, an anemic third quarter and five unaffordable turnovers conspired to detach Old Dominion from the smattering of national attention it was beginning to receive.

So, after a 48-24 loss at Marshall on Saturday, what now for the Monarchs?

Simply put: more of the same. But the true answer lies somewhere between 40 and 80.

The Thundering Herd turned ODU’s turnovers into 31 points, serving as the most glaring difference in a game the Monarchs (4-2, 1-1 Sun Belt) could ill-afford to lose.

As ODU enters this weekend’s game at rival James Madison (5-1, 3-0), things like a bowl berth and a conference title remain on the table — even if they remain unspoken abstracts.

“Absolutely. And no, we haven’t talked about that,” Monarchs coach Ricky Rahne said Monday during his weekly news conference. “But our goals are certainly still in front of us. I think it does help that we don’t necessarily talk about records or anything like that as goals, like I’ve talked about many times. But we can still accomplish anything that we’d want to accomplish.”

JMU, which has won three straight in the five-game series between the programs, sits alone atop the Sun Belt East Division. The implications for this weekend’s game are clear, even as the Monarchs employ Rahne’s ubiquitous “1-0” approach to each task.

Turnovers had not been a major issue for ODU, which is now second in the nation, behind Nevada, with 15 turnovers lost.

The Monarchs know they have to fix it.

“We’re not even on the field if we don’t have the ball, so we can’t score if we’re not on the field,” offensive tackle Zach Barlev said. “For the rest of the year, we’ve got to make sure we protect that ball.”

Rahne’s 16-year-old son Ryder, the older of two boys, found himself an unwitting part of a metaphor when his dad was asked how he planned to address the problem.

ODU’s offense, Rahne said, must find a balance between playing too freely and playing too passively.

He likened it to Ryder’s ongoing driving lessons, which are being administered by a pair of parents with divergent approaches.

“If he’s driving around and he’s going 80 miles an hour everywhere, we’re going to have a problem, right?” Rahne said. “It’s too aggressive. Probably learned behavior, but it’d be too aggressive. But also, if he’s driving around 40 miles an hour everywhere, he’s still putting himself at risk.”

ODU dropped 11 spots to 57th this week in ESPN’s College Football Power Index. The same metric that gave ODU nearly a 20% chance of reaching the College Football Playoff just last week now gives it a 1.8% chance.

The Monarchs, Rahne said, struggled with communication against Marshall, which won the third quarter 17-0. Hand signals, receiving targets and defensive coverages were unclear at times.

Rahne expects those issues to be cleaned up. They are among the seemingly minuscule things that can lead to wins.

Leading to bunches of wins is an entirely different proposition, and it’s one ODU’s players don’t worry about.

“We just need to practice well,” said linebacker Seth Naotala, who transferred from JMU. “That is it. It’s no fancy formula or no high-level research, the way we’re looking at it.

“It’s simple: The answer is in the work.”

Rahne said he assumed that his wife, Jennifer, would be “the worst driving instructor in the world.”

Reality has led him to other conclusions.

“Here’s why I thought that: My wife is the worst right-seat driver in the country when I am driving,” Rahne said.

“I have to take some stock and realize that maybe I’m a bad driver, and that maybe she just is yelling at a bad driver, and my son’s just a better driver than I am. I don’t like to admit that, and I will not admit that. But I think we all have to (acknowledge), at this point, the information available would tell me to do some self-reflection and see that maybe I need to improve.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/10/13/turnovers-derail-game-for-odu-but-not-season/