Old Dominion Football: New era kicks off for Monarchs in 2021

Ricky Rahne was hired by Old Dominion in December 2019, after a six-year journey at Penn State with the last two being the Nittany Lions offensive coordinator. In Norfolk, he would take over a team that finished the 2019 season last in several offensive statistical categories.

Everything would change when COVID-19 struck the country a few short months after Rahne was hired. The university announced in early August 2020 the cancellation of their football season due to the pandemic. The Monarchs were the only Conference USA team to do so.

Fast forward a year. The country looks in much better shape from the pandemic and college football appears on track to have full or close to full capacity stadiums this fall. Rahne finally gets to show how he will shape the Monarchs in his image. He certainly represents the university well on his Twitter account, not just football but the entire athletic program.

Keep in mind Old Dominion is still a young program in modern college football and Rahne is only the team’s third head coach. Tommy Scott coached the team from 1930 through 1940 before the program was discontinued and did not play again until 2009. Bobby Wilder coached from the team’s rebirth until his resignation in December 2019.

What will this year’s team look like? After a disastrous one-win season in 2019, the Monarchs really only have one place to go and that is up.