FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Macon]

RMC hosted CNU Saturday for a scrimmage. While A LOT of starters didn't play I heard from one of my friends that it was a high spirited, hard hitting affair. I think we were the only team that scored but thats not too important- neither Pedro nor the CNU coach wasn't going to show too much to the other! Both teams probably needed to hit somebody else besides their own team mates! Haven't heard too much about us except that Mitchell "The Hammer" Johnson is indeed returning for a 5th year at RB for the Jackets! Hes one tough running back!

Johnson coming back is huge for the Jackets.

[y_jack_lok]

RMC roster is posted: https://rmcathletics.com/sports/football/roster

By my count a total of 127 players -- 37 FR, 29 SO, 35 JR, 26 SR.

Here is an article about a new QB who transferred from D2 California University of Pennsylvania after two years never having played a single down for them: https://lancasteronline.com/sports/highschool/football/former-hempfield-quarterback-hopes-to-find-opportunity-after-trip-through-transfer-portal/article_c8ef4576-6795-4302-a8c8-4f803984b1c0.html

[Macon]

Lok, thanks for the article.   If he starts, let's hope he has the same success as the previous two transfer QBs.  I was a little concerned when I saw no QBs in the new freshman class, but with three years of eligibility left, this Landis kid may be the answer.  Will be a challenging season as the ODAC is getting more competitive.

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Yeah, I also noticed no QBs listed in the new class. But yesterday I discovered a football alumni Facebook group with a post about several of the new guys who were QBs in high school, one of whom is not on the roster now and several of the others who are listed at different positions.

[y_jack_lok]

Over on the ODAC Pick-ems board, here's how HSCTiger74 has the odds for ODAC teams this week:

Roanoke [-11.5]  @  Virginia-Lynchburg  9/3
Bridgewater [-4.5]  @  Stevenson  9/4
Shenandoah [-8.5]  @  Methodist  9/4
#25 Randolph-Macon [-17.5]  @  Dickinson. 9/4
NC Wesleyan [-12.5]  @  Averett
Guilford [-9.5]  @  Greensboro
Hampden-Sydney  @  orv Wabash [-15.5]
Wittenberg  @  Washington & Lee [-13.5]

Last night Roanoke easily beat the spread with a 37-7 win.

Three interesting games tonight with all three ODAC teams favored. In Saturday's games Guilford and W&L are favored while Averett and H-SC are underdogs.

[Macon]

RMC has a HUGE QB problem!!!

[y_jack_lok]

RMC has a HUGE QB problem!!!

Dickinson 27, RMC 14. Kudos to Dickinson. Clearly the better team tonight on both sides of the ball. The RMC defense only forced one punt, and that was with about five minutes remaining and trailing 27-7. The punt was blocked and recovered by RMC in the Dickinson end zone for a TD. I watched that play back and the rush on the punter was more serious than any I've seen RMC undertake in years. The Jackets got an interception in Dickinson territory early in the 2nd quarter and scored two plays later. Those were about the only two bright spots for the Jackets. The were deep in Dickinson territory two other times and failed to score, throwing an INT in the end zone on one of those possessions. The defense couldn't stop the Dickinson rush or passing game, got very little pressure on the QB, who ran for several first downs and a TD. Tackling was problematic at best. Dickinson's two running backs and their OL dominated. Missed tackles on Dickinson's third play from scrimmage in the second half led to a 75 yard TD run.

So, back to Macon's post about the QB problem. Yes, definitely something to figure out there. But there are a lot of other problems as well.

Jacket running back Devin Bryant, a transfer from Emory & Henry, looked tough and had a couple of good rushing attempts.

It will only be tougher next week vs Johns Hopkins. The coaches have a huge task ahead of them.

In other games, Shenandoah downs Methodist 30-3 while Bridgewater gets shut out 17-0 by Stevenson.

ODAC is 2-2 so far in week #1.

[HSCTiger74]

Over on the ODAC Pick-ems board, here's how HSCTiger74 has the odds for ODAC teams this week:

Roanoke [-11.5]  @  Virginia-Lynchburg  9/3
Bridgewater [-4.5]  @  Stevenson  9/4
Shenandoah [-8.5]  @  Methodist  9/4
#25 Randolph-Macon [-17.5]  @  Dickinson. 9/4
NC Wesleyan [-12.5]  @  Averett
Guilford [-9.5]  @  Greensboro
Hampden-Sydney  @  orv Wabash [-15.5]
Wittenberg  @  Washington & Lee [-13.5]

Last night Roanoke easily beat the spread with a 37-7 win.

Three interesting games tonight with all three ODAC teams favored. In Saturday's games Guilford and W&L are favored while Averett and H-SC are underdogs.

Well, you can't say I didn't warn you that I basically make them up as I go along. 

[The Third Division]

All eyes on the homies from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to tell Davidson to suck my Dickinson College!!!

[Patrick Coleman]

All eyes on the homies from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to tell Davidson to suck my Dickinson College!!!

What a weird thing to say among the adults here.

[y_jack_lok]

All eyes on the homies from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to tell Davidson to suck my Dickinson College!!!

What a weird thing to say among the adults here.

I'm surprised you didn't just remove that post.

[jknezek]

All eyes on the homies from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to tell Davidson to suck my Dickinson College!!!

He had to have been high on something when this amalgamation of random words came off the keyboard.

Or am I missing some deeper meaning?

[rmc1982]

Looks like what we thought before the season is true..... Like my fellow " Maconites" have said here we looked like a different team than we've been used to the last few years!Trouble almost everywhere....QB, defense all over- not much rush/ contain and when we do we can't stop a scrambling QB. Pass defense...containing the run.... They pretty much dominated us in every way. We need to find a starting QB. I understand playing different guys to see who stands out but going into next weekend especially we need some continuity at the position.Looks
like the ODAC IS WIDE OPEN at this point! Not time to press the panic button yet after just one game but they exposed every weakness we have last night! With JHU coming to the COTU NEXT WEEK THERES NOT ALOT OF TIME TO RIGHT THE SHIP! We have to get better and QUICK!

[y_jack_lok]

ODAC teams went 1-3 today -- only W&L coming away with a win, 13-7 in OT. In a questionable situation too complicated to explain, the Generals got the ball back in regulation at about midfield with 1:40 on the clock, but couldn't score. There was a lengthy review of the questionable play and the officials let the call on the field stand. I'm not sure they got it right. Had it gone the other way Wittenberg would have had the ball for the final 1:40 and they would have had a shot at winning in regulation.


H-SC lost 29-20 at Wabash. It looked pretty competitive from what I saw in the early going.

Guilford got thumped on the road by Greensboro 48-7 an Averett lost at home 27-13 to NC Wesleyan.

A quick takeaway from the first week's results suggests that the conference race could be competitive, but the conference as a whole isn't looking very strong.

Will be fun to see next week's point spread predictions from HSCTiger74.

[jknezek]

Well it was nice that W&L won their opener for the first time in close to a decade. I can't, for the life of me, understand W&L scheduling. 

You are an option team, mostly. The whole point is that it's a gimmick that teams don't get to practice against. 1) Scheduling another option team, Salisbury, defeats the whole purpose.

2) You know the hardest games will be those with teams with extra practice time. You can't do anything about when teams have bye weeks, but for the love of all that is holy, schedule a genuinely bad team for week 1. Because they get a ton of extra practice before the game, it's brutally hard for the gimmick to work.

I don't care about SOS. You have to make the playoffs for that to matter, and starting 0-1 in the ODAC is a tough mountain to climb. Either win the conference at that point, or you are basically done with 2 losses anyway.

The dumbest of all? Let's combine both issues. Until this year we opened 3 straight years with Salisbury who is both very good, and a team whose defense plays against the option every day in practice. It is one of the most consistently idiotic things I've seen the athletic department do.

This year we eeked past a Wittenberg team that was not good last year and probably won't be great this year. But with lots of practice they had no problems throttling our offense.

We just need to be smarter. Schedule someone soft week 1. And drop Salisbury from the schedule! Hopefully this 4th game is the last in a series we've lost by 3 scores each of the last 3 years.