Good Friday Morning Monarchs. Folks, enjoy your final few Fridays of the summer, because in five weeks, you’ll be preparing for the first ODU football game of the fall.

In six weeks, you’ll be doing tailgate prep weeks for the home opener!

We’ve got all the sights from the first few days of Monarchs practices, the details on all the promos for the first two home games and a sight you surely don’t want to miss!

What else is stirring in today’s edition of the Brew? Check it out!

🙌 A Sight For Sore Eyes
⚾️ She’s A Beaut
🏀 Back At Home
👑 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Man, Is It Good To See You! The Monarchs are back baby!

Both the ODU football and women’s soccer squads kicked off their training camps for the upcoming 2023 seasons this week.

Over the weekend, the men’s soccer, field hockey and volleyball teams will jump in on the action and we’ll be in full swing by next week!

🔼 Getting To Know You… It’s safe to say that there’s some getting to know you parts of training camp for the ODU football program.

Nearly 60 newcomers will be donning the Monarch uniform this fall, meaning half of the ODU roster played elsewhere last season (high school, junior college, another school).

Which ones will be making an impact? Which ones do you need to keep an eye on? We’ve got it covered for you in the latest Max with Minium.

🔼 We Heard This Guy Was Pretty Good. Safe to say this might have been the least surprising news of the preseason.

ODU LB extraordinare Jason Henderson earned a spot on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List, the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) announced on Tuesday.
 
Last fall, Henderson led the country, and broke ODU and Sun Belt single-season records, with 186 tackles and featured 11 games with double-digit tackles, including the only player in the country with multiple 20+ tackle games.
 
Henderson earned five All-America honors last season, including four second-team honors. He earned first-team All-Sun Belt Conference accolades and was named the Touchdown Club of Richmond Linebacker of the Year.

🔼 Ain’t She A Beaut Clark. Sporting a record that ranks in the top-20 in the country over the past three years, the ODU baseball team is ready for an upcoming new home.

The first full look at the renovations was released this week with construction now scheduled to begin at the end of the 2024 season. The Monarchs will play the 2025 season off campus and then open the new stadium in 2026.

Man, oh, man, we can’t wait!

🔼 She’s Bacckkk. After enjoying a golden summer with Team USA, Coach Milton-Jones is back in Norfolk and inspiring the squad each and every day.

🏈 PROMOS, PROMOS, PROMOS

Preparing your fall schedules? We’ve got plenty of promotions coming this fall at Ballard Stadium that we promise you don’t want to miss!

Game 1: Sept. 9 vs. Louisiana, 6 p.m.
First Responders Day presented by Sentara

Game 2: Sept. 16 vs. Wake Forest, 12 p.m.
First Responders Day presented by Chartway Federal Credit Union

🏈 WE WORKIN’

Opponent #9: Coastal Carolina
Date: Saturday, November 4th
Location: Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium
Time: TBA
Broadcast Coverage: ODU Sports Radio Network

Last Meeting: Old Dominion 49, Coastal Carolina 21 - Oct. 15, 2022
All-Time Series: ODU leads 2-0

Famous Alumni Battle: 

ODU: Nancy Lieberman (Basketball Hall of Famer), Justin Verlander (MLB All-Star), Taylor Heinicke (NFL QB), Jay Harris (ESPN Anchor), Ben Bailey (host of Cash Cab), William Fallon (Four Star Navy Admiral)
Coastal Carolina: Dustin Johnson (PGA Golfer, Masters Champion), Diamond Dallas Page (WWE Hall of Fame Wrestler), Michael Kelly (Actor - House of Cards), Josh Norman (NFL Cornerback), Brandon Brown (NASCAR Driver), Madelyn Cline (Actress - Outer Banks).

Coastal Carolina is one of the most successful up-and-coming FBS programs posting a 31-6 mark over the past three years.

Enter Tim Beck, a first-year head coach who has served as Offensive Coordinators at Ohio State, Texas and NC State in his most recent stops.

Beck has plenty of toys to play with on the offensive side of the ball, led by All-Conference QB Grayson McCall who is a 70-percent passer and has 78 career TDs to just eight interceptions. Sam Pinckney, Jared Brown and Tyson Mobley are dangerous receiving threats to go along with McCall’s arm.

Defense will be the challenge for the Chanticleers as ODU has piled up 112 points in the two meetings between the two schools. In the final eight games of last year, CCU only picked off one pass and lost it’s top two defensive lineman from a year ago.

🤔 MONARCH TRIVIA

As we mentioned above, the ODU Baseball program has a winning pct. that ranks in the top-20 in the country over the past three years.

ODU’s .676 winning pct. ranks 17th and is better than reigning national champion LSU, perennial national champion contender UVA and many more.

How many wins have the Monarchs piled up over the past three years?

Got a guess?

Scroll down to the bottom of this email and see if you had the right answer!

🏈 COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF: 29 DAYS

Rising sophomore Markus Knight is on the prowl to make his presence known in the ODU defensive backfield.

Knight, a Tallahassee, Fla. native, started his collegiate career at Independence Community College before coming to Norfolk last fall.

He enters his sophomore season with 12 collegiate games played, 18 tackles and six pass deflections.

In three games last year with ODU, Knight primarily saw action on special teams and redshirted to enter this fall as a sophomore.

📬 STICK WITH US

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🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: 117.

40+ wins in two of the past three seasons have helped ODU to a 117-56 ledger from 2021-2023.

Let’s finish the week strong!