Ga. State vs. ODU Recap: Strong Finale

By David Asbury

Slow Start, Great Finish
The Old Dominion Monarchs took care of business to win the 75th annual Oyster Bowl and send the seniors home winners for the ninth time in the 2025 season.  The Monarchs started off really slow allowing the Georgia State Panthers (1-11) to jump to a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.  But the Monarchs bounced back hard tying it before halftime 10-10.  Then they dominated the second half to win 27-10.  The Monarchs improve to 6-1 against Georgia State and 10-4 in Oyster Bowls.  With this victory, the Monarchs protected the Castle going an undefeated 6-0 at home for only the third time in school history (2013, 2016).  The Monarchs finished the regular season 9-3 for the second time since joining the FBS.  They finish in second place in the SBC East with a 6-2 conference record, the best since joining the Sun Belt.  It is the best season since 2016.  What a finish!  What.  A.  Season.

Give it up to quarterback Colton Joseph.  He capped off one of the best seasons we've ever seen from an ODU quarterback with a solid performance, scoring one rushing touchdown with 108 rushing yards and adding 106 more yards through the air.  It was a great game, but low for his standards completing only 40.9% of his passes and having one pretty bad interception.  Still, thank him for being a Monarch!  He finishes the season with 34 total touchdowns, 21 passing, 13 rushing.  He was great through the air gaining 2,624 passing yards, which is good enough for eighth best season in ODU history.  But what he really excelled in was running the ball.  He was an RPO king.  On the ground, he gained 1,007 rushing yards which is good enough for the fourth best season in school history, just a few places behind legend Ray Lawry (school record 1,255).  Joseph sets the record for single-season rushing yards by a quarterback passing Thomas DeMarco's 892 yards in 2009.  He is in the running for Sun Belt Player of the Year, but even if he falls short he is still the 2025 School MVP with many more honors to come.

Colton Joseph lets the Georgia State defense know what down it is. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The offense overall had a very slow start with multiple stalled drives in the first quarter.  The defense played well, but ultimately allowed ten points getting little help early from the Old Dominion O.  The offense woke up in the second quarter by getting the running game going and tied the game before halftime.  The Monarchs would score 27 unanswered points to finish the game.  They gained 409 total yards mostly on the ground gaining 303 rushing yards.  ODU rushed for over 300 yards in the past three games.

The shifty Devin Roche breaks free from the Georgia State defense. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography

Running back Devin Roche had a career game.  He joins ODU greats like Taylor Heinicke, Ray Lawry and KeShawn Wicks as an Oyster Bowl MVP.  With Devin Roche’s 12-yard run early in the second quarter, ODU broke the team single-season rushing yardage record. ODU has rushed for 2,843 yards. The previous record was 2,559 yards set in 2016 (hearing about that year a lot lately).  Roche had a career high 21 carries for 137 yards and two touchdowns. It was his second career 100-yard rushing game and first career multi touchdown game.  The ever shifty Roche has been nasty cutting through defenses these past few weeks.  But also give credit to the veteran offensive line and O-line coach Alex Huettel.  The offensive line might be the best the unit has ever been.

Jahleel Culbreath (34) and DeAndre Lynch (9) meet in the backfield. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography

The Monarchs' defense also had a great game limiting the Panthers to only 283 yards of offense.  Quarterback Christian Veilleux was 18-for-37 passing for only 154 yards and a touchdown.  Linebacker Jahleel Culbreath had another monster game with eight tackles and two tackles for a loss.  Jeremy Mack racked up eight tackles and cornerback Zion Frink led the team in tackles with ten.  Senior linebacker Seth Naotala caps off his last game at the Castle with an interception.  Freshman defensive lineman Hunter Malecki notched a sack, giving ODU a league best 31 sacks and a sack in all but one game this season (Marshall).  It has been a very long time since the defense generated this much pressure or been this dominant.  Defensive coordinator Blake Seiler deserves his flowers.

Georgia State ends their season with a miserable 1-11 record.  GSU head coach Dell McGee finishes his second season with an atrocious 4-20 record.  He recruited Atlanta really well but his most talented players are still underclassmen who have not had the opportunity to develop yet.  As I write this, McGee still has a job but there are reports he lost the locker room.  It must be true when players on the team are literally liking Instagram posts calling for his firing.  The donors may raise the funds necessary to fire him.  But not only is that an expensive proposition for a low-budget program, giving McGee one last shot may show other coaching candidates in the next cycle that they are willing to give the time needed to rebuild the program.  It will be worth watching to see if he survives the coaching carousel.

The Monarchs just capped off a memorable season and are going bowling with a 9-3 record!  Troy will face JMU in the conference championship game which is a hard pill to swallow because ODU proved itself as the second best Sun Belt team.  Head coach Ricky Rahne deserves all the credit for this amazing season.  He slowly but surely built this team to where it is.  He finally brought home a stellar winning season.  But he still has one more task before him.  On December 7th, we find out which bowl game the Monarchs will travel to.  Rahne wants to win his first bowl game and in doing so, match the success of the 2016 season.  Stay tuned to find out which opponent and location they will get.

Enjoy this victory and this amazing season because roster turnover is bound to happen.  Top players are likely to enter the portal and top coaches may get poached as well.  That is just what life in college football is right now.  The Monarchs will be better than okay though.  The program and culture are strong and Ricky Rahne will continue to lead the program to greatness.  This season is the first of many to come.  Reign on!