ODU 2025 Football Recap: Breakthrough Season

By David Asbury

Feels like '16
Earlier in the season, fellow Monarchist Mike Langston and I had a minor discussion on which football season was Old Dominion's best.  Was it 2012, where the Monarchs won a CAA Championship and an FCS playoff game to finish the season with an 11-2 record?  Or was it 2016, where the Monarchs tied WKU in the CUSA East and won the Bahamas Bowl to finish the season with a 10-3 record?  At the end, I agreed with Mike that 2012 was the best season due to the conference championship and defeating JMU in Harrisonburg.  We then turned our attention back at the current 2025 season and said to ourselves that it felt a lot like 2012 with the Monarchs having a strong start and even CFP aspirations.  But then the Monarchs suffered a two-game skid against Marshall and JMU.  The skid did not stop the Monarchs from having a stellar season.  Since that skid, the Monarchs won six games in a row and outscored their opponents 184-57, finishing with a Cure Bowl victory.  So, this season ended up feeling a bit more like '16 in that it was a fun spectacular ten-win season with an excellent bowl victory to be proud of.  This Monarchs team made history.  Let's celebrate it!

Old Dominion’s 2025 football season was one of the most successful in program history, as the Monarchs finished 10–3 overall and 6–2 in the Sun Belt Conference, capping the year as Cure Bowl champions with a 24–10 victory over South Florida.  They delivered a mix of impressive wins — including a statement victories over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and a nationally televised win over SBC West Champion Troy.  Despite tough losses to Marshall and JMU in conference play, the Monarchs rallied late in the year to secure bowl eligibility and demonstrate depth with key contributions on both sides of the ball.

Quarterback Colton Joseph was nothing short of phenomenal, emerging as the cornerstone of the offense.  His dual-threat ability consistently stressed defenses, throwing for 2,624 passing yards and school-record 1,007 QB rushing yards.  He scored 34 total touchdowns in his twelve regular season games.  Beyond the numbers, Cowboy Colton delivered in big moments, elevating the entire team with his leadership, toughness, and confidence.  His play was good enough for the conference to award him with the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year and second team All-Sun Belt.  The first ODU quarterback to receive such accolades.  He did sit out the bowl game to give Quinn Henicle the opportunity to earn himself the Cure Bowl MVP award.  But once a Monarch, always a Monarch.  Joseph will do great things after hitting the transfer portal and will go down as an Old Dominion legend.  He may have done enough to secure himself a spot in the ODU Hall of Fame.

There really is no doubt that "Cowboy" Colton Joseph was ODU's 2025 Most Valuable Player. Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The rest of Old Dominion’s offense was just as explosive and dynamic, thriving behind a run-heavy attack that excelled in the conference (454.7 yards per game, 2nd in SBC).  In fact, the Monarchs broke the school single-season rushing record with 3,098 total rushing yards (2nd in SBC).  Besides Joseph, running backs Trequan Jones and the ever shifty Devin Roche combined for 1,422 rushing yards and ten touchdowns.  Jones provided a legitimate game-breaking presence in the backfield, including multiple long touchdown runs and a school record-setting 93-yard touchdown sprint, giving ODU one of the most efficient rushing attacks ever, passing Henicle's 92-yard run from 2024.  Meanwhile, Roche missed the early part of the season due to injury and a loss in the family but returned midseason and bounced back to his usual joy-stick self to slice through defenses.

But the rushing game was not the only component to the offense.  Colton Joseph was effective in the air too finding receivers like Tre Brown for 762 yards and four touchdowns.  Brown emerged as a downfield threat, supplying big plays and a stretch-the-field ability averaging 20.1 yards per catch.  Meanwhile, AR Gladding was the better possession receiver catching a team-leading 51 passes and scoring six times.  But all of this would not be possible without some of the best offensive line play ODU history.  The offensive line significantly reduced their sack count from 36 in 2024 to only 21 in 2025.  Senior left tackle Zach Barlev anchored the offensive line and earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors for it.  Barlev was widely regarded as the leader on the offensive line setting a standard with his work ethic and preparation.  He too, will go down as an ODU great and maybe ODU Hall-of-Famer.

Zach Barlev has been an anchor on the offensive line at left tackle. He just might have an NFL career as a guard or center.  Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The Monarchs were dominant on both sides of the ball.  The defense was integral for the Monarchs success and defensive coordinator Blake Seiler deserves a lot of credit.  The defense consistently stifled opponents and created big plays that flipped momentum throughout the season.  The defense averaged allowing 331.5 per game (2nd in SBC) and 18.5 points per game (2nd in SBC).  The D was strong against the run and the pass but was especially good at getting to quarterback racking up 39 sacks (tied 1st in SBC).  The defense included ball hawks like safety Jerome Carter who snatched the ball out of the air six times on top of his 76 tackles. The conference named Carter to the second-team All-Sun Belt.   The Monarchs made 15 total interceptions (2nd in SBC).  Overall, this ODU defense may have been the best defense the Monarchs have ever had.

A lot of defenders contributed to it.  Linebacker Jahleel Culbreath was among the team leaders in tackles (71) and made key stops in critical moments, regularly disrupting opposing offenses.  Meanwhile, senior defensive end Kris Trinidad was a regular disrupter in the backfield with four sacks.  Safety Mario Easterly led the team in tackles with 80 and accounted for one of the team's interceptions.  But out of all the standouts, the linebacker/safety hybrid Jeremy Mack Jr. may have stood out the most.  He emerged as a true playmaker, leading ODU with sacks (5.5) and TFL's (11.5).  He was everywhere on the field nabbing an interception, forcing a fumble, three pass deflections and racking up 76 tackles.  Mack looked like a Derwin James in coverage and in blitzes. He earned his all-conference honors.

 
Jeremy Mack, the linebacker/safety hybrid was a stud and should be a strong candidate for ODU's Defensive MVP.  Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

Unlike the elite offense and defense, Old Dominion’s special teams were a bit of a roller-coaster in 2025.  There were some big moments of struggle—like occasional punt return miscues—but the unit still delivered flashes of positive play that helped the Monarchs in key spots.  There were times kicking was not as consistent as ODU would have liked, yet the team showed resilience and had a few bright contributions and supported the overall success of the season.  Of all the special teamers, kicker Nathaniel Eichner deserves the most recognition for coming off the bench as a steady kick off specialist, as well as making every extra point (19) and 70% of his field goals.  However, his longest kick was only 32 yards so this special teams unit certainly had some room for improvement.  But still, they worked hard and deserve credit for all the contributions to this spectacular season.

Eichner came off the bench to provide more reliable kicking later in the season.  Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

The 2025 season will go down in the history books as one of ODU's best ever as well as one of the best the Monarchists had predicting.  Mike, Gary, and Las Vegas all tie for first place with an 11-2 record predicting ODU games.  Meanwhile, Aaron, the Monarchs themselves, and I are right behind with 10-3 records.  This is actually the first time since we started our group pick'em that I did not beat Vegas.  The big difference being is that I picked ODU to upset JMU and that just did not happen.  Vegas also did better than most years because it finally started believing in the Monarchs and for good reason.   The Monarchs showed early that they were talented with a pretty close quality loss to Indiana, the best team in the country.  Head coach Ricky Rahne continued that momentum to meet some very big milestones with his first winning season, first ten-win season, and first bowl victory.  Just a great season all around.

As we turn over to the new year, so too must we turn to the 2026 season.  Rahne signed a well-earned contract extension, but his squad will look very different.  The new roster will have some pretty big unreached goals in sight.  For starters, Rahne is 0-4 against archrival James Madison in the Royal Rivalry.  In fact, in almost every 2025 statistic, ODU was second in the conference to JMU.  He is also 0-5 against Marshall.  His 6-2 conference record in '25 was ODU's best since joining the Sun Belt, but it was still not good enough to make it to the Sun Belt Championship Game, none the less, win a conference title.  Neither the AP or Coaches poll has ever ranked Old Dominion.  There are bigger bowl games to reach and playoff berths still unattained. There are still pretty big achievable milestones for Rahne to reach here.  2025 was a breakthrough season but it is now history. Onward to 2026.  The future is bright at Old Dominion!  Reign on!