Despite 9-win debut, Wilder knows there's plenty of work to do

NORFOLK

Bobby Wilder is thinking about invoking a new team rule: No more Gatorade baths.

Celebrating a victory is fine, but the baths Old Dominion's football coach took late Saturday afternoon in Lexington were a bit much.

Already wet from a Gatorade bath as time wound down in the Monarchs' 42-35 victory over VMI, Wilder stood near midfield for a radio interview when linebackers Michael Colbert and A.T. Aoelua hit him a second time with a fresh cooler loaded with ice.

"It hit the back of my head and went right down my backside," said Wilder, who needed a hot shower soon thereafter. "It was a perfect shot. Icy-cold Gatorade went to places where it shouldn't."

What a problem to have.

The Monarchs, playing their first year of football, produced a surprising 9-2 record and ended the season on a six-game win streak. While cynics have dismissed the record as the product of a soft schedule - and it's tough to argue that point - it is impossible to take the shine off seven sold-out games at renovated Foreman Field and the injection of enthusiasm the program received.

Even criticism over the schedule, Wilder said, is a little off the mark. He said when the slate was being built, he had no idea how good his first team would be... or how bad some of the opponents would be.

Some of the teams the Monarchs played had their worst years in decades - part of the reason ODU's strength of schedule was No. 242 among the 245 programs in the nation's top two levels. According to Jeff Sagarin's rankings, only Marist, Dayton and Butler played weaker schedules.

"The schedule we played was made two years ago," Wilder said. "And when it was made, Thomas DeMarco was a punter on San Diego State's roster. We really didn't know where we'd be as a team."

DeMarco, who made a stop at a California junior college and a position switch to quarterback before landing at ODU, ended up leading the Football Championship Subdivision in point production with 17 rushing touchdowns and 21 passing TDs.

DeMarco wasn't the only ODU player who led the FCS in a statistical category: Jonathan Plisco averaged a nation's-best 44.84 yards per punt.

"We are going to push him for All-American," Wilder said.

Some might think the work ended with Saturday's game, but Wilder was in his office at 6 a.m. Monday with a long checklist.

"I'm giving the coaching staff four days off, and the players need a rest," Wilder said. "On Sunday, the coaching staff will reconvene and start traveling across the country to recruit."

The Monarchs need help at every position. Depth was an issue throughout the season, most obviously at linebacker. That will be a point of emphasis.

But the list goes beyond recruiting.

Wilder met with every player this week to assess their performances and map a plan for the coming season.

"We have to have a big year with our winter workouts," Wilder said. "We have to get bigger, because we are nowhere near where we have to be to compete against next season's schedule."

With that in mind, the Monarchs will start spring football workouts two weeks later than this past spring to give players two more weeks of winter weight training. Spring practice will open the fourth week of March, with the spring game April 24.

Next on Wilder's checklist is maintaining his current staff.

"Others will appreciate the job our assistant coaches did this year," he said. "They will get approached."

Recruiting will be next on the list. Wilder believes ODU will be an easier sell than last year.

"The fact that we could recruit in-season this year was fabulous," he said. "We were able to have 20 to 40 kids come to ODU on unofficial visits seven times this season and witness 20,000 people packing Foreman Field. ODU can now sell itself."

Also somewhere on the list is restructuring his contract, which has a clause calling for that to happen by Jan. 1. Wilder declined to discuss the status of those talks.

He called the team together Tuesday for one last pre-Thanksgiving meeting and put the 2010 schedule on a board at the front of the room. It is significantly tougher.

He pointed at William and Mary, whom the Monarchs play Sept. 18. Wilder encouraged his players to watch the FCS playoff games on television (William and Mary hosts Weber State in a first-round game Saturday) so they would begin to understand the level they must reach to be competitive when the Monarchs join the Colonial Athletic Association in 2011.

"Some people have asked why we weren't considered for the playoffs," Wilder said. "We didn't deserve to be considered for the playoffs. We lost at Fordham. Fordham lost to Rhode Island, and Rhode Island lost its next 10 games and was winless in the CAA.

"I told them we wouldn't have won a game in the CAA this season. We would have been rolled by everybody. I think they got the message."

Regardless, the Monarchs will savor their Thanksgiving meals today - and a 9-2 mark that surpassed all expectations.

Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463 rich.radford@pilotonline.com