I sat down with defensive coordinator Andy Rondeau and offensive coordinator Brian Scott the other day to talk about the players who really impressed them this fall. The conversation can be seen beginning later today on the latest video on ODUBlitz.com.

   Neither coach surprised me with their picks. Rondeau liked defensive lineman Chris Burnette, strong safety Craig Wilkins, defensive end Andrew Turner, and defensive back T.J. Cowart.

   What I found interesting is that I've seen Burnette and Wilkins hanging out together in public.

   "As the saying goes, 'Birds of a feather flock together,' " ODU caoch Bobby Wilder said. "Burnette and Wilkins have an appreciation for each other's level of talent. Good players tend to hang out with good players."

   Scott likes three speedy receivers: Nick Mayers, Reid Evans and Desmond Williams. No surprises there.

   But before a wide receiver can show what he can do, a quarterback has to get him the ball. Not much is being said these days concerning ODU's quarterbacking crew.

   Tommy Reamon Jr., a recruit who was trumpeted when he signed and went so far as to announce his commitment on WAVY TV-10, was unimpressive throughout the fall. He was surpassed by Bobby Cooper, a little-known recruit from western Maryland who was clearly better. But then Cooper got himself in trouble with the coaching staff and was suspended from Saturday's final public scrimmage.

   Dan Pitts, from Virginia Beach's Ocean Lakes, made the most headway throughout the fall and has shown an ability to throw the "out" pass to the sideline, a skill set that doesn't go unnoticed. Still, Pitts is recovering from knee surgery.

   Fred Credle, from Chesapeake's Deep Creek High, was in street clothes at the last scrimmage, explaining that he had fallen behind in his studies and needed to concentrate on academics.

   Pitts and Credle were the walk-ons at QB.

   Don't be surprised to see a new face in the quarterback ranks come spring drills.

   * Meanwhile, Evans might have been praised by Scott ... but he might be hurt. The wideout went down with a knee injury Saturday that could be serious. No word from the ODU camp yet, but this could be an anterior crutiate ligament tear. I was able to look at video tape of the injury and Evans wasn't hit on the play. Instead, he planted his foot and his knee turned in a decidedly unnatural way.

   * Wilder keeps detailed notes on telephone conversations. Good thing, because with Iona cancelling that Nov. 14 game as the Gaels call it quits in football, the Monarchs have a hole in their schedule.

   "We're at square one, going back and calling all those people we talked to initially when bringing together own schedule," Wilder said.

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   Talk about a rainstorm! I stopped by Bobby Wilder's office this afternoon between raindrops to check on him and steal some of his Lifesavers. He keeps the big breathmint type in a container on his desk.

   "Hey Radford, why is it other people take one and you always take three?" he asked.

   "Two for the road?" I said back.

   Actually, I really like Lifesaver mints. I can't help myself. It's my one kleptomaniacal moment.

   So what's up, coach?

   "It's been a long season for these freshmen. We're in Week 10. An abbreviated preseason makes it actually Week 12. We're banged up."

   But Wilder is by no means ready to take his foot off the gas. As he explained his players need to know how grueling next season will be and if he were to lighten up now, then the players might not understand the message or how much they need to prepare for next season.

   The coaches remind the players now to really focus on how much they hurt, and how tired they are, so that they understand how much they need to prepare and improve for next season.

   * Line of the day: "Need to be a year ahead of the wedding circuit."

   That was Wilder talking about how he's currently working on charter flights and hotel reservations for a "party of 90." That's what will be in order for four road games. ODU will be flying to Iona, Jacksonville and Savannah State next season. They'll bus to VMI.

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   This will be a rambling blog jumping from Point A to Point M. Follow at your own peril:  

   * This is what college football coaches have to deal with: South Carolina's Steve Spurrier has to mandate that if his players are going to ride scooters around campus, they must wear helmets or face a game's suspension.

   Spurrier has seen one player break a leg and others show up at practice looking like they slid into second base on an asphault infield. Well, that's gotta be something new for the Ol' Ball Coach. And is he sure it isn't turf burn?

   * Diversity has become an issue again, what with Ty Willingham and Ron Prince losing their jobs at Washington and Kansas State. That brings the number of African-American head coaches to four at the Division I-A level. Can you name them? (Answer at the bottom).

   While on the subject, ODU coach Bobby Wilder's staff is 50/50. He has four white assistant coaches and four African-American assistants.

   * Remind me to kick John Henderson of The Denver Post in the shin -- hard -- if I run into him. He writes this week that Alabama coach Nick Saban "has justified his salary" by taking Alabama to No. 1 in the BCS standings.

   Saban signed a $32 million contract for four years that will likely end up destroying college football's salary structure. That's basically $8 million a year. Justified? Saban's not clipping coupons like the rest of us. Nothing justifies $8 million for a college football coaching salary. But that's just my opinion. And this is my blog.

   * Police in State College, Pa., have charged 14 people in connection with rowdy celebrations following Penn State's win over Ohio State two weeks ago. They might not stop there as they continue to ID people who did about $7,000 damage to cars, streets signs and light poles.

   Ah, college football, the way we know and love it. Maybe the West Virginia fans need to drop by and teach these lugnuts how to burn a couch after a big win.

   Answer: Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom, Buffalo's Turner Gill (boy was I a fan when he played for Nebraska), Miami's Randy Shannon, and Houston's Kevin Sumlin. 

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   ODU coach Bobby Wilder says he has 30 names of junior college players on his recruiting board in his office.

   The current homes of the players on the board stretch from Kansas to California. The East Coast is not a hot-bed for junior colleges. So Wilder and his staff had to go west and are stuck trying to recruit football players who will travel east of the Mississippi on good faith.

   It's pretty much a one-shot deal: There's no long-term plan to be a place where junior college players regularly land. What bringing in jucos this season would do is it would spread the classes.

   Bring them in for two years, graduate them in spring of 2011.

   Reload for the next class of recruits.

   And give this uncoming year's team some depth and maturity, particularly across the offensive line if possible.

   It's somewhat of a tough sell.

   "We have no program history to sell them, no game tape, no offensive or defensive film to show how the program works," Wilder said. "We're asking them to come here on faith. We could get one, we could get seven off that list of 30. I have no real feel for what our success rate will be."

   The Monarchs, under NCAA guidelines, can bring in 30 players on some type of scholarship this season, be it full or partial.

   Junior College players can sign a national letter of intent from Dec. 17 to Jan. 15. That time frame allows them to enroll in January classes, which would mean in ODU's case that they could participate in spring drills.

   * Looking at what's coming down the road, Chowan finished the season 2-8, had two players named to the CIAA's second team and had three freshmen make the league's all-frosh squad. ODU kicks off its football program Sept. 5 when it hosts Chowan, which plays Division II ball.

   Virginia Union would be the second game up on Sept. 12 and the news out of that camp is that the school just fired head coach Greg Richardson, who had replaced Arrington Jones III. That means the Panthers, who went 5-5 this season, will roll into Foreman Field under the leadership of its third coach in as many years.

   * Question of the day: Are there any local high school players who haven't committed who you think would look good in ODU blue and white?

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   I stopped by to watch the last hour of Monday's practice and one thing I noticed is that the numbers are starting to dwindle. Coach Bobby Wilder reports that he's down to 79 now. A couple walk-ons have decided it's too much.

   When we listed players on the ODUBlitz.com website -- or channel as it's called around the office -- we put the scholarship players on the side under the listing "players." We didn't put the walk-ons on the list. Now I'm glad we didn't. Come the spring, we'll put out a definitive players list on the website (channel). Until then, you can always check the roster on the ODU athletics website.

   Andrew Slebonick, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound walk-on from North Stafford High, had impressed me at times this fall. He was tall, so he was hard to miss. And he wore No. 99, which made him harder to miss.

   He was in a sling Monday, which was also hard to miss. Tore labrum in his right shoulder. Had surgery on it last week. Wilder really likes the kid and thinks he might be able to play at ODU.

   As we chatted about Slebonick, Corey Ellick from Indian River approached. Mannerly, he waited for a break in the conversation and I gave way.

   "Uh, coach, I need to get to Chesapeake and vote tomorrow," Ellick said. "How can I work it into my schedule?"

   Ellick strikes me as a smart guy and he knew going to the polls today was going to be a time-consuming chore and he might miss a team meeting or study hall or something. Wilder gave him a thumbs-up on making a morning trip to the polls.

   Bottom line, I thought it was good in so many ways: patriotic, responsible, thoughtful.

   I'm going to keep my eye on that Ellick kid. You might want to as well.

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   I was not surprised at the number of you who thought Navy would be a good starting point for playing a I-A team somewhere down the road. I was shocked, however, at those who thought it was a good choice because they thought Navy's a pushover I-A school.

   Navy is 6-3 and will go to a bowl game this year for something like the sixth or seventh consecutive year. The Midshipmen have, during this season, beaten Rutgers and Wake Forest. And for those of you who don't pay a lot of attention to football, those are programs, which means Navy must be a program.

   Why not say Notre Dame? There are a lot of Catholics down here and, heck, Navy beat Notre Dame last season. Let's see if Notre Dame will play ODU.

   (For the record, they won't. Notre Dame has often been accused of scheduling soft, but the Fighting Irish have never scheduled a I-AA opponent).

   Speaking of I-A football, I believe that on Bobby Wilder's coaches show on Thursday night your's truly (that, would be me) picked Texas Tech to pull the monumental upset (as a sidenote, I also said that Florida would slobberknock Georgia for that stunt the 'Dogs pulled last year).

   I'm feeling kind of full of myself this morning. Then again, it could be all the cheese puffs I ate. 

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   Our site director has told me that the capability of adding a message board to ODUBlitz is far down the road, but that won't stop me from working around that issue.

   Readers can turn any story site or blog on ODUBlitz into a message board simply by adding comments at the bottom of the story and we're going to encourage that. From time to time, I'll throw out a question of the day. We'll get to that later, because I'm going to throw one out today.

   One reader calling themself "zatoony" asks if there's "any word on the player who got hurt" in Saturday's scrimmage. That player would be free safety DeAnthony Jones, who had to be taken on a back stretcher to Sentara Norfolk General after a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit with running back Jamar Parham. Actually, it was a face mask-to-face mask hit, which snapped Jones' head back violently. It snapped Parham's back too, just not as severely. But Parham didn't play any more that night and sat on the sidelines icing his neck.

   Injuries like Jones' are touchy for so many reasons. First off, any time the spinal cord is involved it can take some time for swelling to go down and for the severity of the injury to be diagnosed. Secondly, privacy law comes into effect. While people want information, ODU is not necessarily at liberty to give information. The family or the player himself has to come forward with whatever information they wish to release.

   Jones, as far as I know, is still hospitalized. I had one of his teammates tell me he can't wait for DeAnthony to get back out on the practice field in the spring, which was obviously the player's way of saying he anticipates a full recovery.

   That's the best I can do on the subject at the moment.

   Two reminders:

   I'll be on Bobby Wilder's radio show this evening. The show, hosted by Tony Mercurio and airing on 1310 AM, runs from 7 to 8 p.m. and will originate from Monarch Sports Grille, which is located next to the Constant Center on the first floor of Springhill Suites. My segment will run from 7:30 to 8.

   ODU will hold its last open-to-public scrimmage on Nov. 22 at 1:30 p.m.

   So here's today's question to chew on:

   When ODU eventually elects to play a Division I-A team, which team would you like to see ODU play and why? And when do you think it would happen?

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   The Monarchs are in one of their off weeks where they are not practicing and are placing extra emphasis on academics and weight training.

   It's a week where coach Bobby Wilder meets with each player to go over academic progress. So if you are driving by Powhatan Sports Complex in the afternoons and don't see anything going on, that's why.

   A reminder: I'll be on Wilder's radio show Thursday evening. The show airs 7 to 8 p.m. and is originating from Monarch Sports Grille next to the Constant Center.

   Two of the blog's readers decided to take me and The Pilot to task recently.

   Sportsnut writes, "You really get paid for this dribble?" Amazing, I get paid for this "dribble." I also get paid for this "drivel," which is defined as "stupid talk, childish nonsense, twaddle." Now there's a new word! "Twaddle." Let's all try to use it in a sentence.

   My bet, since this was Sportsnut's first post ever on any Pilot blog or site, is that Sportsnut is a VCU fan or alumnus who didn't like my take on ODU getting the jump on VCU in regards to football. I guess the truth hurts. As for accusing me of copying from a "kids (sic) message board," you might want to read up on how adding football has affected ODU's overall sports budget http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/addition-football-buoys-odus-athletic-program . I wrote that about three weeks ago. Something tells me the publication of that story might have helped spur the growing talk at VCU. But that's just a guess.

   Man, we really need a message board on ODUBlitz.com so that people can start flinging mud -- or should that be sharing ideas? -- about ODU football. We're working on it.

   On another post, dman3 cracks the whip on The Pilot for not covering Division I-AA football -- and more directly the CAA --more thoroughly. With ODU about to crank it up, our coverage of the CAA will grow. We've already made an increased effort. Yours truly was at the JMU-Richmond game two weeks ago and fellow sports writer Paul White wrote about Richmond's Sherman Logan heading into that game. JMU, however, is still a four-hour drive from here. It's not in our back yard. And expecting us to staff a JMU football game at Villanova is not realistic. Now, as the Dukes push through to the end of the season and into the playoffs, that could change.

    No worries, dman3, I didn't miss the props you gave us for our approach in covering ODU football. Thanks for that pat on the back. And keep on reading.

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   For nearly as long as the two schools have existed, ODU and VCU have been like parallel universes.

   While they are very different places, the similarities in athletics are such, and the proximity is such, that the two schools love to hate each other.

   ODU's addition of football, however, has left VCU looking somewhat inferior on the landscape. And maybe that's why there's renewed talk in Richmond of the idea of adding football.

   It's merely an idea, folks. And take it from a VCU graduate, there are a lot of stumbling blocks in the way.

   ODU thinks it had a land issue on its hands when presented with the idea of football? VCU's land issue is twice as bad.

   ODU had a stadium at its disposal. Yes, it was old and in need of repair. But Foreman Field is going to look like a candy apple red '66 Mustang that someone had a lot of money to drop on when it's done. And seriously, who wouldn't want to tool around in a '66 Mustang with the top down?

   VCU has at its disposal ... University of Richmond Stadium? Puuuulease. It's miles from campus and even Richmond is giving up on it, choosing to build its own on-campus stadium.

   When Richmond Times-Dispatch writer Tim Pearrell wrote about renewed interest in football in this morning's T-D, much of the speculation surrounded ODU's financial numbers in adding football. One comment tagged on Pearrell's on-line story talked about how exciting it would be to drawn 5,000-plus to a VCU football game.

   Last I looked, ODU is frantic over the fact that it might not have enough supply for the demand of tickets its facing. There have already been 11,000 season tickets sold, about 4,000 more will be set aside for students, and the hope is that the facility will seat enough once they are done counting available seats that there will be 5,000 more to afford the general public on a single-game basis.

   I helped my 13-year-old with his algebra homework last night, so I know there's a monumental difference in 5,000 (VCU) and 20,000 (ODU). I might even be able to draw up an algebraic equation for the difference. Needless to say, ODU would be the X-factor.

   It is going to be really, really easy for ODU folks to take a superior stance when dealing with VCU folks in the near future in regards to football and athletic department growth. ODU was bold enough to take the plunge. VCU is now asking, "How's the water? Is it cold? Deep?"

   ODU's response: "We're getting along just swimmingly."

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   The two most impressive players last night during ODU's open scrimmage wore Nos. 12 and 90.

   Craig Wilkins and Chris Burnette have consistently shown they belong through 11 weeks of practice. Saturday night, they showed it at game speed. Wilkins was all over the place defensively, particularly in the second half when the Blue team stopped running away from his side.

   His two best plays involved fumbles. He fell on one and caused the other.

   The caused fumble came on a blitz where he finally timed it right. Blitzes, as Wilkins said afterward, are all about timing and catching the QB on the blind side.

   Burnette intercepted a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage and rambled 56 yards with it, almost getting it to the end zone.

   They keep this up and the nickname for this defensive unit will be easy: C.C. and Company.

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