Anderson Miller has been waiting a lifetime for this day. This morning, the senior from First Colonial High will sign a national letter of intent to play football at Old Dominion, becoming a fourth-generation college football player in his family. Today is a bells-and-whistles day for Miller for another reason, though.

Just when it looked like Old Dominion had closed the book on its current recruiting class, Galen Evans said Monday he will become a Monarch. A 6-foot-3, 295-pound defensive tackle from Annapolis (Md.) Area Christian, Evans picked the Monarchs over Kent State after receiving a lot of high-level interest.

Larry Alston, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound linebacker who made official visits to Nevada and Temple the previous two weekends, decided Sunday night that he will play football at Old Dominion. The Monarchs also received a commitment Sunday from Reggie Diggs, a 6-foot-4, 188-pound wide receiver from Surry High School who had initially committed to the University of Richmond.

That'll teach them not to miss a meeting. The NCAA slapped Old Dominion athletic director Wood Selig and football coach Bobby Wilder with a $1,000 fine each for missing a pregame meeting on the eve of the Monarchs' second-round playoff game at Georgia Southern in early December.

Old Dominion’s defensive backs spent the 2011 season battling injury and image issues.

And one may have caused the other.

It was just the second game of the season when T.J. Cowart, the team’s top defensive back broke his arm in a game at Georgia State. After that, nothing much seemed to go right for ODU’s secondary.

With nine days to go before national signing day, Old Dominion's football team went fishing and landed a trophy catch. Andrew Everett, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound defensive end who had previously committed to Southern Miss in the fall, said Sunday that he will instead sign with the Monarchs.

“Twitched up.” In the rhetorical lingo that Old Dominion coach Bobby Wilder uses, this was a new phrase. And his use of it meant a lot. Wilder was talking about his linebacker corps and what fans could expect to see in the 2012 season. For the past three seasons, ODU’s linebackers have been somewhat undersized and the depth chart has been somewhat thin.

Terrell Reid, a 6-foot-2, 216-pound linebacker from McKinley Tech in Washington, said Wednesday that he will sign to play at Old Dominion. Reid made an official visit over the weekend and said, "I fell in love with the place and the coaching staff, and the players made me feel at home. It just felt right."

If the early bird gets the worm, then Old Dominion's football team should have a harvest of worms by the time May arrives. Coach Bobby Wilder had all of his players "flip" their academic schedules this semester on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The Monarchs will practice in the mornings on those days this spring.

Chris Burnette is taking on a leadership role for the Old Dominion Monarchs. He hopes to use the lessons he learned from last year’s senior defensive linemen ... because they aren’t around anymore. It’s just Burnette, the only returning starter of a front line that was pretty good last season.