The Monarchs are my sleeper pick in CUSA East in 2016. They return a fair amount of talent on both sides of the ball.
On offense they return talent all over the field. ODU returns QB's David Washington who is looking to come back strong after a torn ACL ended his season. David Bentley who got benched last season finished the season strong after Washington went down. They will both battle it out for the starting job in fall camp. Luckily for them they return a strong receiving core led by Zach Pascal and Jonathan Duhart. ODU also returns a solid running game behind Ray Lawry who rushed for 1,146 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2016. Quarterback is still a question mark, but if they can get some good to average performances from either Washington or Bentley they should be in good shape with a solid offensive line.
Defensively ODU returns production all over the field. Some notable names include DT Rashaad Coward (47 tackles as a sophomore), DE Oshame Jimenez (led team in sacks as a sophomore), and DE Bunmi Rotimi (second in sacks as a junior). ODU also returns leading tackler senior LB T.J Ricks who will move to outside linebacker to better utilize his speed. The Monarchs returns all kinds of experience in the secondary as well. Depth might be an issue for ODU, but if they manage to stay healthy on defense they should be one of the better defenses in the east.
This team reminds me of UTSA's squad from a couple years ago. Tons of veteran leadership after the transition years. If they stay healthy (the one thing UTSA could not do) they could pull off some upsets in the east.
On offense they return talent all over the field. ODU returns QB's David Washington who is looking to come back strong after a torn ACL ended his season. David Bentley who got benched last season finished the season strong after Washington went down. They will both battle it out for the starting job in fall camp. Luckily for them they return a strong receiving core led by Zach Pascal and Jonathan Duhart. ODU also returns a solid running game behind Ray Lawry who rushed for 1,146 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2016. Quarterback is still a question mark, but if they can get some good to average performances from either Washington or Bentley they should be in good shape with a solid offensive line.
Defensively ODU returns production all over the field. Some notable names include DT Rashaad Coward (47 tackles as a sophomore), DE Oshame Jimenez (led team in sacks as a sophomore), and DE Bunmi Rotimi (second in sacks as a junior). ODU also returns leading tackler senior LB T.J Ricks who will move to outside linebacker to better utilize his speed. The Monarchs returns all kinds of experience in the secondary as well. Depth might be an issue for ODU, but if they manage to stay healthy on defense they should be one of the better defenses in the east.
This team reminds me of UTSA's squad from a couple years ago. Tons of veteran leadership after the transition years. If they stay healthy (the one thing UTSA could not do) they could pull off some upsets in the east.
