ODU’s prep for season opener against Virginia Tech includes lots of Metallica
NORFOLK — They aren’t sleeping with one eye open, and they’re off to Blacksburg instead of Never Never Land, but make no mistake: The Sandman has entered for Old Dominion’s players.
In advance of the Monarchs’ season opener Saturday at Virginia Tech, Metallica’s 1991 hit “Enter Sandman” has served as a soundtrack for the program. The song, which plays as the Hokies’ players enter Lane Stadium and sends their fan base into what’s become a traditional frenzy, has played ad nauseam at ODU’s practice facility in recent days.
“We’ve played a certain Metallica song 427 times already,” fourth-year Monarchs coach Ricky Rahne said Monday at his first weekly news conference of the season. “I think it’ll play another 427. It used to be one of my favorite songs, and I’ve heard it a lot now.”
Playing the song, of course, is part of an effort to take the shine off Lane Stadium’s notoriously intimidating environment. Tech averaged 64,387 fans per home game last season, filling the stadium to 98% capacity despite a 3-8 record that included a seven-game losing streak.
Among the Hokies’ losses was a 20-17 setback to ODU at S.B. Ballard Stadium in which some of Tech’s coaches got stuck in an elevator at halftime. To make matters worse, the Hokies returned to their locker room to find that some of their equipment had been stolen, a mystery that remains unsolved.
There is no mystery, however, in what the Monarchs face in Lane Stadium’s unfriendly confines. The trick is not worrying about it too much.
“It’s Monday. We play Saturday,” said junior receiver Javon Harvey, a former Lake Taylor High star. “If you get too excited, you might tense up. You might lose focus on details that coaches are teaching us throughout the week to prepare us for Saturday, and we might miss out on those. So it’s just being in the present moment. And as maturity comes, you learn to understand that.”
Rahne, a former offensive coordinator at Penn State who has also coached at Vanderbilt and Kansas State, has experienced some of college football’s most storied venues. He said he’s seen Tech’s stadium only on TV and in video games.
Rahne remembers seeing Tennessee’s players enter in Knoxville and Ohio State’s band dotting the “i” in Columbus, not to mention six seasons spent at Penn State’s raucous Beaver Stadium.
Lane Stadium’s construction, Rahne said, makes the crowd hard to ignore.
“Those vertical-type stadiums, they’re a little bit louder,” he said. “They feel like the fans are a little bit more part of the game, which, again, I enjoy. I think that that’s what makes the game so awesome. That’s why as a coach, as a player, you choose to play at these places: because you get to experience those type of environments. Pretty special.”
Rahne may be growing tired of “Enter Sandman,” but his players understand its significance. ODU went 3-9 last season, losing its final six games.
“We play that song a lot, but (we’re) just focusing play by play, drill by drill, being able to block that out during practice,” said junior linebacker and Williamsburg native EJ Green. “So when it’s time, we’re going to be ready to roll.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com. Twitter @DavidHallVP.
