Old Dominion Fact Sheet

Since bringing back their football program in 2009, Old Dominion has climbed up the college football map of importance in a fast, impressive manner.

They bring in a decorated quarterback, and a positive motivator of a coach into the Sun Bowl Saturday evening.

Here are some quick hit facts on the "upstart" Monarchs.

***Bobby Wilder is 49-17 in six years at the helm of the program, leading ODU to FCS playoff berths in 2011 and 2012, winning their conference (CAA) in 2012.

***Quarterback Taylor Heinicke is just one of 18 division one quarterbacks to pass for 10,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards, and is the first quarterback to play college ball in the state of Virginia to pass to throw for 10,000 yards.  He also thrown for 300 yards 23 times in his career.

***True freshman running back Ray Lawry ran for a career high 131 yards against Marshall, he leads the team with five rushing touchdowns.  He also has an 8.2 per carry average on the season.

**Another true freshman defensive back Christian Byrum picked off Marshall's Rakeem Cato twice in their loss last week.

***Backup quarterback David Washington also starts at wide receiver.

***ODU is 3-7 against FBS teams.

***Receiver Antonio Vaughan has a 29-game catch streak.

***Fellow receiver Zach Pascal has stepped up huge for Monarchs this season, coming into Saturday he has back-to-back 100 yard receiving games, and has became a major factor in their offensive attack.

***Due to injuries, ODU has had four different starting lineup combos along the offensive line in six games.

***ODU is tied for first in the nation in fewest penalties per game, they have eleven offensive penalties, four on defense, and four on special teams

***Defensive ends Daniel Appouh, and Jude Brenya hail from the country of Ghana.

***The Monarchs are 30-9 at home, and have sold out all of their 39 games since 2009.

***ODU had football from 1930-41, but was disbanded due to a rule that would not allow freshman to play.

***Notable ODU Alumni: Jay Harris (ESPN Anchor), Justin Verlander (Detroit Tigers), Brandon Vera (UFC), Oliver Purnell (DePaul's Men's Basketball coach) Kent Bazemore (Atlanta Hawks)

***In 2013 ODU had 31 scoring drives that were less than two minutes in length, this year they have had seven of those drives.

***ODU has a 17-11 record in televised games.

***ODU's enrollment is is just over 24,600.

***The Monarchs have 16 pairs of players who played high school ball together, and two trio of players who played together in high school.