Old Dominion football an experienced, emerging group

Old Dominion coach Bobby Wilder has the Monarchs contending for a C-USA title in just the team’s third year in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision.

HUNTINGTON — When Old Dominion was picked sixth in its division in the Conference USA preseason football poll, coach Bobby Wilder came a bit unglued.

That’s not in the “coachspeak” manual. The line for the 12 other coaches may have been, “It doesn’t matter where you are picked before the season; it’s where you finish,” or some variation.

But Wilder stood up for his Monarchs, who were entering their third season of C-USA play and eighth at any level.

“When I spoke to the media day, it was more about the fact we had 17 starters back and we had 42…