Thomas Demarco (disclaimer: about odu)

[∞∞∞]

I know you guys are probably sick of hearing about ODU, especially since we don't matter at this point, but you'll have to suck it up again!

First of all, I'll start it out with a great quote from NC Central head coach Mose Rison,

We'd already faced Appalachian State's Armanti Edwards and the kid from Duke (Thaddeus Lewis), so we thought we'd faced the best quarterbacks we were going to see all year," Eagles coach Mose Rison said. "Thomas DeMarco proved he belongs in that same class. He is the straw that stirs the drink.

Demarco's stats today:

Rushing
30 Rushing Attempts (only one run for a loss)
224 yards
4 Touchdowns (25, 38, 20, 16 yard runs)
7.5 yds/run

Passing
10 for 19
169 yards
1 Touchdown
1 Interception

393 of ODU's 448 yards.

I know it was against mighty NCCU, but still, that's a pretty damn good performance by a QB playing in his first D-1 season. POW?

GO MONARCHS!

[ODU89]

If Armanti Edwards is one of the best FCS QB's in the country and ODU Thomas DeMarco is in his class, if not better than Demarco is one the best QBs in the country and certainly the best dual threat QB in the CAA. 230 yards rushing from your QB is crazy!

Thanks Coach Rison for the indepedent assessment,now others know what we have thought all along! Imagine what he will be like in two years as a senior when we join the CAA!

[CatMom]

If Armanti Edwards is one of the best FCS QB's in the country and ODU Thomas DeMarco is in his class

Not to take away from the young man as a v good QB but, I'm waiting for you to come up against some D's that can contain. Let's not jump the gun here just yet.

[Monarch Nation]

Yeah, OK, we get it. We played a soft schedule. Every time we make a post about something our team has done, somebody comes up with that.

I know that every other team here would go at least 8-2 playing the schedule we had. We get that too.

Time and time again I have stated that we are in the learning progress. We are acutely aware that we would get slaughtered playing Richmond, Delaware, Montana et al. We are a start up. We have no playing experience except for our ten games this season. Our head coach is a rookie head coach. Our fans are rookie fans. And yet we have put together a win-loss record that nobody, including ODU homers, thought we would. Our two losses have been by a total of eight points.

What I believe some of you don't get is that we are playing these games with a boatload of freshmen and red shirt freshmen. We have a sprinkling of JUCOs in there and one senior, but the majority of the team is freshman/RS freshmen status. We haven't even reached our full compliment of scholarships yet. Our linemen are (for the most part) high school small. They will fill out with maturity and weight room training, but for now they are just not there as far as physical maturity goes.

So, would DeMarco be able to run on the higher end FCS teams? Probably not to the success that he has against Jacksonville, NCCU, Georgetown and so forth. But he does add a dimension that a non running QB does, he does it very well, and he would probably be a headache for opposing FCS DCs.

Think about this when you give us the old "yeah but" arguments. I wonder how some of the storied teams here would fare if they had to play just freshmen/RS freshmen with only a smattering of junior and one senior?

We try not to come here and beat our chests about ODU. We are proud of our team however, and believe their accomplishments are worthy of discussion on an FCS message board.

[DaBigBlue]

65 are Freshmen/RS Freshmen, some who got to FB camp just weeks before the first snap. To learn a no-huddle spread offense.
44 are Walkons, a couple had never played any football of any type before coming to ODU.
Our QB was recruited as a punter out of HS.
It's been a blast watching this team grow.