Everything Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne said previewing South Carolina

Before traveling to Columbia later this week, Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne spoke with the media on Monday to preview his team’s matchup with South Carolina.

The Gamecocks will host the Monarchs on Saturday with kickoff set for 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network. Here’s everything Rahne had to say.

Opening statement

“Excited about Week One. Williams-Brice Stadium is an unbelievable environment. I know that our team is excited there. Working on a bunch of crowd noise and things like that to get us ready to go. I know it’s going to be a loud place. I have been there before, and their fans do a great job. So I think our guys are ready to go. It’s one of these situations where you get to this point of the year, and I thought, yesterday’s practice was non-padded, but you can see the speed and intensity and the focus the guys had and are ready to go out in action and play somebody else beside their teammates.”

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On what he tells his players who haven’t played in an atmosphere like Williams-Brice Stadium before

“I don’t think there’s anything you can necessarily do to prepare them for that. We can prepare them for the noise and things like that. One thing I want them all to do is soak it in for a second and then hopefully it is really, really quiet for the rest of the game. This is why you play college football is these type of environments. Whether it is our own home environment, which is awesome, or being able to go on the road for something like this — this is why you do it. This is what you dream of when you are a little kid. You don’t dream of an empty stadium and people sitting on their hands. You dream of it being loud and excited and people having traditions and chants and things like that that get you going. So I think it is going to be something that our guys are going to really enjoy.”

On the perspective of being a head coach going into a hostile environment

“I don’t think it’s going to be any different than it was at Virginia Tech last year. I mean, we’ve played in loud environments before. So I’m not necessarily concerned about that. There’s some things that are different for this head coaching job than there have been in the past with the iPads, which obviously we had in the bowl game, with the helmet-to-helmet communication, which we have never had, things of that nature. So I think that there’s going to be some things that are just a little different. But I think we’re prepared for that. We’ve used those a lot as we’ve ramped up for it. So I think as a coaching staff, we’re going to be ready to go as well.”

On what sticks out to him about South Carolina and the way the team plays

“Well obviously, Coach (Shane) Beamer grew up in the business, so he’s got a certain way that he wants things to go. I think his teams play tough. You expect them to play good special teams just based on how he was raised in the business. They have a new special teams coordinator but obviously, he is a guy who has a ton of experience, particularly in the NFL. That’s one area you always expect them to do is go play great special teams. They didn’t run the ball probably as well as they wanted to last year. They really invested heavily in building both offensive and defensive lines and getting some guys there. I think that’s one area that we’ve got to expect that they are going to go out there and try to run the ball better. That doesn’t mean they are going to run it more. I think that’s one of the big myths is when you say that, people think, ‘Okay, they are going to run it more.’ They just want to run it more efficiently and that sort of thing. I think, obviously, when you bring in a guy like Shawn Elliott who I coached against, I know how much passion he has and the toughness he brings. Bringing him back to South Carolina, you know that mentality is going to start to rub off on the offense a little bit, too. We expect them to be tough and physical. Their defense certainly is that way and plays that way. Really, from all the way from the top down, they have a very physical secondary. Then, their linebacker (Debo Williams) who is a really good player. That’s his calling card is to play fast and play physical. That’s the main thing we’re looking for.”

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On preparing to play with the noise at Williams-Brice Stadium

“We’ve got a speaker, we’re following people around, doing that sort of thing. We’ve listened to Space Odyssey an ungodly amount of times. We’ll probably crank up the rooster noises here a little bit, just things like that. You just try to make it so that it becomes kind of white noise as much as anything. That’s one of the things you’re just trying to do. Sometimes you’ll even use actual white noise/jet type stuff to simulate the crowd and things like that because of how it goes. You’re just trying to make it so the guys can communicate, particularly the offense in that environment — the quarterback with the offensive line, the offensive line with each other, the coordinators to the quarterbacks.”

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