NORFOLK, Va. – For the first time since joining Conference USA following the 2014 season, the Old Dominion University football team won’t have a November to remember.

Saturday, the Monarchs were beaten 51-17 by Middle Tennessee State – ODU’s seventh loss of the season. The defeat eliminates the Monarchs from bowl contention.

“Everybody was extremely disappointed with that performance – especially when it happens at home, at homecoming,” Old Dominion head football coach Bobby Wilder said.

Each of the past three seasons, ODU has either been bowl eligible or within one victory of bowl eligibility entering the season’s final week. Now, with one month remaining in the 2018 regular season, Wilder says his team is playing for pride.

“It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing where we are,” Wilder told News 3 Monday. “We have 21 seniors that have had good careers here that we want to send out with wins. The goal is to win every game we play.”

After playing nine straight weeks, ODU (2-and-7) is off this weekend. When asked if he would use the open date to evaluate his program and mull any potential personnel/staff changes, Wilder said he’d wait.

“No, I’ll evaluate that when the season is over,” Wilder explained. “Right now it’s just about getting this team healthy and getting ready to play a good football game against North Texas. We’ve got three football games left on the schedule and it is all about getting better as a football team. After the season we will look at every aspect of the program and what areas we need to get better. Right now, the evaluation and the meetings are about how to improve these final three weeks. You always work to improve during the season.”

The Monarchs (2-and-7 overall, 1-and-5 C-USA) host North Texas (7-and-2 overall, 3-and-2 C-USA) November 10th at 3:30 p.m.