NORFOLK — In December 2020, as much of the world remained locked in a cautious holding pattern, college football powered ahead as best it could.

The results of a recent presidential election were, it turned out, falsely in doubt.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which by then had killed 300,000 Americans, finally began to meet its match when the world’s first vaccines were rolled out.

College sports seasons, either vastly altered or erased altogether, were dropping like flies.

And Old Dominion, which was coming off a canceled football season with an unproven new coach, restocked for the future.

Ricky Rahne, hired to lead the Monarchs a calendar year earlier after six seasons as an assistant at Penn State, announced an 18-man signing class on Dec. 16, 2020. Never mind that none of the new player

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