Early in the second quarter, ESPN2 announcers Jay Alter and Rocky Boiman began calling Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph ODU’s “Fearless Freshman.”

He certainly was Thursday night, and under the glare of national television lights.

ODU bolted to a 30-7 halftime lead and coasted to a stunning, 47-19 victory over Georgia Southern in a game that thrust the Monarchs into the Sun Belt East Division lead.

ODU (4-4 overall, 3-1 Sun Belt) is tied with Georgia Southern (5-3, 3-1) for first place in the East Divison halfway through the Sun Belt season. Marshall (4-3, 2-1), which is off this weekend, is third. Nobody else in the East has a winning Sun Belt record.

ODU and Georgia Southern were playing with just five days to prepare for the national broadcast. It was ODU's first Thursday night game and gave the University a rare night in the national limelight, as there was only one other college football game on TV.

"Credit to the entire organization," said Ricky Rahne, ODU's head coach. "Everyone bought into the plan of how we were going to prepare for this game and they executed it.

"Our players prepared, our coaches had to give up a couple of reps. Our players got in the cold tubs more. Our strength coaches modified the workouts.

"I'm just very, very proud of how the team responded against a very good Georgia Southern football team."

Playing before a festive Military Appreciation Night crowd of 18,281, which included thouands of members of the military, the Monarchs claimed their most lopsided home victory since a 47-7 victory over Hampton in 2021.

ODU rolled to 560 offensive yards, the most in three seasons, and for the third game in a row held a team under 20 points. Georgia Southern was limited to 416 yards, with much of it coming against ODU subs in the fourth quarter.

The victory was the fourth in the last five games for ODU and the common denominator in all four was Joseph, who took over in the second half at Bowling Green on Sept. 28 and led the Monarchs to a 30-27 comeback victory. He has since been ODU’s starter.

Joseph had the finest game of his short career on Thursday, completing 20-of-26 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns and rushing eight times for 69 yards and a touchdown. The redshirt freshman from Newport Beach, California went to the bench for good late in the third quarter.

"Colton is really playing well, but there are some things that he could do even better," Rahne said. "He even said that to me. I think what is happening right now is that our coaching staff has done a nice job of understanding what Colton executes the best, and what our team executes the best.

"Colton has this innate ability to make something happen. And what he's done recently is take care of the football and not put the football in jeopardy.

"He's made major, major improvement in that area and I think he threw the ball with more accuracy today.

"Our success passing, I mean, that was everyone on offense. The offensive line has really been protecting a lot better."

Running back Aaron Young, the senior transfer from Rutgers, was a workhorse for ODU, rushing 14 times for 77 yards and a touchdown.

Isiah Paige, the senior from Richmond, led ODU with seven catches for 100 yards. Demariyon Houston had four for 62 yards and two touchdowns.

ODU led 30-7 at halftime, but was wary of a Georgia Southern comeback – the Eagles erased a Marshall 20-point, fourth-quarter lead earlier this year and won 24-23. And last week, the Eagles upended James Madison, 28-14.

But the Monarchs quickly put the game away.

Will Jones II intercepted his second pass of the season 36 seconds into the second half, setting up a short, 43-yard scoring drive. Young carried three times for 23 yards, including a nine-yard touchdown run that gave ODU a 37-7 lead.

Joseph then finished off ODU’s next possession with a 30-yard touchdown run that made it 44-7 and put the game out of reach.

"That team was able to make a miraculous comeback against another team in our conference," Rahne said. "And so I knew they (the Eagles) had confidence. I'm sure that's what they were talking about the whole time at halftime."

ODU dominated from the start.

On their third possession, the Monarchs drove 70 yards in nine plays, with Joseph completing four of five passes for 50 yards, the final pass an eight-yarder to tailback Devin Roche with 8:07 left in the first quarter.

On their next possession, Young carried six times for 32 yards. Then, on third and eight, Joseph found Houston on the left side of the end zone. Houston had half a step on a defender and Joseph hit him in stride.

The PAT was blocked and ODU led, 13-0, with 1:17 left in the first quarter.

The Monarchs scored again on their first possession of the second quarter on a trick play that also worked at Bowling Green. Joseph faked a run, which caused the defensive backs to come up, then lobbed a pass to tight end Pat Conroy, who carried it 56 yards for the touchdown.

ODU led 20-0 with 13:49 to play.

Georgia Southern then used a little subterfuge of their own, as JC French tossed an inside screen pass to Josh Dallas, who sprinted untouched into the end zone with 7:51 to go to trim the lead to 20-7.

"It was important that we responded after they scored, and we did," Rahne said. 

On its next possession, ODU had a touchdown pass taken off the scoreboard by a pass interference penalty and the drive stalled. Ethan Sanchez then kicked a 29-yard field goal that gave the Monarchs a 23-7 lead.

ODU got the ball back with 2:37 left, and was not satisfied with the 16-point lead. Joseph led the Monarchs on a 74-yard TD drive.

Joseph rushed for 30 yards on second down and completed two passes to Houston for 37 yards, the final a seven-yard touchdown pass to Houston, the Oklahoma City native who transferred from Missouri.

ODU still faces a rugged schedule the rest of the season. After playing at Appalachian State on Nov. 2, ODU has a weekend off and then hosts JMU on Nov. 16. That game is sold out.

ODU then closes out the season with a Nov. 23 home game against Marshall and a Nov. 30 road contest at Arkansas State.

Rahne's mantra has always been that his players take one game at a time and he declined to look ahead as well.

"Its feels great," Joseph said of the victory. "But we can't soak on it too much. We've got to go 1-0 each week. That's why we're winning games."