Old Dominion Monarchs Hire Former Tennessee Volunteers Assistant Kody Cook as Wide Receivers Coach

© Jim Dedmon/USA TODAY Sports

Old Dominion Head Football Coach Ricky Rahne has named Kody Cook wide receivers coach for the Monarchs. Cook had spent the last two years as an assistant wide receiver coach. The Volunteers in 2022 threw for 326 yards a game and a total of 38 touchdowns on the season. "Kody has proven across multiple levels of college football that he excels at building relationships with both current players and recruits," Rahne said in a press release.

History of Kody Cook

Before getting hired on at Tennessee, Kody Cook coached for four years at Hutchinson Community College, where he started his college playing career. At Hutchinson, Cook started as a wide receiver's coach working his way to co-offensive coordinator. He also spent the first year after graduating from Kansas State as a graduate assistant under Bill Snyder.

As a walk-on at Kansas State, Cook had a total of 47 catches for 663 yards and four touchdowns. His senior season he also was called upon to play quarterback and did a serviceable job throwing for 447 yards and four touchdowns and ran in two more scores.

What Kody Cook Brings to ODU

Kody Cook is an up-and-coming coach and someone to keep your eye on to keep moving up through the ranks over the next few seasons. Going from the SEC to the Sun Belt could potentially be an adjustment, however, Cook's work at Kansas State, Hutchinson CC, and Tennessee shows he has strong and versatile experience at all levels already. Continuing to move up the ranks and build this experience will be the name of the game for him while also building a wide receiver corps and passing game that ranked 99th in FBS into a formidable unit. Kody will get his first glimpse of this Monarch offense in action during the Spring Game on April 14th.

Old Dominion was competitive in every game last year, and Cook could potentially get this team over the hump by building this passing game with OC Kevin Decker, TEs coach David Weeks, and RBs coach Tony Lucas. This is a team that is moldable into something that could be competing for Sun Bel titles given a high volume of returning players. If you top that with good coaching, including that of Kody Cook, you could have something special.