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By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 19, 2007
On William & Mary's first play from scrimmage last Saturday night, Liberty defensive end Steve Ackley blew through the Tribe's offensive line and sent quarterback Jake Phillips sprawling to the turf.
"Right off the bat, you get a good feel for what you're doing, and how it's going to play out," Liberty coach Danny Rocco said.
For the second straight week, we know what area Chris has to cover in his LU Notebook:
LU Notebook: Flames defense struggles against short-pass attacks
By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 27, 2007
Lost in the talk of Liberty's failures to pressure the last two quarterbacks it has faced is one simple truth: It's hard to fluster a QB when he releases the ball in quick fashion.
That was the case at Elon last week, when Phoenix quarterback Scott Riddle took two-step drops and got rid of the ball seconds after the snap. Elon didn't hurt Liberty with the downfield passing game as much as it did with the dink-and-dunk screen game.
Nearly a month later and we're still having the same issues:
Chris' LU Notebook wrote:What's the problem?
Liberty lost three starters from its 2006 defense - defensive end Jason Horn, linebacker Manny Rojas and cornerback E.L. Estes.
Two of those positions were filled with FBS transfers, Vince Redd at linebacker (though Nick Hursky moved from the outside to Rojas' middle LB spot) and Kent Hicks at cornerback. Kevin Richard, who started one game last season, filled the DE spot.
So it's safe to assume LU coach Danny Rocco didn't expect to have the sort of precipitious dropoff in defensive performance that he's seen this season.
The Flames allowed 172 points in 11 games last season. They've allowed 163 in six games in 2007. LU has struggled to get off the field on third downs and hasn't gotten a red-zone stop in 19 tries. They've allowed 500-plus yards twice.
With so much talent returning from last year's defense, what gives? Rocco couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"They're hard answers to just come up with," Rocco said. "We're not generating much of a pass rush, and to me, that is one of the primary concerns. And we've been deficient in pass coverage. I think a big part of that is being able to rush the passer with any sort of consistency.
"You know, playing defense is a lot more than a collection of individuals. Playing football is a lot more than that. This defensive unit, I'm hopeful, really does find its niche and its swagger here in the second half of the season. For whatever reasons, that really hasn't happened."
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