[SuperJon]

Big South favorite Liberty placed a League-high 11 on the preseason squad -- the second-most preseason selections in Big South history -- and became the first team to have an honoree at each position on offense and defense.

OFFENSE
QB - Brock Smith, Liberty, Jr. (Hershey, Pa.)
RB - Rashad Jennings, Liberty, Jr. (Forest, Va.)
RB - Zach Terrell, Liberty, Jr. (Manasses Park, Va.)
WR - Jerome Simpson, Coastal Carolina, Sr. (Reidsville, N.C.)
WR - Duvaughn Flagler, Gardner-Webb, Sr. (Norcross, Ga.)
WR - Brandon Turner, Liberty, Sr. (Gretna, Va.)
TE - Chris Luck, Liberty, Sr. (Montvale, Va.)
OL - Stephen Sene, Liberty, R-Sr. (Columbia, S.C.)
OL - Demario Deese, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Charlotte, N.C.)
OL - Rick Howell, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Satellite Beach, Fla.)
OL - Robert Brown, VMI, Sr. (Mesquite, Texas)
OL - Eddie Pinigis, Liberty, R-Sr. (Forest, Va.)

DEFENSE
DL - Brian Johnston, Gardner-Webb, Sr. (San Diego, Calif.)
DL - Dennis Justiniani, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Huntington Beach, Calif.)
DL - Adrain Grady, Coastal Carolina, R-Sr. (Leland, N.C.)
DL - Steven Ackley, Liberty, R-Sr. (Columbia, Tenn.)
LB - Mario E. Brown, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Greenville, S.C.)
LB - Jada Ross, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Summerville, S.C.)
LB - Stevie Ray Lloyd, Liberty, R-Sr. (Lynchburg, Va.)
LB - Mike Pavelko, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Eden Prairie, Minn.)
DB - C.J. Hirschman, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Jacksonville, Fla.)
DB - Daniel Cooke, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Charlotte, N.C.)
DB - Ryan Greiser, Liberty, Jr. (Quakertown, Pa.)
DB - Okeba Rollinson, Charleston Southern, R-Jr. (Gastonia, N.C.)

SPECIAL TEAMS
PK - Nick Ellis, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Stockbridge, Ga.)
P - Michael Hanna, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Lawrenceville, Ga.)
LS - David McCarthy, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Irmo, S.C.)
RS - Wynton Jackson, Liberty, R-Sr. (Jacksonville, Fla.)

PRESEASON OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jerome Simpson, WR, Sr., Coastal Carolina

PRESEASON DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Brian Johnston, DE, Sr., Gardner-Webb

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH (points)
1. Liberty (87)
2. Coastal Carolina (79)
3. Gardner-Webb (63)
4. Charleston Southern (43)
5. VMI (28)

[Sly Fox]

It appears the league respects our offense ... as well they should.

Congrats to all of the guys named. I can't really argue with many of the choices. Of course I suspect we may have guys with seasons better than the two players of the year choices. But based on last season they both are deserving.

[jcmanson]

Very nice to get this type of respect. However, hopefully at the end of the year everyone will be respecting our defense MUCH more.

[Sly Fox]

Chris' story extolling our preseason love from around the league:

LU favored to win Big South

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
July 27, 2007

CONCORD, N.C. - It has only been two years since Liberty University's football program was lumped in the same conversation with schools like Savannah State and Indiana State. The Flames were 1-10 in 2005, and those were the only two full-scholarship Division I-AA programs with worse records. Both went 0-11.

So there is some significance attached to the normally mundane announcement of preseason conference accolades for the Flames. Most coaches dig deep into their clich? arsenal upon hearing their team's spot in the preseason pecking order.

Click Here for Full Story

[paradox]

Big South favorite Liberty placed a League-high 11 on the preseason squad -- the second-most preseason selections in Big South history -- and became the first team to have an honoree at each position on offense and defense.

OFFENSE
QB - Brock Smith, Liberty, Jr. (Hershey, Pa.)
RB - Rashad Jennings, Liberty, Jr. (Forest, Va.)
RB - Zach Terrell, Liberty, Jr. (Manasses Park, Va.)
WR - Jerome Simpson, Coastal Carolina, Sr. (Reidsville, N.C.)
WR - Duvaughn Flagler, Gardner-Webb, Sr. (Norcross, Ga.)
WR - Brandon Turner, Liberty, Sr. (Gretna, Va.)
TE - Chris Luck, Liberty, Sr. (Montvale, Va.)
OL - Stephen Sene, Liberty, R-Sr. (Columbia, S.C.)
OL - Demario Deese, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Charlotte, N.C.)
OL - Rick Howell, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Satellite Beach, Fla.)
OL - Robert Brown, VMI, Sr. (Mesquite, Texas)
OL - Eddie Pinigis, Liberty, R-Sr. (Forest, Va.)

DEFENSE
DL - Brian Johnston, Gardner-Webb, Sr. (San Diego, Calif.)
DL - Dennis Justiniani, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Huntington Beach, Calif.)
DL - Adrain Grady, Coastal Carolina, R-Sr. (Leland, N.C.)
DL - Steven Ackley, Liberty, R-Sr. (Columbia, Tenn.)
LB - Mario E. Brown, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Greenville, S.C.)
LB - Jada Ross, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Summerville, S.C.)
LB - Stevie Ray Lloyd, Liberty, R-Sr. (Lynchburg, Va.)
LB - Mike Pavelko, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Eden Prairie, Minn.)
DB - C.J. Hirschman, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Jacksonville, Fla.)
DB - Daniel Cooke, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Charlotte, N.C.)
DB - Ryan Greiser, Liberty, Jr. (Quakertown, Pa.)
DB - Okeba Rollinson, Charleston Southern, R-Jr. (Gastonia, N.C.)

SPECIAL TEAMS
PK - Nick Ellis, Charleston Southern, Sr. (Stockbridge, Ga.)
P - Michael Hanna, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Lawrenceville, Ga.)
LS - David McCarthy, Gardner-Webb, Jr. (Irmo, S.C.)
RS - Wynton Jackson, Liberty, R-Sr. (Jacksonville, Fla.)

PRESEASON OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jerome Simpson, WR, Sr., Coastal Carolina

PRESEASON DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Brian Johnston, DE, Sr., Gardner-Webb

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH (points)
1. Liberty (87)
2. Coastal Carolina (79)
3. Gardner-Webb (63)
4. Charleston Southern (43)
5. VMI (28)

That's a nice representation of LU players. Also, we have Vince Redd coming in along with the WR that we got off the rebound from Louisville, among others.

[Sly Fox]

The WR Summers may not play this fall. I get the feeling the staff would love to redshirt him considering we are actually in decent shape at WR right now.

But yes, the league believes we are stacked and I hate to argue with them.

[paradox]

So, I guess if we can sweep the Big South, we only need to win at Elon and William & Mary, and we'll have a shot at the post-season. Weeks three and four are absolutely pivotal. If we win those two on the road, our confidence level should be very high when we hit CCU, CSU, and GW at the tail end of the schedule.

[Sly Fox]

Here is the take from Ian (CCU Beat writer) of the Myrtle Beach fishwrap:

Liberty nabs top spot from Coastal
Flames coach thinks CCU is team to beat

By Ian Guerin - The Sun News

CONCORD, N.C. --
Apparently history means nothing.

After winning at least a share of three consecutive Big South Conference titles, the Coastal Carolina football team was picked to finish second in the annual preseason poll, released Friday at the conference's media day. The poll included votes from the league's coaches, sports information directors and selected media.

This story includes a number of great quotes from league coaches ...

"Liberty's got to be favored, I understand that," (G-W's Steve) Patton said. "But you don't have to mail it in to them yet. Coastal's not going to give it up that easy.

"Every good team graduates a lot of seniors. If you don't, it means you don't recruit well. It's just Liberty is the hot team to pick right now."

"We feel honored we were picked second," Bennett said. "[It's like] the way it was at the beginning - the underdog."

Click Here for Full Story

[jcmanson]

I agree with you dox. We should win the first two without much of a problem, and IMO we should beat both W&M and Elon, although it will be very tough. If we can get those two that will be huge for player confidence. If we don't win both, I don't see us making the playoffs, however, if we do win those we then come home for St. Francis. With a win there, we would be 5-0 heading into the Toledo game. No doubt, we would be solidly in the top 25, probably top 20. In order to make the playoffs this year, as many have said before, we need to be 10-1 since we have a couple d2's. It's possible, but there is no room for error.

[Sly Fox]

From the Charlote fishwrap:

Liberty voted top team in conference
The Flames return 10 all-conference players

BRETT HONEYCUTT
bhoneycutt@charlotteobserver.com

CONCORD --
A sign that things are changing in the Big South was the presence of Presbyterian at the league's football media day Friday at Embassy Suites.

The Blue Hose is in its transition year from NCAA Division II to Division I before joining the league in 2008, when Stony Brook (N.Y.) will also join for football only.

The other noticeable change was the selection of Liberty as the top team in the conference's preseason poll, supplanting three-time Big South champion Coastal Carolina.

Click Here for Full Story

[JDUB]

W&M and Elon are both very winnable. I don't think W&M has had anything great happen to them since last year, correct me if i'm wrong, and we saw that they were beatable last year when we only lost by one point. Elon... we may have the home team advantage playing there. they are right down the road from my house, and the community thinks of them as terrible, even the students do. We should be able to take them without too much problem.
The only thing I see that should bar us from the playoffs is injuries. You may think I'm overly optimistic, but we have a very good team this year with some experience and great coaching and i have a lot of confidence in them

[SuperJon]

Being 5-0, we may be top 25, no better than 21-22 though. You have to remember, our wins would be over two DIIs, a team picked last in the CAA South, and a team picked 6th in the SoCon, along with a partial scholly St. Francis team. The only way we'll be considered for Top 20 (which I still highly doubt) is if we win each game by two touchdowns at the least. I'm not trying to be a downer, only trying to look at it realistically because of our schedule. To have a shot at the playoffs, we're going to have to win 7 D-I games by at least a touchdown or more, and the two DIIs by at least two touchdowns. Our schedule is very similar to Coastal in 2004, and they didn't get in.

[Sly Fox]

Our movement will also be heavily predicated by how the folks higher int he poll fare. Last year saw the usual glut of losses by Top 20 teams int he first few weeks which could help us move up regardless of our strength of schedule. Many writers vote based more records than anything else until late in the season when things get interesting.

[jcmanson]

I'm sure we'll probably be getting a few votes from the get-go. Just by the mere fact that we would still be undefeated that late into the season, then we would be definitely ranked and probably top 20. I just hope we have this problem to deal with come the Toledo game

[RagingTireFire]

Wasn't Coastal also ineligible for the playoffs in '04? They had only started the program the year before.

[SuperJon]

They were eligible right away because they were Division I in other sports already and not moving up from DII.

[RagingTireFire]

I'm pretty sure (meaning I'm too lazy to look it up right now) that a startup team isn't eligible for postseason play for the 1st 2 years.

[elonchica]

W&M and Elon are both very winnable. I don't think W&M has had anything great happen to them since last year, correct me if i'm wrong, and we saw that they were beatable last year when we only lost by one point. Elon... we may have the home team advantage playing there. they are right down the road from my house, and the community thinks of them as terrible, even the students do. We should be able to take them without too much problem.

I completed my undergrad degree at Elon and was a member of the marching band. I attended every single home game while in college, and I couldn't agree with you more. We were never fond of the football team, and games were mere social gatherings for fraternities and sororities. However, Elon has a new coach who has drastically improved the team last fall. The student body seems more optimistic about this season then they have in the past. I think Elon might be more challenging then we realize ( I say "we" because I'll be a Liberty grad student this fall).

[Sly Fox]

Bienvenidos a la sitio, chica.

Elon has shown a renevew vigor the past couple of seasons and Lembo has them dangerous once again. I admit that some of us Old Hags would enjoy taking down the Fighting Christians, er, Phoenix with memories of them abandoning us when they bolted the big South back in the day.

I know Elon has my respect on the field this fall and I'm sure the same goes for our coaching staff & players.

[SuperJon]

They had my respect, then Wes Pope decided to cheat on his homework, and Nkang graduated.

[bigsmooth]

all the accolades are great and the name is out there. we just need to prove it on the field. can't wait for the fall!

[ATrain]

Can't wait for this season...lets hope that we don't choke on the field.

[Rocketfan]

Being 5-0, we may be top 25, no better than 21-22 though. You have to remember, our wins would be over two DIIs, a team picked last in the CAA South, and a team picked 6th in the SoCon, along with a partial scholly St. Francis team. The only way we'll be considered for Top 20 (which I still highly doubt) is if we win each game by two touchdowns at the least. I'm not trying to be a downer, only trying to look at it realistically because of our schedule. To have a shot at the playoffs, we're going to have to win 7 D-I games by at least a touchdown or more, and the two DIIs by at least two touchdowns. Our schedule is very similar to Coastal in 2004, and they didn't get in.

This is getting weird, im agreeing with you again....i think from this point though it will be interesting to see " when we call off the dogs" per say in some of these games. I mean we need to beat some of these teams soundly but then again not cost ourselves injuries when up 3 td's or more....its going to be a real fine line the Rocco will manage well im sure.