[krh44]

Anybody else pinching themselves when thinking to where we were just 3 years ago?

I remember going through the 3 straight where our goal just to score and try to keep our opponent under 50!!!

[Ed Dantes]

You guys can thank me for graduating. I went to Liberty during the only four-year stretch in school history where both the football and the basketball team failed to break .500. I'm cursed.

[ToTheLeft]

So, to break down what happened tonight....

We won at Brooks for the first time.

We beat Coastal, the #2 team in the preseason poll.

We kept our winning streak alive.

We are now 5-0.

We took a big step towards our team goals for the season.

We won 3 straight games, on the road, against FCS teams.


This was a huge win... can't wait for the boys to get home and in front of a couple of HUGE crowds!

[flameshaw]

So, to break down what happened tonight....

We won at Brooks for the first time.

We beat Coastal, the #2 team in the preseason poll.

We kept our winning streak alive.

We are now 5-0.

We took a big step towards our team goals for the season.

We won 3 straight games, on the road, against FCS teams.


This was a huge win... can't wait for the boys to get home and in front of a couple of HUGE crowds!

[JK37]

If Rocco didn't direct him to do that, no way he should have done it.

"Rashad made a great decision to drop down and run the clock out." - Coach Rocco

End of discussion.

[newandimproved]

we win and an arguement breaks out over what Rashad did...kind of funny and sad all at the same time

Excited about finally seeing a game next week!

[Sly Fox]

The SIDs offer up their wrapup ...

LU Begins Title Defense With Win Over Coastal

October 4, 2008
Conway, S.C.

Box Score



For the third-straight road game, No. 20/21 Liberty outlasted an opponent, this time picking up a 43-38 victory over Big South rival Coastal Carolina in its conference opener, Saturday night, at Brooks Stadium.

With the win, the Flames run their record to 5-0 on the year and 1-0 in Big South play. The victory extends the nation’s longest FCS winning streak to 10 games and ties a program record, as Liberty also reeled off 10-straight wins over the span of the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

Click Here for Full Story

[bozlady]

Oh my stomach......I think I'm going to have to take a bottle of tums with me next time......great game!! Congratulations Flames!

Don't forget to vote for Coach Rocco for Coach of the year!!! www.coachoftheyear.com

[MacGeek]

- How we played defense. I think that our secondary played to soft on the WR's. Alot of missed tackles.
- D line overpursing of the QB.
- Really didn't put coastal away.

+ BJ Hayes. enough said.
+ Very physical football game. I like it.
+ This team learning how to win on the road.
+ We have much prettier cheerleaders



Hey, we're 5-0 and life is good.

[Sly Fox]

From Coastal's version of Chris Lang ...

FINAL LIBERTY 43, COASTAL 38 Well that was wild.... the CCU defense couldn't come up with a stop ... CCY couldn't get to Brock Smith ... and Rashad Jennings rushed for 122 fourth-quarter yards. Hey, at least Coastal fought to the finish. And, yeah, Zach MacDowall had a couple poor throws but overall he put forth a really good effort throwing for a career high 382 yards. The loss means the playoffs are out for the Chants. Check out tomorrow's edition for the complete scoop.

Click here for his Complete Game Blog

[Sly Fox]

David Bennett Postgame Interview Audio File

CDB raving about Rashad is worth a listen

[flameshaw]

I like coach Bennett. Seems to be a good guy.

[Sly Fox]

And Chris weighs in ...

LU goes from 10 losses to 10 wins in row

By Chris Lang
Published: October 5, 2008

CONWAY, S.C. — When Danny Rocco took over Liberty’s football program in December 2005, the Flames were on a 10-game losing streak, the worst skid in school history. Confidence needed to be rebuilt. Baby steps needed to be taken.
The Flames were competitive in Rocco’s first year. Of their five losses, four were by seven points or less. Rocco reflected on that year after his team beat Coastal Carolina 43-38 Saturday night in Conway, and how the fortunes of a once-moribund program had completely changed.
The win gave Liberty a school-record-tying 10th straight victory. Those close games that went against LU in 2006? They’ve swung the other way. Liberty won its fifth straight road game, with the last three coming by a combined 11 points.

Click Here for Full Story

[MacGeek]

+1 respect for CDB raving about rashad

[ToTheLeft]

“We made so many big plays,” Rocco said. “It’s just exciting to see us be able to go out there and move the ball and score points the way we did. We’ve got to get better on defense. That’s going to be our No. 1 focus here this week. We’re going to have to take a long, hard look at what we’re doing here in terms of personnel, schemes and calls. We’ve got to get this thing righted.

“If we weren’t able to put up 43 points tonight, who’s to say we would have come out of here with a win.”

I am glad he said this... as long as he knows it was a problem, then it can be fixed. I am quite encouraged by this.

[Sly Fox]

More from Chris ...

Terrell goes down, Hayes steps up for Flames

By Chris Lang
Published: October 5, 2008

CONWAY, S.C. — When Zach Terrell left Liberty’s game with Coastal Carolina on Saturday night with an apparent left knee injury, it opened the door for one of the Flames’ more intriguing players — redshirt freshman A-back B.J. Hayes.

Hayes entered the game with four carries for 54 yards and two receptions for 30 yards. He’s had little chance to get touches with Rashad Jennings and Terrell ahead of him in the pecking order.

Click Here for Full Story

[Baldspot]

“We’re doing SOME of the right things. Our kids are certainly working hard. They’re buying into what we’re teaching. I’m really proud of our kids and our coaching staff here tonight.”

I love this quote, win 10 in a row and still finding areas to improve. I can tell he played for Joe Paterno.

[Sly Fox]

From the Myrtle Beach fishwrap ...













And here is their game recap ...

Too hot to handle
Flames outlast Chants, cement stance as team to beat in Big South

By Travis Sawchik - tsawchik@thesunnews.com

CONWAY -- By the night and in their black garb, Coastal Carolina had pulled off its best upset jobs at home, felling ranked giants James Madison and Furman in past years.

No. 20 Liberty avoided such a fate Saturday night at Brooks Stadium, escaping with a wild 43-38 win.

Zach MacDowall threw for a career-high 382 yards and Marquel Willis had a career-best day with 145 receiving yards and two touchdowns, but it was not enough to counterbalance Liberty's star backfield of Brock Smith and Rashad Jennings.

Click Here for Full Story

I find it interesting that in none of the three stories done by the Chants beat writer does he once mention the decision to drop instead of score.

[bigsmooth]

very nice win indeed. the offense was incredible. the defense needs work as rocco said and im sure we will see a different team against stonybrook defensively. hopefully ZT will not be gone too long, and i really now believe in these guys. a classic week for a hangover did not happen and that says a lot about the players and coaches. CDB's comments about rashad were very classy.

[absturgill]

Great win. Quick observation and a question:

Jennings at the end was a class move and a great example of game management. Just having that presence of mind to know the whole game situation shows he is good and ready for the NFL.

Now my question. This was the first game I've been able to watch and not rely on the audio stream. It seemed to me like #24 the strong safety for LU was missing a lot of tackles. Are they running a different defensive package or am I just crazy?

[TIMSCAR20]

No secondary can cover for 7-10 seconds. Because their quarterback was keeping plays alive, it was difficult to defend them. I think our defensive issues last night were with not getting pressure on the QB. He was pretty good at avoiding sacks though. That's where you miss a guy like Vince Redd. One guy that can single handedly pressure the QB. We wil be fine. # 24 is Medic's hero and is a great player. I just think they were put in a bad situation many times unfortunately.

[absturgill]

Thanks for the insight Tim. Good to talk to you again. That explains a lot.

[TDDance234]

We were basically daring them to throw the underneath route. They weren't going to beat us with a big play down the field, so they basically took what we gave them.

It was a "bend but don't break" approach. It seemed to work for most of the game.

[whmatthews]

I watched the game on MASN last night - from watching it on TV, it looked like a high school football game - the quarterback was making our defense look ridiculous. We just could not tackle him and our players were just flying everywhere and running into each other. It was fun to watch him. But our offense just seemed to completely run over them.

[Pinckrock]

I watched with a group from church on SportSouth. As predicted, offense was virtually unstoppable, but the defense did not live up to my expectations. I think at times they tried too hard and overran pursuits, seemed out of control, hit without wrapping up, and at times, even a bit confused.

Kudos to their quarterback, he looked really good. We still must work on "putting teams away."

Jennings made the right call to go down at the 1. Our defense could not stop them, and remember how close it was on the on side kick? I'll take "clock" over "points" especially when our defense is not stopping them. What if their defense finally stops us?

Good game. Good win.
Heart sick about Terrell.
Excited about Hayes and Brown (the future is now).
Take care of business, one week at a time.