[JakeP50]

I'm still optimistic for a 10-2(UNC and App St) maybe 11-1 season if we can pull the upset in Boone. I don't know maybe I have caught this seemingly virulent cynicism and negativity yet. Last year we went 8-4 and all 4 losses were single digits and 3 of them were one possession games. 8-4 was an improvement over 6-5 in 2012 and with all those close losses 10-2 isn't out of the realm of possibility(That's the trend anyway).

[R i]

comparing 2012 vs 2014 non conference

UNC is a much better team than Wake Forest, UNC is preseason top 25: Point 2014

Richmond means so much more than Norfolk State, and they are a much superior team and program: Point 2014

App State and Montana are comparable programs, but App state is IA now in the SunBelt which we are trying to impress the prezis, they also are a quarter of the distance away from us, much more regional: Point 2014

Concord and Brevard, DII who cares: Wash, no point given.


Thats how I slice it and 2014 is a much more exciting, meaningful , and competitive non conference schedule than 2012.

[jcmanson]

FWIW, our nonconference opponents this season were a combined 29-55 in 2013.

[R i]

Non Conference ?

[jcmanson]

Non Conference ?

Yes nonconference

[R i]

2012 vs 2014 Non conference schedule, I should have compared Norfolk state to Norfolk state. We play them both of these years. If we are talking records and competition levels, we will have that discussion at the end of the year, we dont know how these teams will finish. As a fan, this years non conference, schedule is much more exciting than 2012. Richmond at home, and at Appy state are two games we couldnt ask for any better.

[jcmanson]

Indiana State and Bryant are poor.

Regarding the Indiana State game, that's a good game. Any time you can schedule ANY team from the CAA or the MVC, you do it. Sure they're not ND State, but it beats playing the DIIs and St Francis' of the world.

I know they were 1-11 last year, but the 3 years before that they had winning records.

[bluejacket]

Thats how I slice it and 2014 is a much more exciting, meaningful , and competitive non conference schedule than 2012.

FWIW, our nonconference opponents this season were a combined 29-55 in 2013.

It goes beyond record though.

I have acknowledged that UNC is arguably the best team that we have ever faced.

The FCS programs that we played in 2012 had/have been to the playoffs multiple times over extended periods of time and were successful in 2011. The only ones in 2014 that possibly meet the first criteria are NSU and Richmond. NSU was 3-9 and Richmond was 6-6 in 2013.

Concord is not in any way comparable to Brevard. Concord played in the WVIAC when we played them (since dissolved) and plays in the Mountain East Conference now. Those conferences were/are consistently competing in the D-II playoffs. Brevard has less than 700 students in the whole school and never been to the D-II playoffs (only moved up in 2008). They are basically the Presbyterian of D-II.

2012 OOC>2014 OOC

[bluejacket]

Indiana State and Bryant are poor.

Regarding the Indiana State game, that's a good game. Any time you can schedule ANY team from the CAA or the MVC, you do it. Sure they're not ND State, but it beats playing the DIIs and St Francis' of the world.

I know they were 1-11 last year, but the 3 years before that they had winning records.

I disagree. They are full scholarship FCS, so I understand why they are alluring and why playoff teams schedule a team like them every year. But from our perspective, the downside outweighs the good. As long as we are in the Big South, we need to completely revamp our OOC philosophy. We already get Monmouth, Presbyterian, and Gardner-Webb (and historically CSU) every year, lets be a little aggressive. Add Bryant, Indiana State, and Brevard to the 2014 schedule and you have 6 wins without beating anybody.

Problem 1: To get at large bids, you have to beat team with winning records. They are historically bad and I'm not hopeful that they will crack .500, let alone make the playoffs.

Problem 2: It does nothing to rally the fan base, increase national prominence, or enable many of our fans to see us play.

Problem 3: It helps very, very little with recruiting.

Problem 4: We have to travel to them first, increasing the chances that we blow it again.

[BJWilliams]

Its a two way street when it comes to OOC scheduling bluejacket. Jeff Barber can't simply call up Gene Taylor at NDSU (or whoever the heck the AD is there now) or the AD at Wofford and be like "hey, its Jeff Barber from Liberty. How about we play each other in football?" The real meter movers when it comes to FCS football are not jumping at the chance to come to Lynchburg because a) they need home games just as much as we do and b) Don't see us as a "easy mark" much like it was in years past. We are a much more competitive team, but we are still what a lot of teams would consider a "bad loss". we can reach out to the Woffords the SE Louisianas, the Sam Houston States, the Delawares, or the other teams that "rally the fan base" but if they aren't interested, we have to do as well as we can.

We have 5 open dates for 2015 right now, and can fill 4 of them. We are lucky have Montana (perennial top 10 FCS) and Indiana State set to come to Lynchburg and Im guessing JB will want one more quality FCS opponent to fill out the home schedule.

[bluejacket]

Its a two way street when it comes to OOC scheduling bluejacket. Jeff Barber can't simply call up Gene Taylor at NDSU (or whoever the heck the AD is there now) or the AD at Wofford and be like "hey, its Jeff Barber from Liberty. How about we play each other in football?" The real meter movers when it comes to FCS football are not jumping at the chance to come to Lynchburg because a) they need home games just as much as we do and b) Don't see us as a "easy mark" much like it was in years past. We are a much more competitive team, but we are still what a lot of teams would consider a "bad loss". we can reach out to the Woffords the SE Louisianas, the Sam Houston States, the Delawares, or the other teams that "rally the fan base" but if they aren't interested, we have to do as well as we can.

You are correct in saying that it is a two way street, but incredibly misunderstand how scheduling works. JB doesn't handle the scheduling: he guides the overall philosophy and sets parameters like other ADs, but almost never handles the details. HCs have far more say in the details of the schedule than ADs and associate ADs do (and almost always the final veto). There is only one documented time where he specifically stepped in with scheduling teams and that was with Jim O'Day and Montana. He wanted it and it happened. He wants a regional FBS team that we can compete with every year. That has happened (aside from Baylor in 2017, but that's a good exception). He doesn't want any more D-IIs; those won't happen any more going forward. ADs can change things if they want to.

Take our history as an independent for example. We scheduled FCS powerhouses every season in an era with far fewer playoff spots. App State, JMU, Boise State, Youngstown State, Marshall, South Florida, UCF, Furman, Wofford, Western Kentucky, among many others weren't afraid to schedule us in that era. Delaware was just about the only major power team in the East that didn't want to play us. I have no doubt that it was horrible to balance schedules as an independent, but Jerry wanted to consistently play tough teams wherever and whenever and we did it, to our detriment. Our record under Sam Rutigliano was 67-53 and we missed out on the playoffs due to Jerry's interference. Unlike in the past, we can afford to travel to Texas, California, Florida, or wherever we want to and play there whenever we like. Now we can do it and won't. It makes no sense.

Don't make excuses for our poor OOC scheduling in recent years.

Every year there are scholarship teams in the East looking for teams to play.
Coastal and Stony Brook never had problems scheduling tough teams that made their fan bases happy and developed their programs. I challenge you to compare ours, Stony Brook's and Coastal's OOC schedules from 2006-2012 and see how they match up. Ours will finish 3rd. Grade ours over the same time against top 25 programs in the East or members in competitive, full scholarship conferences (CAA, SOCON, Patriot, Ohio Valley, Missouri Valley, Big Sky, Southland) and theirs are much better.

We have 5 open dates for 2015 right now, and can fill 4 of them. We are lucky have Montana (perennial top 10 FCS) and Indiana State set to come to Lynchburg and Im guessing JB will want one more quality FCS opponent to fill out the home schedule.

You are incoherent in this paragraph. We have 1 OOC game to fill, plus a bye week. Montana (home), Indiana State (home), Georgia State (away) and West Virginia (away) are already filled. The last game will likely be a low level FCS home game.

[bluejacket]

Sorry to bring this off topic. Nevertheless, since this is a forum, I must reply

[Chris Lang]

Again, Indiana State isn't scheduled to return to Lynchburg until 2017.

[bluejacket]

Oops, just going off of what has been listed in the future schedules thread. Sorry, I must have missed that the first time.

[BJWilliams]

Thanks for that catch lang...means 1 more game to schedule.

As for who to play...it takes two to tango. even if we wanted to play somebody like Eastern Washington or Cal Poly or NDSU or some of the other power teams (Montana was set up before TG came in I believe), if they don't want to play us or don't want to travel, we can only do so much.me personally? I would love to see us play a Wofford or Sam Houston or s Southern Illinois or Northern Iowa or Towson or even Southeastern Louisiana. If we scheduled someone like Abilene Christian I would not mind that either.

[jcmanson]

I keep our 2015 schedule updated here - http://www.libertyflamesnation.com/2015-schedule/

Our current 2015 OOC slate is @ West VA, @ GA St, @ JMU, vs Montana. We play Kennesaw St, PC, CCU at home and GWU, Monmouth, and CSU on the road in conference play. Still 1 game left to schedule.

[Chris Lang]

You can guarantee that the final 2015 game will be at home, and it will probably be against someone of Bryant's ilk, a weaker FCS team. With WVU, GaSt, JMU and the Griz already on the sked, you need to schedule a confidence builder somewhere.

[jcmanson]

To get this thread back on topic, you can now vote for the Richmond game http://www.libertyflamesnation.com/expe ... -richmond/

[R i]

Playing in the Sun Belt would/will be fun. However the idea of a playoffs makes FCS football a better model.

[BJWilliams]

For the record, the Spiders are in the CAA not the MVC

[alabama24]

You can guarantee that the final 2015 game will be at home, and it will probably be against someone of Bryant's ilk, a weaker FCS team. With WVU, GaSt, JMU and the Griz already on the sked, you need to schedule a confidence builder somewhere.

Confidence builder? THE LAST GAME OF THE YEAR?

[bluejacket]

As for who to play...it takes two to tango. even if we wanted to play somebody like Eastern Washington or Cal Poly or NDSU or some of the other power teams (Montana was set up before TG came in I believe), if they don't want to play us or don't want to travel, we can only do so much.me personally? I would love to see us play a Wofford or Sam Houston or s Southern Illinois or Northern Iowa or Towson or even Southeastern Louisiana. If we scheduled someone like Abilene Christian I would not mind that either.

You are proving my point. Saying "it take two to tango" or "if they don't want to play us or don't want to travel, we can only do so much" is making excuses with a defeatist attitude.

Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances where you have to schedule a D-II. NDSU ran into that problem last year, even though they were begging FCS teams with open dates to play them. I understand that. Nevertheless, I have also shown that we could consistently face tough teams when we had the will to do it. Do you want me to go on and give examples from the Karcher era? Or explain the Rocco philosophy? Today, we don't want to consistently play the best FCS teams OOC and don't. Sometimes (but not always) the top 15 teams want you to come to them first, but that shouldn't stop us from scheduling a couple of them every year.

[BJWilliams]

Bama, that last piece of the puzzle will have to go either in September or on October 31 (either September 12 or 19 is set for the Montana game apparently).

[BJWilliams]

I will simply state in response to your comments bluejacket about whether JB wants to play the big boys or not that unless youre in his office or TGs office, you really cant say with 100% certainty that they don't want to play or try to play the big boys or not.

[bluejacket]

This is a (mostly) anonymous internet forum. If you are looking for 100% certainty, you're going to be disappointed. Nevertheless, I have given you concrete examples that can be corroborated by credible, published sources not message board fodder.

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