[olldflame]

HCTG spoke with the media following yesterday´s practice.

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm ... 28&TeamID=

2 names he mentioned as standing out on offense made me smile. BJ Farrow and Lucas Holder. We need another guy out wide who can really make opponents pay a price if they load up on Petey. Shells has talent, but I don´t have a lot of confidence in him at this point. I think Farrow may be the one guy on the roster now who could step up to be a true number one receiver next year. Holder doing the job at Center would be huge for us. There are other options, but they involve moving guys around, and I suspect Gill, Wagner and co. would probably rather not.

[R i]

Spoke with "MEDIA"

[olldflame]

Well, Gary Sampson had his day in court and his charges were reduced from Sale and Distribution of marijuana to simple posession, a misdemeanor, with his 90 day jail sentence suspended.

http://www.libertyflamesnation.com/samp ... e-reduced/

Will he be back in a Liberty uniform? I hope he will some day, but IMHO it should not be this year. He was dismissed from the program for a violation of team rules, and I have a feeling posession of marijuana is in fact against the rules. In addition, because he was dismissed, he has not been working out with the team and I can´t imagine he is anywhere close to game shape, so as thin as we are at his position I don´t know how much help he would be anyway, especially early on. I say if he has gotten his act together and wants to rejoin the team next year, great.

[R i]

4 Games and a few Reps would be my vote.

[flameshaw]

4 Games and a few Reps would be my vote.

Aren't you being a little harsh? After all, he didn't deflate any footballs.

[BJWilliams]

4 games sounds about right (I see what you did there btw flameshaw) if TG decides to bring him back into the fold and he is back in school this semester. We don't know what he has been up to fitness wise over the last 4+ months so as I believe has been mentioned before, he probably isn't close to being in game shape. If he plays this year and can be up to speed by conference play that would be fine with me.

[olldflame]

Offensive line update with York Interviewing coach Dennis Wagner. Great stuff. Wagner might be the best interview of any of our position coaches.

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm ... 44&TeamID=

Not sure who wrote the article, but there are 2 glaring errors, which is not at all typical for our AC team. They say that Ernst Anderson ¨kept Liberty´s German connection when he enrolled at Liberty in the Fall¨ Ernst, of course, is from Norway. They also say that James Passmore, who redshirted last year, will add depth. Passmore is out for the year with a torn hammy, which is actually mentioned in the interview.

Sounds like Will Smith is having an adjustment to make from Wake´s wide open passing game to our more physical style of play. As I speculated in another post, he really likes Fr Dontae Duff, comparing him to Burgess, and says that if he can get up to speed on learning the plays we ¨may not be able to redshirt him¨.

[Chris Lang]

Sampson is done done, Gill confirmed to me today.

[Sly Fox]

Thanks for the lowdown, Scribe. Have we had any more surprise additions?

[Chris Lang]

Not now. But first day of classes is Monday, so you never know who might transfer in at the last second. (Edited to fix inexcusably poor grammar. )

[flameshaw]

From an outsiders perspective, I kinda like the way Gill deals with problems/issues. Hoping that Sampson can learn from this and land in a good spot for him.
Wouldn't mind seeing another transfer or two as well. Think we are pretty close to being a pretty good team.

[olldflame]

From an outsiders perspective, I kinda like the way Gill deals with problems/issues. Hoping that Sampson can learn from this and land in a good spot for him.
Wouldn't mind seeing another transfer or two as well. Think we are pretty close to being a pretty good team.

Based on other decisions HCTG has made, I suspect either there is a lot more we havn´t heard about or this is a case where the young man simply chose not to do what was required to be reinstated. Probably some of both.

[olldflame]

Another update from HCTG

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm ... 56&TeamID=

He says they should reach decisions on who will and will not redshirt this weekend and have a depth chart by early next week. There are definately a ¨handful¨ of true Freshmen who will play. Apparently the defense played well in their last scrimmage. Lunsford went 3-5 on FG attempts with live rush including a 62 yarder that he says would have been good from 4 or 5 yards further. One of the misses was from 55.

[flameshaw]

From an outsiders perspective, I kinda like the way Gill deals with problems/issues. Hoping that Sampson can learn from this and land in a good spot for him.
Wouldn't mind seeing another transfer or two as well. Think we are pretty close to being a pretty good team.

Based on other decisions HCTG has made, I suspect either there is a lot more we havn´t heard about or this is a case where the young man simply chose not to do what was required to be reinstated. Probably some of both.

Agree.

[olldflame]

HCTG says they will be deciding which Freshmen will and will not redshirt in the next couple of days. Who do you think will play this year? Here´s my take.

Almost Sure will Play

Jaylyn McKinney LB We are thin at the position and Jaylyn would add an athlete who also has a rep as a hitter. He turned down an offer from Miss. St. to come to LU.

Dontae Duff OL His position coach and his QB both have talked about him in interviews as if he will be playing. He would add size and toughness at a position of need.

Jeremy Peters CB Wesley Scott mentioned him in his recent interview and it certainly didn´t sound like he will be redshirting. We are actually better stocked at CB than S, but he may be able to play both or perhaps one of our other CBs like Corbin Jackson could play some S.

Damian King WR Tough call between him and Denvre Daniels, but I pick him to play because I think Daniels is a player who could play some at RB in the future where we will have a need after this year.

May Play

Denvre Daniels WR Denvre could get the nod over King if he has shown more in camp. I expect one to play and the other to redshirt.

Will Brown DL Coaches have compared him with Niko Davis and he picked Liberty over 2 SBC schools. Another big body in the middle would be nice to have, but only if he is ready.

Rion Davis S Position of need. Could play if he´s ready

I think Frankie Hickson is a player who would play as a true Fr in another year and possibly help right away as a KR, but we are loaded at RB and have some other nice options at KR. Same could be said for either Daniels or King if we weren´t so deep at WR.

[Chris Lang]

With Will Smith out indefinitely with a knee injury and Richard Queen off the team, it's looking more likely that Duff will play right away. LU is extremely thin on the O-line.

[olldflame]

With Will Smith out indefinitely with a knee injury and Richard Queen off the team, it's looking more likely that Duff will play right away. LU is extremely thin on the O-line.

Knowing how HCTG is about injury reports I guess I don´t need to ask if we have anything more specific on Smith. At least knee is better than ¨lower body¨.

I would think if it´s an ACL or something else major they would just say he´s out for the year, but considering he has already used his redshirt, he could miss most of the season and still come back.

If Queen is gone I would say Donte is a lock. He will probably be our backup C.

[jcmanson]

You forgot Cameron Jones who will likely play at safety

[olldflame]

You forgot Cameron Jones who will likely play at safety

Good point. I would think either him or Davis, but not both

[olldflame]

I just remembered that Smith had a knee injury at the end of last year with Wake. Any idea if this is a carryover from that or a new injury?

[Chris Lang]

I won't get to talk to Gill again until Wednesday. Will try to get some more specifics. And it's not an if with Queen. He's gone.

[jinxy]

Pretty impressive showing from the crowd last night. Woodrum looked awful pretty much all night. I really onlysaw him make one good throw on time and in rhythm. Diavante Brown and Chris Turner really stood out on defense. Turner could be the next Walt Aikens. Great height and ball skills. He needs to put on a little muscle and he can be a lock down player. Brown generated several pressures against sommer which was pretty impressive and atleast one sack. King and Daniels are both going to be good players. You can just see the speed and athleticism. Little dissappointed with Farrow. He had a couple thrown his way that were catchable that Wes Scott just flat out wanted more and batted away. Rice and Shells both looked healthy. We played a good bit of that 4-2-5 type defense with just Newman and Ogrady on the field. Masha looked pretty good other than a couple throws. Swanson def has a big arm. He seems to struggle with the touch throws and doesnt quite seem to grasp the playbook which is to be expected but man he looks good throwing the deep ball and the intermediate throws.

[BJWilliams]

You have to remember, BJ hasn't played a down of football since...I believe 2013 and Wes Scott is in his third year playing D1 football. When he (BJ) was playing 2 seasons ago at LCA, he didn't really have to fight guys for the ball. He either was in the open field or he had a height advantage over the guy attempting to cover him so basically he put his hands up and most of the time it led to a completion. My hope is that he takes getting beat by Scott as another learning experience and continues working on those 50-50 balls, so he can be a valuable option when teams inevitably try to lock down on Petey.

[Rooster Cogburn]

In fairness, a lot of those routes to BJ were timing routes that take time. He did make one great catch across the middle and show flair and speed to get to the EZ. Turner looked great and Brown did as well.

[Sly Fox]

Nice story on Zac the other day, Chris. Don't be shy about linking these camp stores here.