[olldflame]

Woodrum sometimes hangs on to the ball too long. He created a couple of those sacks. This team has the potential to go deep if we can more consistency from our 5th year senior qb. He makes some great throws but we need more consistency there. We can tighten up the punt team. The young secondary will continue to get better. I said it last year and was mocked a bit but the talent gill has brought in is just different athletically. Juwan wells and tolen avery are a perfect example. Those guys look like there shot out of a canon when they get free. Montanas backup qb was better than the 1st teamer. That kid stuck in there and threw some deep strikes. Great win. Hard not to see the excitment and growth around the program. Also thought we had a little better music selection and it wasnt quite as loud. Good job adjusting there as wel though its still a little too hipster music for me ha.

I love our Dline, they look like some beasts out there, our version of Clowney is starting to come out his shell, and Wells looks like a great compliment to big nasty Jaron Greene in the middle.
You talk about Woodrum holding on to the ball did you realize that they went from a 4-3 to a dime defense man under 2 over which made it a lot harder to get open over top

Is ¨our version of Clowney¨ a reference to Tolen Avery? Not quite as big, but he is a freakish athlete. I think you may mean Will Brown when you refer to the young guy playing inside with JaRon. Wells is another outside rusher with a great future ( and we have another good one in the same mold, Javon Frazier, redshirting this year.)

[PAmedic]

overall great win but the tendency to go big play or bust after the 1st quarter freaked me out

we need to get the ground game going and be able to chew up clock

was really surprised at all the 3 and outs early

nice to see us go to other options than petey

special teams (punt team) yeah. no need to even rehash that one. horrific. huge WTF there

like everyone else said, D came ready. well done

[olldflame]

If the main problem with the punts being blocked is Turner, it seems strange he has never had one blocked before. I think the problem and the solution may have to do with the personnel on the punting team. I believe we have been using a lot of smaller, faster guys for coverage reasons, and I think Montana figured out they could take advantage of that with an inside rush. We may need to go with a bit more size to take that away.

[01LUGrad]

I debated going to this game, but my 7-year-old talked me into it. Best decision of his life!

I was absolutely blown away by the improvements in the game atmosphere- even since last season. Using the video board to organize the L-U chant on kickoffs is absolutely perfect. I looked down at the Montana folks before the opening kick and a bunch of them were looking around like "What in the world??!" I talked to a few of their fans before and after the game and they were all incredibly impressed with the campus and how nice everyone had been to them. I also walked out behind several of the recruits and their parents and they were all pumped about the chance to play here. Btw, we stayed for a good half hour so my son could throw his football on the field, so those families had stuck around for quite a while after the game.
As far as the game, lots of people above me have said the same thing, but it was so weird to be in a game like that where we used to "Liberty" but didn't. The guys definitely had a swagger that I have never seen from a LU team.


Hey Sun Belt, remember that time Coastal beat a perennial top 10 team at home with 22,551 people in the stands?
Yeah, me neither.

[LUDad]

I have followed Liberty football since 1979 and can remember many football games where I have been proud of our team and how well we played. Not all those games were wins, but watching the team grow and learn made me feel good about our program. Now a new dynamic has arisen where its clear we as spectators and supporters expect the team to win. What's odd about that is I believe for the first time the football players believe the same and play with that mentality.
Overall a great win for liberty!

What impressed me most is that it was our guys this time who made the clutch plays and stops when needed to win the game. Good teams will always make a run at you when down. Montana made two runs at us last night, giving us a chance to fold, but we didn't. Games like this goes a long ways towards changing our dna.

[Cider Jim]

With this win and the playoff win over JMU, can we finally say that our football team is further along with Coach Gill than it ever was with Coach Rocco? I loved Rocco, and he brought LU football out of the ashes, but I think Gill has raised us to a whole other level.

[olldflame]

With this win and the playoff win over JMU, can we finally say that our football team is further along with Coach Gill than it ever was with Coach Rocco? I loved Rocco, and he brought LU football out of the ashes, but I think Gill has raised us to a whole other level.

Yes

[SuperJon]

Agreed. Barring a collapse, this year is showing last year wasn't a fluke.

[flameshaw]

Woodrum is so boom or bust He scares me going forward.

Anyone know what Woodrum got upset about late, he and a coach really got into it on the sideline. I'm guessing he wasn't happy about the play calling. I've never seem him that bent out of shape.

Yes I saw it. It was just after a sack. He was frustrated by the defensive pressure he was getting. I am sure the coach was telling him to get rid of the ball quicker and he was telling the coach his receivers weren't open because they were running deeper routes. No big deal.
Last night, Woodrum did take a couple unnecessary sacks, instead of throwing the ball out of bounds.

[Cider Jim]

Was Montana's defensive line taller than we were used to? Woodrum had at least 2-3 balls tipped, which I thought was very unusual.

[flameshaw]

Was Montana's defensive line taller than we were used to? Woodrum had at least 2-3 balls tipped, which I thought was very unusual.

Their D-line was much quicker/smaller than most that we play. They were just well coached to go after the ball if they didn't get immediate penetration on the pass rush.
I believe their quickness also accounted for our lack of a running attack. It was obvious that they wanted to stop the run first and make us pass the ball.
Another thing that I noticed was the OL was opening pretty good holes, but they were closing soooo fast that the runners had a hard time getting to them at the correct time. These guys were fast on defense and blitzed more than the first two games we played.
The first punt was blocked because they loaded up the right side of their defense with 3 rushers on the end. The second punt block came right up the middle. The rusher almost got there before the ball did. Looked like he was shot out of a cannon. We are going to have to speed up getting the ball off and shore up our blocking scheme.
D played a great game overall, we blitzed more than I have ever seen us. We still had a DB that didn't look for the ball that cost us a TD and some big gains. But he also made some very good plays, especially at the end of the game.
Best home game I have been to ever. Great crowd, atmosphere, etc. We could have been a little louder when they had the ball. The "overrated" chant at the end of the game was stupid. Very few people left early.
Refs missed some big holding calls, but they didn't effect the outcome of the game. That is about all you can ask for.
Fabulous to see us win a close game against a good team and not choke it up when we had the chance. I am hoping we have turned that corner.

[jcmanson]

People need to get off Woodrum's jock. He's the biggest reason we're in the situation we are currently in.

[SuperJon]

And he will be the reason we take the next step or stay where we are.

When the expectations increase, so does the scrutiny.

[BJWilliams]

Agreed manson but I do also agree with your second point Jon...btw he surpassed 8,000 passing yards last night, and is just over 1300 away from passing Justino with 8 games left in the regular season

[badger74]

Great win and perfect night. But the old people say can they dial back the bad canned music--let the band play between plays or something. Does LU have a fight song or could they write one--soon? When hearing Taylor Swift is welcome relief the music has gone off the rails.

[BJWilliams]

Liberty does have a fight song...the only thing is outside of pregame and postgame, they only play it when we score. Now Coastal has a few tunes they play when things happen in game, so I would like to see more of that. I think I recall the band playing Night on Bald Mountain when there was a big defensive play at one point when I was in it. Did you do something like that phoenix? (as one of the other former band members on the board)

[BJWilliams]

I wonder how many recruits we had in the house last night to witness this one, and if this win will reap a nice harvest in commitments in the coming weeks

[phoenix]

Liberty does have a fight song...the only thing is outside of pregame and postgame, they only play it when we score. Now Coastal has a few tunes they play when things happen in game, so I would like to see more of that. I think I recall the band playing Night on Bald Mountain when there was a big defensive play at one point when I was in it. Did you do something like that phoenix? (as one of the other former band members on the board)

We used to have a LOT of stand music that we played during time outs and "commercial breaks". The trumpets would play Wipe Out with the drum line when it seemed appropriate, for one. The trumpet line would also go around the stadium playing to fire the crowd up, IIRC. I tried to bring a couple of "band cheers" to LU from my high school, but they died a quick (and probably merciful) death after I left. There was no canned music - of course, three seasons of the four I marched, we played at City Stadium.

[jinxy]

Disagree. The defense has been much better since coastel. Woodrum has been good not great. If he's great then we take another step.

[jimflamesfan]

I thought the ratio of Band music to canned music was pretty balanced.

I thought the video board operator did MUCH better...they stopped putting up messages to cheer when we had the ball and were on offense. This was a good correction and a big improvement over last week.

And I love the LU chant during punts that the video board does.

I didn't like that the Runk and Pratt trivia contest was again Gill's picture...wouldn't it be better to use a different person each week?

On a personal note, I upset some people near me. I sit in the reserved seats on the Baptist Side. I brought thunders sticks, a LU alumni cowbell, and a vuzusala. I normally only bring thunder sticks. I only used the vuzusala twice...I could tell it was really annoying people, so I stopped using it and switched to the cowbell...but people still seemed irritated. So I switched to the thunder sticks. I only cheer at the beginning and when we're on defense.

People around me complained that I was too loud...someone also threw a paper airplane at me. Anyway, I upset the people in front of me, one of them said they wouldn't come back...I don't want to keep people away so I apologized and I promised them that I wouldn't bring my thundersticks the rest of the year...I don't want to keep people away. I did tell them that I would bring a small tamborine in the future...it's not as loud as the thundersticks...and I told them I'd try and keep it to 3rd and 4th downs and/or important plays. They seemed to be happy with that so they'll be back.

It may also be that I'm blocking people's vision when I stand up...so I'll try not to stand up as much...but I'll still stand up every third and fourth down when we're on defense.

The thing is I can't yell because I have to preach on Sunday and I'll loose my voice...that's why I bring the thunder sticks. But people around me don't like them. So my plan is to still cheer...I can use the small tambourine without being as obnoxious.

I'm trying to strike a balance between cheering without annoying the people around me so much that they don't come back. I get excited so it's easy for me to cheer obnoxiously loud.

[SuperJon]

Stand up.

Make noise.

Be a fan.

Don't worry about everyone else.

[SuperJon]

Disagree. The defense has been much better since coastel. Woodrum has been good not great. If he's great then we take another step.

I agree with this. Josh is a more athletic Brock Smith with an extra year of experience and better weapons.

[jcmanson]

Josh's most valuable traits aren't measured on a stat sheet or seen on the field.

[Purple Haize]

Josh's most valuable traits aren't measured on a stat sheet or seen on the field.

Boom. We had other more talented QB's who did not have what Josh has.

[jimflamesfan]

One of my favorite parts about last night was either late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter...LU was on offense and there was a media timeout...and the canned music was a song where when it gets to the chorus, the students react by raising their arms and dancing...right at that moment as the LU offense came out of the media timeout, Woodrum flapped his arms for everyone to be quite...and you could hear this chorus of laughter...and then the crowd got quite almost immediately".

It was funny...it looked like Woodrum was going to do the dance. And the fact that the fans got quite and laughed showed that most of the them were paying attention to the game and having fun at the same time.

That's one thing that made me really happy last night...for the most part, the large crowd was paying attention to what was happening on the field. It was great!