flamesfilmguy wrote:Let me tell you a story:
My freshman year was Kartchers last year. We went 1-10. with our only win coming in a hard fought game against DII concord. In that year I watched us lose a triple over time to coastal and a last minute loss to VMI after our kicker banged one off the upright. along with a 1 point loss to CSU.
That was a long hard year. Enter Danny rocco and my time working with the team. We go 6-5 with one of the most disgusting injustices of my entire LU career the infamous spot vs. William and Larry. We lose close games to Coastal, W&L, Towson and GW.
There was immediate improvement but we could not finish big games.
2007 brought more of the same frustration after losing yet again at home to William & larry in a double overtime game we go and get pounded by Elon. we recover with a win over st. francis and ALMOST beat Toledo in one of Rashad Jennings most amazing games. We end up going 4-0 in conference but because we don't have an auto bid those losses ended up keeping us out of the playoffs.
2008 Ah yes 2008 one of my favorite years of Liberty football. Starting the season out 4-0 with one of my favorite games in LU history Beating rankled youngstown state on a last second field goal by Matt Bevins and then using that momentum to beat Coastal in Conway then crushing SBU at home. We were riding high at 6-0 going into parents weekend against a Laffyette team that sported one of the better Defenses in FCS. it rained(misted) and was cold all game. we end up losing by 2 touchdowns. after a recovery game vs. CSU we have our classic CDR WTF game vs. Presby. Had we beat presby we would have most certainly been in the playoffs but alas we are held out again because we could not win the games we needed to. This was also the year that we shut up scott riddle and the #12 Elon team at home in an amazing game that again I will never forget. but it wasn't enough. I think that most here will agree that this was the one year prior to the auto bid in which we should have been in the playoffs. I'll never forget watching Maine come across the board during the selection show and Danny Rocco's reaction and the subsequent shock that filled the room when our name wasn't called. That was my senior year.
2009- Losing to JMU in a complete flood and SBU to end the season again crushed our dreams of playoffs.
2010- the coastal loss plus 2 back to back losses to a good JMU by a td and a sub par Robbie mo. sealed out fate for another year.
2011- Loss to SBU at the end of the season and again losing to a ranked JMU same old story.
2012-well the schedule was better but we still couldn't win the games we needed to. Losing to Coastal sealed us yet again
2013-Again close but no cigar. Losing to Coastal in OT.
2014- yes... The beautiful year of 2014, even 2 losses in OOC and a WTF game to CSU couldn't keep us out. I think this was God's apology to us for keeping us out of the playoffs my senior year. We go on to beat JMU in the first round after an emotionally draining game(for me) and win against coastal. and we almost pulled it out against villanova to advance.
Which brings me to my point, Yes we are moving in the right direction and yes I know there were circumstances in the stated previous seasons (like KK's lack of leadership to get us an auto bid sooner) that kept us on the outside looking in. but that decade stretch of football has scarred a lot of us. I know its just a game but I was deeply angry about 2008. as you can tell I am still bitter about it. So you will have to forgive some of us who spent the past decade finishing the season on this board saying "welp, we finished the season in typical liberty fashion".
Thankfully I think those days are behind us. but every now and then I get those "holy crap we are going to blow this" thoughts during games. Because thats all we know. every one of us thought it last year when coastal lined up to kick that field goal. and then something strange happened. We blocked the kick won the game and made it into the playoffs. I for one didn't even know how to react. I was speechless. I was running around my house like an idiot not knowing what to do. Then we beat JMU and the same thing happened. In my basement on the big screen i watched my school win their first playoff game. AGAIN. i didn't know what to do. this year I am slowly learning to accept that hey we might be pretty good. good enough to go deep into the playoffs. BUT i'm not there completely. (See SIU game). So again forgive those of us who still haven't gotten used to winning yet.
/Rant
Very good post. The few of us who go back to the very beginning can certainly relate and give many, many more examples, (like missing two extra points in a row, where making just one of them would have put us in the playoffs, Coach Sam's era).
I agree with you. We have made some good progress in regards to choking up games or snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We are not there yet, but I believe we have started to turn that corner.
Since we are playing G-W this week, I will share something with you I heard several years ago. I was in the press box with one of our former AD's (before the addition to the Baptist side of the field). It was a bit cozy and we could hear the G-W coaches that were sitting upstairs. We pretty much had the game wrapped up, we were driving for another score and fumbled the ball away in the red zone. One of the coaches yelled "they don't know how to f****ing win". I will never forget that statement, mostly because it was true, I just didn't realize he knew it too. The good news is, I don't think we have lost to them since.
We are getting there.
- By Ill flame
- By ECC29
- By LU Armchair coach