Anything and everything about Liberty Flames football. Your comments on games, recruiting and the direction of the program as we move into new era.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke, Class of 20Something

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By R i
Registration Days Posts
#493506
Dissapointed.

Really wanted us to cement ourselves as a contender with a win. We are still National title contenders, we will just be coming from the bottom. With a win Saturday we could have had a bye and an easier path.

As for the "typical Liberty". Its such a lazy comment. If you cant see this is a new era, we can win games like SIU,we have proven that, we just didn't win this one.
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493507
R i wrote:If you cant see this is a new era, we can win games like SIU,we have proven that, we just didn't win this one.
We can but we haven't. Unless our back is completely against the wall, we lose important non-conference road games.
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By R i
Registration Days Posts
#493508
JMU ? on the road, important road game. Is this an abboration ?

Coastal , on the road, important road game. We got lucky ?

I have named 2 of the last 4 , important road games this team has played. They won. Its time to get new post loss material.
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493509
LCA&LU Mom wrote:
THREE DOWN
1. Sense of urgency from the get-go. Woodrum said in his postgame interview that the Flames went through the week of practice “nonchalant.” That can’t happen when you are the No. 10 team in the nation and facing a quality opponent on the road that was four points shy of being 2-0.
This makes me darn near apoplectic. You're right about the coaches needing to do a better job, flowserve. There's enough blame to go around but if Woodrum's statement is true it's on the coaches to fix.
Yeah, this makes me not too happy. That's unacceptable.

Edit to clarify: This is unacceptable from both the coaches and from Josh. The coaches have a responsibility to make sure players are sharp, but so does your 5th-year-senior captain quarterback.
Last edited by SuperJon on September 28th, 2015, 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493510
R i wrote:JMU ? on the road, important road game. Is this an abboration ?

Coastal , on the road, important road game. We got lucky ?

I have named 2 of the last 4 , important road games this team has played. They won. Its time to get new post loss material.
SuperJon wrote:We can but we haven't. Unless our back is completely against the wall, we lose important non-conference road games.
I know it's early on a Monday, but c'mon dude.
By cabob10
Registration Days
#493512
Hey guys. Long time follower, first time posting. I'm a Liberty alumni who started attending when Rocco took over.

My thoughts on Saturday’s game are from two different mind sets. 1. We've played fantastic teams this season therefore we are bound to have 1 mess up. I'm glad it was Saturday, early in the season. Our first FCS loss that was non conference. This should allow us to "peak" at the right time during conference play. Sometimes peaking is natural or its orchestrated. I can definitely see Gill allowing the team’s ego to take over so that he can turn it into a teaching moment. All though we are now 2-2 I believe others feel we are really 3-1. Our performance against WV has been the best thus far of any WV opponents. Maryland got hammered yesterday. The announcers referenced the nice job that Liberty did several times. As a result I feel that our performance against WV will be a positive for us in the polls and potentially an at large bid. Therefore I feel like we are really 3-1.

2. Turner Gill is a strategist, and he wants to go all the way to the championship and beyond to FBS. Knowing that WV is one of the best teams in the country I don't see many FCS teams learning anything defensively from the film of our game vs WV. The FCS teams simply don't have the depth and speed that WV has. Additionally because we are the only team to really "compete" against WV this year, the game footage may actually demoralize and FCS team if the players are shown the film. Therefore based on our first three games no FCS team would have a clear understanding of how to beat us defensively. Based on strategy and our ultimate goals, Saturday’s game would be the ideal game to purposely lose, and create fake opportunities for other teams to study and game plan on. Let's face it, SIU would be the best team to purposely lose to because their own credibility was on the line due to their 2 "almost" wins against FBS. As a result it would an easy way to sell our purposeful loss.

Why would we throw a game? To give other teams a hope that they can beat us on a modeled game plan that we would know about ahead of time. Our game next week against Georgia Southern will be our second most important game left of the season. This game represent our systematic domination over sunbelt teams, therefore we can't lose. Also winning this FBS game would nearly cement an at large play off bid. Now that Georgia southern is starting to win a few this may be the easiest way to control them. Especially if they have the habit of repeating the defensive and offensive schemes they witness being used against their opponents. This might just be a calculated risk.
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493514
cabob10 wrote:Based on strategy and our ultimate goals, Saturday’s game would be the ideal game to purposely lose, and create fake opportunities for other teams to study and game plan on. Let's face it, SIU would be the best team to purposely lose to because their own credibility was on the line due to their 2 "almost" wins against FBS. As a result it would an easy way to sell our purposeful loss.
I appreciate you joining the board, but this is the dumbest thing ever said on this board. If we were to purposefully lose a game, the entire staff should be fired.

Also, we play Georgia State, not Georgia Southern.
By ATrain
Registration Days Posts
#493515
Welcome cabob10.

I doubt we'd purposefully throw a game.

That said, this was "typical Liberty," in that we tend to choke in a big game. However, our seasons are no longer "typical Liberty," seasons. We are no longer good. We are pretty good. We won on the road at the #1 team last year, we blew out Montana at home, we won a playoff game at our biggest non-conference rival. We have a realistic expectation of winning games against FBS opponents. However, we have yet to be great. The loss to SIU is a bump in the road. However, we are still making forward progress down the road.
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#493516
LCA&LU Mom wrote:
flowserve wrote:I agree that since 2008 Football has changed at Liberty, I still remember the awful years before Rocco.
Most colleges don't make it to the top 25, but we now expect it, so I am thankful for the good football program. Could it be better ? My answer is YES. Next: Sometimes kickers have a mental block and they need to work thru that so time will tell about our kicking game. Finally: I don't read a lot of blame for the last loss going to the coaching staff, they knew what we were up against but Liberty looked confused the entire game. I don't think the team was prepared for the game, the coaches need to do better.
http://www.newsadvance.com/sports/damie ... 35362.html
THREE DOWN
1. Sense of urgency from the get-go. Woodrum said in his postgame interview that the Flames went through the week of practice “nonchalant.” That can’t happen when you are the No. 10 team in the nation and facing a quality opponent on the road that was four points shy of being 2-0.
This makes me darn near apoplectic. You're right about the coaches needing to do a better job, flowserve. There's enough blame to go around but if Woodrum's statement is true it's on the coaches to fix.

Hate to tell you that coaches can only fix "non-chalant" by sitting people, that would also include the "golden child" also. Don't think the coaches don't notice or can't gauge the performance of his team during that week of practice. Im sure its being addressed, but at the end of the day its the players who go out and perform. If they don't perform all Ill say is that is not that the coaches haven't addressed it.
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By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#493517
For the record its Georgia State not Georgia Southern as Jon noted...

This is another important "bounce back" game for us..we have won our last two so hopefully we can make it 3 in a row and get an FBS win to shore up our at large case

Also, throwing a game? "C'mon man!"
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#493518
SuperJon wrote:
cabob10 wrote:Based on strategy and our ultimate goals, Saturday’s game would be the ideal game to purposely lose, and create fake opportunities for other teams to study and game plan on. Let's face it, SIU would be the best team to purposely lose to because their own credibility was on the line due to their 2 "almost" wins against FBS. As a result it would an easy way to sell our purposeful loss.
I appreciate you joining the board, but this is the dumbest thing ever said on this board. If we were to purposefully lose a game, the entire staff should be fired.

Also, we play Georgia State, not Georgia Southern.
Well it looks like SIU followed same game plan as WVU and it worked. So a blueprint has been set, its just not in our favor.
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493519
Also - on the non-chalant thing - it says a lot about Josh that he'd talk up about how focused they were on SIU all week and then when he plays like crap, he throws out some excuse instead of owning it.
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By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#493523
Agreed...we still have three more games on this road swing so now's not the time to dwell on this loss or any aspect of it
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#493525
SuperJon wrote:Also - on the non-chalant thing - it says a lot about Josh that he'd talk up about how focused they were on SIU all week and then when he plays like crap, he throws out some excuse instead of owning it.
I concur. IMHO Josh has been a disappointment both on the field and in front of a mic this year, starting with the BSC media day when he placed what I felt to be an inordinate emphasis on personal goals, expressing his disappointment at missing out on a chance to be POY because of his injury.

Forbidden nailed it when he said the only way to get a player´s attention in a situation like this is to introduce him to the bench. I would like to see us start giving Masha a full series each half at QB instead of an isolated play or 2, and if he plays well and we score, maybe even leave him in there til they stop him.
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#493531
BuryYourDuke wrote:I see this place continues to be entertaining after a loss...
Even more entertaining after a win
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By bluejacket
Registration Days Posts
#493532
forbidden wrote:Hate to tell you that coaches can only fix "non-chalant" by sitting people, that would also include the "golden child" also. Don't think the coaches don't notice or can't gauge the performance of his team during that week of practice. Im sure its being addressed, but at the end of the day its the players who go out and perform. If they don't perform all Ill say is that is not that the coaches haven't addressed it.
If the "nonchalant" attitude is that prevalent on the team (which I think it is), we're in for a long year. A better word is entitled.

Apparently the coaches don't notice how the team is practicing. They just got completely outclassed by a MVFC team again and didn't learn anything from the last trip to the Midwest.
By thepostman
#493534
BuryYourDuke wrote:I see this place continues to be entertaining after a loss...
Josh's development or lack thereof was a topic of discussion last week as well, just sayin...
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493535
bluejacket wrote:If the "nonchalant" attitude is that prevalent on the team (which I think it is), we're in for a long year. A better word is entitled.
Rocco's later teams got that way, didn't they?
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By bluejacket
Registration Days Posts
#493538
SuperJon wrote:Rocco's later teams got that way, didn't they?
Hard to say, but the scores speak for themselves.
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#493540
BuryYourDuke wrote:It was a poor performance. On pretty much every measurable aspect. If Josh hits one or two big plays that he should have in the first half, this game is very very different. It's a game of inches as they say.

If they do it again this week, I will be worried. I'm just not ready to make these broad sweeping judgments about this team yet.
This is Josh the past two years! It's been a game of inches that he hasn't been able to master.

As for one bad week, it's really been four bad weeks and a really good quarter.
By thepostman
#493541
BuryYourDuke wrote:It was a poor performance. On pretty much every measurable aspect. If Josh hits one or two big plays that he should have in the first half, this game is very very different. It's a game of inches as they say.

If they do it again this week, I will be worried. I'm just not ready to make these broad sweeping judgments about this team yet.
Neither am I, but the fact we lost means we have not made it to that next step as a program. We are heading in the right direction but not nearly as fast as I was hoping. Our running game or lack thereof and the lack of development at the QB position is a huge reason for that. Our defense also had one of their poorest performances of the season if not the poorest so that didn't help things either.

I think most realize there is more to this team than the QB position but being a 5th year senior starting QB brings along certain expectations. So far Josh is not meeting those expectations.
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By bluejacket
Registration Days Posts
#493542
BuryYourDuke wrote:It was a poor performance. On pretty much every measurable aspect. If Josh hits one or two big plays that he should have in the first half, this game is very very different. It's a game of inches as they say.

If they do it again this week, I will be worried. I'm just not ready to make these broad sweeping judgments about this team yet.
The "game of inches" argument always comes up when teams lose, but that argument would be much stronger if the losing team didn't get blown out. This game wasn't even close.
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By bluejacket
Registration Days Posts
#493543
thepostman wrote:Neither am I, but the fact we lost means we have not made it to that next step as a program. We are heading in the right direction but not nearly as fast as I was hoping. Our running game or lack thereof and the lack of development at the QB position is a huge reason for that. Our defense also had one of their poorest performances of the season if not the poorest so that didn't help things either.

I think most realize there is more to this team than the QB position but being a 5th year senior starting QB brings along certain expectations. So far Josh is not meeting those expectations.
I think that we have now passed the point where we are singling out Josh from the other players too much. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be criticism of him, but there should be criticism/blame for other players as well.

There are a lot of upperclassmen on this team who aren't playing or leading like they should be.
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