A Sea Of Red

With Summer - this board is getting a little slow. No news breaking, No big arguments over coaching, No job applications being discussed. Let's try and get some action going on here.

Here's a start.

Let's get everyone's view on the state of Football at Liberty. You can talk to many things such as team, players, coaching, marketing, game operations, conference, prospect of moving up, color of the field turf, etc...
Are we on track to reach our goals?, do we have the right staff in place to get us there?, what can we do to make Liberty even more attractive for athletes?, etc...

If you could make a pitch to a top 100 athlete - what would it be?

I'll take a crack at looking at the football program as a whole:

1. Team- We have had some amazing talent come through especially in the last 5-6 years (Rashad Jennings, Mike Brown, Mike Godsil, Wynton Jackson, Dominic Bolden, Brandon Turner, Kyle O'Donnell, Zach Terrell, Chris Luck, Vince Redd, Brock Smith, Pat Kelly, Aldreakis Allen. Pat Calvary, Matt Bevins, Noah Greenbaum, I could go on and on) and we are starting to get in the mix for some very talented players. Maybe not top 50 recruits, but very good players, and we are fighting with teams from some of the big guns as far as conferences go on the I-A/FBS and I-AA/FCS levels
2. Players- I touched on this above but we have had a lot of good players come through the mountain, especially in the last few years, and what is great is that these guys not only make an impact on the field, but off as well. I mean if you read the story on Zach Duke when he received the Royer/Rivera Award, its stories like that that should encourage you as a Flames Fan...and also Rashad Jennings, who is making an impact in his community in Jacksonville, and Sam Gado, who is hoping to go to medical school, and Chris Deitsch, who is now in the campus pastor's office (and recently got married).
3. Coaching- There are some changes that could stand to be made (especially on the defensive side) but one place that I hope doesnt change for a VERY long time is at the top. Danny Rocco has done an AMAZING job in taking Liberty from an FCS "whipping boy" to a top 15 program in only 6 years.
4. Marketing- Kevin Keys and the folks in Athletics are certainly doing well marketing and getting big crowds to Williams Stadium. With the team putting together consistent winning seasons, that will also help to draw more people out to games, especially those who remember the struggles that the team went through in the mid-late 90s and 2000s
5. Game Operations- As someone who was in the band for many years, I think there could be some improvement there. When you have the band getting ready to play and then the canned music comes on, it comes off like there is still some difficulty in communication between the folks in the press box and the band or any others that are down on the field.

THose are the only ones I have time to cover right now...I may look at a couple other things in a later post.

In regards to future FBS consideration, I think this is a HUGE season for Liberty. I think a Big East shake up is imminent between the football schools and the non-football schools, the storm has been brewing for awhile. If the shakeup does happen there are going to be serious ripple effects through the Big East, Conf USA, MAC, Sun Belt, etc. that could be Liberty's chance to jump to FBS. I think schools like Delaware, JMU, Georgia State, and others could be waiting for the same shake up. So Liberty has a tremendous opportunity this year to show that we are legit on and off the field.

It's very exciting in my opinion.

I was thinking about asking a related question so what a convenient thread to bring it up in. I think we all have a rainbows and gumdrops view of this program since it's come so far in such a short amount of time. BUT, what if we don't make the playoffs again this year? Rocco got a little heat from a few posters here, and it was on the line of being warranted, in my opinion, taking into account how far we've come, resources etc. I'm not saying we look to replace him or anything but is he going to be brought down off the pedestal that we all have put him on? Especially considering we didn't see a staff shakeup like some thought we might.

Basically, how long do we take being best program not in the playoffs year after year? How long is does a Top-15 trophy make us happy since we're not as bad as we were in '04?

The honeymoon is over. This is the first class that Rocco really got to recruit with all resources and it's their senior year. Expectations are high. I believe he can do it and that we should make the playoffs, but if things don't happen this year any criticism is warranted.

That seems to be the million dollar question, LUconn. Is Rocco the guy that will take us to the next level, or is he just the guy laying the foundation for another coach to take us to the next level. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. I honestly believe that he is the guy to lead LU to new heights, but if this next season goes awry then that perception will probably change.

I also think that Rocco is doing a GREAT job as head coach! It's sketchy to me though, how Coastal Carolina ended up 6-5 last season and made it into the playoffs and we ended up 8-3, and didn't get in! A situation like that has nothing to do with Rocco's coaching. I'm also looking foward to when Williams Stadium expansion reaches it's 30,000 capacity!! It may not be packed out right away when it's finished, but it will eventually! Especially with the direction the football program is going right now!!

I took my son to a football camp this past weekend at Appalachian State. After meeting the head coach Jerry Moore he gave me a tour of his new football operations center. He was extremely proud of his two year old building. All I could think of was how Liberty's facilites were SO much better. Jerry Moore made a comment to me that with all this it just comes down to the players putting in hard work. They had to work harder than their competition.

Liberty has the facilities. Some of the best I've seen. Rocco is a pretty good young coach. They must have some pretty good players to do as well as they have the last few years. The only other question would be are the coaches and players working harder than their competition? In the words of Jerry Moore, it just comes down to hard work. Apparently Liberty needs to turn it up a notch.

from the info i get as far as off season work, i believe the knob would get broke if it got turned up much more.

sigmo7 wrote:from the info i get as far as off season work, i believe the knob would get broke if it got turned up much more.

Agreed! The reports that i'm hearing are that the summer workouts are very intense!

It sounds like the team is feeling the same pressure to succeed now that everyone else is expressing. I'm seriously jazzed to get things rolling this fall.

sigmo7 wrote:from the info i get as far as off season work, i believe the knob would get broke if it got turned up much more.

Does the knob go to 11?

I don't think anyone with a brain can accuse our guys of not putting the work in or preparing. They are very, very good at doing that. It's the one game of the year where we don't perform that's been our problem lately.

1 too few. We failed to show up twice last year.

I think Jon's point is that we have one game on the schedule each of the last three years that leaves us scratching our head and saying "how the heck did we lose to this team?" 2008- Presbyterian 2009- Stony Brook 2010- Robert Morris (I cant really consider CCU a WTF game because the Chants have always proven tough in Myrtle Beach)

Schfourteenteen wrote:1 too few. We failed to show up twice last year.

Even with two of those games last year, if we win the other we're in the playoffs. My point was there's always one game that we can point to that kills us. The offseason workouts and preparation from players and coaches isn't the problem.

Georgia Tech Transfer - AYERS needs to be made team captain IMMEDIATELY !!!

I think the pieces are coming together. Football facilities are there. The campus improvement plan should bring the rest of the school up to the level of the football facilities. Still need a little patience--things have come a long way in a few years. My school started winning over 15 years ago and is just starting to get real respect in media and from top recruits. Schools with a big football rep are at a tremendous advantage over the rest. Florida came in at the last minute and took a guy we had worked on hard for about 2 years. And they already had a top QB recruit on board. That's just the way it is. Winners want to be with winners.

Offense ia very good. Defense appears to need work.

Continue to reach out to non LU Lynchburg folks for fan support to fill the seats. Nothing looks better to players/recruits than a full loud stadium.

Flamesfan4ever wrote:Georgia Tech Transfer - AYERS needs to be made team captain IMMEDIATELY !!!

yeah...that aint happenin...he'd have to have gotten here in the spring for that one...even for a joke poster you are more myopic than most people here (and that's sayin something)