A Sea Of Red

Now for without a doubt the BIGGEST question mark for Liberty going into the 2011 season. I think it can pretty well be said that if not for these guys, much of the Liberty offense doesnt go...

Players Returning:

Malcolm Boyd (Junior)
Jay Weatherington( Junior)
Aaron Brown (R-Senior)
Stan Herring (R-Junior)
Andre Mondor (R-Freshman)
Toney White (R-Senior)
Richard Wright (R-Sophomore)
Mark Tomlin (R-Senior)
Aaron Lundy (R-Junior)
Greg Ray (R-Freshman)
Mitch Hanson (R-Freshman)
Kevin Widener (R-Freshman)


Players Lost:
Justin Vargas (graduation) 2010 Big South All Conference First Team
Alex Stadler (graduation) 2010 Big South All Conference First Team
Soeren Wendland (graduation) 2010 Big South All Conference Second Team
Matt Camire (graduation)

Players Incoming:

Trevor Jenkins 6-4 275 Lbs (Goochland HS
Grant Jones 6-5 305 Lbs (Liberty Christian Academy)
Gary Mulkins 6-7 290 Lbs (St Johns College HS)
DJ Sellman 6-4 325 Lbs (DeMatha Catholic HS) (2008 Signee)
With four of the five starters on the line all gone, this is probably the one position where a true freshman could very well step up and get a spot in the lineup or could push one of the returners very hard. The Liberty Flames as a team only lost 56 yards in the running game from 2009-2010...the problem? Almost half of those yards came from Mike Brown. If Liberty is going to get over the hump this year, they are going to need the "hogs" up front to do what they did a lot of in 2008 and 2009 and that is blow holes in the defense big enough to drive a convoy through for the RBs so that Brown wont have to take so much of the load in the rushing game, and give him time to pick apart defenses as he was known to do at times last year.

Considering the fact that this is probably the most important area of concern on the offense this season Id of expected more discussion here...

BuryYourDuke wrote: Seriously though, I think you hit the nail on the head. We go where the OL goes this season.

This.

To be honest, I don't know much about this season's OL. However, this season really depends on them being not just adequate but Good.

I noticed you left R-Fr Mitch Hanson out. Any reason?

Agreed NG...like I said, we lost four of five starters from last year's group, three of them all conference honorees, so we are going to have four guys (at least) who have I believe never started a game for Liberty. Jones is the only one of the incoming guys that Ive seen play in person but I think he has the best chance of the three signees to step right in and play immediately.

As for Hanson, that was a minor oversight on my part (those are bound to happen when you are switching back and forth between the 2010 and partial 2011 rosters). I'll add him in in a bit...

Absolutely. I dont think we've touted a freshman lineman this much...well...ever. Boyd is the only player who started last year that is back so he is going to be a key cog in how quickly the new line gels come training camp

You forgot your second string center!

C-Kevin widener

(looks over roster) AHH! So I did! Its easy to miss names sometimes when you are looking over rosters sometimes...I'll fix that as well...when youre looking for guys with the OL next to their name you can forget the guys with the C (who are also on the OL)

You forgot DJ Sellman from MD (DeMatha Catholic). He is the guy who was recruited a few years back then dropped out for academic reasons and then came back. Might be an impact player based on his high school background.

Not sure what to say about this group. We were not good there last year and we lost 4 starters. I hope that some of the underclassmen from the last 2 years can step it up since they are juniors now. Hopefully Tomlin, Jones, Mondor, and others can challenge the preseason starters.

I noted him in a thread on AGS, I'll add him in as an incoming player because he is listed as a freshman on the website