A Sea Of Red

Hello All, if this has been already covered I apologize as it's been awhile since i've been on the board. Per the Fan and Press luncheon with JMU coach Mickey Mathews, after this agreement runs out, he doesn't plan on having JMU play Libety again stating that that they don't have much to gain. (not quoting exactly but i'm not too far off) I for one hope this view changes as these games are very good for football in the state of Virginia and for recruiting. I also want to add, that they have been great football games to witness. Just thought i'd share.

GO FLAMES!

http://www. jmusports.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?catid=21713&id=798068

Mickey is correct in his assertions from a JMU perspective. When this deal was signed we were not considered a threat to his program's position. Times have changed ... dramatically.

Of course, if we are in the same league ...

My 4 favorite in-state LU games are against JMU, VMI, W&M, and (in the near future) Richmond.

I honestly wish we could form our own VA/NC conference for DI-A by adding JMU, ODU, ECU, and App. State, and a few others.

I agree. . .with LU entering in to a series with Richmond, there is no need for us right now to schedule another series with JMU. However, I wouldn't mind seeing another round towards '16-'18 (wow, that feels weird to type). Of course by that point we probably will be in another conference, or even in FBS.

totally agree with coach matthews. As long as we have an in-state school on our schedule then im good. bring on richmond!

Part of the issue for JMU is recruiting. There are a lot of quality FCS schools in Virginia. You HAVE to recruit, and recruit well, out of state.

On any given year, we will have five or six home games, including four conference home games. This year we have five. There will be some years, like this year, where two of our conference away games will be in-state (this year we got to W&M and ODU). If you combine that with being at Liberty, we have 8 of 11 games in the Commonwealth. Our away games out of state are UNC (beneficial), UNH (pretty worthless for recruiting), and UMass (mildly beneficial).

If you factor in the fact that, I think, we are scheduled for Va. Tech sometime in the near future, we HAVE to get some of our FCS games out of state to showcase the program for recruits that wouldn't otherwise get exposed.

Obviously, with no other teams in state, it's great for Liberty to get some more in-state exposure, but it doesn't make much sense for the CAA teams to do it now that ODU has increased the time we spend here.

Someone in Lexington just winced, DukeDawg.

We typically have had more of a regional recruiting model and once upon a time it was more national in nature. Hopefully we get to a point financially where we can work it like that once again.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, hopefully we both get a league where we can be partners and playing each other on yearly basis. It is great having schools in close enough proximity to travel well to each other.

Sly Fox wrote:Someone in Lexington just winced, DukeDawg.

We typically have had more of a regional recruiting model and once upon a time it was more national in nature. Hopefully we get to a point financially where we can work it like that once again.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, hopefully we both get a league where we can be partners and playing each other on yearly basis. It is great having schools in close enough proximity to travel well to each other.

VMI has football???

Seriously, I even went to the Big South page, but the graphics were all messed up. My apologies to the Keydets...

bigsmooth wrote:totally agree with coach matthews. As long as we have an in-state school on our schedule then im good. bring on richmond!

I agree. We need at least one in state OOC opponent a year. Hopefully after Richmond, we can get ODU or W&M on the schedule.

I look at it this way. It's a lose-lose for any CAA team to play us.

1. If they lose, they lose to team that (wrongly in my opinion) they should have beat. Not everyone realizes that LU has a pretty good football team yet. (talking about common folk. People are always shocked when I tell them that LU is nationally ranked in football).
2. If they beat us, then they beat a Big South team. Which isn't that great.

Please take what I say into consideration, as my 2 arguments are based on what others think of us, not neccessarly who we are or that we know who we are.

i disagree

Rocco has said a few times that when he got here, we did not compete with JMU for recruits. Now we do compete for the same recruits. It would benefit JMU to beat us every year.

Fair point r i.

R i wrote:i disagree

Rocco has said a few times that when he got here, we did not compete with JMU for recruits. Now we do compete for the same recruits. It would benefit JMU to beat us every year.

There's a LOT more that goes into recruiting than just beating a team and Liberty's caught up with the so-called "bigger" FCS teams in the state on some of those aspects. From that standpoint, I don't think it benefits either team, win or lose, to continue to play the series on a regular basis. If winning was all that mattered our recruiting would've gone through the roof this past year when we beat Va. Tech. Every recruit's different.

And I'm a little out of turn here, but I do think it helps Liberty to get another Virginia game in whenever possible. It's probably more beneficial to get out to the east end of the state (UR, ODU, W&M) than to continue to play JMU. There is a good football product there and the more people that see it, the better.

Good points all around. I personally like playing JMU. They're a semi-recent national champion, I see a lot of local cars with JMU stuff on it, and they travel fairly well. It's certainly not a "rivalry" game for either school, but the short trip makes it a pretty fun game atmosphere.

On a side note, I see us ultimately in the same conference on the next level.

On the Big South Coaches teleconference from this morning, Rocco states we don't plan on playing JMU in the near future. He says he likes to play one other VA FCS school per year outside of VMI. He said it was first W&M, then JMU, next Richmond, and he mentioned he hopes to get W&M back on the schedule soon. Said nothing about ODU. Not that that means anything though.

He did say the Richmond series is 4 games, but then retracted and said he could be wrong and it may only be 2. Man, I hope its 4, but everything I've heard said 2.

It's a two-game series.

Chris Lang wrote:It's a two-game series.

Thanks. I knew that's what had been released, but thought maybe something had changed.

R i wrote:i disagree

Rocco has said a few times that when he got here, we did not compete with JMU for recruits.

Actually what Rocco said, was that his first year, he did not sign a single player that had been offered a DI scholarship anywhere else.

Keep in mind that first signing class came just a matter of weeks after he had assembled a staff. We were fortunate to land the kids we did. But I'm not sure that it is fair to say that none of the signees had other DI offers. But they were certainly in short supply.

I was reffering to comments he made last year in the JMU game week press conference. specifically recruiting against JMU.