A Sea Of Red

just wondering, it's getting kind of late in the year.

I haven't been able to find any commitments yet. And frankly the rumor mill hasn't given me any indication of who might be in the fold. I do know that we have had quite a few visitors recently and we expect more this weekend.

i haven't gotten any reports in the newsfeed.

Liberty has been losing a lot of recruiting battles to JMU/ODU/Richmond this year compared to the past

Has our recruiting footprint expanded now that we have a new Williams Stadium? What is the nature of football recruiting? Do teams usually stick to a 5 state radius? Seems as though we might be able to recruit nationally with the mission of the school and expanded facilities. I'd love to see us losing recruits to Texas, Bama, Oklahoma, and the like.

One school did it solely by recruiting the State of Miami!

Under Coach Rocco we have really narrowed our search down primarily to the Mid-Atlantic region with the obvious exception of Florida that we hammer pretty hard and little cherrypicking in states like Pennsylvania & Georgia. We'll bring in others from outside these target areas but the athletes typically have to pursue those scholarships pretty hard.

As far as recruiting footprint, (if Im understanding things correctly), each coach has Id guess 3 or 4 states that they tend to focus on. I dont know precisely how that would break down on our staff (that isnt exactly a matter of public record if memory serves me correctly), but the ones I can think of off hand (from discussions on here) are one that works primarily in FL and we have one or two (I think) that are in PA, and one that makes the rounds in the 757. Im guessing that as our profile has expanded, youll start to see coaches in places like Texas and California and Washington and Iowa.

Thanks for your insight though Sly

Christianity knows no geographic boundaries, so perhaps our footprint will expand as the popularity of the university grows. Seems a logical progression.

THat's up to the coaching staff...they have their recruiting philosophy and it has bore (sp?) some very good fruit over the years. If they do decide to expand it, itll be because they decided to make a change they felt was necessary, not because a bunch of schmoes like us on some message board said they should.

BJWilliams wrote: Im guessing that as our profile has expanded, youll start to see coaches in places like Texas and California and Washington and Iowa.

Do these even belong in the same sentence? Might as well throw Maine in there

Oh BJ...let us dream. Inside every man is a small part of us that yearns for the bright lights that is a head football coach at a Division I school.

Texas and California and even to some degree Iowa are places where HS football pretty much is another religion. Im sure Sly can attest to practically having whole towns shut down on Friday night during the HS season.

Schfourteenteen wrote:

BJWilliams wrote: Im guessing that as our profile has expanded, youll start to see coaches in places like Texas and California and Washington and Iowa.

Do these even belong in the same sentence? Might as well throw Maine in there

One must always consider the source

I enjoy the regionaltalent. It expands the fan base.

If it comes down between a kid in the 757 or a kid in California, I would hope we'd take the 757 kid. Tha twould give us more long term benefit then an out of state kid. Now, if the second coming of Peyton Manning wants to come. Who cares where they are from. As. GENERAL rule kids like to stay close to home so hopefully we put most of our resources in the mid Atlantic and Florida.

Our current roster:
Virginia -46
North Carolina - 15
Florida - 10
Maryland - 5
Pennsylvania - 4
Georgia - 4
New Jersey - 3
South Carolina - 2
Ohio - 2
Indiana - 2
Washington - 2
Germany - 2
Massachusetts - 1
New York - 1
California - 1
Delaware - 1
Connecticut - 1
Louisiana - 1 (Pat Kelly, not sure when he moved to VA)

Those results kind of take me by surprise. I am interested, but also lazy, to see what those numbers looked like Karcher's last year.....

2005 roster is not on website. 2006 (Rocco's first year) is:
Florida - 24
Virginia - 21
Pennsylvania - 8
Georgia - 7
North Carolina - 4
South Carolina - 3
Tennessee - 2
New Jersey - 2
Washington - 2
Wisconsin - 2
Ohio - 2
Alabama - 2
Texas - 2
Mississippi - 1
Kentucky - 1
Arizona - 1
New York - 1
Minnesota - 1
Canada - 1
Germany - 1

In all fairness, our program was at such a low point under Karcher that he typically couldn't land the caliber of regional talent that we now enjoy. So we recruited further out. And it should also be noted that assistant coaches rely heavily on their prior contacts. So if we have a staff made up primarily of guys from the Mid-Atlantic & Florida then we likely are going to land talent from those areas. When Coach Wachenheim was still on staff, he had responsibility for Texas based on his experience at Rice. But he was honest with me and stated that they didn't feel it was a good investment of resources to chase Texan kids because even if they received a verbal from a kid, the moment a Texas school offered late we would lose them. I'm not convinced that is the case but it is a reasonable explanation.

We've never since had the national profile we enjoyed back in the '80s when our school was a household name due to the Old Time Gospel Hour & Moral Majority. So back then we had kids from across America pursuing us. My hope is that as LU Online expands and we make the transition to FBS, we may find ourselves in a similar position once again.

According to the media guide, these are the recruiting responsibilities:

Sundheim -- Southern Virginia, Eastern North Carolina, Florida Panhandle
Clark -- Tidewater, D.C. area, Eastern Maryland
Streeter -- Central Virginia, upstate South Carolina, Northern Atlanta
Roberts -- Northern Virginia, Orlando area, Florida Space Coast
Skalaski -- Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Southwest Florida, South Georgia, international players
Ake -- Richmond, Fredericksburg, Eastern South Carolina
Belin -- Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Eastern North Carolina
Kinney -- Delaware, Eastern Shore Maryland, Western Maryland
McCorkle -- Southwestern Virginia, Charlotte, Western North Carolina
Rojas -- Central and Western Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio

Also, you don't typically see a lot of early FCS commits. Those kids are still waiting to see what kind of FBS offers come their way. It's usually December before you start seeing a lot of the FCS commitments.

Thanks, Chris.

And while it is true that you don't typically see a lot of FCS commits before December, we have become accustomed in recent years to knowing about a half dozen by this point in the year. There probably are commits out there that haven't been made public. I just haven't found them in the public sector yet.

I'm pretty sure it was sep. when nick gave his word to DR. he had others that were sniffing around. several people kept telling him not to do it so soon cause once everything shakes out some of the "other" schools might come knocking. he told everybody that he was going to go where he was wanted, and not to some place that said hey we didn't get who we wanted so we will take you now. there were several schools that contacted his coach in nov & dec, but he told them he was done with his recruiting. i told him it was his decision, but once you give your word there will be no crawfishing. i'm just glad he chose here, great school & football and it doesn't cost me but a little over a quarter tank of gas round trip. lol

We're certainly glad as well.

When kids verbal to FCS schools, the FBS schools don't bother taking their name off their boards. FBS schools generally assume that they can steal FCS commits at will. Often times that is the case, but certainly not always. Frankly we have only lost a few verbals the past few years and they were primarily to BCS schools with the exception of one kid to JMU and another to Appy.

Now would be an exciting time to choose Liberty .... to be a part of "all" the expansion planned over the next 4 years

Whats the deal with Tracy Curry? Will he ever be back?