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

User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#476075
As we celebrate the newest members of the Flames Football family, already we look to not only the 2015 season, but signing day 2016 and the areas we need to most focus on.

Here are the seniors for 2015:

DJ Abnar RB
Jonathan Burgess OL
Nicky Fualaau FB
Cody Gochenouer OL (redshirt)
Miles Hunter LB
Grant Jones OL (redshirt)
Austin Kaigler RB
Garrett Long TE
John Lunsford PK
Jimmy O'Grady LB (redshirt)
Darrin Peterson (WR)
Desmond Rice RB (redshirt)
Zach Schreiber LB
Max Sommer OL
Nolan Spicer DL (redshirt)
Chima Uzowihe DL
Josh Woodrum QB (redshirt)

So if we do the math it looks like this:

QB 1
TE 1
PK 1
FB 1
DL 2
OL 3
LB 3
RB 3

That's 17 scholarships right out the gate
Last edited by BJWilliams on February 5th, 2015, 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#476085
BJWilliams wrote:As we celebrate the newest members of the Flames Football family, already we look to not only the 2015 season, but signing day 2016 and the areas we need to most focus on. I'll break down the players who will be seniors in 2015 when I get home, but three of the big ones are Josh Woodrum (QB), Darrin Peterson (WR) and Chima Uzowihe (DL)
Add Des Rice
DJ Abner
User avatar
By R i
Registration Days Posts
#476088
This isnt good coverage , its reaching. Transfers, Injuries, having zero clue what some of the guys on our current roster can add because they havent seen any playing time.
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#476089
BJWilliams wrote:As we celebrate the newest members of the Flames Football family, already we look to not only the 2015 season, but signing day 2016 and the areas we need to most focus on. I'll break down the players who will be seniors in 2015 when I get home, but three of the big ones are Josh Woodrum (QB), Darrin Peterson (WR) and Chima Uzowihe (DL)

You still havent finished the outlook for the upcoming season either, your jumping all over the place
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#476095
easy there boys. much like with the 2015 thread I posted last year, all I'm gonna do is post a list of the guys who are going to be seniors this fall. Its kinda a first look at how many scholarships will be available. D-Line outlook for 2015 I'm working on that when I get home
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#476989
If I were to order the positions by priority (and based on players expected to return for 2015):

LB
DL
OL
RB
QB
TE
FB
PK
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#477042
We are losing an All-American PK and you put that as the lowest priority? I know we have a Freshman kicker, Avery Echols, on the roster, but I don't think he is even on scholarship. Do you have any idea if he is any good? That was a rhetorical question BTW. We all know you don't, any more than I do.
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#477044
olldflame wrote:We are losing an All-American PK and you put that as the lowest priority? I know we have a Freshman kicker, Avery Echols, on the roster, but I don't think he is even on scholarship. Do you have any idea if he is any good? That was a rhetorical question BTW. We all know you don't, any more than I do.
Maybe it could be that echols will have had a second season under his belt, and im sure he'll get a couple shots during the season. Im sure that the same way HCTG felt he needed a kicker in 2012 he may see the same after this season. I guess they have to scower the HS's and find them a kicker they deem they wanna possibly "offer" like they did Lunsford, otherwise they may just bring in another walk on to compete against Echols.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#477048
I believe it was actually Rocco who offered Lunsford his scholarship, although Gill signed him. A lot of FCS coaches don't feel a PK is worthy of one of those precious 63 scholarships, but Danny was one who did. Now we will find out if HCTG feels the same way, but scholarship or not, we need to add a kicker.
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#477056
We certainly have been spoiled by Lunsford the last few years, but kicker is not something a ton of teams allocate a scholarship for in recruiting, unless its one of the big boys, and even then it probably does not happen too often. we shall see how things shake out with Barbir in the coming months, as well as whether or not any more kickers end up on our radar
By SuperJon
Registration Days Posts
#477058
Bevins was on scholarship before Lunsford.

The great teams keep their kicker on scholarship.
By forbidden
Registration Days Posts
#477063
Thats the thing, the good teams do keep one on scholly, the minute they dont they end up like villanova not having any good kickers at all. You don't remember the importance of the kicker until you really need him to bail you out with that 30-45 ydr at the end of the game.
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#477070
Fair enough guys. Be interesting if we see more kickers end up on our radar in the 2016 class as we proceed
Last edited by BJWilliams on February 18th, 2015, 2:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#477071
forbidden wrote:Thats the thing, the good teams do keep one on scholly, the minute they dont they end up like villanova not having any good kickers at all. You don't remember the importance of the kicker until you really need him to bail you out with that 30-45 ydr at the end of the game.
We had a much better kicker than Villanova. They beat us anyway. It's more a matter of the individual philosophy of the HC, and there are some really good programs who don't. Villanova is an example. Some coaches take the approach that if they bring in 2 or 3 walk-on kickers and coach them up, at least one will turn out to be good enough to get the job done. It doesn't always work that way, but scholarship kickers don't necessarily always pan out well either. For all we know, the extra scholarship Nova saved by not signing a kicker may have gotten them Robertson or Cherry, or maybe that WR nobody heard of who just happened to be a great "mudder" and kept his feet to catch those 2 bombs while our DBs were falling down.

Personally, I think it's an important part of a good/great team and if you have a chance to sign a PK you think can be a stud, you do it.
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#502501
Here's a little update as we are about 2 weeks away from National Signing Day and kicking off the 2016 signing period:

Here is where we stood as far as our team needs heading into the offseason:

QB 1
TE 1
PK 1
FB 1
DL 2
OL 3
LB 3
RB 3

Here is where we are at as far as commits to fill those needs:

LB: 1 (Korell Evans)
DL: 2 (Michael Anderson* and DeCarlo Hamilton)
OL: 5 (Daniel Zapata, Julio Lozano, Aiidan Burroughs, Ethan "Diesel" Crawford, and Damian Bounds Jr.
RB: 1 (Mitchell Lewis)
QB: 2 (Rudiger Yearick** and Stephen "Buckshot" Calvert
TE: 0 (1 pending offer)
FB: 0 (0 pending offers)
PK: 1 (Alex Probert)
WR: 2 (Lionell McConnell and Antonio Gandy-Golden)
DB: 1(Solomon McGinty II**)
ATH: 3 (Brandon Tillmon, Ceneca Espinoza Jr. and Jimmy Faulks Jr.)

*: Anderson is a defensive end commit, but for sake of this discussion Im using one DL designation
**: Enrolled in school (or possibly enrolled) for 2016 Spring Semester
Last edited by BJWilliams on February 1st, 2016, 10:40 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
By BJWilliams
Registration Days Posts
#502960
List updated to reflect the recent changes in the class
By olldflame
Registration Days Posts
#503956
forbidden wrote:there you have it old flame, Denvre Daniels moved to RB so its official per HCTG
That was a no brainer. No need to have 4 slot receivers and only signing 1 RB left us thin there. Denvre will probable be working on adding a few pounds of muscle in the next few months and will give us a nice change of pace or 3rd down back.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#503961
We need someone to step up at RB and gain 1,000+ yards and score a lot of TDs. I still cringe every time I think of our lack of being able to run the ball last season. I'd like to see the stats on how many times we ran on first down for 2 yards or less.

Malik has positioned himself quite nicely for free[…]

Transfer Portal Reaction

LU Armchair Coach — armed with a recliner, W[…]

25/26 Season

Ah, the continuous Middle School frat boys are a[…]

Chadwell’s Health

Fair point. None of us are on the inside, but comm[…]