A Sea Of Red

Well i guess we won...or if you understood the sentiment of alot of folks without seeing the score, you'd think we lost.

Not shocked by how we played or the score, but I’ll stop there because I’ll be accused of being a Debbie downer.

We are who we thought we were.

Gill supporters will find all the positives.

Gill opponents will find all the negatives.

We will have the same exact conversations we’ve been having for two years over the next two weeks.

Someone will make a serious post about how we can beat Auburn.

Jonathan Carone wrote:We are who we thought we were.

Gill supporters will find all the positives.

Gill opponents will find all the negatives.

We will have the same exact conversations we’ve been having for two years over the next two weeks.

Someone will make a serious post about how we can beat Auburn.

Turner does find a way to win the big ones. Just saying

That would be interesting if he does. I can’t deal with the insanity but Jr. does haha.

If this was the same outcome a year ago against the same team, are we still putting a question mark in the title of this thread?

Yes. After today that team is 4-3, 2nd place in big sky and not ranked in FCS. If we gave up 600 yards to them last year I would still be asking if we are getting our $ worth on D. That is unacceptable at any level.

We are 4-3 in FBS and before the season I would have been very happy with that but very disgusted that we give up 500+ per game. We can say we have a better record that we thought (we do and I am happy we are where we are) but let's not pretend that we are playing up to our ability or even up to a standard on D. Good teams don't look at the record. They look at whether they play well, execute, etc.

We got to fix our defense. I was at field level and I saw holes I could run through. Receivers running down field uncovered. 600 yards allowed is not good even if we were playing Alabama.

quick-hit notes

http://www.aseaofred.com/quick-hit-notes-idaho-state/

Anyone who said LU would have 4 wins this year should be feeling pretty good right now
Winning this game a year or 2 ago seems like it would have been huge. The fact some are already poo pooing it shows there’s been progress.
My biggest complaint is the apostrophe before the 71
The Administrations biggest worry should be the lack of attendance

jack_sparrow81 wrote:If this was the same outcome a year ago against the same team, are we still putting a question mark in the title of this thread?

Probably, if the reaction is the same.

Purple Haize wrote:The Administrations biggest worry should be the lack of attendance

This was one of my biggest takeaways.

The question for me is this:

Did alumni who only come back once a year choose another game to come to other than homecoming?

Homecoming was the worst opponent of the four teams we’ve played all year at home. It could be that the 5000 or so alumni that otherwise would’ve been there chose those other games. That’s the positive view of it.

The negative view is that alumni aren’t excited about the program and feel like not even homecoming is worth coming back to.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

In terms of students, we knew fewer student came to the earlier games so their drop was to be expected to a point. From reading some things on Facebook, it looks like a lot of the students aren’t excited by the program. Add that to one of Damien’s tweets today (Overheard in the press box: "I would gladly write a paper and have to study rather than attend a football game as a fan.") and you get the impression the students are beginning to check out too.

I know you don’t make decisions based on fans showing up or not, but our fan base should be really excited where we’re at. The fact that it looks like more are indifferent than excited is not a good sign.

Anybody comparing anything to when we were FCS are grasping for straws. With that said it's hard to be upset at winning 4 games. i dont think anybody could.

I'm just tired of the defense getting beat up. Gill has shown zero willingness to hold his staff accountable. If that doesn't change that will be why he is gone after this year.

I'm also concerned with the appearance of deception with the AGG "illness" but I have a feeling most wont want to entertain that because it doesn't fit well with the narrative that TG is a good dude.

With that said I hope we use the 2 weeks to actually prepare for UMass and not look ahead past them.

Regarding attendance, previous year homecoming tickets could be purchased for five dollars. I still think this has to play into it.

thepostman wrote:Anybody comparing anything to when we were FCS are grasping for straws. With that said it's hard to be upset at winning 4 games. i dont think anybody could.

I'm just tired of the defense getting beat up. Gill has shown zero willingness to hold his staff accountable. If that doesn't change that will be why he is gone after this year.

I'm also concerned with the appearance of deception with the AGG "illness" but I have a feeling most wont want to entertain that because it doesn't fit well with the narrative that TG is a good dude.

With that said I hope we use the 2 weeks to actually prepare for UMass and not look ahead past them.

AGG was told by medical staff his dx of mono was a false positive Thursday morning. TG is a good dude.

thepostman wrote: I'm also concerned with the appearance of deception with the AGG "illness" but I have a feeling most wont want to entertain that because it doesn't fit well with the narrative that TG is a good dude.

.

Please. Expound on this “Deception “. I’m all ears how a football coach should diagnose an illness. I’m fascinated to hear how gamesmanship isn’t a part of modern day athletics. Pray tell, how can a non medical professional tell if a test is a false positive?

willflop wrote:Regarding attendance, previous year homecoming tickets could be purchased for five dollars. I still think this has to play into it.

I didn't register for homecoming this year because the activities weren't as family friendly as they've been in the past like the carnival. I don't even know how much the alumni prices for tickets were, but I do know that this season I've seen more people trying to get rid of tickets than I have in previous seasons.

From what I hear in the community and from my kids (who tell me what they talk about with their friends) is that there just isn't as much excitement about Liberty events as there has been in the past. I'll admit that our family feels that way, but it seems others do as well.

thepostman wrote:Anybody comparing anything to when we were FCS are grasping for straws. With that said it's hard to be upset at winning 4 games. i dont think anybody could.

I'm just tired of the defense getting beat up. Gill has shown zero willingness to hold his staff accountable. If that doesn't change that will be why he is gone after this year.

I'm also concerned with the appearance of deception with the AGG "illness" but I have a feeling most wont want to entertain that because it doesn't fit well with the narrative that TG is a good dude.

With that said I hope we use the 2 weeks to actually prepare for UMass and not look ahead past them.

When I was younger my doctor thought I had mono for about a week and it turned out to be incorrect. I don't know the extent of AGG's situation but from my experience it's certainly possible.

Buckshot was great early on the short routes then .....
After the first quarter of fury I thought we were going to bring it on D then ......
How about that punting and no bobbled kick receptions on our end.
LOVED the win.
The Wimberly Wonders have got to go.
I did not hear the post game comments of Gill but he called last weeks game ugly and I thought that was good football and this week was ugly PERIOD.
If we play Houston in a bowl game who runs the 8th best yards per play in the NCAA ---- Whoa!
And, A Hail Mary ---whoda thunk it prudent?
A lot of heart by the players to pull it out.

Yacht Rock wrote:

willflop wrote:Regarding attendance, previous year homecoming tickets could be purchased for five dollars. I still think this has to play into it.

I didn't register for homecoming this year because the activities weren't as family friendly as they've been in the past like the carnival. I don't even know how much the alumni prices for tickets were, but I do know that this season I've seen more people trying to get rid of tickets than I have in previous seasons.

From what I hear in the community and from my kids (who tell me what they talk about with their friends) is that there just isn't as much excitement about Liberty events as there has been in the past. I'll admit that our family feels that way, but it seems others do as well.

Base price was 10 dollars but you had to use a promo code online. In years past you could literally buy tickets when you signed in

My excitement for the program is at an all time high. We’re FBS! It’s awesome. Look at all the coverage we get. Where apathy comes in for me are the excuses for Wimbo and company. I know every game (sans Troy, which I’m starting to think were just first game mistakes by a backup starting) that we’re going to give up 500+ yards. 622 or whatever it was is beyond unacceptable! But for anyone to have apathy right now outside of coaching just doesn’t compute for me. I’m loving everything about FBS.

BJ, were you at Homecoming?

Jonathan Carone wrote:

Purple Haize wrote:The Administrations biggest worry should be the lack of attendance

This was one of my biggest takeaways.

The question for me is this:

Did alumni who only come back once a year choose another game to come to other than homecoming?

Homecoming was the worst opponent of the four teams we’ve played all year at home. It could be that the 5000 or so alumni that otherwise would’ve been there chose those other games. That’s the positive view of it.

The negative view is that alumni aren’t excited about the program and feel like not even homecoming is worth coming back to.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

In terms of students, we knew fewer student came to the earlier games so their drop was to be expected to a point. From reading some things on Facebook, it looks like a lot of the students aren’t excited by the program. Add that to one of Damien’s tweets today (Overheard in the press box: "I would gladly write a paper and have to study rather than attend a football game as a fan.") and you get the impression the students are beginning to check out too.

I know you don’t make decisions based on fans showing up or not, but our fan base should be really excited where we’re at. The fact that it looks like more are indifferent than excited is not a good sign.

Or as Chris brought up on twitter, how much did Jr's politics hurt? because it aligned a lot people in the Liberty and Lynchburg community. I know a few who refuses to go back until he steps down.

Taking a deeper look at the attendance:

Through four games, we’re averaging 536 more per game than we did last year for the entire season.

My guess is once the final two home games are added in, we’re probably going to be sitting somewhere around 16k. That includes a couple weather games and two games after Thanksgiving, all working against the total. Last season was 16,571 average for the full season.

Comparing homecoming to past years:

Homecoming had 1224 more last year than this year.

If you look at homecoming attendance while Gill was here (and take 2000 off the numbers during Barber's years because of inflation), you get an average of 17,132.

We were 561 under that average today. So not terribly different. But not a growth that you’d hope to see given we have a legit path to a bowl game.

So we're left with three explanations:

1) Alumni chose to come back to FBS games this year instead of coming to the FCS homecoming game.

2) People are less interested in the program.

3) The 2PM start time is a bad time.

My guess is it's more of #1 and #3 than it is #2. We've got our base of 17,000 but we aren't going to grow to the higher numbers many were expecting overnight.