A Sea Of Red

Final Stats:

Anyone know if Rocco saluted towards the pressbox/suite area like last year?

Coach Rocco:

On the effort by the Flames:
"This is a different team than last year. We didn't fight our way out of trouble last year and we did tonight. Defensively we were opportunitistis. But we have a long, long way to go. But I'm optimistic."

On what came out of Victory:
"I think we had some guys banged up. But we have a long, long way to go if we want to accomplish what we have as goals."

He thanked fans and tribute to Dr. falwell.

On Tusculum:
"They got our attention and we did not look past this opponent. I knew we'd get their best shot and fortunately we were opportunistic to overcome them tonight."

On Team's Performance:
"Fundamentally we weren't real sound. It was a sloppy game and that disappointed me. We were inconsistent running the ball and throwing it. It will just take more work this week and we'll go from there."

Coach Rocco tells it like it is...I am sure we will come out much sharper next week. The passing game looked particularly out of sync....but the defense and special teams stepped it up. It was a great punt return by Jackson to redeem himself from the earlier fumble.

How about that kicking game!

Yeah...need a little work on that. One of the guys on the sideline was commenting how QUIET our students got right before the 2nd FG attempt...and my comment was that after the past few years they hold their breaths on all kicking attempts...right before the kick was blocked. That was NOT a kicker problem...a guy came through un-touched.

Alright what does eveyone think? A lot of expectations going into this game.

In general terms, I was disappointed in the offense and very pleased with the defense. The mental errors in the first half were frankly surprising. I didn't expect that coming out of training camp. The focus should've been there. But the opportunistic defense made up for the other issues.

I think there was some sloppy play and a touch of nerves, but things got on track...mostly. I think it was good that we opened with Tusculum. I think it's good that we have Shippensburg next week. I think that I'd like to watch Wynton run a few more kicks back.

With those thoughts out of the way, I'm going on vacation.

Yeah offense just wasn't clicking. Hopefully we will get everything taken care of by next week. We have some good receivers we need to get them the ball. Vince is a beast.

I come back to my first game in 8 years and we've got the same announcer who still can't pronounce our own players' names. What's up with that?

Other than that, I'll take ugly wins over ugly losses so I'm not going to complain.

It was great finally meeting a few of you guys tonight. Well, except for that virulent dwarf with the Reno 911 mustache. He scares me.

The offense was awful. Brock has got to step it up. He missed several receivers all night long and the one long throw he made, he floated it in the air too long--any other team gets to that ball.

Brandon Dixon will never come back to Liberty University.

Good wake up call!

Vince Redd is great on defense. he is a freak of nature. offense sucked all night.

offense wasn't great, first quarter was terrible. vince redd is a beast.
kent freakin hicks..... I'm sorry but I don't like him. his attitude stinks. that unsportsmanlike conduct he got called for needs to be dealt with

I enjoyed high fiving the front of the student section tonight. what I got to see of the game I liked Zach but I think we overused him in the first quarter and they started stacking the box. Brock missed some real easy passes tonight too. Also how about Greenbaum drilling that first kick tonight? Yeah the other one got blocked but that can happen to anybody. Glad that the band was back in their seats at the beginning of the 3rd quarter (although the cymbal players were putting stuff away from halftime), and hopefully we can absolutely run over Shippensburg next week

We're breaking out the short thoughts version of things like last year:

It was me on the front row with the flag.

The white shirt red ties looked great.

I got in the stadium at 5:25 and had to fight for my seat. I normally get in the stadium at 6. By 6, half the student side was full. By 6:30, it was packed.

Pregame was good. It'll be on the LOAL video.

Vince is crazy.

Crowd was very good. However, we got there so early, and were so energetic before the game, that by halftime, the students were dead.

Coach Rocco came to the students at 6:15 and walked down the sidelines clapping to us and telling him he appreciates us and appreciated us being there. That's why I love that man.

Glad to hear the high attendance.

Defense seems to be A+

As it's the first game of the season, I suppose there are some kinks to work out offensively...but the passsing game (with the exception of the couple of long passes) is reminiscent of the beginning of last year...which can be very frustrating to watch as a fan. Is it performance anxiety for the QB...all of the reports suggest that he can sling it in practice and then he seems to have difficulty finding rhythm game-day. Do we have any sports psychologists at the school?

Overall, though, glad to see the enthusiasm of the students, some traditions starting (btw, does anybody have a pic of the 71 Flag on the pole?), and a win. Looking forward to bigger and better things this year.


Also, a minor uni-watch thing: I think I prefer last year's incarnation of the blue jersey tops with the white numbers and red ringers...from the earlier pictures posted, it's hard to see the red numbers...they seem to get lost on the blue and the red. Just my $.02...I think I would prefer a copy of last years jersey if they ever start selling authentic jerseys (if any of last years are lying around somewhere.)


This Year






Last Year

I like this year's beter.

We missed Eddie and Rashad, however Tusculum had some athletes on defense. If Wynton could decide when to fair catch and when to return, he would be that much more dangerous. Everyone needs a game one. Overall, I'm still pumped about our season. It was nice meeting a lot of you tonight, and Smoothie, we need to put a plan in place to fix RVCS athletics.

Here is the recap from the SIDs:

Defense and Special Teams Shine in Liberty’s Season-Opening Victory over Tusculum

September 1, 2007
Lynchburg, Va.

Box Score


Zach Terrell posted the third-highest rushing total of his career in Liberty's season-opening victory over Tusculum

Touchdowns off a punt return and an interception helped Liberty overcome a sluggish first quarter en route to a 38-14 season-opening victory over Tusculum, Saturday evening.

Click Here for Full Story

Defense looked good, Vince seemed very over agressive in the first drive but played absolutely amazing the rest of the game. The real thing I liked about him is when Hicks(who later made a really sweet looking pick I think) got the dummy penalty to set up the score, Redd went right to Hicks to do whatever football players do in that situation. Hes a real team leader and just about every good defensive play we had he was there. Everybody was in the right mindset today, you knew they came to hit today.

Everybody is gonna salute Wynton for his return but he was SLOPPY the first quarter, between misjudging the punt at his 5 to the rest of the bad punt returning he had that game. Working out the kinks maybe but Id take a average consistent returner over a TD or fumble guy anyday.

Offense:

Brock CANNOT MISS Luck WIDE OPEN in the middile of the field in the redzone ever again. Never got in a rythym, and had real dificulties in the beginning hitting the dump off pass. The only pass he could hit in the first quarter was the "throw it 80 feet high and let the WR out jump the CB." Maybe throwing too much off his back foot and over compensating? (I dont know a whole lot abuot the fundamentals) Countdown to paradox throwing Brock under the bus in 3....2.....1.... He did play alot better later on, however he cant do this too much more or itl be a frustrating season.
Zach either got 9 or he got 0 there wasnt a whole lot of inbetween. Really like the quick handoffs at times the defense didnt have time to react.

Anybody know what happened to Donald Manns? Came up limping on a 3rd down play, hobbled around on the puint return and that was it.

excellent defense and special teams. our offense needs work bad. brock does not seem in tune with his receivers at all. vince redd is just a freak simple as that. the crowd was great, the tribute to doc was great, and the tialgating was great too. just a great day to be a liberty flame.

My .02:

The crowd was huge!
The student side looked great with the red ties...now, if they will only go back to red next week...
The Baptist side is boring. (my first time over there)
The flame throwers in the end-zone are very cool.
Vince Redd is UNREAL. TC's QB is going to have nightmares about those red sleeves for a long time.
The defense as a whole was impressive.
The offense, not so much. We need Rashaad back to open things up.
Brock made a few great throws, but then couldn't hit the broad side of the FOC to save his life for most of the game.
My prediction was pretty dog-gone close (35-10).

Very exciting way to start the season!

Rashad isn't necessarily what we need to open the offense up. Zack played great, but Brock was indeed off. It seemed that at least once there was miscommunication between he and his receiver, which normally is the wide-out's fault. Like someone posted earlier, everyone needs a first game. This was ours, and so to hang 38 on a solid team, come away with no major injuries, and build off the increased fan base, I'd say it was a great week. For those of us who were there, it's worth noting that you were just part of the largest crowd ever at the Bill to witness an LU victory...that's pretty exciting.

We'll come out next week more focused, with some of the kinks in the passing game worked out. I will be surprised if we don't put at least this many points up next week. Our defense is built to take the ball away, and with Vince looming, I'm sure our fumble count will go up significantly. Our boys were popping last night, that's what I like to see.

Crowd will shrink somewhat next week, still over 13K though. Score will be 45-17 with a defensive and special teams TD's for us and a late FG and TD for them.