A Sea Of Red

Those of you around last year remember us taking a position by position look at each unit. I figured I’d start a little bit earlier this year to ensure enough time for each unit, plus it’s the dog days of summer and not much activity on here.

Anyways, I thought we could speculate on who will play and that group's out look on the season. I’ll start with the QB position.

Projected Starter:
Brock Smith 6’3” 240 Sr. Hershey, PA

Depth Chart:
Spencer Landis 6’2” 185 Jr. Dacula, GA
Mike Brown 6’0” 190 R-Fr. Charlottesville, VA
Kyle DeArmon 6’3” 180 R-So. Clearwater, FL
Tyler Brennan 6’3” 200 Fr. Anderson, SC

We know Brock’s our man. He was recently ranked as the #14 QB in all of FCS. I expect by the end of the year he will be higher than that. In the spring game, Brock was simply amazing, and it looked as if the offense had not missed a beat since the end of last year. In order for us to reach the playoffs we need another impressive year from Brock, and hopefully it will begin with game 1 and I have no doubts that it will.

In spring ball, Spencer Landis was our 2nd stringer. It will be interesting to see the battle between Landis and Mike Brown throughout the season. I think both will play and hopefully a lot so they can get some good game experience. Many of us have anxiously awaited seeing Brown take the field and I can’t wait either.

Kyle DeArmon will see very little action if any at all, and I expect Tyler Brennan to red-shirt.

That is pretty well pegged jc. Brock I think has a chance for a very big senior season. Landis probably will have the inside track for #2 but Mike Brown did have a very good spring working with both the second and third string. That one could go all the way to the NGU game. I really think that the big question at this position will be in 2009.

Any chance we see a Brock / Spencer moderate platoon against some of the early cupcakes as we did for a few games last year? It would be a good thing for experience just in case.

Rooster Cogburn wrote:Any chance we see a Brock / Spencer moderate platoon against some of the early cupcakes as we did for a few games last year? It would be a good thing for experience just in case.

There's a difference between "platoon"-ing and "subbing the starter b/c the game is over". And, yes, I think we'll see that.

Agreed. Not really what I meant though. I mean like (I think) St. Frances where there was a planned break down of playing time between the 2.

The reason for that was because Brock struggled mightily during the first half of the season except for the 2nd half against W&M. His job was on the line at that point. I don't think you will see Landis unless the game is in hand; I could be wrong though.

jcmanson wrote: His job was on the line at that point.

I highly -- and I mean highly -- doubt that. Against Saint Francis, we were up 42-0 midway through the 2nd quarter. I think that Terrell had also already gotten hurt by that point so there was no reason to leave Brock out there any longer.

Brown will be the backup, DeArmon will be the #3 and Brennan will RS.

Landis will be out, IMO.

RagingTireFire wrote:

jcmanson wrote: His job was on the line at that point.

I highly -- and I mean highly -- doubt that.

The week leading up to that game Rocco was quoted as to saying he was going to start using both Brock and Landis. His job may have not been on the line, but if he continued to struggle it would have and Landis would be ready to step right in.

TDDance234 wrote: Landis will be out, IMO.

Out? As in not on the team? Why would he leave the team? He's already been here 3 years, and is on the cusp of being able to potentially start next year.

TDDance234 wrote:Brown will be the backup, DeArmon will be the #3 and Brennan will RS.

Landis will be out, IMO.

I highly, highly doubt they would EVER use DeArmon over Landis, in ANY situation. What makes you think they would do that?

jcmanson wrote:

RagingTireFire wrote:

jcmanson wrote: His job was on the line at that point.

I highly -- and I mean highly -- doubt that.

The week leading up to that game Rocco was quoted as to saying he was going to start using both Brock and Landis.

That's incorrect. All he said was that both Brock and Landis would play that week. Given that he had had time before he said that to see how good -- or not -- Saint Francis was, that would have been an extremely easy statement to make.

Also, Lefty is right about Landis over DeArmon.

TD: Why would Landis be out with his experience? He will most likely stay #2 or go to #3 behind Brown in my opinion. Sounds like you don't think Landis is any good at all.

BTW! I for one can't wait to see Brock this year. I hope he comes out hot from the get go and stays hot. If he does it would be his first time starting without a slump and that would be huge.

Brock Smith is still Liberty's starting quarterback, but backup Spencer Landis will see an increase in his reps Saturday against St. Francis (Pa.).

That's taken directly from Lang's article. There's a difference in saying they will both play, and saying Landis will see an increase in his reps.

Of course Landis was going to get an increase in reps. We were playing one of the worst teams in the country. Both of the D2 programs we had already played were arguably better than Saint Francis. Why wouldn't he see an increase in his reps?

I don't think he would have said that if it was because of the bad competition we were playing. I think that regardless of who we would have been playing, Landis would have gotten at least one series. It doesn't really matter though because Brock tore it up from there on out, and he's our man.

jcmanson wrote: It doesn't really matter though because Brock tore it up from there on out, and he's our man.

True.

I just looked back at the stats for the St. Francis game, and I think that the purpose of Coach's comments may have just been to motivate a slumping Brock. In reality Spencer didn't play much at all (2 passing attempts, and 2 rushing attempts, and I'm sure quite a few hand offs).

I think Brock really needs to come out of the gate ready to impress, and I think he will this year.

If last year is any indication, it will be hard to struggle against NGU offensively. Our "backup" quarterback threw for 640 yards against them.

I'm not concerned about offense against ANYBODY this year. Sure they may have an off game or two, but I'm not concerned in the slightest about that side of the ball.

Rooster Cogburn wrote:I just looked back at the stats for the St. Francis game, and I think that the purpose of Coach's comments may have just been to motivate a slumping Brock. In reality Spencer didn't play much at all (2 passing attempts, and 2 rushing attempts, and I'm sure quite a few hand offs).

I think Brock really needs to come out of the gate ready to impress, and I think he will this year.

Yeah, but it's hard to take out a QB who has been struggling when your team's scoring every possession.

True, and I think his leash starts out 300 miles long this year, at least for the first 2 games.

Just my opinion. I think Brown is the QB of the future...and Landis will only have one year of elgibility left after this year while we'd be better off giving Brown the reps next year.

TDDance234 wrote:Just my opinion. I think Brown is the QB of the future...and Landis will only have one year of elgibility left after this year while we'd be better off giving Brown the reps next year.

So why not keep him to back up? Never ever get rid of someone who has experience and has proven he can lead your team! Just doesn't make sense dude!