[fan00]

I was at the game tonight and the Kent Hicks penalties were pretty much home-cooking. Thohgh it seemed Brock came out tentative, by the second drive he had settled in. We ran Rashad so much at the beginning I didn't feel like Brock had a chance to get into any kind of passing rhythm. It really felt like we dominated the game, but made some big drops (the Rasberry drop that's already been mentioned), big penalties (their first touchdown we had them stopped, but Asa hit the quarterback late...Rocco pulled him out immediately, got in his face, and kept him out the next series), and blocking for the kicker (although the blocked field goal was pretty low). I think most of this has been mentioned, but from someone there, it was extremely frustrating. It felt like they were giving the game to us and we couldn't capitalize on it. One thing I am not sure has been mentioned, first half our starting field position was usually the 20 or behind, theirs was the 40 or better. Our special teams didn't play a great first half. But, a win is a win...and hopefully we get healthy in our off week and go beat YSU!

[JDUB]

I'm glad we won. I missed the whole thing so I can't really comment on the game, but I'm gonna go crazy with missing this game and not having one next week.. thats too long without seeing them play

[BJWilliams]

Lets hope we are done with turning our swords on each other in the aftermath of this game...I'm glad we won...it wasn't pretty I will admit...(I listened to the game tonight)but Im glad we won. We've got a lot of work to do over the next two weeks to get ready for the trip to Stambaugh Stadium

[SuperJon]

I didn't read everything because I couldn't get over the stupidity of some of the stuff that was saying about Kent.

The illegal helmet contact penalty? Thrown by a guy 25 yards away a full three seconds after the play ended. Kent led with his hands on the play. If that was illegal helmet contact then the play five minutes earlier when Zach got leveled was as well.

The pass interference? Absolute crap. The ball was overthrown by a good 15 yards. All Kent did was stop sprinting and the receiver couldn't get around him. There wasn't even any contact.

The long touchdown play? Ian Childress missed a tackle and the guy was gone. That wasn't Kent's fault by any means.

Kent had so many more good, or even great, plays tonight and you guys are on here ripping him for two penalties that even the Western fans in front of me said were bad calls. That's laughable.

[SuperJon]

The negatives have been said: special teams weren't great in the first, Brock overthrew some guys in the first half, we made some dumb penalties.

The Hearns kid from Western is legit. He's really good. They kept hitting him on those little screen plays and he'd pick up five yards or so.

A lot of the problems Rashad had running wasn't necessarily from the OL, but moreso because they had 8-9 in the box.

Rashad falling on Zach's fumble was a very heads up play.

Yes, we played bad at times, but we were very close to huge plays quite a few times. Our guys were just about to fall on one of the Western fumbles when it barely went out of bounds. We had a ball intercepted but the DB was knocked out of bounds. Those two plays could've changed things big time.

I'm not blaming anything on the officials but now I see why fans on AGS claim SoCon refs are bad.

Most of the Western fans we saw were polite and everything. A couple drunk frat guys had to make the typical Flamers joke but other than that, everything was good.

Brock absolutely leveled one of Western linebackers. It was on the second run play of that drive where he ran three or four times. The play messed up or something and he just tucked it and ran and completely trucked a linebacker.

Zach got absolutely leveled as well on that play in the fourth quarter.

Mike Brown knocked a kid out on a kick return. Completely blind sided him.

It's late. It's been a long day. I'll try and post more tomorrow if anyone cares.

[The Cats]

Haters will say what they will about Kent

I'm not sure what this love affair is all about but simply b/c someone is doing "better then before" yet considered a bonehead doesnt mean we have to start slurping him!

Dude, he has a "Illegal helmet contact" penalty, which is one of those random, subjective, stupid calls, and a Pass Interference call that was a bad case of home cooking.

I was at the game.... this is not smack, nor is it sour apples.... LU won the game, congrats....

but the "Illegal helmet contact" penalty was a "head spear"---- that’s why the penalty was called. it was NOT a "random, subjective, stupid call"…… the other “home cooking” as you called it- pass interference was due to the Liberty defender's body contact over a course of ten yards - he was not going for the ball - just bumping the receiver from behind in an attempt to take him out of position.

Both team received calls that hurt, but were probably justified.

Western’s “leaping” penalty cost us the game. How you say? ….it came on a field goal your guy made, if you accept the penalty, you get the ball back and a new set of downs inside the 5 yard line ---- the result, a touchdown, and a 19-16 win, rather than a 16-12 loss if the field goal stands.

[SuperJon]

Were you watching the same game I was? The pass interference there wasn't bumping from behind by our player. Why is that? Because he was in front of your player. It was basically the same as something you see in soccer all of the time. The two were sprinting down the field. Kent was in front of the Western player. He slowed down, forcing the guy behind him to either slow down too or run around or through him. The guy threw a flag because of this.

Also, if you want to call that a head spear, you have to call the hit from the Western DB a head spear as well. Neither one should've been called a penalty. They were both hard clean hits.

[coolhandluke]

I was at the game too and even though I am an LU fan, I can still objectively say that the refs were horrible tonight. They threw flags at us all night and we never got the calls on our end, with the exception of a couple. And Kent Hicks played well. The penalties on him were called from refs on the other side of the field. It was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen.

And about the discussion on Brock and who had his number...

Brock did great. The number that they had was 23. They pounded Rashad all night and he could barley move the ball. It is hard to believe he somehow still got over 100 yards tonight, even though most of that came from that one 40-50 yard run he had.

And someone said our defense looked great... they did not!

They had an okay game, but if we play like that against Youngstown in a couple of weeks we are going to give up 50 plus points.

I was not happy with our performance tonight and I guarantee you Rocco isn't either.

[jcmanson]

I was not happy with our performance tonight and I guarantee you Rocco isn't either.

Is that why he said he was the happiest guy in the world in his post game interview?

[Schfourteenteen]

I was at the game too and even though I am an LU fan, I can still objectively say that the refs were horrible tonight. They threw flags at us all night and we never got the calls on our end, with the exception of a couple.

That just bleeds with objectivity

[Pinckrock]

I was not at the game. I watched through the eyes of the announcers.

I think Rocco is glad to have any win. I think this gets a few monkeys off his back; road win, SoCon win, 1st road trip win.

Rocco may be glad to get a win but I think his joy will be short lived when he starts reviewing films. He hinted to this when he said it was time to do a "self scout" and possibly time to make some "personnel changes."

I think the amount of penalties drove him crazy.

[Chris Lang]

Morning after wrap-up:

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/sports/s ... fter/8391/

[bigsmooth]

hey a win is a win even though it was against a lesser so con team. clearly the new coach has them playing better. we had more first downs, more total yards, more time of possession. the penalties hurt like the asa chapman roughing the passer call and other than that one 78 yd bomb, i though we were ok. we were just tentative offensively. a week off to rest the injuries will help, and i think we will be fine. bottom line we got a road win....but i have to say it hurt listening to WRVL.....it really did.

[flameshaw]

I'm not sure what this love affair is all about but simply b/c someone is doing "better then before" yet considered a bonehead doesnt mean we have to start slurping him!

Dude, he has a "Illegal helmet contact" penalty, which is one of those random, subjective, stupid calls, and a Pass Interference call that was a bad case of home cooking.

I was at the game.... this is not smack, nor is it sour apples.... LU won the game, congrats....

but the "Illegal helmet contact" penalty was a "head spear"---- that’s why the penalty was called. it was NOT a "random, subjective, stupid call"…… the other “home cooking” as you called it- pass interference was due to the Liberty defender's body contact over a course of ten yards - he was not going for the ball - just bumping the receiver from behind in an attempt to take him out of position.

Both team received calls that hurt, but were probably justified.

Western’s “leaping” penalty cost us the game. How you say? ….it came on a field goal your guy made, if you accept the penalty, you get the ball back and a new set of downs inside the 5 yard line ---- the result, a touchdown, and a 19-16 win, rather than a 16-12 loss if the field goal stands.

Cats,

Thanks for visiting our board this week. We may disagree on some things, but that should be expected based on our points of reference. You were classy in your posts and and a very worthy opponent. It looks like things have made a positive turn in Cullowhee and hopefully we will see each other again. Win the rest of them now.

[flameshaw]

The negatives have been said: special teams weren't great in the first, Brock overthrew some guys in the first half, we made some dumb penalties.

The Hearns kid from Western is legit. He's really good. They kept hitting him on those little screen plays and he'd pick up five yards or so.

A lot of the problems Rashad had running wasn't necessarily from the OL, but moreso because they had 8-9 in the box.

Rashad falling on Zach's fumble was a very heads up play.

Yes, we played bad at times, but we were very close to huge plays quite a few times. Our guys were just about to fall on one of the Western fumbles when it barely went out of bounds. We had a ball intercepted but the DB was knocked out of bounds. Those two plays could've changed things big time.

I'm not blaming anything on the officials but now I see why fans on AGS claim SoCon refs are bad.

Most of the Western fans we saw were polite and everything. A couple drunk frat guys had to make the typical Flamers joke but other than that, everything was good.

Brock absolutely leveled one of Western linebackers. It was on the second run play of that drive where he ran three or four times. The play messed up or something and he just tucked it and ran and completely trucked a linebacker.

Zach got absolutely leveled as well on that play in the fourth quarter.

Mike Brown knocked a kid out on a kick return. Completely blind sided him.

It's late. It's been a long day. I'll try and post more tomorrow if anyone cares.

Thanks John, somehow I knew you were going to get to the game. Glad you could get there.

[The Cats]

Dude, he has a "Illegal helmet contact" penalty, which is one of those random, subjective, stupid calls, and a Pass Interference call that was a bad case of home cooking.

I was at the game.... this is not smack, nor is it sour apples.... LU won the game, congrats....

but the "Illegal helmet contact" penalty was a "head spear"---- that’s why the penalty was called. it was NOT a "random, subjective, stupid call"…… the other “home cooking” as you called it- pass interference was due to the Liberty defender's body contact over a course of ten yards - he was not going for the ball - just bumping the receiver from behind in an attempt to take him out of position.

Both team received calls that hurt, but were probably justified.

Western’s “leaping” penalty cost us the game. How you say? ….it came on a field goal your guy made, if you accept the penalty, you get the ball back and a new set of downs inside the 5 yard line ---- the result, a touchdown, and a 19-16 win, rather than a 16-12 loss if the field goal stands.

Cats,

Thanks for visiting our board this week. We may disagree on some things, but that should be expected based on our points of reference. You were classy in your posts and and a very worthy opponent. It looks like things have made a positive turn in Cullowhee and hopefully we will see each other again. Win the rest of them now.

Thanks, I enjoy reading your board, and I appricate the welcome. To all the fans that did make the trip to Cullowhee, I hope you enjoyed the time in our little valley. Hopefully you enjoyed our campus, stadium and "the Pride of the Mountains" marching band. I'd like to hear from those that did attend how they were treated, and what they thought of our game day experience.

Does anyone know if this was the final game of the series??? We need a re-match

[The Cats]

I'd also like to add one thing, for all that are down on your team...... After two Div II games (big wins), then a #25 ranking - maybe your expectations were a little too high. Your guys did what they needed to do to win on the road against a FCS team. Western is an IMPROVED team, and I think many of your fans had some unrealistic expectations of what Liberty would be able to accompolish on the field last night against them. Good Luck the remainder of the season, the more you win, the better our 3 point loss to the #25 team looks.

[SuperJon]

Like I said earlier, everyone treated us well for the most part. There was one group of drunk frat guys that yelled a flamer joke but that's to be expected. The kid (probably ten years old if that) in front of me tried to talk some crap a couple times (no joke) but his dad kinda stopped him on that. We talked to a group of fans when we stopped to get food after and they were polite.

I had always known that your band was good but never had heard them. I really enjoyed watching them and even stayed and watched them after the game.

Side note: I didn't realize how bad my high school has ripped off Western in pretty much everything. We had the old Western logo on our helmets, and I knew that, but I didn't realize our uniforms were almost the exact same and that our band uniforms were almost the exact same.

[SuperJon]

Rocco may be glad to get a win but I think his joy will be short lived when he starts reviewing films. He hinted to this when he said it was time to do a "self scout" and possibly time to make some "personnel changes."

Coach Rocco does this every year during the bye week.

[flafan]

For those of you who made the trip, about how many were there supporting Liberty? Just an estimate.

[SuperJon]

And someone said our defense looked great... they did not!

They had an okay game, but if we play like that against Youngstown in a couple of weeks we are going to give up 50 plus points.

* Take away the 78-yard Pittman reception, and Western Carolina finishes with 169 yards of total offense. LU’s defense was outstanding.

The completely unbiased neutral reporter disagrees with you.

[SuperJon]

If you guys don't look at the photo gallery from after games, you really should. There are some great pictures in there.

[jcmanson]

Did Jimmy Eden really play? Game participation says he did.

[Stew Dent]

Pinckrock wrote:
Rocco may be glad to get a win but I think his joy will be short lived when he starts reviewing films. He hinted to this when he said it was time to do a "self scout" and possibly time to make some "personnel changes."


SuperJon wrote:
Coach Rocco does this every year during the bye week.

Godsil even commented to Chris Lang about the "athleticism" of WCU defensive line. Although LU line (D-line and O-line) are strong and in shape (Coach Gillispie the force behind that), are they lacking in the athletic department? Where is the smash-mouth, hard driving O-line? They have not been overwhelming against these three teams and we will need it going forward.

We could not run between the guards. How may penalties against the Oline? Coach Wach not happy I am sure.

As Coach Rocco commented on, it is time for self valuation at all positions.

Confident the coaches will make the adjustments.

[Chris Lang]

Don't forget, Stew, that the line was missing a four-year starter at guard this week (Britt Stone). With a line already lacking in experience, that had to have played a factor last night.