- September 17th, 2006, 1:33 pm
#30517
Here are Chris' summaries of the loss at Towson. The fishwrap sure got a lot of bang for the buck with all of this copy from you:
Flames fail to ignite on offensehttp://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... th=!sports
By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 17, 2006
TOWSON, Md. - The lasting image Saturday night at Johnny Unitas Stadium was of Liberty cornerback E.L. Estes letting loose with a display of frustration.
He swung closed fists at the air and yelled at no one in particular as Towson's players celebrated a 10-3 victory. The defense had done its part. Had the offense just helped the Flames' defense a little bit, they'd be heading back to Lynchburg 3-0 instead of 2-1.
Instead, Danny Rocco was left to explain the first defeat of his Liberty head coaching tenure, using strong words like "embarrassing" to describe the offensive effort.
"It was very disappointing," Rocco said. "We were never in sync at all."
Receiver Wynton Jackson dropped multiple passes. Sophomore quarterback Brock Smith lacked poise in the first half and was yanked for a possession in favor of Zach Terrell. And that vaunted Liberty running game? Stuffed.
Rashad Jennings, who entered the game averaging 8.0 yards per carry, gained 27 yards on 18 carries against a Towson defense that stunted and blitzed and dropped a safety into run coverage on nearly every down.
Towson coach Gordy Combs challenged his team all week to stop Jennings, not just slow him. The Tigers did just that.
"We wanted to swarm him," Bradford said. "If you're going to lay the big hit, you've got to knock him down. We wanted to make sure the first guy got there and held him up, and then we'd all come."
Said Rocco: "They were slanting, moving and penetrating. I really thought sooner or later we'd get a crease in there and break a big play. It just never happened."
Still, the Flames had a chance to tie in the closing minutes because their defense was unrelenting. Towson, which dropped 38 points on Liberty last year in Lynchburg, managed only one touchdown - Sean Schaefer's 8-yard TD strike to Demetrius Harrison in the third quarter.
"They caught us in the wrong defense here and there and they just gashed us," Liberty linebacker Manny Rojas said. "But the defense, I felt like we played well."
After Towson's Chris Desautels kicked a 30-yard field goal to put the Tigers (3-0) up 10-3 with 4:07 left, the Flames finally showed some offensive life. Jackson's 32-yard kickoff return gave LU the ball at its own 39, and Smith dumped the ball off to a wide-open Jennings over the middle for a 26-yard gain.
Smith hit Darnell Edwards for a 12-yard gain and found Brandon Turner for eight more yards, giving the Flames the ball at the Towson 15.
After Jennings gained four years, Towson made the game's decisive play. Tony Lumpkin forced a fumble on a screen pass to Turner that was destined to go nowhere and Richard Lee recovered, giving the Tigers possession with 2:12 left.
LU had two timeouts and had to burn one before the drive even started because of new NCAA rules that starts the clock immediately upon change of possession. Harrison's 13-yard run on a second-down reverse gave Towson a first down, allowing the Tigers to run the clock out and forcing Liberty to think about its many missed opportunities.
In the first half, Smith had Jackson wide open on the left side. The throw was on the money and had Jackson caught it, the play would have gone for a 67-yard touchdown. The speedster had five yards of cushion behind the Towson secondary.
The ball slipped through his hands.
"It was definitely in my hands," Jackson said. "I was thinking more about just trying to get upfield instead of catching the ball first. I'll go to practice and catch 100 balls if I have to and just refocus."
Smith didn't find a groove until it was too late, and Jennings, whose longest carry was seven yards, suffered. Towson rarely had to vary from its eight-in-the-box game plan because Smith didn't stretch the defense with the pass.
"Brock was not in sync early in this football game," Rocco said. "It didn't give us any confidence in trying to play the game differently. If he would have been on, we would have tried to open things up earlier in the game. But he wasn't. That was the reality of it."
Hello? Hello? Anybody there?http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... th=!sports
Liberty notebook
Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 17, 2006
TOWSON, Md. - Liberty coach Danny Rocco had communication issues Saturday night at Towson when it came to talking to his assistant coaches who were high above the field in the press box.
Early in the game, he realized his headset was not working because of interference at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Under Atlantic 10 Conference rules, non-working headsets are not a reason to stop a game.
“I brought to the attention of the referee, and I know in some other leagues I’ve been in the past, they’ve stopped the game,” Rocco said. “I knew that would happen, but I still felt I had to bring it to his attention.
“My communication was poor. Our communication from the box to the field was relatively sporadic. But in theory, it had no play in the outcome of the football game. I was angry, but it became apparent that there wasn’t going to be a whole lot I could do about it.”
Kicking an offer
Introducing ... Towson punter Brock Smith. Sounds a little strange, huh? It could have happened. When the Liberty University quarterback was a senior at Hershey (Pa.) High School, Towson coach Gordy Combs recruited Smith’s teammate, tight end John Godlasky.
Combs still needed a punter and liked what he saw of Smith’s punting skills at a summer camp. Towson offered Smith a full ride as a punter, but Smith wanted to play quarterback in college.
Smith later made his official visit at Liberty, and former LU coach Ken Karcher offered Smith the chance to play QB. So thanks, coach Combs, but no thanks. Smith didn’t make another campus visit. “It was actually the first scholarship offer I had,” Smith said. “I said I’d get back to him if nothing else came through, but then I came here.”
Smith said he and Godlasky spent the week jawing back and forth with each other over the phone. Towson is as close as Smith will get to home this year; the school is 82 miles from Hershey. He had at least 10 family members and several others from his church at Unitas Stadium to cheer him on.
He didn’t give them much to yell about. He struggled to a 9-for-18, 88-yard performance.
“Early on, we had some very simple throws that were very wide open that we were schooled up on and ready to take and he didn’t take them,” Rocco said.
Dickerson hurt
Liberty’s Pat Dickerson left in the fourth quarter with an injured right knee.
The starter opposite Ryan Greiser at safety, Dickerson had three tackles before the injury. His knee was iced on the sideline, but Rocco didn’t know how severe the injury was. Freshman Chris Rocco replaced Dickerson.
“We won’t know for a little bit,” Danny Rocco said. “We’re obviously hoping it’s something minimal, but it’s going to be something that will factor in this week for sure.”
Extra points
Towson freshman running back Matt Castor played for the first time after serving a two-game suspension for violating team rules and made an immediate impact. He ran for 82 yards on 16 carries. His contribution was doubly important because Nick Williams (hamstring) did not play and starter Rasheed McClaude left with a groin injury. … Liberty has lost 11 straight games against I-AA teams, a streak that will likely come to an end next week at Savannah State. The Tigers have lost 17 straight against I-AAs, dating to a 41-34 win at Norfolk State Sept. 11, 2004. Only one of those losses was by less than 10 points (a 31-26 home loss to Grambling). … Wynton Jackson returned three punts for 23 yards and two kickoffs for 72 yards.
Liberty-Towson Player of the Game and Morehttp://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... th=!sports
Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 17, 2006
Player of the Game
Brian Bradford, Towson
The linebacker swarmed to the ball and made life miserable for Liberty’s running game. He finished with 14 tackles, including three for loss, and broke up a pass.
Play of the Game
Liberty 1st-and-10 on Towson 11
2:21 left in the fourth quarter
Brock Smith completes a pass to receiver Brandon Turner. Towson’s Tony Lumpkin knocked the ball loose and Richard Lee recovered, essentially sealing the victory for the Tigers.
Quotable
‘I just don’t think we’ll play that badly again all year long.’
Danny Rocco
Liberty head coach
Grading the three keys
Fight through impact. Rashad Jennings had his welcome to I-AA moment Saturday night, struggling to get free for any decent gains against Towson’s aggressive defense. He managed just 27 yards on 18 carries and was stuck at the line of scrimmage most of the night. Grade: F.
Control the ball. Liberty’s failure to run the ball with any authority hamstrung the offense, turning the game into a puntfest. The passing game picked up steam by the end of the night, but neither team really controlled the ball. Grade: C.
Create turnovers. Liberty had two opportunities to pick off passes, but neither would have been easy catches. Grade: D.
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