[skywalker5291]

I am a current student at LU and was very disappointed with the student side at the CSU game. I don't understand why we did not pack out the student side like we normally do. And most the people that were there left at half time even though we were only up by 9. Some sections stayed and cheered loud the whole game (my dorm included speaking we won 12th man) but over all i was very disappointed. Any thoughts?

[LUnpretty11]

I am a current student at LU and was very disappointed with the student side at the CSU game. I don't understand why we did not pack out the student side like we normally do. And most the people that were there left at half time even though we were only up by 9. Some sections stayed and cheered loud the whole game (my dorm included speaking we won 12th man) but over all i was very disappointed. Any thoughts?

You are in dorm 8. You are no longer permitted to post anything on here from this point forward, and if you do, you will not be held as credible under any circumstance whatsoever, unless you are talking about how bad of a dorm you live in. Thanks and have a great day

[thepostman]

Its been the same story for a couple years now...opening game at Williams the students come out strong then after that begin to fall out...a lot of it has to do with people don't embrace Liberty's athletic teams and a lot of it has to do with a lot of the games are against unknown schools to most of the students, and sadly a lot of it has to do with students don't think we are truly division I so just don't care.

I am not sure if anything can be done about it...it has improved a ton since when I was a freshmen in 2003, but it seems as if it has reached a certain point and stopped growing and I am not sure what you can do to change things at this point

[ALUmnus]

I agree, it was pathetic. An afternoon game, great weather, and once the halftime whistle blew there was a steady stream of students leaving. Maybe they were trying to beat the lines at the Rot?

[TDDance234]

Its been the same story for a couple years now...opening game at Williams the students come out strong then after that begin to fall out...a lot of it has to do with people don't embrace Liberty's athletic teams and a lot of it has to do with a lot of the games are against unknown schools to most of the students, and sadly a lot of it has to do with students don't think we are truly division I so just don't care.

I am not sure if anything can be done about it...it has improved a ton since when I was a freshmen in 2003, but it seems as if it has reached a certain point and stopped growing and I am not sure what you can do to change things at this point

Those games were torture. It def. puts things in perspective from where we've come...but we do have a long way to go still.

[From the class of 09]

Winning will solve all of our problems in this department (and many others).

[kuntryboimike]

Winning will solve all of our problems in this department (and many others).

agree 100%. That means wins over JMU and RMU....not just Savannah St. I did think we were gonna have an amazing team this year after beating Ball St. But now that I see Ball St's results over the season I'm not impressed at all. Yes I'm glad we beat a FBS team but I'd be more impressed if that FBS team had any hopes of a winning season whatsoever

[Chippy]

Have you been to a basketbal game? Men get @ 2-4K per game and girls (NCAA tournament 13 0f 14 years) get @ 1K. Now that's frustrating.

[kuntryboimike]

Have you been to a basketbal game? Men get @ 2-4K per game and girls (NCAA tournament 13 0f 14 years) get @ 1K. Now that's frustrating.

I think that's typical for most schools. Girls basketball just isn't QUITE as exciting. But I'll still be there this year

[olldflame]

Winning will solve all of our problems in this department (and many others).

We've only lost twice at home since 10/28/06 (that was a little past midway in Rocco's first year). It's going to take more than just wins. The culture is slowly changing. The vast majority of FCS schools would kill to have our fan support.

[Schfourteenteen]

I'm not disagreeing with that, but we also have a larger enrollment than many of those schools.

This had been discussed plenty of times "upstairs." One of the points that gets brought up is the disconnect between football players and their fellow classmates. Food, having a stupid fan base, hockey, name recognition of our opponents, the blowouts and other factors all combine to this "no big deal" view of football.

Winning will bring out the casual fan. Winning doesn't always convert casual fans to serious fans. That's the issue there.

[From the class of 09]

Winning will solve all of our problems in this department (and many others).

We've only lost twice at home since 10/28/06 (that was a little past midway in Rocco's first year). It's going to take more than just wins. The culture is slowly changing. The vast majority of FCS schools would kill to have our fan support.

Right but we have 2 loses this year. Winning and lots of it will solve the problem. Don't kid yourself if we were undefeated at this point and a top 10 possible top 5 team in FCS the attendance numbers would be different (better). You are overthinking the solution. Attendance is driven by wins and wins are driven by $$$. The school is dedicated to providing the $$$ so everything else will take care of its self.

[LUnpretty11]

I don't like all the talk about, "see where we've come from". I'm being rude, or trying to be out of line, but we are in a completely different era of Liberty football. Yes we have come a long way, but we cannot be content with what we had on Saturday, just because of where we have come from. With where our program is at right now, and what it is trying to accomplish and get to, we should be expecting nothing less than capacity on the student side. i.e. Sav St. game. Now obviously, it was the re-grand opening of the stadium, but that should not be the only reason to put fans in the stands. Saturday was pathetic, no ands ifs or buts about it. Simply embarrassing.

[thepostman]

When I say we have come a long way its because I have witnessed an amazing growth, but in no way am I saying we shouldn't have better support. We can always get better, BUT for whatever reason we have plateaued when it comes to student support. There is a solid group of hardcore fans, and the rest are just there to hang out. I am not sure what can be done to fix that, not losing to the RMU's/Presby's of the world would help a lot.

With that said you can't get so upset and not look at the big picture and realize we have come a long way. Its not a cop out, its the truth. If you ignore that fact then you end up working yourself up so much that you just end up sounding stupid. We have a long ways to go, but we haven't even been around for that long. Things will get better, we have just kind of plateaued like I said and need to find ways to improve it.

Again, winning games we should win, and competence (AND WINNING SOME) against the top FCS schools, will do wonders. If you notice our fan support has kind of stopped growing once our program stopped improving. I don't believe that is at all a coincidence.

[flamesfan30]

as of right now, only a few students believe in our program because we have lost to a cupcake for as long as ive been a student at LU. that is getting old. TTL keeps saying something needs to change, and i think a lot of the casual fans feel the same way. (not saying people want to fire Danny Rocco, that would be stupid. just maybe a new defensive or special teams coach) i think most are sick of the prevent defense and blown coverages that blow easy games. sick of us being hyped and disillusioned. the fan support has plateaued this season because the team has plateaued. the stony brook game and the subsequent home playoff game will say more about where our program is going to us then anything else. win the conference and the first round playoff game and next year everyone might just believe. but as of right now, with no running game, a bad defense and bad special teams, it looks like every game we win is a mike brown miracle.

[Schfourteenteen]

So you're saying TTL is as smart as the casual fan. I can dig that.

[olldflame]

I think we should have beaten RM, but did I just read that we lost to a "cupcake"?

They are 5-1, and their loss was to FBS Dayton 28-14. I give them a good shot at running the table, in which case they will probably be in the tournament.

It appears that some of our "fans" feel that anything short of perfection is not worthy of their support. Time to look up the origin and meaning of the term fan.

[Chris Lang]

Dayton's not FBS. They're in the non-scholarship Pioneer League. To be fair, they have one of the better home-field advantages in the FCS, and the Flyers' QB is on the Payton Watch List.

[From the class of 09]

So you're saying TTL is as smart as the casual fan. I can dig that.

[TDDance234]

as of right now, only a few students believe in our program because we have lost to a cupcake for as long as ive been a student at LU. that is getting old. TTL keeps saying something needs to change, and i think a lot of the casual fans feel the same way. (not saying people want to fire Danny Rocco, that would be stupid. just maybe a new defensive or special teams coach) i think most are sick of the prevent defense and blown coverages that blow easy games. sick of us being hyped and disillusioned. the fan support has plateaued this season because the team has plateaued. the stony brook game and the subsequent home playoff game will say more about where our program is going to us then anything else. win the conference and the first round playoff game and next year everyone might just believe. but as of right now, with no running game, a bad defense and bad special teams, it looks like every game we win is a mike brown miracle.

That would mean nothing to 95% of the student body. The lack of support has nothing to do with the product that is being put on the field or the atmosphere surrounding the game. We have one of the absolute best game-day atmosphere in all of FCS.

The problems have been mentioned here. We've seen this song-and-dance before. "Best Liberty team ever" only to find ways to cough up big games at RMU and JMU. Until this team is a legit candidate to win in the post-season, and we're still in the Big South, 18k-19k is about as good as we can expect, IMO.

[logic]

Guys, the problem runs much deeper than wins and losses. The problem is all the VT, UNC, UVA stickers on all the cars on campus and what that truly means. The majority of our students here are still fans of a BCS program first, Liberty second(sometimes even third or not at all). Until that changes you'll continue to see what we witnessed Saturday - a very dismal showing from our students. Hopefully we can make the jump and start beating some higher level FBS schools soon to change that mindset.

When we play Tech in a few years my guess is some students, faculty, and staff will be left with a tough choice - I often wonder if we like Tech so much why we didn't go there in the first place?

Every time I see a fellow student on campus with a Tech hat or shirt on I tell them they're wearing the wrong gear - I recommend everyone start doing the same.

[Schfourteenteen]

I think we should have beaten RM, but did I just read that we lost to a "cupcake"?

I don't think they've been ranked above 80 in the GPI over the last 5 years. Of course, the GPI is, well, the GPI, but they have always been the average team in the half-scholly league.

[TDDance234]

Guys, the problem runs much deeper than wins and losses. The problem is all the VT, UNC, UVA stickers on all the cars on campus and what that truly means. The majority of our students here are still fans of a BCS program first, Liberty second(sometimes even third or not at all). Until that changes you'll continue to see what we witnessed Saturday - a very dismal showing from our students. Hopefully we can make the jump and start beating some higher level FBS schools soon to change that mindset.

When we play Tech in a few years my guess is some students, faculty, and staff will be left with a tough choice - I often wonder if we like Tech so much why we didn't go there in the first place?

Every time I see a fellow student on campus with a Tech hat or shirt on I tell them they're wearing the wrong gear - I recommend everyone start doing the same.

It is a problem w/ wins and losses because the programs you listed have all been winners and have had some success (with the exception of UVA, who's football program is at least showing progress--their basketball team is a mess).

At this point, the biggest win we've had in the past 5 years is a squeaker at Ball State. That's not going to instill confidence in the student body.

[Schfourteenteen]

The win over Elon.......that no one watched.

[Kolzilla41]

The win over Elon.......that no one watched.

Exactly. The team showed up, in the cold, snowy ( ok, a few flakes) to 6k fans, mostly on the Baptist side. BTW, that game was amazing. My friends and I gave it to a defensive end the entire game and he ended up flipping us the Sparky.