[Rooster Cogburn]

I've thought of about a thousand things I'd like to come on here and say this morning. Most of them differ greatly from any of the overly emotional reactions I read in this thread. The reality is that we still have one of the best football teams I've ever seen here at LU. Again most of you would like to fastforward our football program with about 10 or 20 more years of dues paying, experience, and building, but the reality is it takes time. I still believe that Rocco is the man to build the program and is 100% on the right track.

I am very disappointed that we didn't win a game we could have easily won. I still believe we have better overall talent. I am very upset at the mental mistakes and the stupid penalties. But I believe that we still have a chance, a good chance, to have a very special season. This team has a ton to learn from and build from and I trust our coaches to "help" them. I believe this is still a outright conference champion team, a playoff team, and that the future is very bright. My biggest frustion is that we missed the chance, for now, to grab some much needed respect.

What I think most folks get frusted with (and don't join) this board is the attitude that the world is ending and we need to scrap everything and start over. It takes time and we are paying the dues. I have now learned to just try and ignore those posters. I respect your opinion, but you are wrong.

I was SOOOOO proud of our school, the atmosphere and the AMAZING FANS last night. The noise late in the game was unreal.

Go Flames!

[Purple Haize]

100% agree with the fans and atmosphere. Disagree with the 'paying dues' part. Just for arguments sake- How long should we be paying said dues?
Looking at where we are from where we were IS amazing. But, again for arguments sake, LOOK at where we started from, not too hard to get better! We got better when we didn't actually have to have O and D players share helmets. We got better when we could actually play on campus. Not hard to improve when you have those humble beginnings. BUT do we judge ourselves against our past or our peers?
I'm just going to eat more of the awesome kettle corn I have left from last night!

[BJWilliams]

the same level...I dont know. It really depends on how Gabe does Id think. If he is anything like MB minus the turnover issues, I think we could be even better. Its going to once again come down to the "hogmollies" up front. I wont give too deep an analysis on this til later in the year but I think that if Gabe Henderson is as good as advertised we could really light things up next year (and that is saying something)

What makes you think that Gabe even starts next year? We've got this kid who is a junior named Tyler Brennan. You may have heard of him.

Ive certainly heard of him Jon, and I wasnt saying (although Im sure it could be interpreted from what I said) that Gabe is going to instantly be the #1 next year (you assumed that is what I meant). The reason I mentioned him goes back to what I said when you quoted me...as well as what I didnt say. What I said was "It really depends on how Gabe does Id think." What I didnt say was two simple words...next year. I didnt say that because I know that we have Tyler and he is a darn good QB (he hasnt gotten as much chance to show it this year as of yet but what we have seen of him, shows he is darn good) and he probably will go into the spring as the #1. Im saying that we have another dual threat QB in Gabe and if he gets a chance (in 2012 or 2013) and he proves to be as good or even better than MB (minus the turnovers), we could be even MORE dangerous.

[Rooster Cogburn]

HaHa I just ate some too, and have some left.

Are we talking about all of our "peers" or just JMU? That is who we are so upset to have lost to. They have had football longer than we have.

[BJWilliams]

ODU the jury is still out on I think. They really havent played anyone of note in state or out of state, and the biggest game they did play (William and Mary), they lost. They are finally going to start playing good competition with the CAA and we will really get to see how they stack up. All that to say, Im not worrying so much about ODU at this point.

[Keenan]

Matt Bevins career is OVER and that is a sad unfortunate event. Bevins has been the best kicker in Liberty history and I'm thankful we've had him on our team.

What happened with him last night is inexcusable. There is a rumor that Bevins was injured coming into the game and that's fine. What's not fine is the simple fact that he was clearly injured after his first FG attempt. I know because I was sitting at the 25 yard line right in front of the kicking net. Bevins came off the field grimacing in pain and holding his right groin/quad area after that first attempt. The other kickers had concerned looks on their face because they knew he wasn't right.

The ST coach, Roberts?, came over for a couple minutes and NEVER called for a trainer to come check Bevins out. That is gross negligence on Robert's part. Bevins should have never gone back out there to attempt a second FG. I'm really disappointed how this situation was handled. Would #52 Alex K. have made that second FG that Bevins missed? Who knows, but I'm certainly upset knowing we had a 0% chance of making that FG. Rocco said in postgame interview that Bevins said he was fine when asked if he was able to go out for second attempt. A player SHOULD NEVER be making their own decisions about playing through pain/injury. There has to be more accountability by the coaching and training staff on this matter.

[TH Spangler]

Some of the biggest, most involved fans, will always display a knee jerk reaction to a tough loss. While the reaction is not good, involved fans are. You'll never have one without the other. I saw an awesome football game last night between the 13th & 20th ranked teams in the nation. Number 13 squeaked it out. The game came down to who would have the ball last. Statistically it was almost dead even.



If every match up at Williams was as exciting as what I saw last night we would need 30,000 seats next year. People will pay to see NCAA football games like that! Keep your head up ... we are going in the right direction!

Mike Brown had a great game, even without one of his favorite targets (Mike Brown 24-29-298 yds).

[BJWilliams]

Keenan, Matt is injured but Im not quite ready to say his career is over unless youre privy to information most of us arent. We dont know the severity of his quad issue, so Im not gonna say its game over for him ever kicking again just yet. Should Coach Roberts have been more cognizant? certainly...a friend of mine, Matt Kirby, works with him so if I see him this week I'll ask him about how bad it is for Bevins

[PAmedic]

Matt Bevins career is OVER and that is a sad unfortunate event. Bevins has been the best kicker in Liberty history and I'm thankful we've had him on our team.

PLEASE ELABORATE

[ballah09]

i agree w sj about everything about the school overhyping the football team

they should just go head and build the horse shoe stadium and get it over with. trying too hard to get fans in the stands, also might as well build an indoor football facility and top of the line football players lounge since JMU/ODU has the best facilities. don't wanna play 2nd/3rd fiddle do we Mr. Barber?



kidding

i think he means Liberty career?

[BJWilliams]

Matt Bevins career is OVER and that is a sad unfortunate event. Bevins has been the best kicker in Liberty history and I'm thankful we've had him on our team.

PLEASE ELABORATE

Matt suffered some sort of injury on his quad last night (and possibly in the leadup to the game last week) and it seems to Keenan that he is done...We dont know for sure but Im sure Lang could find out for certain

[ToTheLeft]

I've thought of about a thousand things I'd like to come on here and say this morning. Most of them differ greatly from any of the overly emotional reactions I read in this thread. The reality is that we still have one of the best football teams I've ever seen here at LU. Again most of you would like to fastforward our football program with about 10 or 20 more years of dues paying, experience, and building, but the reality is it takes time. I still believe that Rocco is the man to build the program and is 100% on the right track.

I am very disappointed that we didn't win a game we could have easily won. I still believe we have better overall talent. I am very upset at the mental mistakes and the stupid penalties. But I believe that we still have a chance, a good chance, to have a very special season. This team has a ton to learn from and build from and I trust our coaches to "help" them. I believe this is still a outright conference champion team, a playoff team, and that the future is very bright. My biggest frustion is that we missed the chance, for now, to grab some much needed respect.

What I think most folks get frusted with (and don't join) this board is the attitude that the world is ending and we need to scrap everything and start over. It takes time and we are paying the dues. I have now learned to just try and ignore those posters. I respect your opinion, but you are wrong.

LOLOLOLOLOL.

This is comedy gold.

You trust our coaches to help our players to win the same games we've lost since they got here?

You're obviously a "better" man than I.

[alum82]

I checked my e mail this morning to find that I had received private messages from Hold My Own last night. I checked the messages and found that I had answered him! Funny thing is I haven't visited this site in quite a while. Now, I see that a somewhat immature family member and certain of that person's immature friends have been using my account to post. I have changed my password and disabled the automatic password recall feature. I apologize if they posted anything that was offensive to anyone. It won't happen again.

[thepostman]

is this like when people put something on twitter and when they wake up the next morning the realize how ridiculous the tweet was and claim their twitter was "hacked"

If what you say is true, that sucks but we live in a world where people claim this all the time after a while its hard to believe. If its true you should film a video of you beating the crap out of them for our entertainment, haha

[bigsmooth]

the biggest thing that stood out to me was the penalties, arm tackling and the vanilla play calling. the penalties killed a couple of drives and were just really stupid and reaked of undisciplined football. The play calling in the first half was suspect as well. We have showed our running game is not good at all. mike brown has nearly out rushed the running backs. Im not sure how much of this is due the the O-Line but our backs just do not seem powerful to me and just do not seem to be able to get around the corner. The O-line still shows signs of good play, but will then make a bonehead penalty. If my stats are correct Brown has been sacked seven times this year and those came against state and JMU. So against a good team we are struggling. We have cut the turnovers as well. We cannot seem to get the whole team on the same page in playing a full game. We really need to bounce back against Lehigh so try and gain an ounce of credibility. This game was ripe for the taking and we laid an egg. Props again to the students for making it electric and the baptist side for bringing in the second half as it did effect thorpe. All is not lost everyone, we take care of the conference business and we will be in the playoffs, and i just do not see anyone in the little south who is better. Yeah we took another hit on the credibility meter, but we will rebound....i also forgot to say JMU was more physical and just beat us up. props to the dukes.

[bigsmooth]

where are we in the state??

1. William and Mary
2. JMU
3. Richmond
4. LU
5. ODU
6. Hampton
7. Norfolk State
8. VMI

we are in a state with some talent rich football at the FCS level that play in the same conference. We played JMU to a three point game and one we gave away IMO.We have played competitively against every FCS in-state team in Rocco's tenure. Do i want to win these games? you betcha, but i guarantee you that people in the commonwealth respect our program but think our conference is a joke which i think we can all agree. Yes ODU is a force to be reckoned with in the future, but this is the first year they play a real conference schedule. We will need to be a more national recruiting force in the future to counteract the other state schools who are more regional and state focused. We should always stay competitive in state and have reaped those benefits. We are recruiting Virginia better than we ever have. Im on to the next game. GO FLAMES.

[Chris Lang]

Bevins tweeted this last night just before I left the press box:

God has a plan. I'm called to follow

and this morning he tweeted:

Got about 1 hour of sleep. So much on my mind right now

That sounds to me like HE thinks he's done. He missed the entire spring with that quad injury and has been battling it off and on throughout camp. I think the entire year for him had a lot to do with his pain tolerance and his ability to stretch and keep the quad from tearing entirely. Not sure if that's the case. Probably won't know until an MRI is done. But there's no doubt that the injury is very serious.

[jbock13]

is this like when people put something on twitter and when they wake up the next morning the realize how ridiculous the tweet was and claim their twitter was "hacked"

If what you say is true, that sucks but we live in a world where people claim this all the time after a while its hard to believe. If its true you should film a video of you beating the crap out of them for our entertainment, haha

I'm with you. The speech pattern, sentence structure, and phrases seem pretty similar.

[bigsmooth]

JMU also ran at Schuster a bunch. Having Asa would have helped for sure.

[jinxy]

you guys have already mentioned most of the stuff so i won't rehash but a couple other thoughts

Aiken has not played nearly as well the last 2 weeks as he did against State. He was burned on the first 3rd and 13 of the game when he got juked out. Also if I'm not mistaken he was one of the guys that had teh last receiver double covered that led to the game winning field goal. Rocco sounded really dissappointed in post game interview stating that "we had double coverage on that throw and i felt really good about that and we didn't come down with the ball, that was dissappointing". To me Walt is playing the run and screen passes exceptionally, attacking the line of scrimmage but he's gotten hurt down the field.

Also, Ayers got hurt last night and that hurt our coverage as well.

Why does Pat Kelly not play for 2 and half quarters then comes in???? He can either go or can't

What the heck was the deal with the pooch kick that gave them the ball on the 50...that was just stupid. Special Teams play has killed us this year, we can't cover a kick to save our lives. The defense didn't play great but Jmu's starting field position average had to be the 40. We coudln't block the end man on the first 2 FG attempts and we never blocked the long snapper on punts once all night. Special Teams coverage and blocking is absolutely putrid right now, and someone should be held accountable for it. It cost us 2 TD's against state and its hard to put a point total on last night.

The penalties were bad, stupid penalties, however i feel like the refs were way too involved on both sides with weak calls. It's football, you know a contact sport. The called roughing the passer on several continuation plays where teh DL was already in mid air when the ball was released. Now, there were no doubt some inexcusable penalites like the chop blocks that were warranted. They nullified two big Summers catches that would have had us on the Goal line and across mid field on the potential game winning drive at the end.

BJ Hayes....waht a game from a guy with his finger half sewed on. Mad props to him. We finally used Shaver, genius. We have a GREAT TE and we never use him.

MB was like 24 for 29 and i think deserves a lot of praise, his athletisiscm extended several plays that weren't there. Our lack of blocking up front would be more noticable if we didn't have such an athletic QB. Also, Aldreakis should be starting he runs with authority and churned out yards when nothing was there.

Play calling inside the 15 yard line is atrocious. Thats being kind.

Finally, whoever that says Summers is on auto-pilot should watch the coverages. He's being doubled a ton!!. Thats why BJ and Shaver were so open several times. As a competitor Summers still wants his touches and remember he would have had 2 more catches for 50 more yards had they not beet been called back on penalites.

[jinxy]

also, i think Keenan is probably right about Bevins.

Rocco also said in the interview with Nick that it was "baffling" that he could have the exact same injury exactly a year ago. He sounded really dissapointed in Bevins, i dont know if it was for not coming out when he couldn't go or if there has been some lack of communication about that injury lingering. I've strained a quad before diving in the OF playing baseball and it takes a good week and a half to two weeks just for that to get better. If it's anything more than a strain he will in all likelihood be done for the year because kicking is all about the quad. If you heard taht interview last night there is def. somethign going on there.

[Rooster Cogburn]

You're obviously a "better" man than I.

Thanks!

[Hold My Own]

Matt Bevins career is OVER and that is a sad unfortunate event. Bevins has been the best kicker in Liberty history and I'm thankful we've had him on our team.

What happened with him last night is inexcusable. There is a rumor that Bevins was injured coming into the game and that's fine. What's not fine is the simple fact that he was clearly injured after his first FG attempt. I know because I was sitting at the 25 yard line right in front of the kicking net. Bevins came off the field grimacing in pain and holding his right groin/quad area after that first attempt. The other kickers had concerned looks on their face because they knew he wasn't right.

The ST coach, Roberts?, came over for a couple minutes and NEVER called for a trainer to come check Bevins out. That is gross negligence on Robert's part. Bevins should have never gone back out there to attempt a second FG. I'm really disappointed how this situation was handled. Would #52 Alex K. have made that second FG that Bevins missed? Who knows, but I'm certainly upset knowing we had a 0% chance of making that FG. Rocco said in postgame interview that Bevins said he was fine when asked if he was able to go out for second attempt. A player SHOULD NEVER be making their own decisions about playing through pain/injury. There has to be more accountability by the coaching and training staff on this matter.

Yeh, I thought I saw the same thing. That's why I was disappointed he didnt say he couldnt go out or that coach's were not observant enough to keep him from going out...but I had no idea this was a career threatening injury...now it makes a little more sense as to why Bevins went out there...trying to prove to himself he's not done. Considering he had NFL talent, I'm sure that's a tough pill to swallow.

[Purple Haize]

is this like when people put something on twitter and when they wake up the next morning the realize how ridiculous the tweet was and claim their twitter was "hacked"

If what you say is true, that sucks but we live in a world where people claim this all the time after a while its hard to believe. If its true you should film a video of you beating the crap out of them for our entertainment, haha

I dunno. I actually buy it b/c it's happened to me before. Now if he had sent an Anthony Wiener 'junk' mail.......
As for the game, IMO and for sport in general, it is about more than stats. Numbers can and do lie. Being successful is about accountability, leadership and chemistry. You have a team with those elements you will be successful.

[BiggAl57]

Matt Bevins career is OVER and that is a sad unfortunate event. Bevins has been the best kicker in Liberty history and I'm thankful we've had him on our team.

What happened with him last night is inexcusable. There is a rumor that Bevins was injured coming into the game and that's fine. What's not fine is the simple fact that he was clearly injured after his first FG attempt. I know because I was sitting at the 25 yard line right in front of the kicking net. Bevins came off the field grimacing in pain and holding his right groin/quad area after that first attempt. The other kickers had concerned looks on their face because they knew he wasn't right.

The ST coach, Roberts?, came over for a couple minutes and NEVER called for a trainer to come check Bevins out. That is gross negligence on Robert's part. Bevins should have never gone back out there to attempt a second FG. I'm really disappointed how this situation was handled. Would #52 Alex K. have made that second FG that Bevins missed? Who knows, but I'm certainly upset knowing we had a 0% chance of making that FG. Rocco said in postgame interview that Bevins said he was fine when asked if he was able to go out for second attempt. A player SHOULD NEVER be making their own decisions about playing through pain/injury. There has to be more accountability by the coaching and training staff on this matter.

Yeh, I thought I saw the same thing. That's why I was disappointed he didnt say he couldnt go out or that coach's were not observant enough to keep him from going out...but I had no idea this was a career threatening injury...now it makes a little more sense as to why Bevins went out there...trying to prove to himself he's not done. Considering he had NFL talent, I'm sure that's a tough pill to swallow.

we sit on the 30 and when he came off after first FG attempt you copuld clearly see that he was in tremendous pain. There is no reason he should have gone out on the second attempt. He had to know that he was not able to kick. Those two missed FG's added to the swing in the Momentum of the game.
The sky kick at the end of the game was really a bad call. If the ST coaches thought they could get coverage they need to look at the game film some more, Our kick off coverage was poor. They could not penterate their wall and that lead to good returns and field position for JMU. if they were concerned about a big return they could have just kicked it out of bounds, give them the ball at tthe 35 and made the field longer than the sky kick and give it to them at midfield