- January 17th, 2016, 6:11 pm
#502473
Article in News & Advance this week:
DANNY ROCCO A WINNER - JEFF BARBER & LU LOSERS AGAIN
Danny Rocco, head football coach at the University of Richmond and former head coach at Liberty is a winner again. He led this year’s team to the Colonial Athletic Association championship, was named coach of the year in the conference, was named the Division 1 coach of the year in the Commonwealth and took his team to the national FCS semifinals before falling to 5-time national champion North Dakota State. Coach Rocco took a Richmond program that had finished with an 0-8 in the CAA in 2011 and in his first season at UR finished in a first place tie with a 6-2 record conference record. He
did this in one of the nation’s toughest FCS conferences. In his four years at Richmond, Rocco has a 33-13 record.
Rocco did the same thing at Liberty. He took a program that was 1-10 the year before he arrived in Lynchburg, and in his inaugural season (2006) went 6-5, which tied the best turnaround record of all collegiate programs that season. In his six seasons in Lynchburg, he was named Big South coach of the year three times, and was a four-time national coach of the year finalist. In his last five seasons at LU, his teams won at least eight games in four of those seasons.
Many LU fans wondered why Rocco would leave a program he had brought to respectability so suddenly and take another FCS program just two hours away. Was it because of the badgering he received from Liberty AD Jeff Barber? Many think so. During the LU/UR game last season in Lynchburg, I recognized Mr. Barber on the sidelines and watched as he followed the referees up and down the field questioning the calls that went against Liberty. It seemed that he was taking the game as a personal match between himself and Coach Rocco, not Liberty vs. Richmond. The next day I spoke with a friend who was at the game as well, and he expressed the same sentiments about Mr. Barber’s sideline actions. A side note: Rocco is 2-0 vs. Barber, sorry Liberty.
While Richmond’s program has progressed significantly in the four years under Coach Rocco, Liberty’s has been mediocre. The past three years the program has had it’s most prolific quarterback in school history in Josh Woodrum. Yet this year’s team finished with a 3-3 BSC record losing to Monmouth and a very weak Gardner Webb team, which prevented us from the playoffs. Our football team has gone to the FCS playoffs only one time and the program began 42 years ago. Big South rival Coastal Carolina began its football program in 2003 and has gone to the playoffs each of the past four years. Why is CCU moving up to the FBS division and joining the Sun Conference this summer, and yet we are staying in the Big South? Is it because the AD can’t find a conference that will take us?
In addition, the once proud men’s basketball program has hit rock bottom since Mr. Barber’s arrival in Lynchburg. Attendance at men’s games averaged 4-6,000 at almost all games before he took control. Now if 2,000 show up it is very unusual. How long has it been since we had all-conference players like Larry Jackson, Larry Blair, and Peter Aluma, etc? This year’s record against division 1 schools is 2-13. The coaches chosen (nothing personal) by Mr. Barber have taken the program south, having the lowest RPI rating of all BSC schools. Until its two wins last week, the men’s team had a RPI rating of 351 which is the lowest rating of all division 1 schools.
With the huge amount of funds available through LU online program with almost 100,000 students, Mr. Barber has the largest athletic budget of all BSC schools and as large as many major FBS universities.
Furthermore, the school has better facilities than almost all other FCS schools in the country because of the tremendous growth of the online school. Therefore unlike most athletic directors, he doesn’t have spend his time fundraising as do most ADs. Yet, in the 10 years tenure of Jeff Barber, the big 3 of college sports teams at Liberty: football, men’s basketball and baseball, have only won one outright Big South Championship each. The fact is the most successful teams at LU are led by coaches that were here before Mr. Barber arrived on the scene in 2006.
Why can’t LU with its worldwide notoriety have more success attracting top Christian athletes and producing winners on the athletic stage? Why can’t our teams win more BSC titles, being one of the weaker conferences ? Why do we as LU fans have to be disappointed year after year in the lack of success going to the post season? Maybe the reason is at the top because, “EVERYTHING RISES AND FALLS ON LEADERSHIP”.
Dave Sisson
LU Basketball Alumnus
Elliston, Va.
--Fumble (1961-2009), RIP
- By jmclaughlin
- By ECC29