Anything and everything about Liberty Flames football. Your comments on games, recruiting and the direction of the program as we move into new era.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke, Class of 20Something

#638316
I know that is your stance but because they have been so public with their disgust with us it makes me want to play them even more and beat them any chance we can get. Makes it that much sweeter but they aren't really interested in that so unless they have a change of heart it is pointless to really think too much about.
#638328
Purple Haize wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 6:51 am Cincy played and beat ND in South Bend this year. Seems like a pretty strong statement along with going undefeated.
JMU is bound and determined not to do LU any favors. Why? Ask them. The rest of your list @tyndal23 was addressed.
I didn’t really buy JMU delaying going to Sunbelt to entertain CUSA with LU as a member. But I don’t really buy them not scheduling us in football just out of some sort of spite. Where is the very public statement(s) everyone is talking about? Conference mates vs home and home are two very different things.
#638331
tyndal23 wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 1:20 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 6:51 am Cincy played and beat ND in South Bend this year. Seems like a pretty strong statement along with going undefeated.
JMU is bound and determined not to do LU any favors. Why? Ask them. The rest of your list @tyndal23 was addressed.
I didn’t really buy JMU delaying going to Sunbelt to entertain CUSA with LU as a member. But I don’t really buy them not scheduling us in football just out of some sort of spite. Where is the very public statement(s) everyone is talking about? Conference mates vs home and home are two very different things.
What public statement? No one is talking about a public statement. Perhaps you can gain credibility if you cease stating people said things they didn’t say. Same thing about JMU delaying entry into the Sun Belt. You are literally just making things up. Which is probably why you are having difficulty understanding reality.
As far as them not scheduling LU in football that’s a known entity. If you don’t believe that it’s a You problem. History tells a different story than your wishes
#638333
Purple Haize wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 2:00 pm
tyndal23 wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 1:20 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 3rd, 2022, 6:51 am Cincy played and beat ND in South Bend this year. Seems like a pretty strong statement along with going undefeated.
JMU is bound and determined not to do LU any favors. Why? Ask them. The rest of your list @tyndal23 was addressed.
I didn’t really buy JMU delaying going to Sunbelt to entertain CUSA with LU as a member. But I don’t really buy them not scheduling us in football just out of some sort of spite. Where is the very public statement(s) everyone is talking about? Conference mates vs home and home are two very different things.
What public statement? No one is talking about a public statement. Perhaps you can gain credibility if you cease stating people said things they didn’t say. Same thing about JMU delaying entry into the Sun Belt. You are literally just making things up. Which is probably why you are having difficulty understanding reality.
As far as them not scheduling LU in football that’s a known entity. If you don’t believe that it’s a You problem. History tells a different story than your wishes
I am an idiot in a message board, if I wanted credibility I wouldn’t be on here. I am not quoting you, so if you didn’t respond with “ JMU was very public about not wanting to help LU “ then I am not talking directly to you. Or “ google is your friend “. You have your own thread on Music - I don’t go on there and inject and hammer every post. You and JK are both CREDIBLE - I am not. So you can both stop throwing that little CNN / Twitter buzz word around like I am trying to pass myself off as a Credible Source.
#639003
With confirmation that our future non conference schedules will consist of 1 regional P5, 2 regional G5s and 1 regional fcs what are everyone's thoughts on that strategy moving forward. Looking at future schedules it looks like that will mostly consist of an acc school and a heavy dose of marshall, coastal Carolina and old dominion with some other sunbelt schools mixed in. It's nice to know officially what our scheduling strategy looks like now.
Last edited by Ill flame on January 21st, 2022, 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#639004
No, it's 1 regional P5, 2 Regional G5's and 1 Regional FCS. As I have spoken before, I don't like the dynamics. Coach McKay goes out of his way to schedule tournaments so that we can play the best in basketball, baseball plays a great P5 schedule going after the best, even Women's field hockey takes on all comers, but we are saying lets water down the schedule in football on our own? I know that we would have up and down years playing a tougher schedule, but C-USA football doesn't excite anyone and only having 1 P5 a year to prove ourselves leaves us relegated to bottom feeder bowls with just one loss.
I must defer to Ian because I really think that he knows way more than we do, but being part of this conference in football is deflating enough, but not having 2 or 3 P5's to shore up the strength of schedule is disappointing.
#639005
Racenut wrote: January 21st, 2022, 10:24 pm No, it's 1 regional P5, 2 Regional G5's and 1 Regional FCS. As I have spoken before, I don't like the dynamics. Coach McKay goes out of his way to schedule tournaments so that we can play the best in basketball, baseball plays a great P5 schedule going after the best, even Women's field hockey takes on all comers, but we are saying lets water down the schedule in football on our own? I know that we would have up and down years playing a tougher schedule, but C-USA football doesn't excite anyone and only having 1 P5 a year to prove ourselves leaves us relegated to bottom feeder bowls with just one loss.
I must defer to Ian because I really think that he knows way more than we do, but being part of this conference in football is deflating enough, but not having 2 or 3 P5's to shore up the strength of schedule is disappointing.
Big Name Head coach dictating schedule, pretty sure Ian would have gone another direction and was going to had the enormous eruption in CFB not happened and the fear of “The Alliance” making it potentially harder to schedule P5 games in the future. ( I still don’t buy that ). Odds of going undefeated with more than 1 P5 game with CUSA level talent decrease dramatically. We chose this path, so maximize it and brag about records and winning percentages like BSU and App St and pretend people care, 20 years from now we can hopefully get bored and start looking at what we had to begin with - Independence and freedom to schedule hard and leapfrog all of G5. Maybe there are fans in the stands by then. And don’t forget the “massive” upgrade our basketball team got, 1 bid league to a 1.5 bid league...stop complaining and get on board - “ Beat MTSU”.
#639033
One thing that really is unfortunate about LU no longer being independent is the loss most likely of every future power 5 home game we had. We have four currently scheduled beginning in 2025. Not every year, but most years through 2031. This years VA Tech game will probably be our last. I hate Oklahoma and Texas.
#639034
LUGrad2000 wrote: January 23rd, 2022, 7:12 pm One thing that really is unfortunate about LU no longer being independent is the loss most likely of every future power 5 home game we had. We have four currently scheduled beginning in 2025. Not every year, but most years through 2031. This years VA Tech game will probably be our last. I hate Oklahoma and Texas.
It's definitely a bittersweet thing. C-usa is probably the best move for the whole athletic department until the next round of realignment but we will end up losing some attractive match-ups in the process.
#639145
Racenut wrote: January 21st, 2022, 10:24 pm Coach McKay goes out of his way to schedule tournaments so that we can play the best in basketball, baseball plays a great P5 schedule going after the best, even Women's field hockey takes on all comers, but we are saying lets water down the schedule in football on our own?
Football Aint: Basketball, Baseball, nor even (believe it or not) Women's field hockey.
#639148
alabama24 wrote: January 28th, 2022, 8:46 pm
Racenut wrote: January 21st, 2022, 10:24 pm Coach McKay goes out of his way to schedule tournaments so that we can play the best in basketball, baseball plays a great P5 schedule going after the best, even Women's field hockey takes on all comers, but we are saying lets water down the schedule in football on our own?
Football Aint: Basketball, Baseball, nor even (believe it or not) Women's field hockey.
That is right. No one would even know who that rich, religious, Independent Football Notre Dame team was if the other sports weren’t in the ACC. Same for BYU, they just held on long enough to let their basketball and softball teams power them from the Mountain West to the Big 12. Nothing to do with their football schedule or Program stature. Thankful that our Olympic sports landed us in Conference USA and made us the BYU of Evangelicals and ND of Catholics...wish we could just skip 22 and get right to 23 schedule.
#639149
alabama24 wrote:
Racenut wrote: January 21st, 2022, 10:24 pm Coach McKay goes out of his way to schedule tournaments so that we can play the best in basketball, baseball plays a great P5 schedule going after the best, even Women's field hockey takes on all comers, but we are saying lets water down the schedule in football on our own?
Football Aint: Basketball, Baseball, nor even (believe it or not) Women's field hockey.
If the strategy is to beat up on a lesser conference and build up a great won-loss record until a bigger conference comes a calling, I can live with that, but it seems to me that we are taking a step backwards since the football program has already proven it can be competitive with P-5's. If the thinking is that the number of available P-5 games is going to dwindle because of conference realignment, I can respectfully disagree but I am not privy to all that Ian knows, so I will defer to his judgement. IMHO though, the way to achieve National respect and ascend to the top levels of this or any sport is to play the best. I surmise that the football program got more National respect from beating Baylor, Virginia Tech and Syracuse than any of the three Bowl wins. Just like the basketball program got more props from beating UCLA, Mississippi State and Missouri than our current 45 game home win streak. It's all water under the bridge now and I have my Flames Club membership and season tickets on order. I am on board and drinking the Kool-Aid, but to me it's Lemon-Lime when I'd rather have Cherry.
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#639151
tyndal23 wrote: January 28th, 2022, 9:48 pm
alabama24 wrote: January 28th, 2022, 8:46 pm
Racenut wrote: January 21st, 2022, 10:24 pm Coach McKay goes out of his way to schedule tournaments so that we can play the best in basketball, baseball plays a great P5 schedule going after the best, even Women's field hockey takes on all comers, but we are saying lets water down the schedule in football on our own?
Football Aint: Basketball, Baseball, nor even (believe it or not) Women's field hockey.
That is right. No one would even know who that rich, religious, Independent Football Notre Dame team was if the other sports weren’t in the ACC. Same for BYU, they just held on long enough to let their basketball and softball teams power them from the Mountain West to the Big 12. Nothing to do with their football schedule or Program stature. Thankful that our Olympic sports landed us in Conference USA and made us the BYU of Evangelicals and ND of Catholics...wish we could just skip 22 and get right to 23 schedule.
Notre dame and BYU became who they are today by mostly beating up cupcakes before LU was founded. I understand reaching their stature is the goal but it often feels like comparing bananas to mangoes. The paths can't and won't be the same so why not create our own? I would rather see us schedule a tougher non conference schedule but c-usa football isn't a worse SOS then we've been playing and it's significantly better for the rest of the athletic department. In 10 years I expect us to be in a much better place for realignment.
#639153
Ill flame wrote: January 28th, 2022, 11:03 pm
tyndal23 wrote: January 28th, 2022, 9:48 pm
alabama24 wrote: January 28th, 2022, 8:46 pm

Football Aint: Basketball, Baseball, nor even (believe it or not) Women's field hockey.
That is right. No one would even know who that rich, religious, Independent Football Notre Dame team was if the other sports weren’t in the ACC. Same for BYU, they just held on long enough to let their basketball and softball teams power them from the Mountain West to the Big 12. Nothing to do with their football schedule or Program stature. Thankful that our Olympic sports landed us in Conference USA and made us the BYU of Evangelicals and ND of Catholics...wish we could just skip 22 and get right to 23 schedule.
Notre dame and BYU became who they are today by mostly beating up cupcakes before LU was founded. I understand that's the goal but it often feels like comparing bananas to mangoes. The paths can't and won't be the same so why not create our own? I would rather see us schedule a tougher non conference schedule but c-usa football isn't a worse SOS then we've been playing and it's significantly better for the rest of the athletic department. In 10 years I expect us to be in a much better place for realignment.
Exactly. Even though we are in a moment in time where $, Transfer Portal, NIL, top tier coaching staff allows for instant success unlike anytime before in CFB History, I do agree that we should take the path least resistant for Football Relevance and ride the wave of “ significantly better” of the power hose sports ( when our baseball/softball/field hockey teams are already top 25) - for an “every other yearl” MBB 2 bid league ( that will have zero impact on our MBB recruiting level) - Makes sense. 10 years from now the Sunbelt will be salivating for us...can’t wait.
#639154
tyndal23 wrote: January 29th, 2022, 12:33 am
Exactly. Even though we are in a moment in time where $, Transfer Portal, NIL, top tier coaching staff allows for instant success unlike anytime before in CFB History, I do agree that we should take the path least resistant for Football Relevance and ride the wave of “ significantly better” of the power hose sports ( when our baseball/softball/field hockey teams are already top 25) - for an “every other yearl” MBB 2 bid league ( that will have zero impact on our MBB recruiting level) - Makes sense. 10 years from now the Sunbelt will be salivating for us...can’t wait.
I won't touch on non revenue sports since they don't matter in realignment. Basketball on the other hand isn't something that should be overlooked. I think you will be suprised how much better recruiting would be playing in the best 1 bid conference instead of being among the worst. Schools like nmsu, wku, mtsu and Louisiana tech may not be P5 but they are at least brands that casual fans recognize unlike the entire asun.

Our seeding and preparation for the jump in competition in the ncaa tourney will improve. C-usa has won a game in 4 of the last 5 tourneys, the asun has won 2 of 5 with one of those being a first 4 game against another 16 seed. This is before all of the current deadweight in c-usa is replaced with us and nmsu. In our current situation it feels like a major upset if we win a first round game and the sweet 16 feels out of reach. Making it to the second weekend feels much more attainable in c-usa if we find a way to win the conference.

We got some pretty drastic realignment at the G5 level and I expect even more drastic movement during the next realignment cycle. Who knows maybe the ACC will get picked apart so bad by the B1G and SEC that they get desperate enough to give us a call (it won't happen but a person can dream). I do believe our time will come but not yet. The fan support just isn't there yet and that's a very important piece to the puzzle thats improving but won't form overnight.
#639175
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 9:04 am Being a new football Independent is not a viable long term strategy. You can dream about it but it’s not reality.
The more independents there are, the more it could work. But when indy’s start running for chairs, you too better find one before the music stops.
#639180
I was hoping the trend of schools going independent in football and joining a geographically compact conference for the other sports would continue but that ended abruptly. BYU joining a conference probably hurt the most since it was the only other independent that was more than a schedule filler.
#639181
JK37 wrote: January 29th, 2022, 3:07 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 9:04 am Being a new football Independent is not a viable long term strategy. You can dream about it but it’s not reality.
The more independents there are, the more it could work. But when indy’s start running for chairs, you too better find one before the music stops.
Which is what’s happening
#639182
Within the last year or so, I haven't been completely opposed to the CUSA move, especially if the plan to join with Marshall, JMU & ODU would've worked out. I'm more disappointed in the proposed non-conference scheduling philosophy. I really think that we should strive for 2 P5's a year as much as possible. IMO, that helps build our brand, fanbase, and march towards where we want to be. Also with fanbase building, we really need to have Tech & UVA on our schedules as much as possible cause those are the schools local and regional fans compare us to the most. I'd love to know the details on the UVA game cancellations, hopefully we'll eventually be able to reschedule them. One thing that I think most LU fans would appreciate is a thorough explanation of the rationale for joining CUSA along with the non-conference scheduling philosophy from McCaw, and more than his standard scripted professional press release soundbites.
#639184
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 5:35 pm
JK37 wrote: January 29th, 2022, 3:07 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 9:04 am Being a new football Independent is not a viable long term strategy. You can dream about it but it’s not reality.
The more independents there are, the more it could work. But when indy’s start running for chairs, you too better find one before the music stops.
Which is what’s happening
Why else would I have mentioned it?
#639186
JK37 wrote: January 29th, 2022, 6:50 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 5:35 pm
JK37 wrote: January 29th, 2022, 3:07 pm

The more independents there are, the more it could work. But when indy’s start running for chairs, you too better find one before the music stops.
Which is what’s happening
Why else would I have mentioned it?
I’m supporting your claim. Making sure those who’d prefer LU stay Independent understand
#639195
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 8:39 pm
JK37 wrote: January 29th, 2022, 6:50 pm
Purple Haize wrote: January 29th, 2022, 5:35 pm

Which is what’s happening
Why else would I have mentioned it?
I’m supporting your claim. Making sure those who’d prefer LU stay Independent understand
Searching the history books for any team that could not fill a full schedule or who had to fold their team as an Independent. Haven’t found one so far. If we weren’t going to maximize being an Independent, might as well join CUSA. Just please never bring up “fulfilling the vision” at this level. If Ian elects to only play 1 P5 a year as a CUSA member, I have no problem with that and think it is prudent IF he feels that is best chance to make a Playoff as a G5 ( if that ever comes through ).
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