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

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By Dalegarz1
Posts
#645973
Now that we are bowl eligible it's time (albeit early) to think about likely post season destinations for the Flames. Obviously this is a fluid situation and with our remaining schedule, well...
Anyway, ESPN currently has us playing either SMU or Georgia Tech. That would be a step up in competition from previous years.
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By LUOrange
Posts
#645981
From Manson's article yesterday:

Mark Schlabach (ESPN): Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa) vs Georgia Tech (3-3, 2-1 AAC)
Kyle Bonagura (ESPN): Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl (Shreveport) vs SMU (3-3, 1-1 American)
Jerry Palm (CBS Sports): Camellia Bowl (Montgomery) vs Troy (5-2, 3-1 Sun Belt)
Brad Crawford (247Sports): Camellia Bowl (Montgomery) vs Troy (5-2, 3-1 Sun Belt)
Brett McMurphy (Action Network): Lending Tree Bowl vs Georgia Southern (4-3, 1-2 Sun Belt)
Steven Lassan (Athlon Sports): Cure Bowl (Orlando) vs Kent State (2-5, 1-2 MAC)
College Sports Madness: Independence Bowl (Shreveport) vs East Carolina (4-3, 2-2 American)
Oliver Hodgkinson (Pro Football Network): New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque) vs Air Force (5-2, 2-2 Mountain West)

My preference is a P5, AAC or upper MWC. From the above- GA Tech, SMU, ECU or Air Force. My other/main preferences are a Bowl game that's easy to get to and one that a public school teacher (my boss) would have time to plan for.
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By SumItUp
Registration Days Posts
#645991
LUOrange wrote: October 19th, 2022, 8:29 pm From Manson's article yesterday:

Mark Schlabach (ESPN): Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa) (Friday, 12/23) vs Georgia Tech (3-3, 2-1 AAC)
Kyle Bonagura (ESPN): Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl (Shreveport) (Friday, 12/23) vs SMU (3-3, 1-1 American)
Jerry Palm (CBS Sports): Camellia Bowl (Montgomery) (Tuesday, 12/27) vs Troy (5-2, 3-1 Sun Belt)
Brad Crawford (247Sports): Camellia Bowl (Montgomery) (Tuesday, 12/27) vs Troy (5-2, 3-1 Sun Belt)
Brett McMurphy (Action Network): Lending Tree Bowl (Saturday, 12/17) vs Georgia Southern (4-3, 1-2 Sun Belt)
Steven Lassan (Athlon Sports): Cure Bowl (Orlando) (Friday, 12/16) vs Kent State (2-5, 1-2 MAC)
College Sports Madness: Independence Bowl (Shreveport) (Friday, 12/23) vs East Carolina (4-3, 2-2 American)
Oliver Hodgkinson (Pro Football Network): New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque) (Saturday, 12/17) vs Air Force (5-2, 2-2 Mountain West)

My preference is a P5, AAC or upper MWC. From the above- GA Tech, SMU, ECU or Air Force. My other/main preferences are a Bowl game that's easy to get to and one that a public school teacher (my boss) would have time to plan for.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#646291
We need to beat Arkansas.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports and Athlon Sports both have Notre Dame set to play in the Gator Bowl. Palm has the Irish set to play Arkansas.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#646292
Notre Dame should not be told Gator Bowl is being played, much less invited the Golden Doomers to play in it. But I am 100% confident ND will get a bowl they don't deserve, if they win 6 games.
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#646294
I just saw that back a few weeks ago Notre Dame beat BYU 28-20 at home... :shock:

At this point, is it too far-fetched to think maybe it's a "God Thing" to have us maybe on a collision course for a bowl game?
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By JK37
Registration Days Posts
#646295
Gator wouldn’t invite Liberty.

It’d be cool to play ND in a bowl. But finding a bowl where that matchup is possible is a challenge.

LU will be in some low-tier ESPN-owned bowl, no matter what.

So many bowls above those in the pecking order would scoop up ND long before ND fell to LU’s level.
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By LUOrange
Posts
#646298
I don't think Notre Dame would agree to play us or any other non-AAC G5 team in a Bowl game. I do believe that the Irish also has access to the ACC's Bowl games and probably has their own tie-ins as well.
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By SumItUp
Registration Days Posts
#646300
Outside of directly earned bowls by conference affiliation and regular season results, you have to travel really well to improve your bowl standing. Bowls are in business to make money. Butts in seats matters.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#646302
Our bowl attendance has been abysmal up to this point which isn't surprising because we really don't travel well as a fanbase. BYU fans showed us what traveling well looks like, across the country during a disappointing season. I assume they were mostly local fans rather than fans that flew from Utah. I wonder what its going to take and how long it's going to take to start getting closer to that level. Until then it's NY6 or bust when it comes to quality bowls against P5 competition. C-USA tie ins aren't much better than what we currently have although we would be able to dictate where we go more in C-USA since they are primary tie ins.
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By tyndal23
Posts
#646303
Ill flame wrote: October 27th, 2022, 12:22 am Our bowl attendance has been abysmal up to this point which isn't surprising because we really don't travel well as a fanbase. BYU fans showed us what traveling well looks like, across the country during a disappointing season. I assume they were mostly local fans rather than fans that flew from Utah. I wonder what its going to take and how long it's going to take to start getting closer to that level. Until then it's NY6 or bust when it comes to quality bowls against P5 competition. C-USA tie ins aren't much better than what we currently have although we would be able to dictate where we go more in C-USA since they are primary tie ins.
It is G5 - name the teams that travel well that aren’t going P5 in 23...we just “sold out” our very first home game. Once again, we are a nationally scattered fan base just getting our National alumni to tune in even on streaming tv, most have another P5 team they root for. Without playing and winning 4 or more P5 teams over a 5 plus year period, we aren’t building a “travel fan base”. Hugh said we were pretty much “forced to join CUSA” due to shifting climate. That may be true ( or not) but don’t kid yourself by thinking CUSA leapfrogs us anywhere in to a National Brand vs a P5 heavy Independent schedule would have. Name 1 scheduled home game you are excited to “fly” or drive 4 hours plus in next 5years. Suppose we do “dominate CUSA” and make a 12 team playoff in next 5 years with lowest SOS of all conferences. What next tier G5 Conference “invites” us to come dominate them? No recent conference realignment decision has been made based on “ performance”. Maybe our new president decides to double campus capacity and our student body gets us to 40k stadium ( minimum for Big 12 ) and our natural/evangelical national following tunes in for the Streaming TV numbers for our Boise St type records ( vs CUSA ). All that takes 10 years minimum. Hopefully I am dead wrong and everything “ just grows” , But not one on this board has laid out how G5 “anything” supercedes the growth potential we have/had as an Independent other than “ our hoops and baseball” will be in tougher conferences.
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By LUOrange
Posts
#646304
I think Freeze's statement that we were probably "forced to join CUSA" speaks for itself. I think most of us preferred the Indy scheduling, but the current climate changed all of that. As I've said before, my only issue with CUSA has been our OOC scheduling philosophy which has included dropping all of our P5 games, including drivable ones from Lynchburg. It was also unsettling to hear Freeze say that he didn't want to play BYU again cause he doesn't want to fly to Provo. That's the stuff that really hurts fanbase growth and motivating our scattered Alumni.

As far as the Bowl games are concerned, I think not having adequate time to plan on travelling to these locations are a huge problem for us and all G5's. That was my biggest issue with all of the Bowls and especially last years. Also, I hope that CUSA gets rid of the Bahamas Bowl or at least that we never agree to play in it. That's a guaranteed way to play in an empty stadium.

But we've joined CUSA. we're a member and will be for the foreseeable future. Let's make the most of it.


I
User avatar
By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#646307
LUOrange wrote: October 27th, 2022, 10:15 am I think Freeze's statement that we were probably "forced to join CUSA" speaks for itself. I think most of us preferred the Indy scheduling, but the current climate changed all of that. As I've said before, my only issue with CUSA has been our OOC scheduling philosophy which has included dropping all of our P5 games, including drivable ones from Lynchburg. It was also unsettling to hear Freeze say that he didn't want to play BYU again cause he doesn't want to fly to Provo. That's the stuff that really hurts fanbase growth and motivating our scattered Alumni.

As far as the Bowl games are concerned, I think not having adequate time to plan on travelling to these locations are a huge problem for us and all G5's. That was my biggest issue with all of the Bowls and especially last years. Also, I hope that CUSA gets rid of the Bahamas Bowl or at least that we never agree to play in it. That's a guaranteed way to play in an empty stadium.

But we've joined CUSA. we're a member and will be for the foreseeable future. Let's make the most of it.


I
Freeze also said we didn't want to drop all the P5 games. The P5's didn't see us becoming this good when they booked us. They wanted out. He said he sees a path to the playoffs from CUSA. And he sounded like he wants to stay here and see it happen.
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By BlueBlood
Posts
#646308
Yes, the Freeze interview seemed to confirm what many of us have thought and heard rumors of. The P5s we were originally able to schedule viewed us as an easy FCS-type/low G5 foe. They did not sign up for close games and losses. I do hope that we can get back to 1 or 2 P5s a year, but I think Ian may have a tough job making that happen. I don't think the lower 2/3 of the P5 will be motivated to schedule LU. The top 1/3 may - the ones that have full confidence that they can beat LU. Those schools may actually appreciate the higher SoS as they try to position themselves for playoffs.
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By cruzan_flame13
Posts
#646309
BlueBlood wrote: October 27th, 2022, 11:26 am Yes, the Freeze interview seemed to confirm what many of us have thought and heard rumors of. The P5s we were originally able to schedule viewed us as an easy FCS-type/low G5 foe. They did not sign up for close games and losses. I do hope that we can get back to 1 or 2 P5s a year, but I think Ian may have a tough job making that happen. I don't think the lower 2/3 of the P5 will be motivated to schedule LU. The top 1/3 may - the ones that have full confidence that they can beat LU. Those schools may actually appreciate the higher SoS as they try to position themselves for playoffs.
Ian may have to expand his interest in requesting games with other P5's if this is the case. It will be difficult to get games with P5's im the ACC because we actually have a chance to beat them (maybe not Clemson). I think we should aim our request to some Big XII teams. Not saying that we'll get them, but they're not as top nosed as the ACC. I do hope the next president aims for this and expand campus population to 25k-30k. That would help us enormously in so many ways. Also would be good to have a President and Chancellor duo to keep things in order. The Chancellor should be mostly involved with Sports and Community affairs. Hoping that person would have good connections with other schools and officials who are involved with NCAA affairs. Being in CUSA is going to be some slow years based on the schedules that we had to reestablish. Hopefully we are all wrong and somehow we make some crazy wins in the future extended playoffs and NCAA tournaments.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#646311
If the possibility of a Series every year or every other year with BYU is an option HCHF needs to put on his big boy pants and do it. You are getting paid $4 million plus. You are taking a charter flight to Provo. Deal with it. If that’s his mind set then it’s troubling.
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By Chippy
Registration Days Posts
#646312
Purple Haize wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:02 pm If the possibility of a Series every year or every other year with BYU is an option HCHF needs to put on his big boy pants and do it. You are getting paid $4 million plus. You are taking a charter flight to Provo. Deal with it. If that’s his mind set then it’s troubling.
On podcast I heard him quote another coach who said "I would play anyone, anywhere, anytime". My impression was he was saying he's not fond of traveling that distance but would do whatever Ian/AD set up for the schedule.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#646313
Chippy wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:09 pm
Purple Haize wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:02 pm If the possibility of a Series every year or every other year with BYU is an option HCHF needs to put on his big boy pants and do it. You are getting paid $4 million plus. You are taking a charter flight to Provo. Deal with it. If that’s his mind set then it’s troubling.
On podcast I heard him quote another coach who said "I would play anyone, anywhere, anytime". My impression was he was saying he's not fond of traveling that distance but would do whatever Ian/AD set up for the schedule.
Honest answer is BYU got inro the B12 .... finally. Now THEY don't want anything to do with us or our success ..... or getting their butts every year. :lol:
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#646314
Chippy wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:09 pm
Purple Haize wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:02 pm If the possibility of a Series every year or every other year with BYU is an option HCHF needs to put on his big boy pants and do it. You are getting paid $4 million plus. You are taking a charter flight to Provo. Deal with it. If that’s his mind set then it’s troubling.
On podcast I heard him quote another coach who said "I would play anyone, anywhere, anytime". My impression was he was saying he's not fond of traveling that distance but would do whatever Ian/AD set up for the schedule.
“Traveling that distance”. It’s a charter aircraft. 4 hour trip 1 time every other or every few years. Cry me a River
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By Ill flame
Posts
#646318
tyndal23 wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:43 am
It is G5 - name the teams that travel well that aren’t going P5 in 23...we just “sold out” our very first home game. Once again, we are a nationally scattered fan base just getting our National alumni to tune in even on streaming tv, most have another P5 team they root for. Without playing and winning 4 or more P5 teams over a 5 plus year period, we aren’t building a “travel fan base”. Hugh said we were pretty much “forced to join CUSA” due to shifting climate. That may be true ( or not) but don’t kid yourself by thinking CUSA leapfrogs us anywhere in to a National Brand vs a P5 heavy Independent schedule would have. Name 1 scheduled home game you are excited to “fly” or drive 4 hours plus in next 5years. Suppose we do “dominate CUSA” and make a 12 team playoff in next 5 years with lowest SOS of all conferences. What next tier G5 Conference “invites” us to come dominate them? No recent conference realignment decision has been made based on “ performance”. Maybe our new president decides to double campus capacity and our student body gets us to 40k stadium ( minimum for Big 12 ) and our natural/evangelical national following tunes in for the Streaming TV numbers for our Boise St type records ( vs CUSA ). All that takes 10 years minimum. Hopefully I am dead wrong and everything “ just grows” , But not one on this board has laid out how G5 “anything” supercedes the growth potential we have/had as an Independent other than “ our hoops and baseball” will be in tougher conferences.
Our attendance in the lending tree bowl game was the smallest in that bowls 22 year history not including the covid season. It had half the attendance as the previous all time low attendance and that bowl has been all G5 schools throughout its history to include 20 appearances from MAC schools.

Our 2019 cure bowl game was the lowest attended cure bowl in its 5 year history up to that point. Again that bowl is exclusively G5s. We are wanting better bowl games but keep setting records at bowl games for lowest attendance. Not a good look for a school with our aspirations. I hope it doesn't become a long term pattern.

You keep saying we can't build a national brand in C-USA like BYU didn't become a national brand in the WAC and MWC. They were already a national brand before they became independent. Boise state also became a household name in the WAC before later moving onto MWC. Other programs have shown we absolutely can significantly grow the brand in C-USA.

Also basketball might not be a huge factor in conference realignment but if we are talking about scheduling tough and building a national brand why are you content playing against bellarmine and North Florida if we can be playing solid competition that will fill the arena like NMSU? Gonzaga is proof that we absolutely can build a national brand through basketball but history says we should at least be in a mid major conference if we want a shot at any kind of sustained success in the ncaa tourney. At this time and place its time to move on from the P5 equivalent independence dream at least until circumstances change again.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#646321
Ill flame wrote: October 27th, 2022, 3:35 pm
tyndal23 wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:43 am
It is G5 - name the teams that travel well that aren’t going P5 in 23...we just “sold out” our very first home game. Once again, we are a nationally scattered fan base just getting our National alumni to tune in even on streaming tv, most have another P5 team they root for. Without playing and winning 4 or more P5 teams over a 5 plus year period, we aren’t building a “travel fan base”. Hugh said we were pretty much “forced to join CUSA” due to shifting climate. That may be true ( or not) but don’t kid yourself by thinking CUSA leapfrogs us anywhere in to a National Brand vs a P5 heavy Independent schedule would have. Name 1 scheduled home game you are excited to “fly” or drive 4 hours plus in next 5years. Suppose we do “dominate CUSA” and make a 12 team playoff in next 5 years with lowest SOS of all conferences. What next tier G5 Conference “invites” us to come dominate them? No recent conference realignment decision has been made based on “ performance”. Maybe our new president decides to double campus capacity and our student body gets us to 40k stadium ( minimum for Big 12 ) and our natural/evangelical national following tunes in for the Streaming TV numbers for our Boise St type records ( vs CUSA ). All that takes 10 years minimum. Hopefully I am dead wrong and everything “ just grows” , But not one on this board has laid out how G5 “anything” supercedes the growth potential we have/had as an Independent other than “ our hoops and baseball” will be in tougher conferences.
Our attendance in the lending tree bowl game was the smallest in that bowls 22 year history not including the covid season. It had half the attendance as the previous all time low attendance and that bowl has been all G5 schools throughout its history to include 20 appearances from MAC schools.

Our 2019 cure bowl game was the lowest attended cure bowl in its 5 year history up to that point. Again that bowl is exclusively G5s. We are wanting better bowl games but keep setting records at bowl games for lowest attendance. Not a good look for a school with our aspirations. I hope it doesn't become a long term pattern.

You keep saying we can't build a national brand in C-USA like BYU didn't become a national brand in the WAC and MWC. They were already a national brand before they became independent. Boise state also became a household name in the WAC before later moving onto MWC. Other programs have shown we absolutely can significantly grow the brand in C-USA.

Also basketball might not be a huge factor in conference realignment but if we are talking about scheduling tough and building a national brand why are you content playing against bellarmine and North Florida if we can be playing solid competition that will fill the arena like NMSU? Gonzaga is proof that we absolutely can build a national brand through basketball but history says we should at least be in a mid major conference if we want a shot at any kind of sustained success in the ncaa tourney. At this time and place its time to move on from the P5 equivalent independence dream at least until circumstances change again.
Bowls exist to lose as little money as possible. As of now LU travels horribly. If LU traveled well a lot of thing would be overlooked bu Bowls and other teams etc. But they don’t and here we are. LU can’t Name It and Claim It with scheduling 5-6 P5’s a year. Let alone beat them. With all the Conference Realignment the days of being Independent are numbered. Trying to get a schedule after say 25 would be nearly impossible…..unless you want to play to FCS a year.
I don’t think any school outside of ND has risen to prominence as an Independent and even now they are for all intents and purposes an ACC school
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By cruzan_flame13
Posts
#646322
Purple Haize wrote: October 27th, 2022, 4:06 pm
Ill flame wrote: October 27th, 2022, 3:35 pm
tyndal23 wrote: October 27th, 2022, 1:43 am
It is G5 - name the teams that travel well that aren’t going P5 in 23...we just “sold out” our very first home game. Once again, we are a nationally scattered fan base just getting our National alumni to tune in even on streaming tv, most have another P5 team they root for. Without playing and winning 4 or more P5 teams over a 5 plus year period, we aren’t building a “travel fan base”. Hugh said we were pretty much “forced to join CUSA” due to shifting climate. That may be true ( or not) but don’t kid yourself by thinking CUSA leapfrogs us anywhere in to a National Brand vs a P5 heavy Independent schedule would have. Name 1 scheduled home game you are excited to “fly” or drive 4 hours plus in next 5years. Suppose we do “dominate CUSA” and make a 12 team playoff in next 5 years with lowest SOS of all conferences. What next tier G5 Conference “invites” us to come dominate them? No recent conference realignment decision has been made based on “ performance”. Maybe our new president decides to double campus capacity and our student body gets us to 40k stadium ( minimum for Big 12 ) and our natural/evangelical national following tunes in for the Streaming TV numbers for our Boise St type records ( vs CUSA ). All that takes 10 years minimum. Hopefully I am dead wrong and everything “ just grows” , But not one on this board has laid out how G5 “anything” supercedes the growth potential we have/had as an Independent other than “ our hoops and baseball” will be in tougher conferences.
Our attendance in the lending tree bowl game was the smallest in that bowls 22 year history not including the covid season. It had half the attendance as the previous all time low attendance and that bowl has been all G5 schools throughout its history to include 20 appearances from MAC schools.

Our 2019 cure bowl game was the lowest attended cure bowl in its 5 year history up to that point. Again that bowl is exclusively G5s. We are wanting better bowl games but keep setting records at bowl games for lowest attendance. Not a good look for a school with our aspirations. I hope it doesn't become a long term pattern.

You keep saying we can't build a national brand in C-USA like BYU didn't become a national brand in the WAC and MWC. They were already a national brand before they became independent. Boise state also became a household name in the WAC before later moving onto MWC. Other programs have shown we absolutely can significantly grow the brand in C-USA.

Also basketball might not be a huge factor in conference realignment but if we are talking about scheduling tough and building a national brand why are you content playing against bellarmine and North Florida if we can be playing solid competition that will fill the arena like NMSU? Gonzaga is proof that we absolutely can build a national brand through basketball but history says we should at least be in a mid major conference if we want a shot at any kind of sustained success in the ncaa tourney. At this time and place its time to move on from the P5 equivalent independence dream at least until circumstances change again.
Bowls exist to lose as little money as possible. As of now LU travels horribly. If LU traveled well a lot of thing would be overlooked bu Bowls and other teams etc. But they don’t and here we are. LU can’t Name It and Claim It with scheduling 5-6 P5’s a year. Let alone beat them. With all the Conference Realignment the days of being Independent are numbered. Trying to get a schedule after say 25 would be nearly impossible…..unless you want to play to FCS a year.
I don’t think any school outside of ND has risen to prominence as an Independent and even now they are for all intents and purposes an ACC school
Soo.....you're saying there's a chance?
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