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

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By Ill flame
Posts
#663928
Kricket wrote: October 5th, 2024, 10:48 pm
Ill flame wrote:
Kricket wrote: October 5th, 2024, 8:37 am UNLV lost to Syracuse last night in a close one. They may need another loss for us to have a shot of leapfrogging them.
I think we’re gonna have to hope that whoever loses the UNLV-boise state game wins the rematch in the conference championship game. With it looking unlikely we'll be able to add a 12th game I think one of those two teams with 2 losses gets in over us and that's not even factoring in JMU who doesn't seem to have 2 losses left on the schedule.
Were you counting one of those JMU losses to ULM? :lol:
I'll be honest, I didn't expect them to lose that game but I figured that was one of the only games on their schedule they had a decent shot of losing. Hoping someone else upsets them along the way. If someone other than LU gets the G5 bid I hope it's boise state. They look legit and might actually have a chance to knock off a 5 or 6 seed this year.
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By Baybird
Posts
#663937
Was that Ballcoach in the #13 jersey at the end of the game? :D
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By Ill flame
Posts
#664067
Army and navy are both ranked with schedules equally as weak as ours. Just goes to show if we would've blew out our opponents like we should've we'd probably be in the top 20 right now. We did pick up a couple AP votes after not getting any the last two weeks. If we start taking care of business instead of sneaking by every opponent beginning with kennesaw state there's still a chance of us being ranked by the end of the regular season.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#664070
Both Army & Navy have opportunities to prove their rankings left on their schedule. Sadly we do not.

If we had blown out everyone thus far we would likely be ranked. But we haven't. If we continue to take care of business the rest of the way, I have confidence that we will be ranked by the end of the season. But we have a long way left to go.
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By thepostman
Registration Days Posts
#664072
And they've both been winning pretty convincingly. Something we can't seem to figure out.
By JK37
Registration Days Posts
#664310
Really enjoying this Boise/UNLV matchup tonight.

Easy to see, Liberty doesn’t belong on the same field as either of these teams. Should be an exciting finish!
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By cruzan_flame13
Posts
#664312
JK37 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 1:14 am Really enjoying this Boise/UNLV matchup tonight.

Easy to see, Liberty doesn’t belong on the same field as either of these teams. Should be an exciting finish!
Not even close.
By Dalegarz1
Posts
#664314
IMHO, we will learn a lot this Wednesday about the character of the players individually and the culture of the team collectively. In addition, how will the coaching staff respond. I’m not sure that JC should have said that maybe we’re not a good team with this roster. If it was said as some sort of motivational technique it may have the opposite effect. Lastly, I agree with Henshaw when he was referencing a lack of emotion and excitement about the opportunity to play this game of football. We need to get fired up and play with great energy that I haven’t seen since last year.
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By LUOrange
Registration Days Posts
#664315
cruzan_flame13 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 11:16 am
JK37 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 1:14 am Really enjoying this Boise/UNLV matchup tonight.

Easy to see, Liberty doesn’t belong on the same field as either of these teams. Should be an exciting finish!
Not even close.
Calm down, Ladies. It was one game.
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By cruzan_flame13
Posts
#664316
LUOrange wrote: October 26th, 2024, 7:12 pm
cruzan_flame13 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 11:16 am
JK37 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 1:14 am Really enjoying this Boise/UNLV matchup tonight.

Easy to see, Liberty doesn’t belong on the same field as either of these teams. Should be an exciting finish!
Not even close.
Calm down, Ladies. It was one game.
Guess you weren't watching most of the games this season. The sloppiness and amount of penalties would make LU look like a joke against those teams. I can still be calm and see the obvious :lol:
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By JK37
Registration Days Posts
#664319
LUOrange wrote: October 26th, 2024, 7:12 pm
cruzan_flame13 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 11:16 am
JK37 wrote: October 26th, 2024, 1:14 am Really enjoying this Boise/UNLV matchup tonight.

Easy to see, Liberty doesn’t belong on the same field as either of these teams. Should be an exciting finish!
Not even close.
Calm down, Ladies. It was one game.
I’m not sure to what you’re referring about “one game”…

If you mean the Boise/UNLV game was one game, you’re right. And in that one game, it was clear both teams were deeper, faster and stronger than our Flames have been all season.

If you’re referring to LU’s game vs. Kennesaw, you’re right. It was one game. One game that LU lost. And the fruition of falling short of expectations every week thus far. So in more than one game, LU has input subpar performances.

Seeing the two of the top G5’s go at it in Las Cegas on Friday, it was a little jarring how much better than the Flames have looked all season.
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#664329
I had similar thoughts. Both of those teams would dogwalk us in our current state, and that's based on how we have looked the WHOLE season. Ain't no way our D is coming close to keeping Jeanty under 150yds and 2 TDs. He would be licking his chops. We're undisciplined and our scheme has been vanilla all year.
By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#664330
I've been thinking about some of our problems with this team and I'm wondering if part of the issues are the depth we possess in some of our key position groups. It's great to have depth to keep your guys fresh, especially up front defensively, but I wonder if our personnel groupings changing all of the time is also serving to keep us from developing an on-field identity. Below are some of the positions I think this is showing up.

Offense:
RB - Our team just looks best when Cooley is on the field. Even in the option game I feel like Cooley has worked best. Vaughan Blue seems to have talent, but teams seem ready to key in on stopping the triple option when he's on the field because he's one of the ones we try to use on those plays. I like Billy Lucas and realize he offers a little bit of a different feel than Cooley, but I think Cooley is the alpha in that room and he's built to wear teams down over the course of a game without running out of steam.
WR - It seems like we play different WR groupings every series and even switch them out regularly during a series. I know some shuffling is normal, but when your team is struggling with timing and chemistry between the QB and WRs, playing 7-8 WRs across a game seems to be prolonging our ability to have Salter find that chemistry with a couple of guys. We've seen it flash at times with Mobley and Reese Smith. Sibley has shown some as well, but I'd really like to see them settle on having 2-3 WRs get a majority of snaps.

Defense:
LB - This is one position where we have 5-6 legit dudes that could start. Carter, Jolly, Jackson, Brown, Vaughan and Crisp and there's additional talent behind them. Each one has shown flashes this year, but we rotate them in/out every series. LBs are one of those positions that get into the flow of a game and can start to make reads throughout that helps them play faster. I think our constant shuffling in this spot is maybe hurting us some.
CB - Heading into the season the depth chart seemed to show that Ricks and/or Hill would start opposite Mo Williams. I realize there have been some injury challenges and Hill is now gone from the team, but Oliver was a 3rd option that is now starting. He's played okay, but I personally think he's inconsistent and is a risk for DPI calls every game because he never gets his head turned around to play the ball. Now that he's healthy, I'd like to see Williams and Ricks on the field with Bodnar coming in as the nickel.

Thoughts?
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By jmclaughlin
Posts
#664353
Just a quick reminder that the rest of the '24 LU football schedule has not been canceled!
In fact, there is a game scheduled for tonight on the mountain against a formidable opponent. Also contrary to the somber, defeatists mentality that is all over social media, the Flames have not lost any of their year end goals with the loss last week. LU had a 0.001% chance of getting a spot at the CFP had they won out with the resume that would have been presented.

I truly believe last weeks loss is a good thing and will rev up the engine of this team. It was a better to lose to a KSU team out of conference contention than a loss to JSU or WKU.

Lets go Flames!
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By Humble_Opinion
Registration Days Posts
#664354
jmclaughlin wrote:Just a quick reminder that the rest of the '24 LU football schedule has not been canceled!
In fact, there is a game scheduled for tonight on the mountain against a formidable opponent. Also contrary to the somber, defeatists mentality that is all over social media, the Flames have not lost any of their year end goals with the loss last week. LU had a 0.001% chance of getting a spot at the CFP had they won out with the resume that would have been presented.

I truly believe last weeks loss is a good thing and will rev up the engine of this team. It was a better to lose to a KSU team out of conference contention than a loss to JSU or WKU.

Lets go Flames!
Our 5 wins have come against teams with a combined record of 13 Wins and 28 Losses. Only one of those teams (ECU) has a .500 or better (4-4) and they just fired their coach for sucking. We then proceeded to lose to KSU, whom by all measures was the worst team in FBS football when we were a 27pt favorite.

I think we're all aware that there's a game tonight, and many of us (myself included) are likely attending. I'll be loud and slightly early and will be wearing red. However, this team has shown a pattern 6 games in that ultimately lead to the result we saw last week. Am I hoping it changes this week? Absolutely. They still have a lot to play for this season. The reality is it feels like this turnaround should have occurred after the ECU game where the offense clicked for maybe the only time this year while the defense played a solid game. That didn't happen. Now we face the best statistical team in the conference who is riding a 4 game win streak. Yeah, I'm a little doubtful.
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By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#664356
We lose to KSU because we were "not ready to play" and/or over confident. No matter the opponent, a team has to "come ready to play", every game.
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By jmclaughlin
Posts
#664357
Agree with everything you said H_O. I’n going back and skimming the game last week. I think our coaching staff more than the players were overconfident. We tried to get cute with playcalling and didn’t use our Strength on offense … namely Cooley. Then we got down in the second half and tried to rely on a strength that we don’t have. Which is a downfield passing game. I think if we can just go run heavy with the occasional RPO, deep shot we will be more than adequate to win. We have speed at linebacker which is the best advantage we have going against Rich rod’s office.

I admit that there’s fandom mixed in to this, but I think we see a much better product this week.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#664358
Humble_Opinion wrote: October 28th, 2024, 9:55 am I've been thinking about some of our problems with this team and I'm wondering if part of the issues are the depth we possess in some of our key position groups. It's great to have depth to keep your guys fresh, especially up front defensively, but I wonder if our personnel groupings changing all of the time is also serving to keep us from developing an on-field identity. Below are some of the positions I think this is showing up.

Offense:
RB - Our team just looks best when Cooley is on the field. Even in the option game I feel like Cooley has worked best. Vaughan Blue seems to have talent, but teams seem ready to key in on stopping the triple option when he's on the field because he's one of the ones we try to use on those plays. I like Billy Lucas and realize he offers a little bit of a different feel than Cooley, but I think Cooley is the alpha in that room and he's built to wear teams down over the course of a game without running out of steam.
WR - It seems like we play different WR groupings every series and even switch them out regularly during a series. I know some shuffling is normal, but when your team is struggling with timing and chemistry between the QB and WRs, playing 7-8 WRs across a game seems to be prolonging our ability to have Salter find that chemistry with a couple of guys. We've seen it flash at times with Mobley and Reese Smith. Sibley has shown some as well, but I'd really like to see them settle on having 2-3 WRs get a majority of snaps.

Defense:
LB - This is one position where we have 5-6 legit dudes that could start. Carter, Jolly, Jackson, Brown, Vaughan and Crisp and there's additional talent behind them. Each one has shown flashes this year, but we rotate them in/out every series. LBs are one of those positions that get into the flow of a game and can start to make reads throughout that helps them play faster. I think our constant shuffling in this spot is maybe hurting us some.
CB - Heading into the season the depth chart seemed to show that Ricks and/or Hill would start opposite Mo Williams. I realize there have been some injury challenges and Hill is now gone from the team, but Oliver was a 3rd option that is now starting. He's played okay, but I personally think he's inconsistent and is a risk for DPI calls every game because he never gets his head turned around to play the ball. Now that he's healthy, I'd like to see Williams and Ricks on the field with Bodnar coming in as the nickel.

Thoughts?
We've had an unusual amount of injuries this year. My assumption has been that our coaching staff has been constantly rotating players because a lot of our go to guys have been beat up and they are trying to keep the remaining guys healthy. Not sure how true that is though.
By ALAFlamesFan
Registration Days Posts
#664363
We are just not a good team this year. Period. The chemistry is not there nor is the leadership. I look for a busy transfer portal this year with encouraged player exits.
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By LUGrad2000
Registration Days Posts
#664364
Not sure the intent, but Salter slapped the ball boy in the back after the int.
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By jmclaughlin
Posts
#664365
Just a weird, disjointed, snake bit season.
Injuries
Flood affected games
Penalties
Nearly 0 home run plays
Very few TOs forced
And 0 energy

we played above our heads last year and are playing below our knees this year
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By LUGrad2000
Registration Days Posts
#664366
We still have a path to the conference championship game if we win out and Jax St beats WKU.
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