Liberty Football '08

The 2008 season begins this Saturday in Lynchburg against SBC school North Greenville with a slogan in '08 of "Unfinished Business". Not only is the defense of the Big South Championship a goal but also our first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.

You can talk with fellow LU football fans at FlameFans. But the big news this year is that your chances of watching all of the home games on television have greatly increased with FamilyNet picking up them up on their network. If you have Verizon FIOS or AT&T U-verse then you can catch all of the home games live.

For those who haven't kept with the Flames since our down years, we are now in our 3rd season under Danny Rocco. And each year has seen a dramatic step forward in performance and attendance. Last year we ranked among the top 10 in I-AA (now called FCS) in attendance. And a weekly average of 15k that the NCAA uses as its standard for I-A consideration is a strong possibility. We are also ranked Top 25 in several of the polls.

Even if you haven't kept up with the program for a number of years, there is no time better than the present to reconnect.

Fan the Flames!

 

We opened up the season with a 49-10 victory in front of over 15k at Williams Stadium.

We've got another DII coming to town next Saturday before the real fun begins.

 

We thumped another DII of little note from West Virginia in our second game. The weather concerns dropped our attendance down to a shade under 14k.

We now head on the road the next few weeks. This Saturday we are at Western Carolina who were drilled 69-0 this past weekend at Florida State.

 

Flames now 5-0 on Season

Rashad Jennings taking the knee just before scoring Saturday in our victory at Coastal Carolina has generated quite a bit of regional and national attention. A player who is a nominee for the Walter Payton Award passing up a chance to pad his stats in exchange for sportsmanship and the assurance that the Flames could run out the clock unimpeded has had a much greater impact than if he would've scored.

From a football standpoint, he took away any chance (as remote as it was) that the Chants could score then successfully pull off an onside kick (which they had nearly achieved just a few moments before). The play generated a great deal of discussion on FlameFans from fans who were on both sides of his choice.

One thing you can be sure of is that Rashad's chances of following in his brothers' footsteps of playing on Sundays is very real. NFL scouts are raving about him.

The Flames now have a 3-game homestand beginning with the first appearance of new Big South opponent Stony Brook (yes, I know they are from Long Island and not Dixie) during College for a Weekend. A new attendance record is very possible to fall. Then next weekend it is Lafayette coming to Williams Stadium. Then the following week it is Homecoming with fellow Baptist college Charleston Southern.

The Flames are ranked between 14-16 in most all of the major FCS polls as their school record win streak stands at ten. We haven't been this highly ranked since the early Sam Rutigliano days nearly two decades ago.

The next three games are all televised by FamilyNet and I believe they all may be on MASN as well (perhaps tape delayed). If you are within driving distance I highly recommend you come and bring your family & friends with you. Unlike when I was in school back in the day, the gameday environment is now electric and the team may be the best we have ever had.

 

Well indeed ... we just took down Stony Brook 33-0 to improve to 6-0 on season and 2-0 in the Big South.

It was our first shutout we've posted in two years and it extended our win streak to 11 games overall and a conference record 8 straight Big South victories.

We have a quality opponent in Lafayette coming to Williams Stadium this Saturday. They have just one loss on the season and they should be ranked once the new polls are announced Monday afternoon.

 

The Flames won at VMI today 38-26. Combined with Coastal Carolina's victory over Gardner-Webb, Liberty is guaranteed of retaining their Big South Championship outright. That is back-to-back conferences titles for Coach Rocco and Co. And we now have won 10 straight conference contests.

We finish out the season the next two weeks at home at Williams Stadium. Next up is our conference finale against Gardner-Webb. Then we close things out against a likely Top 10 opponent in Elon.

 

The Flames dismantled fellow Baptist school Gardner-Webb Saturday to complete a second consecutive sweep of the Big South. The school's win streak in the league has reached a new record of 11.

So that sets up a must win scenario for the Flames this Saturday at William Stadium. We have Elon coming to town on the verge of their first ever playoff birth. The Phoenix (formerly known as the Fighting Christians) destroyed the Flames last year in Carolina but they need a victory to seal the deal for the playoffs this year.

Liberty needs to impress the selection committee with a victory Saturday and then hope that they get some help with an upset of one of the other contenders for an at large playoff berth (the Big South doesn't receive an automatic bid until the 2010 season).

The fly in the ointment is that the students are on Thanksgiving break so we won't likely have the boisterous crowd of 14-15k would would normally have of a game of such great significance. If you are within driving distance and you are looking for a fun activity this Saturday I would ask the favor of you heading to Lynchburg. We usually have a bunch of youth groups who make the trip. And this week we could really use some "new" fans helping our boys out.

Fan the Flames!

 

The Flames just finished off their regular season in spectacular fashion today dominating 12th-ranked Elon, 26-3. LU sets a school record with its 10th win of the season.

Tomorrow night at 7pm ET on ESPNU, the NCAA Selection Committee announces its field for Division I FCS Playoffs. LU is in line for one of the at large berths. If we are picked, it would be the first time in school history we have been selected for the NCAA playoffs.

 

10-2 and beating the #12 team in the nation wasn't impressive enough to the NCAA Selection Committee headed by the AD from a CAA school. So they passed over the Flames for an 8-4 team that beat no ranked teams and only beat two teams with a winning record all season. Did I mentiin that team was the 5th team selected from the CAA?

:BangHead:

This is yet another reason why we need to step up to I-A once the NCAA moratorium is lifted. Hopefully we begin the transition in the next 5 years.