The Liberty football team took it on the chin Saturday night against the #3 ranked Jacksonville State Gamecocks, falling 48-19. It’s the worst home loss LU has suffered since the Ken Karcher era when Liberty lost to Youngstown State, 42-0, on September 17, 2005. The Flames are now 1-3 on the season, and will host Robert Morris next week before the bye week.
GAME BALLS
Eli Jenkins: JSU’s All-American quarterback threw for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns and run for another 121 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Roc Thomas: The transfer running back from Auburn finished the game with 111 yards and 1 touchdown and 69 receiving yards and another touchdown.
Trey Turner: It’s hard to give love to any Flames with a beat down like that, but Liberty’s punter had plenty of work. His 12 punts went for a school record 520 yards, good for an average of 43.3 yards per punt with a long of 59.
RANKING THE TOP PLAYS FROM THE GAME
- Less than 3 minutes into the game, and on JSU’s 3rd play from scrimmage, running back Roc Thomas was free and clear in Liberty’s secondary as Eli Jenkins connected with Thomas for a 51-yard touchdown. The Gamecocks took the early 7-0 lead and the route was on.
- Eli Jenkins broke a tackle, made a sick cutback, and ran for a 76-yard touchdown to give Jacksonville State a 14-3 lead with just less than 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter.
- Josh Barge had a 75 yard punt return for a touchdown to give the Gamecocks a 20-3 lead early in the 2nd quarter. It was JSU’s first punt return for touchdown since 2009.
- Liberty’s Tyrin Holloway jumped the JSU route to intercept Jenkin’s first quarter pass. Just a few plays later, the Flames got on the scoreboard to bring the score within 7-3. It felt like Liberty had a fighter’s chance at the time.
- With the game feeling like it was over, Buckshot found a streaking Dante Shells open 3 yards behind the defense for a 59 yard pass and run to bring the score to 27-10 late in the 3rd quarter.
WHAT IT MEANS
Forget about any at-large discussion. The only way to the playoffs now is via the Big South auto-bid. Of course, there are much bigger fish to fry for now than worrying about making the playoffs. That Liberty team that took the field against Jacksonville State is not a playoff team. Is it a good Big South team? We’ll find out soon.
Performances like this, with attendance much lower than should be expected, will not sit well with the administration. Also, judging by the interaction from fans, it’s not sitting well with much of the fan base. This is the 3rd game out of the first 4, that the Flames have looked bad. Granted it was against tough competition in 2 FBS opponents (Virginia Tech and SMU) and perhaps the best FCS team Liberty has ever played at Williams Stadium. Still, the offense has to find a way to put up more than 181 yards. Liberty averaged 2.6 yards per play compared to Jacksonville State’s 8.3.
The rushing attack was non-existant for the 3rd time this season. The Flames had 44 yards rushing on 36 rush attempts. The offensive line was manhandled by the Gamecocks’ defensive front. JSU sacked Liberty’s quarterbacks 6 times.
LOOKING AHEAD
Liberty now turns their attention to Robert Morris (1-3) before a bye week and conference play. The Colonials picked up their first win of the season on Saturday against Division II Malone, 21-19. RMU opened their season with a loss to Division II Alderson Broaddus, 14-7. Their following games included a 13-0 loss to Dayton and a 38-6 loss to Youngstown State. Robert Morris is averaging just 2.6 yards per play and is being out gained in total offense by an average of 355-136.5.
This game will be much more about the Flames than the opponent. Liberty must figure out what is going on with the offense. The team has failed to surpass the 100 yard rushing mark 10 times in the last 14 games including 3 of 4 games this season. Liberty’s quarterbacks have combined to throw 10 interceptions, the most interceptions thrown by an FCS team this season.
With the attendance only reaching the 15,000 mark against the #3 ranked team in the country, how many fans do the Flames expect to draw for Robert Morris? Are the casual fans beginning to check out?
BY THE NUMBERS
1.2 | Liberty averaged 1.2 yards per rush on their 36 rushing attempts.
520 | The Flames set a school record with 520 punt yards on their 12 punts. Turner’s punts outnumbered Liberty’s first downs and equaled the number of completions Flames’ quarterbacks had.
3-of-18 | Liberty converted just 3 of their 18 3rd down conversions.
563 | The Gamecocks rolled up 563 yards of total offense, the highest number gained on Liberty’s defense this season.
THEY SAID IT
Flames head coach Turner Gill on the team’s unity:
“Everybody’s all together. We just got beat, sometimes that happens in life. Sometimes that happens in a football game. They were just the better team tonight. It’s not going to define our season. We got a lot of football. So, we’ll bounce back. We’ve been there and done that before. We’ll be ready to go. Our players are together, and, obviously, disappointed, but ready to go.
Flames head coach Turner Gill on the quarterback play:
“We went into the game, as far as playing those guys, Stephon playing 2 series, Stephen Calvert’s going to play 2 series. After those 4 series, I told them, I was going to make a decision on who I was going to go with. That’s what I did. I made a decision to go with Steve Calvert a few more series, and then decided to give one more shot there with Masha. Unfortunately, then he had a turnover, and the rest of the game I went with Stephen Calvert. I wanted to give him some more experience, and just see how he responds in a game. He hasn’t had as many reps as Stephon as far as in the 4 ball games which is why I stuck with him in the 3rd and 4th quarter to see how he would respond with that many reps. So, we’ll evaluate it, and see where we’re at, and see what we need to do as far as going into the next ball game.”
Linebacker Dexter Robbins on the team’s mentality:
“We try to remain positive as best we can, that’s the whole focus even when things aren’t going the way we want them. The main focus is we try to remain positive and keep everybody’s heads up. Try to keep the offense’s heads up. Get everybody individually that made a mistake to keep their heads up. Just remain positive. That’s what’s going to benefit us in the long run. As hard as it is, that’s what’s going to benefit this team in the long run. This is a special team. This schedule is one of the toughest schedules in FCS. This team is an amazing team. A lot of other FCS schools aren’t playing the teams that we’re playing. We just played the defending runner-up for the national championship. We just got to take this one on the chin, and come back next week and just move on. Get ready to win against Robert Morris, and get ready to win conference. That’s what the focus is. That’s what these games are for, to get us prepared for the best competition that’s out there.
Linebacker Nick Newman on the team’s morale:
“We’re good because we know we still have the whole season in front of us. We have a lot of important games coming up, so, we’re going to focus on that now.”
Safety Solomon McGinty on the team’s morale:
“Some of them hanging their heads still. I’m just trying to encourage them. Some guys they see the bad and don’t want to let it go. I still try to encourage them. There is a tomorrow, but we just got to accept what we face today to help us later down the road.”
Quarterback Buckshot Calvert on what he learned against Jacksonville State:
“Finding where my check down is and getting the ball out quicker and faster. So, I could get the pressure off the offensive lineman so that doesn’t happen anymore.”
