Injury report
Coach Gill had several injuries to report this week including season-ending injuries to D.J. Abnar and Lucas Holder. He also mentioned Kyle Carrington will be out 6-8 weeks and Wesley Scott is questionable for Monmouth.

lunsfordLunsford’s struggles
John Lunsford has been struggling significantly with his accuracy this season. He is 9/18 on his field goals which includes a mark of 3/5 on field goals longer than 50 including a 57-yarder. He’s perfect inside of 30 yards making all 4 of his field goals and all 17 of his extra points. Where his struggles have come from is between 30-49 yards where he is just 2/9 on field goal attempts this season. Certainly that’s not a distance or leg strength issue. Looking back at his career stats, this has been a trend. In his first 3 seasons, Lunsford was 10/11 on field goals inside of 30 yards and 8/13 on field goals 50+, but a paltry 17/31 from 30-49 yards.

WoodrumWoodrum to run more?
He snuck it in during his press conference, perhaps it even slipped out, but Josh Woodrum mentioned this week that he may get involved in the run game a little more now with D.J. Abnar being injured. Woodrum compared the necessity of him needing to run to last season with Des Rice being injured. Josh carried the ball almost 7 times per game in 2014, a number that has dropped to almost 4 carries per game this season. 

Monmouth notes:

  • The Hawks are led by running back Lavon Chaney who is rushing for 72 yards per game with 4 touchdowns so far this season. He’s smaller in stature, standing just 5’9”, but Coach Gill says he is very quick and agile.
  • Like Gardner-Webb, Monmouth likes to use their tight end. Hakeem Valles has 13 receptions for 140 yards this season.
  • Monmouth got blasted by Charleston Southern a week ago, losing 37-7. The Hawks didn’t score until the final 3 minutes of the game when the Buccaneers were leading 37-0. CSU held Monmouth to 115 total offensive yards while totaling 398 themselves including 275 rushing yards on 5.5 yards per rush and 5 rushing touchdowns. The Hawks were just 1/13 on 3rd down conversions and 0/3 on 4th downs.

Football commits update

  • Jimmy Faulks picked off his 4th interception of the season last week.
  • Offensive line commit Daniel Zapata was recently voted the best offensive lineman in the Big North Conference.
  • Brandon Tillmon had 3 touchdowns and 272 total yards in a win and was named offensive player of the week by The State Newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina. 

Flames in the NFL update
Rashad Jennings was on face to face on Sportscenter with Hannah Storm this past Sunday before rushing for 46 yards on 11 carries and hauling in 4 receptions for 21 yards. Walt Aikens and the Miami Dolphins were on a bye.

Liberty ranked #307
CBS Sports ranked all 351 men’s Division I basketball teams and placed the Flames at #307. Liberty finished the 2014-15 season with an RPI of #347 and with the coaching change and loss of several contributors from a season ago, the uptick in ranking is noticeable. Coach McKay officially makes his return as Liberty’s head coach when the Flames open the 2015-16 season by hosting Covenant on November 13th.

Conference tourney changes
The Big South announced changes to the hosting venues of several conference tournaments for the 2015-16 season due to Coastal Carolina’s pending departure to the Sun Belt. The 2016 basketball, baseball, and outdoor track and field championships will all be moving from Myrtle Beach and Coastal Carolina. Liberty will host the outdoor track and field championships May 10-12. The baseball and men’s and women’s championship sites will be announced at a later date. 

Other Sports update
Your weekly non-football Fall sports update:

  • The men’s soccer team lost to Gardner-Webb, 1-0, Saturday. The Flames travel to Conway this weekend to take on #11 Coastal Carolina.
  • The women’s soccer team defeated High Point to move to 5-1 in Big South play this season. The Lady Flames will host Gardner-Webb on Saturday before travelling to Winthrop Wednesday.
  • The women’s field hockey team moved up to #8 this week following wins over Lehigh and #13 Delaware. The Lady Flames dropped a home contest Thursday afternoon against #4 Virginia, 4-3.
  • The women’s volleyball team split their conference matchups last weekend at Campbell and High Point. The Lady Flames are 4-1 in Big South play and host Charleston Southern and Coastal Carolina this weekend.

FlameFans thread of the week
This week’s FlameFans thread of the week is College Coaching Carousel 2015-16 as it got off to a crazy start this past week.