Football season comes to an end
Liberty’s 2014 football season came to an end last Saturday when they lost to #6 Villanova, 29-22. The season will go down as one of the best in school history with the Flames advancing to and winning a game in the FCS playoffs for the first time in school history. Coach Gill led the Flames to a 9-5 overall record. It’s just the 4th time in school history Liberty has won 9 or more games and the first since 2008. The Flames, who were ranked #20 in the final regular season Top 25 poll, should finish the season ranked in the top 20.
JMU’s Playoff Bid
JMU’s athletic director released a statement regarding the Dukes’ playoff bid. It’s really a fascinating read and story, so take the time to read it. But long story short, JMU bid over $200,000 to host a playoff game, primarily because they didn’t want to travel to Williams Stadium. It makes it that much sweeter that Liberty went and beat JMU on their home field.
2015 schedule released
The 2015 football schedule was released earlier this week, and hopefully you caught our schedule breakdown from Thursday. This is arguably the best schedule Liberty has ever faced with 3 FCS playoff teams from 2014 and 2 FBS teams on the schedule that is all Division I. Homecoming will be September 26th when James Madison returns to Williams Stadium as part of a home slate that includes Montana and Coastal Carolina. 267 days to kickoff on September 5th in Williams Stadium against Delaware State!
Men’s hoops update
Due to exams, the men’s basketball team played just one game in the last week. The Flames lost to St Francis (NY) last Saturday, 65-54. Theo Johnson led the team with 11 points, while Peter Moller and Drew Smith both chipped in 10 points apiece. Through their first 8 games, LU has not scored more than 69 points (scored in the opener against Randolph). The most the Flames have scored against DI competition is 66, and they have failed to reach 60 in 4 of 8 games this season. With the loss, Liberty has fallen to #306 in the KenPom rankings. The Flames have 3 games this week, beginning with Bluefield on Saturday in the Vines Center.
Tomasz Gielo injured
Gielo did not play against St Francis on Saturday due to what is being described as a stress reaction. He is listed as week to week. Tomasz is the only Flame averaging double figures in scoring this season at 12 points per game and is also grabbing 6.3 rebounds per game.
Women’s hoops update
The Lady Flames opened conference play with a road win against Radford last Saturday, 72-63. It was both teams’ Big South opener. Karly Buer led the way for Liberty with 26 points. Simone Brown chipped in 18 points. Liberty hosts Gardner-Webb on Saturday in the Vines Center at 7pm.
Fogg signs with Steelers
Former Liberty cornerback Kevin Fogg has been signed to the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad. Fogg spent much of the 2014 training camp with the Miami Dolphins before being cut. He also played in the FXFL this season for the Brooklyn Bolts.
Conference realignment watch
As the college football season comes to an end, conference realignment rumors begin to pick up. There are a few things to watch regarding Liberty’s chances to make the move to the FBS in the next few months. First, what does the Big 12 do? They have 10 teams and one big reason given as to why Baylor and/or TCU did not make the college football was because of no conference championship game. Currently, conferences must have at least 12 teams to have a conference championship game. Either the NCAA changes that rule to let the Big 12 have a conference championship game with 10 teams, or the league must strongly consider adding 2 teams. If they add 2 teams, hope they don’t add BYU or any other independent. If they take say, Memphis and Cincinnati, that opens 2 spots in the AAC who could likely add 2 teams from Conference USA. So, you see how the dominoes can fall. If that happens, there will be at least 3 open spots in Conference USA due to UAB shutting down their program. The Sun Belt technically already has 1 open spot, so if those teams fill all their “open” spots, you have 4 openings. Hard to imagine a scenario that doesn’t include Liberty in that situation. Still, lots of ifs and dominoes that need to fall. If we’re relying on just the 1 spot currently in the CUSA, I would put our chances at less than 50%.
Streeter to Clemson
Brandon Streeter has accepted the quarterback coach job at Clemson. Streeter had been the offensive coordinator and QB coach at Richmond under Danny Rocco since 2012. He was also on Rocco’s staff while he was at Liberty, most recently as offensive coordinator. Streeter played at Clemson from 1995 to 1999, and was a starting quarterback and graduate assistant with the Tigers.
FlameFans thread of the week
This week’s FlameFans thread of the week is 2015 schedule discussion where we’ve been breaking down Liberty’s 2015 football schedule.
