McKay finalizes staff
As we first reported, Ritchie McKay has finalized his coaching staff. Omar Mance and Matt Olinger will remain on Liberty’s staff under McKay. Mance joined Liberty’s coaching staff prior to the 2013-14 season under former head coach Dale Layer. Prior to his time at Liberty, Mance spent 3 seasons as an assistant at Army under head coach Zach Spiker. Olinger has been with the men’s basketball program for the past 9 seasons including McKay’s first 2 seasons at Liberty.

Brad Soucie comes from Virginia where he was the director of player development and has been with the Cavaliers the past 6 seasons. Soucie has been on McKay’s staff in each of his previous head coaching stops at Portland State, Colorado State, Oregon State, New Mexico, and Ritchie’s first stint at Liberty.

Kyle Getter returns to Liberty after spending the past 4 seasons as an assistant at Radford under Mike Jones. He also spent 2 seasons on Shaka Smart’s staff at VCU including the Rams’ 2011 Final Four run. Getter spent the 2008-09 season at Liberty in McKay’s 2nd season with the Flames.

practiceAnnual Spring Game
Liberty’s annual Spring Game is this Saturday at 2pm at Williams Stadium. It’s our final chance to see the Flames in action this Spring as Coach Gill has closed practice to the public and media. Before you head to Williams Stadium for the game, check out our most recent Spring Practice Notebook to get you prepared for what to watch for. For a complete list of details surrounding the Spring Game, including the scoring system, click here. As always, be sure to check back to LibertyFlamesNation.com after the game for photos and analysis of the game, and also follow us on twitter for in-game updates.

Football offers picking up
If you keep up with football recruiting, you’ve noticed a lot of activity the past week or two as the Flames’ coaching staff have been offering numerous kids. A couple areas of focus so far appear to be quarterback and offensive line. We’ve tracked down offers to 4 quarterbacks thus far, which is quite a bit since the Flames didn’t offer a single quarterback in the Class of 2015. It sounds like Coach Gill and company are hoping to sign 2 QBs in the Class of 2016.

Installation of Coastal’s teal turf
So, Coastal’s teal field was installed this week. I think the overwhelming sentiment is this will be called “Surf Turf”.

Baseball update
The Flames had won 7 straight after sweeping both Presbyterian and Charleston Southern with a 9-7 win over ODU sandwiched in between. Liberty’s win streak was snapped this week when their bats went silent losing to ODU and #22 North Carolina by a combined score of 11-1. The Flames were shut out by the Tar Heels for the first time this season. Normal Friday starter Shawn Clowers took to the mound Wednesday night against North Carolina hoping to pick up a much-needed top 25 win. Clowers gave up 4 runs in 5 2/3 innings as the Flames were beat 6-0. A big 3-game series this weekend at home against Campbell who is 7-5 in Big South play.

Flame Train
It looks like the “Flame Train” is here to stay.

Other sports

  • The softball team continues their much improved play over a season ago as the Lady Flames took 2 of 3 from Presbyterian and Radford this past week. The team is now 19-21 overall and 8-7 in Big South play. The girls will travel to Charleston for a 3 game series this weekend against Charleston Southern.
  • The women’s tennis team will begin conference tournament play on April 15th. The Lady Flames are the #3 seed.
  • The men’s tennis team will conclude their regular season on Sunday against Radford. The Flames are currently in 3rd place in the Big South with the conference tournament beginning on April 18th.
  • The women’s lacrosse team defeated Coastal Carolina, 18-8, on Monday to move to 2-0 in conference play. The Lady Flames will face Gardner-Webb tonight and Presbyterian on Sunday.

FlameFans thread of the week
It may be 148 days until the season kicks off and 155 days until the game, but we have already begun discussing making the trip to Morgantown, West Virginia for the football game against the Mountaineers in this week’s FlameFans thread of the week, Morgantown (WV Game).