Baseball ends season
After such a promising start, the FlameTrain came to a screeching halt. Liberty finished the season 3-7 in their last 10 games including a quick 0-2 exit in regional play last weekend. As Troy wrote earlier in the week, the 2014 season still must be looked at as an overall success. The Flames cracked the top 25 in all major polls for the first time in school history. Liberty concluded the regular season an astonishing 20-3 in conference games, and swept the Big South All-Conference awards. The at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament was the first in school history and 5th regional appearance in program history. Coach Toman has now led the Flames to consecutive regional appearances, another first in school history.

2014 expectations: Who wins?
Every Thursday this Summer there will be a new poll featured on the site. The polls will simply ask you who wins each game of the 2014 football season. We did this last year, and it had positive results, so we figured we would bring it back this  year. So, you can vote now as to who you think will win the Flames’ opener with North Carolina. Be sure to check back each week, beginning on Thursday, for another game on the Flames’ 2014 schedule. Once we work our way through the whole schedule, we’ll let you know what FlamesNation has predicted Liberty’s 2014 record to be. Don’t forget to vote each week!

Flames finish 3rd in Sasser Cup
Liberty’s run of 6 consecutive Big South Sasser Cups has come to an end. The Flames finished 3rd behind Coastal Carolina and High Point. The Flames were also 3rd in the Women’s All-Sports Award and 2nd in the Men’s. Liberty has still won more Sasser Cups than any other school as the Flames have won 11, Coastal is 2nd on the list with 10 all-time Sasser Cups. Either Liberty or Coastal has won the award every year dating back to the 1997-98 season.

Johnson transfers from College of Charleston
Dale Layer announced the transfer of Theo Johnson from the College of Charleston. Johnson averaged 1.7 points and 1.5 rebounds in 30 games this past season in Charleston. After sitting out the 2014-15 season, he will have 2 seasons of eligibility remaining.

Johnson, photo courtesy PostandCourier.com

Big South Spring Meetings Recap
The Big South held their annual meetings late last week in Hilton Head. A few of the most noticeable changes approved are:

  • Beginning with the 2016 football season, teams will be limited to a maximum of 1 non-Division I game during seasons with an 11-game schedule limitation.
  • With 11 men’s basketball programs, the conference will play an unbalanced 18-game league schedule in 2014-15. The top 5 teams will receive a bye in the first round of the 2015 Big South Basketball Championship.
  • The conference will explore scheduling games on Tuesday and Friday during 2 weeks of the conference season in 2014-15 only. This will allow the conference to evaluate television opportunities and availability of top tier officials.

You can read the full release here.

Director’s cup standings
The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and the USA Today jointly developed the annual Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. The Directors’ Cup awards points to each institution’s finish in up to 20 sports – 10 women’s and 10 men’s. In essence, it is a ranking of the best overall athletic programs in all of college athletics based upon national finishes.

The first Spring standings were released recently which has a cumulative total of all sports which have been completed as of May 29, 2014. Points will still be awarded for sports not completed such as baseball, softball, and track & field. The final standings will be released later this Summer.

Liberty currently sits at #193 with 55.5 total points. Other Big South institutions of note: #87 Coastal Carolina, #157 Winthrop, #186 Campbell, and #237 High Point.

Football coaches’ busy
I’m sure you’ve noticed there’s been plenty of football recruiting updates this week. By my count, the coaches have offered 15 kids this past week. Pretty intense recruiting effort going on right now.

Some statistics: We have record of 41 offers from Liberty for the class of 2015. Of those 41, 14 offers are for kids from Florida, 9 from Virginia, 5 from Texas, 4 from Georgia, 3 from North Carolina, 3 from Nebraska, 2 from South Carolina, and 1 from Arkansas.

FlameFans thread of the week
Do you play Fantasy Football? If so, FlameFans has an annual league which is currently in the registration process. If you would like to play, just let us know in the FlameFans Fantasy Football 2014 thread.