Fan the Flames Preview: VMI

Liberty 5-5 (4-1)

 vs.

VMI 2-8 (1-4)

Its the regular season finale for these two in state rivals and major Big South championship implications ride on this game as well as Coastal Carolina's finale against Charleston Southern.

Looking at Liberty:

The Flames are coming off the biggest win in the history of the program at the I-AA/FCS level, when they knocked off #6/8 Stony Brook 28-14 in Lynchburg on Saturday. Stony Brook, which has made a living on big plays on the ground and in the air, had only three plays of more than 20 yards, none of them from top back Miguel Maysonet, who finished with only 70 yards on 25 carries. In fact, the longest run for the Seawolves came from quarterback Kyle Essington on their first drive of the game. The Seawolves finished with their lowest team rushing total on the season at 156 yards, the fewest total rushing yards for the Seawolves since finishing with 150 in the second round of the 2011 I-AA/FCS Playoffs.

The defense carried the day with Nick Sigmon causing two turnovers, both leading to Flames touchdowns. Sigmon first intercepted Kyle Essington and went 21 yards for a touchdown to put Liberty up 21-7, and then in the fourth quarter, with Liberty clinging to a 21-14 lead, he forced Maysonet to fumble, and Jacob Hagen picked it up and went 44 yards for a touchdown to clinch the victory. Sigmon also fittingly made the tackle on the final play of the game, sandwiching Miles Campbell of Stony Brook after he took a lateral from Adrian Coxson. Sigmon was rewarded for his efforts with the Big South Defensive Player of the Week. The sophomore from nearby Roanoke is third on the team with 49 tackles, and first with 11.0 tackles for loss.

After starting the season 0-4, Liberty has won five of six,  allowing 11.5 points in the last four victories.

Looking at VMI:

The Keydets have been heading in the wrong direction in the second half of the season. Since beating Presbyterian 17-7, the Runnin Roos have done very little running, losing five in a row, outscored on average 35.2-11.8 with an average margin of defeat of 23.4 points, averaging 53 yards on the ground in those five losses.

Most of the offense has come from junior quarterback Eric Kordenbrock, who had one of the best games of his career against Liberty in Lynchburg last season. Kordenbrock, from Gibsonia, PA, comes into the finale with 1,788 yards passing and 6 TDs with 9 interceptions, after finishing last year with 9 total interceptions and 10 TDs.

VMI fell to former Southern Conference foe The Citadel in the "Military Classic of the South" on Saturday 27-24. Kordenbrock finished 10-21 for 191 yards and a TD, and leading rusher on the season Jabari Turner finished with 48 yards and a touchdown.

This is an important game for Liberty. With a win, the Flames will clinch not only a share of their fifth Big South Conference championship, but also their seventh consecutive winning season (after only one winning season since 2000 and 4 since 1990), but, with a loss by Coastal Carolina, can clinch their first ever bid to the NCAA Division I-AA/FCS playoffs. Coming off an emotional high like this, a game like this can be best described in three words according to Admiral Akbar:

This could be a bonafide trap game for Liberty. That said, the Flames have not lost to VMI since 2006, and have not lost in Lexington since 2002 (four straight wins). Coach Gill will have this team ready to play and will go out firing and win this one easily, and then the boys will become Charleston Southern fans during the fourth quarter.

Liberty 38
VMI 17

Keep an eye out for LU Flames Nation's preview of the game later this week

Fan the Flames Preview: Coastal Carolina

Liberty (3-4, 2-0)

vs.

Coastal Carolina (3-4, 1-1)

The second game of what I call the "holy trinity" of the Big South takes place this weekend as the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers host Liberty.

Both teams come into this weekend with momentum, Coastal coming off a 34-7 rout of VMI in Lexington, while the Flames come in burning bright following their third straight victory over Division II Concord 21-13.

Liberty does come in minus one of their biggest deep threats as Ryan Ferguson was announced as out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury sustained on the opening kickoff against Concord. Darrin "Petey" Peterson and Jaquan Glover saw increased playing time. Ryan Ayers will return to action at cornerback against the Chants, which is a definite bit of good news. The Flames however, did lose linebacker Bobby Partilla and the career of Korrey Davis came to an end due to a hip injury.

The Liberty-CCU series is probably the most even series outside of Liberty and Stony Brook. Liberty won the first meeting between the two in 2003, 38-21. CCU then ran off the next four meetings, including the first two in Conway, 33-6 and 28-26. Liberty broke through in 2007, (the debut of the red jerseys), and won the next three meetings to tie the series at 4. CCU then upset the Flames (who were on the cusp of a top 10 ranking at the time) in 2010, on the way to the first ever automatic bid for the Big South. Liberty then trampled Coastal last season in Lynchburg, scoring the first 42 points on the way to a 63-27 victory and knotting the series at 5.

Liberty has not had a lot of success down at the beach, with the "beach chickens" holding a 3-1 advantage at Brooks Stadium. 

CCU will need a balanced attack to be able to hold serve once again. Aramis Hillary comes into the weekend leading the conference in passing yards (1,657) and second in passing TDs (11), but the Chants will need more from running backs Jeremy Height (who was held to only 9 yards, as the Chants rushed for 159 as a team) and freshman Lorenzo Taliaferro (who is drawing comparisons to former Chant RB Mike Tolbert, now with the NFL's Carolina Panthers) for Coastal to come away with a victory.

Liberty needs to keep winning to force a potential winner take all game in Lynchburg on November 10. a CCU win, coupled with a Liberty win on November 10, likely gives Coastal the automatic qualifier for the second time in three years, thanks to the conference's new tiebreaking procedures (see a very informative post here from LU Flames Nation)

One thing that you can guarantee about games between LU and CCU down in Myrtle Beach is the scoreboard operators are gonna be very busy (the average score between the two has been 47-33 in favor of Coastal). If both QBs (Hillary for CCU and Woodrum for Liberty) play like they have the last few weeks, it will come down to who can establish the running game and open up the lanes for their dual threat QB. I call Liberty to take this one in another South Carolina shootout.

Liberty 45

CCU 38

Fan the Flames Preview: Concord

Game 7:

 Liberty Flames (2-4. 2-0 Big South)

vs.

Concord Mountain Lions (4-3, 3-2 WVIAC)

The Liberty Flames return to the friendly confines of Williams Stadium and welcome the Division II Mountain Lions in the final non-conference matchup of the regular season. Liberty is fresh off a dominating performance in Clinton, SC as they routed the Presbyterian Blue Hose 56-7 on the strength of a school record 692 yards of total offense.

Liberty has a record of 28-2 against current Division II schools, including 21 in a row dating back to September 25, 1993 when the Flames lost to Indiana University of Pennsylvania 23-7. The closest anyone has come since then came in 2005, when Concord held a 6-0 lead at halftime before Liberty rallied with a pair of Marcus Hamilton TDs and a Zac Kolegue field goal and won 17-6.

Times have changed on the mountain, and as noted by LU Flames Nation, Liberty has posted a 48-24 record since that season (where the Flames finished a school worst 1-10 after the victory over the Mountain Lions), including dominating wins over WVIAC members Glenville State (31-7 in 2006 and 44-27 in 2008) and West Virginia Wesleyan (45-7 in 2009). 

Since Kenny Little of Gardner-Webb scored on a 1 yard run with 13:53 remaining in the third quarter of their matchup on homecoming Saturday, Liberty has outscored their opponents, 87-14, including the first 28 points in their win over PC last Saturday. 

Josh Woodrum, after going 3-5 for 14 yards in the loss to Norfolk State, has lit up the scoreboard, throwing for 200+ yards in all four starts, including a career high 373 yards in the comeback win over the Runnin Bulldogs, and 232 yards against PC. The redshirt freshman's efforts have not gone unnoticed, as he was named to the watch list for the Jerry Rice Award given to the outstanding freshman football player in all of  Division I-AA/Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). 

Aldreakis Allen and SirChauncey Holloway, after having some tough sledding against Montana, have each put up dominating performances the last four games, with Allen rushing for 100+ yards the last four games (including a career high 183 yards at PC), and Holloway in three of the last four. 

Pat Kelly, who was thrust into the #1 receiver role after the graduation of Chris Summers, has had no trouble adjusting to the limelight (and extra coverage attention), as he already has eclipsed his total number of catches from last season (40) and is only 119 yards from eclipsing his career high in receiving yards for a season (635 in 2010). With 172 yards in the final 5 games, Kelly will move into the top 5 all time for receiving yards, ahead of former Flame and NFL wide receiver James McKnight.

This weekend comes at a good time for Liberty, after losing four in a row, the Flames are riding high and will likely dominate, even though Concord enters with the #32 overall defense and #26 pass defense in the country for Division II. This will give the team a chance to work out a few more of the kinks before the first of two huge conference matchups in the second half of the season down in Myrtle Beach.

Liberty 56
Concord 7

Game #4: Lehigh

#16/13 Lehigh (3-0) 

vs.

Liberty (0-3)

Liberty returns home for the second time this season and faces the last of three straight ranked FCS opponents as the Lehigh Mountain Hawks come to Lynchburg for the first time since 2004.

Liberty comes into the game on a three game losing streak after falling to Montana 34-14 in Missoula. Josh Woodrum, in his first career start, finished with 322 yards and 2 touchdowns, earning him the Crons Big South Freshman of the Week award. 

Lehigh comes into this week with the longest regular season winning streak in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) at 12 games after gutting out a 17-14 victory over Princeton last week.Senior QB Michael Colvin threw for 276 yards and rushed for 56 more in the victory.

These two teams met last season in Bethlehem with the Hawks eking out a 27-24 victory. Chris Lum went 18-28 for 300 yards and 2 TDs in the win. Chris Summers finished with 205 yards receiving and 2 TDs for Liberty.

Its tough to get a good read on either side because despite Lehigh's 3-0 record, its come against some rather low quality competition (Monmouth and Central Connecticut State of the Northeast Conference and Princeton from the Ivy League), while Liberty has played three teams who played after Thanksgiving last year (Wake Forest from the I-A/FBS ACC, and 2011 FCS playoff teams Montana and Norfolk State). The Flames have shown well in all three of their losses, losing by three to the Demon Deacons and 7 to the Spartans before losing by 20 to Montana despite outgaining the Grizzlies 342-296.

Redshirt junior Brian Hudson was out last week after an injury against Norfolk State, but with Woodrum putting on the show he did, it does raise the question again of who the Flames will have calling signals tonight. Coach Gill said in comments leading up to the game that he would evaluate both QBs but looks like we wont know who is starting until they post the starters on the video board during pregame.

I was cruising FlameFans this week and the general sentiment among the fanbase is the same that this writer holds. For Liberty to win this week, they need to cut out the self inflicted wounds. Liberty could not tackle last week in Montana and then add to that ill timed turnovers, like a first half interception from Woodrum that led to a Grizzlies touchdown and allowing their second punt return for a TD in consecutive weeks after allowing one kick return touchdown all of last season.

If Liberty can cut out the mistakes, shore up the tackling and Hudson or Woodrum (whoever gets the start) plays like they did in their previous start, it'll be a happy night on the mountain and 17,000 Liberty fans will go home happy, which is I think, exactly what will happen.

Liberty 34

Lehigh 27

Fan the Flames Preview Game #2: Norfolk State

After a two year hiatus, the blog is back.

 Liberty (0-1, 0-0)
vs.

Norfolk State (1-0, 0-0)


The Flames come into town after a close loss to Wake Forest 20-17. Brian Hudson made a big splash in his first collegiate start, going 20-37 for 263 yards and 2 TDs. SirChauncey Holloway led the way on the ground with 53 yards on 17 carries. Elliott Dutra and Pat Kelly led the receivers with 64 and 53 yards respectively (Dutra had a TD as well).

The Spartans come in after a win in the Labor Day Classic againse Division II Virginia State. Thanks to FlameFans, here are the players to watch for them this weekend:

Nico Flores

Vs. Virginia State- 13-24 93 Yards 0 TD, 2 INT

Flores made his second collegiate start against the Trojans, after starting one game last season and playing some spot duty last year, mostly as a runner according to his bio.

Brendon Riddick

Vs. Virginia State: 9 Rushes 87 Yards 1 TD

The former scout team QB leads the ground game for the Spartans as Riddick and Takeem Hedgman combined for 162 yards in the win last week. Look for NSU to go to these two a lot to hopefully set up Flores to find the next guy a lot...

Xavier Boyce

Vs. Virginia State: 6 Receptions 42 Yards

Boyce, a transfer from Virginia Tech, was a favorite target of QB Nick Walley last year, leading the team with 68 catches and 750 yards, and he finished second on the team with 4 TD catches. Walt Aikens will probably get the assignment on Boyce much of the night for Liberty.

Jamal Giddens

Vs. Virginia State: 7 Tackles (4.5 FL), 2 Sacks, 2 Forced Fumbles

This weekend is a homecoming of sorts for Giddens, who played for the Flames in 2008 before transferring closer to his home in Norfolk. Giddens was all over the field against Virginia State, and for his effort was named NCAA National Defensive Player of the Week


This is an important game for Liberty, not only because NSU was a playoff team last year (and enters this game #24 in the FCS Coaches Poll), but because this begins a stretch of three consecutive weeks against 2011 FCS playoff teams. Next week, Liberty makes its first trip to Montana and then hosts 2011 Patriot League champ Lehigh.

My prediction, Liberty hasnt lost a home opener since 2002 and I dont expect that streak to end this year

Liberty 35
Norfolk State 14

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