Liberty Flames Insider(ish) Preview

Virginia Tech starts the season facing off against my Alma Mater, the Flames of Liberty University. Since I've been following Flames football to some degree for more than a decade (though I still had to do a bit of googling in the process of writing this), I wanted to provide a bit of an insider preview of what to expect from the Flames who have slowly been building into a power house at the FCS Level.

The School was founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College, later renamed to Liberty Baptist College, and eventually to Liberty University. The Football team first took the field 2 years later in 1973.

Notable former head coaches include Sam Rutigliano (Cleaveland Browns HC 1978-1984), Danny Rocco (Al Groh's LB coach at LOLUVA 2001-2005, current HC at Richmond, was the coach for most of my time at LU), and Ken Karcher (2000-2005) I suffered through his 1-10 season my first year at Liberty but everyone here probably knows him more as the coach at East Central Community College in connection with Henri Murphy transferring in.

Former players currently in NFL
Rashad Jennings (RB-NYG)
Mike Brown (WR-Car) note: played both WR and QB at Liberty focusing mainly on QB later in his career.
Signed Free Agent contracts this year
John Lunsford (K-SF)
Darrin Peterson (WR-CHI)
Josh Woodrum (QB-NYG)

Head Coach Turner Gill

Alma Mater: Nebraska
Playing History: Took over as Starting QB midway through his sophomore season and compiled a 28-2 record as a starter. The first of his two losses came in a controversial 27-24 game against the eventual national champion at Penn State as a junior. The other loss was a 31-30 loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl in which Coach Tom Osborne gave up an almost certain National championship by going for 2 and the win instead of kicking a PAT for a tie. Gill was a 2 time Honorable Mention All American, was selected as a 2nd team All American, 3 times as first team All Big 8, and finished 3rd in the voting for the 1984 Heisman Trophy that was won by the guy he was handing the football to, Nebraska RB Mike Rozier. He also did this against Oklahoma:

After college he played in the CFL with the Montreal Concordes for two years, before suffering multiple concussions that ended his football career. He then spent three years playing AA and AAA baseball in the Cleveland Indians' organization before returning to football as a coach.

Coaching History
1989 Nebraska (GA)
1990 North Texas
1991 SMU
1992-2004 Nebraska
2005 Green Bay Packers (Director of Player Development)
2006-2009 Buffalo (Head Coach) 20-30 record with a 2008 MAC Championship
2010-2011 Kansas (Head Coach) 5-19 record
2012-Present Liberty (Replaced Danny Rocco, the uncle of former UVA QB Michael Rocco, as Head Coach when he went to Richmond to replace Time Cop.) 29-19 record, shared Big South Championship in 2012, 2013, & 2014, made it to second round of FCS playoffs in 2014, winning first round at JMU.

Biggest Shoes to Fill

Offense: QB Josh Woodrum played well enough to earn a free agent look with the New York Giants, earned the starting spot early as a Sophomore and only relinquished it for a few games in 2014 when out with an injury

Defense: DE Chima Uzowihe Finished his senior season with the Liberty and Big South Conference career records for sacks at 25.0. He was also 2nd in program history for TFLs at 44.0, and had 150 career tackles (84 solo, 66 assisted), 10 pass breakups, five forced fumbles, four blocked kicks and two fumble recoveries.

Special Teams: K John Lunsford had the leg and long distance accuracy to consistently hit from 50+ yards including this 60 yard kick to take Richmond to OT

Players to Watch
Offense

R-Junior QB Stephon Masha is expected to be the starter at QB for the Flames this year. He started 3 games as a R-Freshman for the injured Josh Woodrum and has been too dynamic of an athlete to keep off the field, seeing playing time in 18 games, mostly away from the QB spot. His first start, a 38-36 home loss to Charleston Southern was followed up by impressive road wins over FCS no. 1 Costal Carolina 15-14 and FCS no. 15 JMU in the first round of the FCS playoffs 26-21.
Edit: Just realized that Josh Woodrum was back for the win over JMU

R-Junior RB Todd Macon finished the season second in the RB stats with 316 yards and 7 TDs on 73 carries, splitting time with two seniors.

R-Sophomore WR BJ Farrow edges out two rising senior WRs who had a similar impact last year for my final Offensive Player to watch. He had 448 yards and two TDs on 32 catches last year.

Defense

Senior LB Nick Newman led the Flames with 74 tackles (49 Solo 25 Assisted) and added 5.5 TFLs and a Sack.

Sophomore CB Chris Turner had 4 interceptions and 6 Passes defended as a freshman last year. He also added 24 Tackles (20 Solo 4 assisted) and 2 TFLs.

Sophomore S Corbin Jackson finished the season with 47 tackles (31 Solo 16 Asssisted), 6.5 TFLs, 0.5 sacks, 2 QB Hurries, and a Pass defended

Special Teams

Senior WR Zac Parker returned 11 punts for 114 yards last year including a 71 yarder for a TD.

Style of Play to Expect

On Offense the Flames are going through a similar transition to the Hokies moving from the pro-style offense they have run throughout Gill's tenure to more of an up tempo spread following the promotion of QB Coach Joe Dailey to Offensive Coordinator. This will likely be to the advantage of Stephon Masha, who is a much more mobile QB than departed starter Josh Woodrum.

On Defense the Flames run a 4-2-5 scheme that can be adapted to a 4-3 depending on the opponent being played. The Hokies will likely see more of their nickle corner look than the look with a Spur safety/linebacker hybrid. In the secondary, the Flames mostly run cover 4 looks.

On Special teams the Flames allowed 8 blocked kicks and 3 blocked punts in 2015. Rising sophomore punter Trey Turner was slow to get the ball away last year and at one point Gill had him intentionally take a safety during a game where the Flames were leading to avoid the risk of a blocked punt. Coach Gill had tremendous confidence in departed kicker John Lunsford and wasn't afraid to let him kick from 60 yards into the wind with the game on the line as the video above demonstrates. The lower angle on these long kicks probably contributed to the flames problems allowing blocked kicks. The flames will have a freshman kicker in Alex Probert who will be playing his first collegiate game in a very hostile environment. If the Flames haven't improved their protection, the Hokies could very well end up blocking multiple kicks.

Prediction
If this game had happened last year, I would have predicted a 2-3 touchdown win for the Hokies after the Flames keep it close for 2 -3 quarters. Liberty has beaten FBS teams before and managed to play close games against P5 schools WVU in 2009 and Wake Forest in 2012. They also hung around until the 2nd half against NC State in 2011 and UNC in 2014 before the talent gap caught up with them. With the Flames adjusting to a new offense, the Hokies having bigger faster players, and the fact that it's Fuente's first game I'm not as hopeful for Liberty's chances to keep it close through the first half. Add in that Liberty will have a freshman kicker that won't have the range and accuracy to put the ball between the pipes from 50+ and I'm left predicting that Virginia Tech will have a comfortable lead at half time.

VT 45
LU 13

This'll be my first time watching either team live since I graduated from LU following the 2007 season. I'm still planning out my attire to show my divided loyalty, though it will probably include my red LU Alumni hat, red tennis shoes, maroon VT athletic shorts, and a white t-shirt, either the "Flames Fanatic" Shirt I caught out of a T-Shirt cannon at an LU Basketball game or the "I Bleed Maroon and Orange" shirt I got from my local blood bank one of the times that I donated last fall.