FlamesNation on Gameday

A few Liberty fans were at ESPN’s College Gameday last Saturday, and their sign was easily seen in the background.

Attendance at Villanova
The Wildcats averaged 6,239 in attendance for their 6 home games this season. Villanova Stadium has a capacity of 12,500. It will be interesting to see what the attendance is like on Saturday. The top 10 Nova basketball team will be playing St. Joe’s in a big rivalry game at 1pm on Saturday. Both basketball head coach Jay Wright and football head coach Andy Talley have been very vocal this week about getting the fans at the basketball game to stay for the football game. With approximately 3,000 Liberty fans who made the trek to Harrisonburg, Virginia last week, another strong showing from FlamesNation is expected.

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John Lunsford

John Lunsford’s brilliance
Lunsford has really been amazing this season. Anytime the Flames cross midfield, they are basically in field goal range, if needed. He has made 16 of his 21 field goal attempts and 42 of his 43 extra point attempts. He has made 4 field goals from 50+ yards including the longest field goal in the NCAA (all divisions) this season with the 60 yarder he made against Richmond to send the game into overtime. To go along with his 60 yarder, his kicks from 56 and 57 yards are the 3 longest field goals made in all of FCS this season. In addition to his field goal kicking, he’s also become a weapon at kickoffs. 67% of his 69 kickoffs have been touchbacks.

Wimberly named Assistant Coach of the Year
Liberty defensive coordinator Robert Wimberly was named the AFCA FCS Assistant Coach of the Year. With the performance of his defense the last couple of weeks against Coastal Carolina and James Madison, the award is definitely warranted.

Marshall transfer Kevin Grooms leaves
As we reported earlier this week, Kevin Grooms has left Liberty University on his own terms. Grooms transferred to Liberty in August and was forced to sit out the 2014 season due to NCAA rules. He was expected to make a big impact on the field at running back next season. With 1st team all-Big South performer D.J. Abnar and Todd Macon both returning, and the addition of Des Rice off his knee injury, the Flames should be just fine at running back in 2015.

Men’s hoops update
After losing 4 straight games as part of the Cancun Challenge, the Flames rebounded with a home win over Furman on Monday night, 66-52. David Andoh paced LU with 14 points and 12 rebounds while Tomasz Gielo notched a double-double as well with 10 points and 10 boards. With the win, Liberty moves to 3-0 at home and 0-4 away from the Vines Center. The Flames host 1-5 St Francis (NY) Saturday afternoon at the Vines Center.

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David Andoh is averaging 8.6 points and 7 rebounds per game

Women’s hoops update
The Lady Flames improved their record to 4-2 by winning the GSU Thanksgiving Tournament in Atlanta last weekend. Liberty beat Penn State, 80-68, and Georgia State, 73-71. The Lady Flames begin conference play on Saturday when they travel to Radford.

Mike Brown signed to Jaguars’ practice squad
We mentioned earlier this week in our Flames in the NFL weekly update that Mike Brown was waived by the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. As we expected, the Jaguars signed him to their practice squad this week after he cleared waivers. Brown has 7 receptions for 88 yards on the season.

How the UAB news affects LU
Surely you’ve heard now about UAB shutting down its football program earlier this week. We broke down how this news could affect Liberty in a variety of ways. The most obvious way is through realignment with Conference USA, UAB’s home. Once the football season finishes, we will have much more time to look at this possibility in more detail, but the Flames run to the playoffs and now in the playoffs definitely helps their chances.

FlameFans thread of the week
Got a question on how the FCS playoffs works? Ask it in this week’s thread of the week, Playoffs for Dummies.