Football notes
Coach Gill noted that the Flames “improved in every phase” in last week’s game against Norfolk State. He made special mention of the team winning the 4th quarter which LU has struggled at much of Gill’s tenure. Liberty did win the 4th quarter 7-0 against Norfolk State on the way to their 17-0 shutout victory.

gillAs for Brevard, who the Flames face this weekend, Gill noted his defense must “be disciplined” against the Tornados triple option offensive attack. Liberty’s defense must be able to stop their fullback, keep Kelvin Jeter in check, and tackle well in the open field. Also, expect to see a heavy dose of Liberty’s run game, especially on first down, early in the game. Gill said he wants the Flames offense to average 4 yards gained on 1st downs.

Defensive Line named Big South POW
The entire Liberty defensive line was named Big South Defensive Player of the Week following their performance last Saturday against Norfolk State. The defensive line recorded 6 sacks against the Spartans.

Injury update
Fullback Nicky Fualaau is out, as is cornerback Kenny Scott. Despite being labeled as questionable earlier in the week, defensive lineman Erwin Dessources, will play. Thomas Kennedy will be the starter at fullback in replace of Fualaau.

Lunsford Returns
Kicker John Lunsford, who was suspended for the first 2 games, has returned to the team and is able to play Saturday. When asked of the situation, Gill said “it’s competition” between Lunsford, Avery Echols, and Shane Blanchard. Gill also said “we will evaluate every kick” in practice this week. This week’s depth chart has the starting kicker listed as Avery Echols OR John Lunsford. Lunsford will handle the kickoff duties, while the field goal kicker has not been determined.

Flames’ uniform combination
This week Liberty will wear white helmets, red jerseys, and white pants.

FlamesNation Tailgate
Did you see our post earlier this week on the FlamesNation Tailgate? Be sure to join us for each home game this football season. All the details are in the linked post. Let us know if you have any questions. We hope to meet several of you out there!

FlamesNation Podcast
Hopefully you have been enjoying our weekly football podcasts. Our most recent episode is this week when we were joined by Alan York. We will keep this up through football season and into basketball season as well. If you haven’t noticed, you can find the most recent episode in the sidebar of the website. Also, if you are looking for all of our podcast episodes, hover your mouse over “Other Sports” in the menu bar at the top, click on “FlamesNation podcast.” This will take you to all of our podcast episodes in chronological order, beginning with the most recent. We are also on iTunes. You can find us by searching for “Liberty Flames Nation.”

walt1Flames in the NFL
Another new feature this year is our Flames in the NFL weekly post. Each week we recap the week that was for the former Flames who are currently on active NFL rosters. Much like the podcast, these features our being stored on our Flames in the NFL page. You can navigate to this page easily by hovering your mouse over “Football” in the menu bar at the top and then clicking on “Flames in the NFL.” On this page we link to our weekly recaps and also briefly highlight each current Flame in the NFL.

Other Sports update
Your weekly non-football Fall sports update:

  • The men’s soccer team tied Marshall 2-2, and are now 2-0-1 on the season.
  • The women’s volleyball team is now 6-3 on the season after 2-2 showing in the Liberty invitational and beating Georgetown 3-1.
  • The women’s soccer team lost to George Washington 1-0 and beat Davidson 1-0. They are 3-3 on the season.
  • The women’s field hockey team lost to VCU and Old Dominion this week to drop to 1-3 on the year.

FlameFans Thread of the Week
In case you haven’t noticed, the Vines Center had a bit of an interior makeover this summer. Check out the thread Vines Center Reseating for all the detail and of course pictures!