The 2016 Football schedule was officially released:

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm?...3&TeamID=9

Beating VT would give us a nice boost in street cred. And SMU is an easy drive from Austin to go see. So for me it's a great schedule.

I would feel much better if we had some of our sr's from this years team going into Blacksburg. It's going to be an uphill battle with a qb that's started just a couple of games.

That's a really tough schedule. Thinking with my heart, I say we win 7 games. But my head tells me we go 6-5 again.

L Sep 3 @ Virginia Tech
W Sep 10 vs. Jacksonville
W Sep 17 @ SMU
L Sep 24 vs. Jacksonville State
W Oct 1 vs. Robert Morris
L Oct 15 @ Kennesaw State*
W Oct 22 vs. Monmouth*
W Oct 29, vs. Gardner-Webb*
W Nov 5 @ Presbyterian*
W Nov 12 vs. Charleston Southern*
L Nov 17 @ Coastal Carolina

(02-09-2016 11:49 PM)army56mike Wrote:  That's a really tough schedule. Thinking with my heart, I say we win 7 games. But my head tells me we go 6-5 again.

L Sep 3 @ Virginia Tech
W Sep 10 vs. Jacksonville
W Sep 17 @ SMU
L Sep 24 vs. Jacksonville State
W Oct 1 vs. Robert Morris
L Oct 15 @ Kennesaw State*
W Oct 22 vs. Monmouth*
W Oct 29, vs. Gardner-Webb*
W Nov 5 @ Presbyterian*
W Nov 12 vs. Charleston Southern*
L Nov 17 @ Coastal Carolina

Not playing cupcakes will do that.

(02-09-2016 11:49 PM)army56mike Wrote:  That's a really tough schedule. Thinking with my heart, I say we win 7 games. But my head tells me we go 6-5 again.

L Sep 3 @ Virginia Tech
W Sep 10 vs. Jacksonville
W Sep 17 @ SMU
L Sep 24 vs. Jacksonville State
W Oct 1 vs. Robert Morris
L Oct 15 @ Kennesaw State*
W Oct 22 vs. Monmouth*
W Oct 29, vs. Gardner-Webb*
W Nov 5 @ Presbyterian*
W Nov 12 vs. Charleston Southern*
L Nov 17 @ Coastal Carolina

Switch wins with SMU and Kennesaw State and that's what I'm feeling too. We could beat Coastal as well.

Yeah, I plan on having a bunch of folks come up from Houston to Highland Park in September for that game against the Ponies. First time in 23 years there will be a LU football game played on Texas soil.

Yow...really tough schedule. If you make the playoffs with that schedule, you will certainly have been tested and ready.

Seven wins most certainly would get us into the playoffs. But getting seven wins will be no easy task.

5 wins will get you in the playoffs - just have to be the right 5. (Big South)

Agreed. But we have only won a single tie-breaker like you guys always have seemed to manage in spite of sharing the Big South title seven of the last nine years. If we can't win outright then we need at least seven wins to get a chance at a playoff bid.

(02-13-2016 10:32 AM)SlyFox Wrote:  Agreed. But we have only won a single tie-breaker like you guys always have seemed to manage in spite of sharing the Big South title seven of the last nine years. If we can't win outright then we need at least seven wins to get a chance at a playoff bid.

With it being one less conference game, and an odd number of conference games, I think an outright winner is more likely.

The big issue this year is that Liberty and CSU lost a ton of talent. It will be who reloads who will have the advantage.

GWU shouldn't be considered a serious threat. PC has had flashed but can't seem to put it all together. Monmouth is getting there but not quite. KSU may have some newcomer momentum on their side and a few transfers, but seem to have lost a good number of guys as well.

So I think it is Liberty and CSU fighting for the top spot and if Liberty can focus on beating CSU like they have on beating Coastal then you guys should be fine.

I don't think CSU losses anyone in the offensive side of the ball. They lose a few on the dl, but the lb's are back. They should be the favorites going into next season. We have to replace our qb, top 2 rb's and record setting wr. I think it's going to be a though season next year.

(02-15-2016 12:07 PM)Libertygrad01 Wrote:  I don't think CSU losses anyone in the offensive side of the ball. They lose a few on the dl, but the lb's are back. They should be the favorites going into next season. We have to replace our qb, top 2 rb's and record setting wr. I think it's going to be a though season next year.

Check out their 2-deep from the Citadel regular season game.
http://www.csusports.com/sports/fball/20...el9-26.pdf

They are losing starters at QB, 2 WR, and 3 OL. Perera was essentially a 6-year guy I believe due to medical issues - but he was clutch for them.

They lost a bunch of guys heading intothis past season and still improved. Count me among those who believes Chadwell is the real deal. We will need guys to step up to keep pace with them this fall.

I hadn't factored in the membership alignment for the fall with you all being gone, Rok. Good observation.

(02-16-2016 10:02 AM)SlyFox Wrote:  They lost a bunch of guys heading intothis past season and still improved. Count me among those who believes Chadwell is the real deal. We will need guys to step up to keep pace with them this fall.

I hadn't factored in the membership alignment for the fall with you all being gone, Rok. Good observation.

I think Chadwell is good but I'm not convinced that he's the second coming of Vince Lombardi yet. I think he's a great motivator of an underdog team, let's see how he is when they are the team on top. When he has a team that is ranked in the pre-season or a team that isn't "sneaking up" on people. He had a really good season last year, can he keep it up? I think they'll have a good defense but not too sure about their offense.

For anyone to win at CSU in football you have to be the real deal. To be able to recruit there is really amazing. Some of the worst facilities in all of fcs.

Anyone who can take Charleston Southern to the playoffs is a great coach. They have so many built in disadvantages, but what else is new to the Big South? Will they even be a scholarship football conference if Liberty left?

Which leads me to: why the heck isn't Liberty winning the conference every year? We can "buy" the best coaches, the best facilities, we have the best (or most) fan support. Why is it we have one playoff appearance? Granted, we didn't start to really flex our monetary muscles until the Rocco era (at least from my understanding, and I may/am probably wrong on this). Although I believe in "Any given Saturday," that should even out over the years to benefit Liberty, not hurt us every single year. I feel like the Chicago Cubs in that we've got one of the top budgets around but don't have the success despite it. Will we get to the top? I hope so and I think so. Is Gill the guy to get us there? I hope so but I'm not sure. We'll see and I think this year will make or break him.

(02-16-2016 09:46 PM)GE and MTS Wrote:  Anyone who can take Charleston Southern to the playoffs is a great coach. They have so many built in disadvantages, but what else is new to the Big South? Will they even be a scholarship football conference if Liberty left?

Which leads me to: why the heck isn't Liberty winning the conference every year? We can "buy" the best coaches, the best facilities, we have the best (or most) fan support. Why is it we have one playoff appearance? Granted, we didn't start to really flex our monetary muscles until the Rocco era (at least from my understanding, and I may/am probably wrong on this). Although I believe in "Any given Saturday," that should even out over the years to benefit Liberty, not hurt us every single year. I feel like the Chicago Cubs in that we've got one of the top budgets around but don't have the success despite it. Will we get to the top? I hope so and I think so. Is Gill the guy to get us there? I hope so but I'm not sure. We'll see and I think this year will make or break him.

We can't buy a baked in history of winning. Which leads to top talent coming to LU. Till we have that we have to do what we can. This is a long term process. Being founded in 1971 makes everything we have done pretty short term when compared to century old histories of some schools.

(02-16-2016 10:32 AM)Libertygrad01 Wrote:  For anyone to win at CSU in football you have to be the real deal. To be able to recruit there is really amazing. Some of the worst facilities in all of fcs.

But even CSU fans admit that they have taken many kids that other schools won't touch. I think this year was a perfect storm of having plenty of experienced, hungry players and Coastal and Liberty being down - even though we shouldn't have been. Again, I think Chadwell is a great motivator, but I'm going to wait and see if he can sustain the success first before declaring him a great coach.