Let’s get to the first bit of news, then I have to head off to conduct a slew of interviews. I’ll try to update in bits and pieces as the afternoon goes on.

—Big South preseason poll ...

1. Liberty (10 first-place votes) ......................109
2. Stony Brook (4) ....................................... 87
3. Coastal Carolina (1) ................................. 83
4. Gardner-Webb (1) .................................... 77
5. Charleston Southern (1) ............................ 56
6. VMI ......................................................... 39
7. Presbyterian ............................................ 25

Notes: Liberty also received 36 points from second-place votes and three fifth-place points. ... Stony Brook got most of its points (28) from first-place votes. ... Coastal Carolina got most of its (36) from second-place votes. ... Charleston Southern also received a third-place vote, but most of its points came from 4th-6th votes. ... VMI got one third-place vote. ... Presbyterian one fourth-place vote.

Full preseason all-conference teams:

OFFENSE
QB Tim Maypray, VMI
    Zach MacDowall, CCU
RB Ed Gowins, SBU
    Conte Cuttino, SBU
WR Gerald Stevenson, CSU
    James Perry III, GWU
    Tyson Petty, GWU
TE Josh Miller, GWU
OL Corey O’Daniel, GWU
    Josh Weaver, LU
    George Handler, VMI
    Bryan Mosier, LU
    Ryan Boehm, CCU

DEFENSE
DL Phillip Oboh, CCU
    Jordan Woods, GWU
  Trey Jacobs, LU
  Quinnon Isom, GWU
LB Jeffrey Williams, GWU
    Mario Brown, GWU
    Tyler Santucci, SBU
    Andrew McKain, CSU
DB Cedric McGowan, GWU
    Chris Richards, SBU
    Chris Rocco, LU
    Tim Torrence, LU

SPECIAL TEAMS
PK Ryan Gates, GWU
P Ben Erdman, CCU
LS Andrew McKain, CSU
KR Gerald Stevenson, CSU
PR Tim Maypray, VMI

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF YEAR
Tim Maypray, VMI

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF YEAR
Jeffery Williams, GWU

Will be back in a bit after some interviews.

4:18 p.m. UPDATE

I’m going to post quick interview snippets in twos here, after a couple of quick notes/observations:

—Still trying to figure my way around the images thing here, but I’m sure the cover of Liberty’s media guide will be posted on the Flames’ Web site soon if it isn’t already. The thing looks fantastic. I’ve seen a lot of FCS books, and my share of FBS books, and Liberty’s sports information people did a tremendous job with this year’s cover, which features a menacing photo of Bryan Mosier, Josh Weaver and Mike Brown in uniform. Wes Cheek, Chris Rocco and Trey Jacobs adorn the back cover. LU photographer Les Schofer has already won an award for the cover photo. Check it out when you get the chance.

—Coming in tomorrow’s paper, a main story on Liberty quarterback Mike Brown, who was in attendance today. Also, look for a notebook featuring various Big South items and news regarding transfers coming into LU.

—Just got done speaking with Flames coach Danny Rocco about the 2010 schedule. Liberty is still working on finding two out-of-conference games. The Flames will open 2010 at home against St. Francis (Pa.). They’ll also play James Madison in Harrisonburg and North Carolina Central. There is a scheduling conflict with the NCCU game on NCCU’s end, so it’s a tenuous game at best. The Flames were originally supposed to play in Durham, N.C., but that won’t happen. Either NCCU will buy its way out of the game, or Liberty has offered to have NCCU visit Williams Stadium for the second straight year. Liberty’s home opener this year is Sept. 12 against NCCU.

So the schedule so far ... dates to be determined:
vs. St. Francis (Pa.)
at James Madison
vs. North Carolina Central (tentative)
TBD
TBD
at Coastal Carolina
vs. Stony Brook
at VMI
vs. Charleston Southern
at Presbyterian
vs. Gardner-Webb

—Good turnout here today. Several FCS leagues, including the Southern Conference, scrapped their media days in favor of video teleconferences, but Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander told me that the face time with the media and the press coverage that comes out of these events was too much to pass on. The league cut some of the extraneous stuff, like the golf tournament usually held the day before the rouser. But the meet and greet with coaches and players remained. As a media member, I certainly appreciate that. It’s a lot easier to gather information when you’ve got everyone in the room than if you have to make a dozen phone calls and track people down that way.

—Now the first of the snippets:

* VMI’s Tim Maypray

On finding some level of comfort in spending the entire offseason at quarterback, after being thrust into the position last year

“The comfort level is definitely a big thing for me this year. Last year, switching to quarterback (from slot back), I was a little unsure about some things. After spending a year under center, I think it’ll be easier to get things done.“

Any tweaks to the position this year? Will you throw more?

“Yeah, I think we’ll throw a little more. Last year, Kyle Hughes went down at quarterback halfway through the season, and that was a big part of our throwing game. I think we’ll put it in the air a little bit more this year, try to get back to doing things both ways.“

Did it take you some time to get used to throwing?

“It took me a pretty good time to get used to it. It’s a lot different. Playing slot, you’re right beside everything. Once you play quarterback, you’re dead in the middle, and more responsibility comes.“

* Liberty quarterback Mike Brown

Do you feel pretty good coming out of spring and going through the summer that you’ll be in a good position to compete for that No. 1 QB spot?

“You know, I’m going to give it all I’ve got, and just focus on what I can do. If it plays out that I end up at quarterback, then that’ll be great. If not, whatever helps the team the most. It’ll be a real interesting camp. Real exciting. Real competitive.“

On receiver Chris Summers

“He’s really made a big push this summer and has gotten a lot stronger and a lot more aggressive to the ball. I think he’s finally starting to realize that it’s his time. It’s real exciting. ... The main thing for Chris, I think, is just building confidence. I don’t think he realizes just how good he could be. He could be a physically dominant receiver. He’s got the body. He’s got the athleticism. He just lacks the confidence. I think going through the spring has helped build that confidence.“

On South Carolina transfer QB Tommy Beecher

“He’s a good guy. A real good guy. He’s got good experience and he’s learning real quick. Obviously, he’s a redshirt senior so he knows defenses really well. I think that gives him a real big advantage. That’s half the battle, knowing what the defense will do.“

—4:43 p.m. UPDATE

* Stony Brook RB Conte Cuttino

On then-freshman Ed Gowins’ success at tailback and the one-two punch Stony Brook has at RB

“Eddie definitely has a talent that you can’t keep confined. That’s what last year was about. As freshmen, you kind of slowly want to gradually let him come in. But I think Eddie was a special type of person who could come in and contribute right away. That’s what he did. ... Relationship-wise, we definitely connected. We pretty much share the same interests on the field and off the field. And we help each other pretty much whenever we can, whether it’s on the field or in the classroom. I definitely see him as a friend, and the same goes for him. We help each other out any time we can.“

What SBU learned about the Big South in its first year last year

“We learned we can compete, and we can be a contender for the championship. We finished in a tie for second last year, and that just goes to prove we definitely have the talent to actually compete with the down-South kids, who are known for speed and everything. The conference itself is definitely good and challenging. Every Saturday, we definitely put our best foot forward.“

Stony Brook’s inconsistency last year

“It was tough bouncing back between hot and cold, hot and cold. That’s what we’ve been doing in the offseason, making sure we’re coming together as a team and being one. Individual play definitely played a factor into our success and non-success of our team last year. I don’t think that will be a problem this year. Guys are definitely genuine about each other and care about each other. We pretty much look at each other as a family. We look forward to displaying that on the field this year.“

* Presbyterian QB Tim Webb

Did you almost feel cursed at times? (Webb broke his neck playing at Liberty in 2007 and broke his foot during a game with North Greenville last season.)

“It’s really frustrating, but at the same time, it really makes me appreciate football and how fleeting it is. I’m really privileged to be able to play. Of course, my mom doesn’t want me to play, but she supports me too. That’s kind of my goal, not to get hurt this year.“

Thoughts on new coach Harold Nichols, a PC grad

“He brings a lot. The first thing I noticed about coach Nichols was how he handled the situation we were in. With coach (Bobby) Bentley leaving, the guys were kind of upset about it. We thought we finally had a coach for two years and we were starting to buy into what he was doing. Then he leaves, and people were let down. But the way coach Nichols came in ... he didn’t come in trying to be the disciplinarian or the intimidator. He came in as an understanding coach. He saw where we came from, especially the seniors who were on their third head coach. We needed some stability. One of the things he told me was this was a job he had been wanting for a long time. Now that he has it, he’s not going to just leave. He’s going to be here for a while. He’s happy to be here. He wants to be here.“

5:00 p.m. UPDATE

* VMI coach Sparky Woods

On the Keydets’ defense

“We’ve got to be better on defense. I’m really concerned. First of all, we’re going to coach them better, because we’re in our second year together. It’s just understanding the players better and all that. We still have to move guys. We’ve moved a lot of guys to different positions. But, in order to get our best guys on the field, we’re trying to find that chemistry, where we can make up some ground. Still, the scare is that secondary, that last barrier of defense. We gave up so many huge plays, big runs, big passes. We’ve got to something with that last barrier of defense where we can get them on the ground and get another down. I think we’ll be better, just because we can coach them better, understand what we’re trying to do a little better. Our kids have some game experience. If we can get ‘em coached up, I think we’ll be better.“

Is VMI no longer satisfied with “just being competitive?“

“Our challenge is not to lose confidence if something doesn’t go well. Our early schedule is hard. We’ve got Madison and Richmond before we even start playing the conference games. When you lose for a long time, you go out there like, ‘I’m ready to go!‘ Then bad things happen, and here we go again. I hope we’ve got a little better, stronger leadership. We’ve always had good kids. But it seems like our seniors now are in roles where they’re playing, which gives them an opportunity to be better leaders because they’re in the battles. I think that’s a positive. Making sure we don’t lose this confidence we’ve built, in the early part of the schedule, is a big thing.“

* Presbyterian coach Harold Nichols

On PC’s expectations this season

“I don’t know what the expectations are. Going through with this football team, I know they’ve had some pretty unexpected wins against some pretty good football teams the last few years. I don’t know how our football team is going to handle success, handle failure, go through adversity. All those things. In the past, we’ve been up and down. I’m trying to get consistent.“

On his first talks with Blue Hose players upon taking the head coach job

“Here’s the thing. Coach (Tommy) Spangler left and went to Louisiana Tech as defensive coordinator. They hired Bobby (Bentley). The coaching staff, they all left and only one guy stayed. He had let go of all of Tommy’s coaches. The next year, he hired another coaching staff, and now (Bentley) left. Some of those kids have had two or three position coaches. Some of them, I’m the third head coach in two years to stand in front of them and address them. What I told them was this: I am excited about being the head football coach at PC. I’m not leaving. I’m moved my family twice in two years. My wife will leave me, OK, if I go anywhere, No. 1. No. 2, I know you guys have been through a lot. We will move forward as a program and heal together, and go on a journey together. Trust and respect will be something that’s earned over the course of time. ... We could do one of two things. We could sit around and have a pity party and say, ‘woe is me.‘ Or we could work and get ready to play this season, together as a team. Let’s not make it about Harold Nichols. It’s about this program and building on a good solid foundation. Our kids have bought in, and we’ve had a great spring and a great summer.“

5:17 UPDATE

* Gardner-Webb coach Steve Patton

On the return of linebacker Mario Brown, who missed all of last year with a knee injury

“This spring, I felt like he wasn’t running quite as well as he could. I think he was just tentative when he started practicing. Hopefully now that he’s had a couple more months off in the summer, he’ll bounce back and be his old self. It’s not unusual after a knee injury for a kid who’s never had one, for the kid to be a bit tentative, which I think he was. The reason he’s good is because he can run for a big guy. We’ve got to have that. His m.o. is being able to run, so we’re going to have to get him there.“

Did LB Jeffery Williams benefit or suffer from Brown’s absence last season? Did is accelerate his development?

“Yes and no. It did in the way that we depended on him more. But it’s never good, because if you put Mario in there, you’ve got to worry about both of them, and that helps you too. But now, leadership things, he took on more, but he’s more of a quiet leader where Mario is more of a rah-rah type leader. So they’re better together. But I do think Jeffery stepped up and played, but he would have played that hard anyway, if that makes sense. He’s not one you have to worry about being up and down. Mario’s a more emotional guy. You kind of have to build him up for it. Jeffery is just going to show up, and whatever he’s got, he’s going to give you.“

* Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore

On switching from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 in the offseason

“It was probably a combination of things. It was really three things. One, a lot of the spread attacks we’re playing are more adaptable to the 4-3, with the linebacker adjustment thing. Secondly, from a recruiting perspective, it’s just been difficult to recruit the type of linebacker and d-lineman you need in the 3-4, for us. We just haven’t had success at it. And the third thing, we hired a new defensive coordinator who was a 4-3 guy. We were going to do it anyway, but as the transition went out, we got the former coordinator at SMU and Kansas State (Jim Gush), and they were 4-3 guys. So we’re running their package.“

Easier to prepare now that you have familiarity with the league?

“It’s certainly easier for us, and it’s easier for those teams and what they know about us. Maybe the biggest challenge was not understanding the competition we were playing against, because we don’t play any alike teams. So not having any common denominators. You always like that as a coach, going, ‘hey, you’re evaluating X school versus this school, and we know we played this school, and they have this talent level and physicalness.‘ So we had no basis for comparison.“

5:46 p.m. FINAL UPDATE

* Coastal Carolina coach David Bennett

On QB Zach MacDowall

“He’s got some experience, and some maturity this year. He wasn’t as mature last year. Jamie Childers was coming in as the starter and gets meningitis the day before camp starts last year. Jamie comes in and he’s out of shape. So we moved Will Richardson to 1 and Zach became 2. That’s not the case this year. He knows what he’s got to do to be good. And I think he wants to be good.“

Did Zach catch people off guard last year with how sneaky mobile he was?

“He’s got a strong arm and he’s fairly mobile. He was a heck of a quarterback coming out of high school. Then he realized rather than being the backup there to Riley Skinner at Wake Forest, he wanted to go somewhere and play. I’m glad he came to Coastal.“

* Charleston Southern coach Jay Mills

On QB A.J. Toscano heading into fall camp as the starter

“We knew during the spring that A.J. Toscano would go into the fall as the starter, but Andrew Trudnowski has really accelerated during the spring and summer. So it’s at least a two-person race for that position. ... I look at (Toscano) and he’s benefited because he redshirted this past year. It also benefited Andrew because Andrew’s further along in the spring than A.J. was in the spring the year before, mostly because he had A.J. to help him along.“

On the demanding schedule, featuring Florida, Wofford and South Florida

“You can make the parallel between college basketball and the scheduling we did this year. The theory changed a few years ago in college basketball to, ‘let’s load up early in the season.‘ Look at what Davidson did when they made their run, who they played and what their record was in the first 10 games. They definitely had a losing record. But how much did that help them advance and improve their team so that when they were gunning for the SoCon, and when they got into the NCAA tournament. I don’t think they’d go back and change a thing. Our kids came away from the Miami of Ohio game (last year) thinking we should have won that game, and it gave them confidence going into the rest of the season. ... The difference between college football and basketball, obviously is the physical nature of the game. One of the advantages we had last year was the early bye week, so after the first three games, we had a chance to rest, recover and recharge a little bit. This year, our bye week doesn’t come until game five. The good news is that after game three, we get to come home for back to back games. So that will be helpful.“

* Liberty coach Danny Rocco

On QB Tommy Beecher

“Tommy, I haven’t had a chance to see him do much. He’ll be in camp and we’ll give him a real good look early to determine what he can do and what he can give us. I will say this. He earned the starting quarterback position at South Carolina. Though he only started the one game, the opening game against North Carolina State, it’s not so much that. It’s that he did something for Steve Spurrier and his offensive coaches that they named him the starting quarterback. He competed for that in the spring, and he dealt with the pressures and the burdens of being the starting quarterback all through the summer, into summer camp, where he held off the competition. He’s prepared to play in a big game. So there’s some things there that are very attractive. It gives us two guys who will offer us flexibility.“

On how Mike Brown has handled his role as one of the team’s captains

“I think he’s handled it very well. He’s one of those guys who’s a very hard worker, by makeup. He’s a competitor. All those things are kind of natural for him, to be able to go out there and lead by example. That’s all been very, very positive. And again, he’s having fun as he’s performing out there. Whether it’s in the weight room, or it’s at receiver or it’s at quarterback, he’s having fun. He knows that his role this year is significantly different, and his contribution is counted on. I think that’s motivating him right now.“