Howdy all. Sipping on a cup of coffee that’s been sitting around scorching in the pot since this morning. The burnt flavor just adds character, or something like that. Anyway, let’s knock out the promos first:

- Sign up for the Twitter feed here if you want to know when the blog is updated and want access to my gameday, in-game ramblings.

- In the Wednesday News & Advance, I’ll have a story on how Liberty is dealing with the sudden predictability of its offense.

- Thursday, I’ll have a feature on quarterback Spencer Landis (remember him?), and how he’s dealt with a senior season that just hasn’t gone to plan for him.

- Friday, check for a basketball notebook. Season opener at George Mason is only two and a half weeks away (though I’ll have to miss it because of the Gardner-Webb football game.)

- No opponent beat writer Q&A this week, because I can’t seem to find anyone who covers Presbyterian with any regularity. Instead, I’ll post all of the comments from PC coach Harold Nichols tomorrow on the blog, along with a first look at my FCS playoff prognostications.

On to today:

* I noted on the Twitter feed Saturday that it looked like Aldreakis Allen was running scared, when in fact he was running hurt. He banged up his shoulder on the first play of the game, taking a pretty good lick that sprained his A.C. joint. He tried to play through the pain until later in the game, when he took another hard blow directly on the already tender shoulder. That put him down for the afternoon. He’s questionable for Saturday’s game, and LU coach Danny Rocco said he wouldn’t have a concrete answer on Allen’s status until at least Thursday, if not Saturday. Allen is practicing, but he’s wearing the red non-contact jersey. Danny Broggin and SirChauncey Holloway are in line to split carries if Allen can’t go.

* B.J. Hayes is a definite no-go Saturday, leaving the Flames a little thin at tailback. Rocco said Hayes’ absence has been significant, despite thoughts to the contrary.

“To be quite frank with you, as we began the week, it was my mindset that the best way to attack the defense was to get the ball out to the edge with speed,“ Rocco said. “With B.J. not being available, we moved in a little bit different of a direction. We tossed the ball a couple of times to Chauncey or to Aldreakis, but that’s a little different than getting B.J. going on one of those reverses or sweeps.“

* Larry Claiborne, the sophomore safety, is questionable for Saturday too as he continues to struggle with a separation of the A.C. joint in his shoulder. He missed the second half of the CSU game, but freshman Brent Vinson was able to fill in and play at a high level, an encouraging sign, Rocco said:

“Very impressive. He’s going to have a chance to be a really good football player. He’s at transfer from Fork Union and is in a situation where he had that additional year of coaching and playing. We had a really good feel when we went down there and evaluated him that he was going to be really good. One of the advantages of that type of player is that he was here for spring ball. He got to learn the system, learn the players and learn the plays. His progress has been really good. We’re certainly wanting to get Larry back and get him back healthy, but the way the secondary is moving forward I think is very promising for the stretch run this year, and then for next year.“

* Here’s an interesting note from Liberty media relations stalwart Todd Wetmore. By length of time, Liberty has the longest conference win streak in FCS football. Albany, Applachian State and South Carolina State all have longer league win streaks than Liberty’s 13-game Big South run, but because the Flames have played fewer league games in that span, the LU streak has lasted a longer period of time. Liberty last lost a Big South game on Oct. 28, 2006, falling 28-26 at Coastal Carolina. Since that game, Liberty is 26-7 overall, 13-0 in the Big South.

* Broggin has taken on a number of different roles this season, as the former William Campbell quarterback has been the consummate team player for the Flames. Saturday, he was asked to return kickoffs, and he twice broke off long returns for the Flames, including one that set up the game-winning drive at Charleston Southern.

“One of the things that I think we’ve done a nice job of around here is developing role players for our football team,“ Rocco said. “Again, I think the fact that we’ve had success late in years is a tribute to a lot of different things, and I hope it continues. But part of it is this idea that as we get deeper into the year, we find more roles for more people. Where as a lot of teams start wearing down—and I think we’re a well-conditioned team and a physical team—but as a lot of positions start wearing down, we’ve had just enough flexibility in our lineups that we can continue to have our Michael Browns play at a really high level late in the year. So by getting Danny able to do that, and Aaron Hewlett has shown up on some punt returns and some kick returns, we’re working Jimmy Eden a little bit. We changed some of the guys on our kickoff coverage team last week to address a problem. So we’re constantly looking for the right guys in the right spots, and as guys continue to develop, their role changes.

“Brent Vinson’s a great example. All of a sudden Larry Claiborne gets hurt, and Brent’s out there playing like he’s been out there all year.“

* One of the most interesting developments of the last few weeks is how well Liberty’s secondary reserves are playing. Kajuan Lee has intercepted a pass in four straight games. Brandon Robinson is providing excellent depth at corner, allowing Rocco to be flexible at corner by moving Tim Torrence around between corner and safety.

“Kajuan Lee is playing really good football. Brandon Robinson is playing really good football,“ Rocco said. “But they’re not our starting corners. Donald Manns and Tim Torrence are our starting corners and they’re going to continue to be our starting corners. They’re good players. But they can’t play 70 plays a game both in nickel and dime. I think there’s an element of our ability to maximize our roster. It gives us a chance to be fresher later in the year.“

* Rocco addressed some of the struggles the run game had at CSU. It was ugly folks. The top two tailbacks—Allen and Holloway—combined for 12 yards, forcing Liberty out of a lot of its preferred mode of moving the ball.

“They played faster than we did. They played with more intensity than we did and they played with more physicality than we did. That’s a bad combination of things right there. They really were beating us to the punch. We blocked them for a count, and they would find a way to throw off the block, spin off the block. We just weren’t finishing. That will be the challenge here to our offensive line. It certainly isn’t all about our offensive line, but that will be the challenge for them here for the next week.“

* Rocco also addressed the close margin of victory Saturday. He makes some pretty salient points here:

“It’s the reality of college football. I will say this again. There won’t be any team in the country that wins their conference championship that doesn’t dodge a bullet somewhere along the way. That’s what a good team does. It dodges the bullet. This year, we were able to dodge that bullet, and hopefully, we’ll play better in all three phases out here on Saturday.“

Let’s explore this. Let’s take a look at some of the unbeaten teams in conference play across the FCS landscape:

- Montana (4-0 Big Sky)—needed overtime to win at Northern Arizona
- Richmond (5-0 CAA)—rallied from eight down in the fourth quarter to win at Delaware
- Harvard (3-0 Ivy)—holds off Brown by three
- Pennsylvania (3-0 Ivy)—beats a bad Dartmouth team by six
- Albany (5-0 NEC)—beats a below-.500 Bryant team at home by three
- Central Connecticut State (4-0 NEC)—beats that same Bryant team by a point on the road
- Appalachian State (4-0 Southern)—needs overtime to beat The Citadel in Charleston.

Now, I’m not arguing Charleston Southern is a better team than Northern Arizona or Delaware. That’s just not true. But the point is that these coaches know each other’s tendencies, personnel and gameplans by now that no one should be shocked if any conference game is close. Jay Mills threw everything he had at Liberty last week, and his team nearly came away with a victory.

* This week’s motivational ploy: The numbers “31” and “28” are posted at various points at the FOC.

“I know Ed Gomes was coming into the offense and looking at Proverbs trying to figure out what verse it was,“ Rocco said. “I said, ‘Ed, it’s not a verse. That is the score of last year’s Presbyterian game.‘ You know, a lot of these thoughts and ideas are done in the summer time. I put together a propaganda campaign in the summer. As we prepare for each upcoming opponent, each week, we kind of have a theme, we kind of have a saying or a slogan, and I keep those very consistent as we get into the season. We’re talking this week about being physically dominant, and then there’s the reminder of last year’s game, the ‘31-28.‘ It’s a reminder to all of us, how fragile things are, how thin the line is between winning and losing. There’s little margin for error. I don’t care who you’re playing, if you let your guard down, you’ll get beat. That’s a discussion that I’ve had with anyone who wants to talk to me here of late, including my wife and my children.

“For all of the reasons that we expected to win at Charleston Southern by a larger score, I don’t know if it’s really realistic to think that we would or should have. They had a seven-game home winning streak. They were on the road a week before at Gardner-Webb, who’s 5-2, and they lost 27-20. All of those things add us. One thing I know for sure in this business, David Bennett and I talked about this last week, but what goes around, comes around. It always does. That’s the reality of it. You don’t beat a team 42-0 and 50-10 then beat them the next year by 50 again. It just doesn’t happen. To their credit, they probably played one of their more inspired games of the year, and they had played against some really good competition earlier this season. It wasn’t like they weren’t going to be able the speed or physicality to which we might have played. They were prepared to handle it.“