Let’s get the promos out of the way first:

- In Wednesday’s print News & Advance, I’ll have a full story on QB Tommy Beecher‘s status and how his injury affects Mike Brown and Liberty’s special teams.

- Wednesday on the blog, I’ll post a quick conversation with Paul Reinhard, who covers Lafayette football for the Allentown Morning Call. He’ll shed a little insight in Lafayette’s program.

- In Thursday’s print edition, look for a quick read on Liberty’s special teams adjustments heading into the Lafayette game.

- Friday in print, I’ll have a story on receiver Freddie Brown and his continued acclimation to the Flames football program after his transfer from South Carolina.

- Weekly picks in the blog will be made Thursday. I’m going to have a heck of a time being in two places at once this week (Hillcats still playing), so I’ll do what I can to get some practice notes up as well.

- Of course, game preview coverage Saturday, a blog post Saturday pregame and full game coverage from Easton in the Sunday N&A.

- I can’t promote the Twitter feed enough. Thanks for those who have followed the blog.

- And for those who like minor league baseball, I’m at Game 2 of the Mills Cup series and will be in Salem Thursday and Friday for Games 3 and (if necessary) 4. Game 5 will be handled by someone else on staff if it happens, sense I’ll be up in Pennsylvania with LU football.

With that out of the way, let’s get to today’s notes, in bullet form:

* It took some needling of the parties involved, but the official diagnosis on Beecher’s injury: Mild concussion, which is what I figured. Coach Danny Rocco didn’t seem to want to come out and say it, referring me to Chris Casola. Concussions are serious business, but a mild one at least is manageable. He’s listed as day-to-day, and he practiced Tuesday.

“I certainly feel like today he looks good, he feels good, not complaining of any issues with his head,“ Rocco said. “I expect him to do some work there (today) and continue to increase his workload as we get deeper into the week. My assumption is that at the end of the week, he’ll be 100 percent ready and ready to play. But we do have to look at this as a day-to-day situation.“

Mike Brown will spend some more time working with the quarterbacks, just so he’s more prepared if he has to play quarterback Saturday at Lafayette.

* I had plans on writing a quick story on Flames linebacker Doncel Bolt, who took over the starting Mike linebacker duties from the departed Nick Hursky. There was one catch though, Bolt, who tends to get a little cheesy in his head shot photos, has chosen not to talk to the media. I’ve talked to Doncel before, so I don’t think he hates me or anything. But he told Flames athletics communication maven Todd Wetmore that “I haven’t done anything yet,“ so he doesn’t want to talk.

So we’ll just go with Rocco’s take on Bolt’s improvement from Game 1 to Game 2:

“It’s two separate games. He played very, very well here at home Saturday night against North Carolina Central. He did not play nearly as well at West Virginia. The neat thing about the West Virginia game was that he got off to a bad start. Coach Clark (defensive coordinator Tom Clark) and myself both confronted him, pulled him out of the game and talked to him very firmly, very sternly. And he was very good. He was, ‘yes sir, I agree,‘ he was on the right track. As the game went on at West Virginia, he got better. And I think here last Saturday night, the game slowed down for him a little bit. He looked quicker.

“He looked good all summer long, but all of a sudden, we went to West Virginia, and he just didn’t look like the same guy, the same athlete. But he was back on track Saturday night. He might be one of the guys, where you asked, ‘What did the West Virginia game do for your football team?,‘ he might be one of the guys who plays real well at Lafayette because he just went through this experience on the road at West Virginia a few weeks earlier. He might be one of the guys who really benefited from that trip.“

* Rocco’s quick recap of the NCCU game:

1. “I think any time you’re able to have 35 unanswered points in a game, I think that’s a pretty good sign your team was the superior football team. By the end of the game, we certainly were able to show that, though early in the game, things were very much in doubt.“

2. “My first thoughts from Saturday night were of the crowd. It was electric. You saw the student body out there early. They were all very excited and enthused about the start of the season. We very much appreciate that, seeing everybody dressed in red. It was the largest crowd in the history of Liberty University, largest crowd in the history of the Big South Conference. I think it was one of the top 10 crowds in any FCS game last week in the country. I think that’s all really good. It speaks volumes of our program and the support we have and the direction in which we have moved our program.“

3. On NCCU: “I thought they were well coached. I thought they were disciplined. I thought they were physical. They had a run-first mentality. They had some patience with some ability to run the ball and possess the football. There were a number of first-half miscues that led to the situation where we fell behind.“

4. “I really believe that on the first drive of the game, if we would have caught the corner route in the end zone, this game would have gone in a totally different direction. But it did not, and we missed the field goal attempt. Then we had two fourth-down penalties on special teams that continue to allow them to possess the football.“

5. “In theory, everything kind of went against us in the first half, and everything went our way in the second half. And we were able to rattle off 28 second-half points.“

* Rocco on how important it was for the Flames’ run game to get on track, considering how stout Lafayette’s run defense is:

“That was certainly one of our goals going into the North Carolina Central game. We wanted to be able to re-establish our running game, and I felt like we did. We had 231 net rushing yards, so I was very encouraged with that. Both Aldreakis (Allen) and B.J. (Hayes) showed their ability to run in between the tackles. Our offensive line was a little more physical in more situations than they were a week ago up at West Virginia. That was certainly one of our keys to victory.“

* Lafayette used a lot of quick slants in its 28-3 win at Georgetown Saturday. Will that be a concern?

“They’re going to get him (Mark Layton) the ball. Whether that’s how they choose to get him the ball or not, I’m not certain. One thing about Georgetown defensively, we are very dissimilar. They’re style of play on defense is totally different than our style of play. They play a lot of man coverage. They played a lot of off coverage. They found themselves in some situations where they gave up some big plays on catch and run plays, plays where a guy may come out of the backfield and they’ll throw it to him for five yards, he turns up the sidelines and runs 48 for a touchdown. Our style of play isn’t as conducive for offenses to be able to do that against us. A lot of times in some of these man coverages, you’re getting guys run off. A guy is chasing the crossing route and someone else comes back across the formation, he catches the ball and just outflanks the defense. I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’ll make an effort to get him the ball, though.“

That’s all for today. Look for the Reinhard Q&A and some Lafayette notes tomorrow.