Some promos first:

- The link to the Twitter feed is here.

- In today’s print News & Advance, well, simply stated, this is a big game for Liberty.

- Coming Thursday, a story on Mike Brown‘s leadership ability and how its cultivated itself at a fairly early point in his career. Also, look for the weekly FCS picks on the blog, along with some more notes and thoughts.

- Coming Friday, a piece on how Liberty’s special teams’ hope to minimize the damage from JMU’s Scotty McGee.

- Of course, full game preview coverage Saturday, a gameday blog post Saturday, Twitter posts during the game and post-game coverage both in print and on the blog Sunday.

Some links this morning:

- The Daily News Record’s Mike Barber takes a weekly spin around the CAA for the Web site Virginia Sports Now, which is run by former Richmond Times-Dispatch sports editor Mike Harris, who is an all-around good guy. His site is worth a look.

- JMU tight end Mike Caussin has battled some adversity and has come out of it a better man, Barber writes in the DNR.

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Now, the Q&A with Barber. You can find his blog here.

CL What’s going on with JMU’s quarterback situation? It seems like the Dukes are rotating from series to series so far. Do you think Mickey Matthews will make a definitive choice at some point, or will this rotation continue for the rest of the season?

MB Drew Dudzik started against Maryland and Justin Thorpe got the nod against VMI. The coaching staff appears committed to playing both until one player distances himself. That has happened yet, though I think Dudzik has been more effective throwing the ball and moving the chains. The good news for JMU—and for opposing defenses preparing to face it—is that the offense doesn’t change much depending on which player is in the game.

CL Liberty has had a lot of trouble in the past defending athletic tight ends. How much is Mike Caussin featured in the JMU offense, and is this a matchup you think the Dukes want to exploit this week?

MB Caussin looked like an NFL prospect as a sophomore but dropped off as a junior. He suffered an ankle injury in JMU’s spring game and expectations were really down for him this year. Boy were we wrong. He’s caught two touchdown passes in each of the first two games, including an amazing, jumping catch over a Maryland linebacker in Week 1. All four of his TDs and all three of his catches against VMI came from Dudzik.

CL How is former Virginia Tech commit Peter Rose (an Amherst High grad) fitting in at JMU? What kind of role do you see him having in the future?

MB JMU’s coaches were so smitten with Rose’s athletic ability they seriously considered playing him this season at weak safety. But his year away from the game ultimately left him to raw to be ready. I would expect him to become a contributor next season, perhaps even a starter.

CL Matthews mentioned Monday that VMI’s defensive front pushed the Dukes around last week. How much of a concern is Liberty’s big defensive front for the Dukes heading into this game?

MB Matthews didn’t even want to talk about his quarterback controversy on Monday. He was so frustrated by his team’s running issues. JMU led the CAA in rushing yards per game last year. The strange thing is that against Maryland—which ran a similar scheme—the Dukes looked good running the ball. JMU is breaking in three new starters on the offensive line and a new starting tailback.

CL Why in the heck would anyone still kick to Scotty McGee? What makes him such a dangerous threat back there?

MB I have no idea. The specials team coach at Maryland was the ST coach at Richmond last year, when McGee beat the Spiders with a last-second punt return TD. Maryland tried to kick away from McGee some, but he gave JMU good field position against the Terrapins and again this weekend against VMI. He’s very fast and fierceless hitting the hole. The Dukes scheme is very good and—unless McGee tries to free-style—usually results in big returns.

We thank Barber for his time.

****

Some additional asterisk-point notes now for this lovely Wednesday afternoon:

* One of my throwaway lines in the press box Saturday at Lafayette came whenever the Leopards were set up in a third-and-long situation, and my response was “Lafayette has Liberty right where it wants it.“

See, I have this perception that Liberty, which sets up in this mostly Cover 2 base defense, is very susceptible to giving up long plays on third down, which in theory, is what a Cover 2 is supposed to prevent. Maybe the big plays stick out in my head, like the two huge third-and-long conversions at West Virginia in the season opener. So I decided to back and do a little research on this subject, to see if Liberty was as bad on third-and-long as I thought it was.

Let’s start with the pure numbers from three games this season. First, I’ll set the parameters. I’ll considering any situation of 3rd-and-5 or shorter to be third-and-short. The basis is that most base offensive plays are designed to gain about five yards, and the percentages are generally going to play in the favor of the offense in that scenario. Anything longer than six yards will be considered third and long.

Liberty on third down in 2009
Third-and-short: 10-for-17 (.588)
Third-and-long: 6-for-21 (.286)

Liberty on third down in 2008
Third-and-short: 40-for-68 (.588)—this is the exact same percentage from 2009.
Third-and-long: 22-for-101 (.219)

So early on, at least, Liberty has been worse this season on third-and-long than it was last year. Lafayette was 3-for-8 in those situations, North Carolina Central 1-for-8 and West Virginia 2-for-5. The Flames had two bad games last year in stopping opponents on third-and-long, going 3-for-8 against Presbyterian (in a loss) and 4-for-7 against Coastal Carolina (in a shootout win). Not surprisingly, in the two shutout wins, the Flames were excellent in third-and-long. Charleston Southern went 1-for-11 and Stony Brook was 1-for-6. In Liberty’s other loss last year, against Lafayette, the Leopards were about average in long third-down conversions (2-for-7, .286), but they were well above the mean in short third-down conversions (7-for-10, .700).

Safe to say, though, if opponents are converting 30 percent of the time on you on third-and-long, that’s not good at all. If the Flames want to beat JMU Saturday, that long third-down number will have to be closer to last year’s 21.9 percent than this year’s 28.6 percent.

* LU coach Danny Rocco talked a little bit about what makes the Flames’ 3-4 defense unique Tuesday, in response to a question about some of the chatter from JMU’s camp about how tough Liberty’s defense is to prepare for.

“We are not a common defense,“ he said. “I know in their league ... very few people in college football are playing what we’re basing out of. A lot of people will still play the 3-4, and out of the 3-4, though, they zone pressure. They are constantly bringing different zone pressure combinations and playing zone coverage. We’re really not like that. We do that, but we are more based out of a seven-man front, we’re based out of a two-deep shell. There are fewer and fewer teams playing this defense this vanilla. Obviously, when there’s frustration out there, and there frequently is with us on defense—oh, there’s not enough pressure, we’re not bringing enough bodies, a lot of different things—but sometimes at the end of the day, we don’t give up a lot of points. That’s ultimately thing that matters.

“That was the frustrating thing about last Saturday night. They hit those two throws against us. Great catches. I mean, diving, great throws, great catches. But we’re out of position. And that’s not our M.O. We all know the picture. People say, ‘I love blitzes. I want to see my team blitz more. They’re hugging the line of scrimmage, they’re all blitzing.‘ But a guy gets beat on a little slant pattern, catches a three-yard pass and goes 97 yards for a touchdown, you know. We don’t have many plays like that against us. So therefore, we keep the points against us down. Obviously this week, we’re going to have to do that. The biggest concern this week is the athleticism of the quarterbacks, their ability to create plays on their feet and scrambling and throwing on the run. Those are two things right there that are major concerns.“

* Caussin, whom the DNR’s Barber wrote about today, is another huge concern for the Flames because Liberty historically has had some trouble handling big, athletic tight ends. Two games from 2007 really stick out in this regards, as the tight ends from William & Mary and Toledo just wrecked Liberty’s defense.

Put simply, Caussin was a beast last week against VMI, catching three passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns. The receptions went for 65, 54 and 26 yards. For the most part, defenses will have either an outside linebacker or a strong safety covering the tight end, and it looks like Caussin has the sort of breakaway ability that most linebackers and safeties can’t keep up with, at least in man coverage situations. The Flames don’t play a ton of straight man, so it’ll be interesting to see how Liberty defends him Saturday.

“He’s off to a really good start,“ Rocco said. “He’s really become a feature guy for them, which I wouldn’t have thought a year ago as we watched film of them last year, kind of planning some thoughts for this year’s game. He’s been kind of—I don’t way to say pleasant surprises—but he’s put himself in position to where he’s a go-to guy and a guy who is capable of making some big plays for them. I think ultimately, that’s going to keep him getting the ball.“

* Mickey Matthews provided the bait, spending a good chunk of his time on the Monday CAA teleconference ranting about how his offensive line was overpowered by VMI’s defensive front last week.

Liberty’s Asa Chapman, however, isn’t biting.

“To me, they look like a well coached offensive line,“ the 360-pound sophomore nose guard said. “The offense they run, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like the pistol. They’re very well coached. They look like they get their assignments down, from what I see. We’ll have our work cut out for us this week, in my opinion.“

That’s it for now. I’ll at practice later and will report back if anything of note happens.