The blog has been pretty quiet this week, and it will remain pretty quiet until Monday, seeing as it’s Liberty’s bye week and I’m going to take advantage of the free time to get some other things done.

Here’s a link to the story I wrote today about how young Liberty’s skill players are and how Danny Rocco is having to exercise some patience this year.

Some verbal commitment news. Thanks to the astute posters on FlameFans.com who have found these ...

* Dorman (S.C.) High School defensive end Drew Bailey has committed to the Flames, according to the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald-Journal. He’s third on Dorman’s team with 25 tackles and has four tackles for loss and three sacks.

* Northside High School’s linebacker Nick Sigmon, who has been mentioned on this blog before, has given his verbal commit to the Flames, according to the Roanoke Times.

Here was my vote this week for The Sports Network’s Top 25:

1. Richmond
2. Villanova
3. Northern Iowa
4. Montana
5. William & Mary
6. Southern Illinois
7. McNeese St.
8. New Hampshire
9. Elon
10. Massachusetts
11. Holy Cross
12. Appalachian St.
13. Eastern Kentucky
14. South Carolina St.
15. Eastern Washington
16. Cal Poly
17. James Madison
18. South Dakota St.
19. Colgate
20. Central Arkansas
21. Jacksonville St.
22. Florida A&M
23. Montana St.
24. Weber St.
25. Liberty

- This was the first week that I kind of scrapped what I had before in the poll and worked from scratch. Some observations after seeing the GPI and the two polls once they came out:

1. I like Holy Cross a lot more than anyone else does, apparently. I just think QB Dominic Randolph is that good.

2. Collectively, we seem to like Jacksonville State less than we should. The Gamecocks are way up in the GPI and I haven’t had them ranked before this week. All I had to go on were two FBS losses and two wins against overmatched FCS teams. The blowout of Tennessee-Martin was an eye-opener. Too bad this Gamecocks club is ineligible for the playoffs.

3. I was talking with Todd Wetmore, Liberty’s media relations guru, last week at the West Virginia Wesleyan game as The Citadel held a 27-20 lead on Appalachian State in the fourth quarter in Charleston. (App ultimately came back to win.) The discussion point: What the heck to we do with App if they lose this game? They would have been 1-3 with only a win over Samford to hold their hats on. Are they even a Top 25 team at that point? The point was moot after App won, but I’m hesitant to keep the Mountaineers in my Top 10 just because they’re the Mountaineers. I might be proven wrong ultimately, but at this point, 12th felt about right.

4. I’m surprised James Madison didn’t fall farther, considering the Dukes lost to the same Hofstra team that lost 47-0 to Richmond.

5. I also apparently differ from the vast majority of pollsters on Central Arkansas, too. I still have no idea how good the Bears are, considering their personnel losses from last year. They beat Western Kentucky (FBS, but whoop-de-darn-doo ... this WKU team might be the worst ever in FBS) and nearly beat a Hawaii team that will likely finish well below .500. They also beat a couple of Division II teams. I want some more information before ranking the Bears any higher.

6. I didn’t drop William & Mary too far for the loss at Villanova. The Tribe was ranked lower, therefore was not expected to win that game on the road. I don’t see the point of dropping W&M 10 spots for that loss. I don’t think Southern Illinois, Elon or McNeese State wins that game at ‘Nova, either. New Hampshire? We’ll find out this week.

I’ve seen a few early playoff prognostications, but I’m not going to engage in such an exercise until the first week of November, at least. Many teams are just now playing their first or second conference games. Way too early to try to figure out those scenarios. By early November, we know who the conference favorites are and who is playing really well within the leagues. Seems like a good time to break out a projected playoff field.

*****

Let’s clean up a few loose ends here, as well:

- Big South basketball media day is next Tuesday in Charlotte, and I’ll be making the hike down. (Maybe I should leave at 5 a.m. to avoid that notorious I-85 bottleneck ...)

In terms of the blog, that means the usual Tuesday notes from the football press conference will be posted Monday, since I won’t be able to be in Charlotte and Lynchburg at the same time. So look for a story in Tuesday’s paper on Liberty football and two stories in Wednesday’s paper from the media day, along with blog coverage. I’ll also have some sort of football feature for the Thursday paper, though I’m still trying to figure out the subject of said feature.

- The Flames released their baseball schedule last week, and it is undoubtedly weaker than the ones the Flames have played in Jim Toman’s first two seasons. The home highlights are the May 14-16 series with perennial Big South power Coastal Carolina; the April 5 game with Old Dominion; and the March 12-14 series with St. John’s, which at one point was a pretty good Big East team. As far as big-name opponents go, Liberty isn’t playing a bunch of them. No games with North Carolina or Ole Miss or anybody like that. So the Flames should be able to rack up an impressive win-loss total next season, but the RPI will likely suffer.

- One guy who was thankful for Jacksonville’s blowout of Tennessee last Sunday was Rashad Jennings, the former Liberty and LCA standout who got an extended look during mop-up time. He ran nine times for 53 yards in relief of Maurice Jones-Drew.

That’s it for now. We’ll be back Monday with football news leading up to the Coastal Carolina game.