I’ll say this. I hope the fan bus that is making the trip from Lynchburg to Long Island fares better than I did today in trying to make it here. I should have trusted my first instinct and taken the roundabout way to get here, going I81 to 78 to get around D.C. and Baltimore. Instead, I trusted my Garmin, and it took me through traffic on U.S. 29 just south of I-66, then more traffic at the Capital Beltway, and more traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, and then for some reason guided me into the Lincoln Tunnel to access Long Island. I suppose that’s the SHORTEST way to get here, but it’s not the quickest. Left the Burg at about 9 a.m. today and arrived at the hotel near MacArthur Airport at 8:30 p.m.

And I’m sure the N&A will enjoy the $27 worth of tolls I have to turn in on the ol’ expense report. And that’s just for the trip here.

I guess what I’m saying is that this isn’t your run of the mill Big South football trip.

It’s not a run-of-the-mill game, either. There’s a championship on the line tomorrow, giving the Liberty-Stony Brook matchup a bowl-game type feel. Yes, Liberty has clinched a share of the Big South championship. Whoopty do. Do you think anyone will actually recognize the Flames as champs if they lose this game tomorrow and end up tied with the Seawolves? (Well, the conference office will, but I digress.) Any time that 2005 Big South tie is referenced, pretty much everyone concedes that Charleston Southern won the title, because it won the head-to-head matchup.

The travel thing may have been a pain in the rear for me, but it will be a non-issue for the team. The Flames hopped a charter and flew from the Lynchburg airport up to Long Island earlier this evening. Because of some delays, LU wasn’t able to get to LaValle Stadium for a walkthrough, but I’m sure the Flames walked through at Williams Stadium before loading the bus to head to the airport.

Some thoughts, in completely random order:

1. Found a great spot in Holbrook, N.Y., just down the street from here. Awesome Italian cuisine, and every woman in the restaurant sounded like she could have fit in quite well with Carmela Soprano, so I knew the locals liked the place. Sure, there were two restaurants right next to the hotel, but both were chains. My rule: Always look for the local flavor. So a big shout out to Mama’s. Outstanding.

2. I could think of nothing but HBO dramas today, driving through Baltimore (the home of The Wire) and New Jersey (home of The Sopranos). I think I saw the Russian from the Pine Barrens episode working the pizza oven at Mama’s. So that’s where he went.

3. The one plus of the whole Lincoln Tunnel fiasco was getting to drive through mid-town Manhattan. Once I figured out how to get around without killing pedestrians, it was nice to see many of the same sites made famous by Seinfeld and Grand Theft Auto IV. Oh, and Broadway and Madison Avenue, too.

4. I grew up in the D.C. area, and I’m fine navigating the streets in the District of Columbia. But once Mr. Garmin went haywire in Manhattan and I couldn’t find the Midtown-Queens tunnel, I nearly got crushed by an angry cabbie and in response, I nearly took out a Pedi-Cab. Maybe I should take a ferry back to Jersey tomorrow.

5. Oh, so we should talk some football, right? It’s not been an easy week to keep the blog updated, thanks to two men’s basketball games and the Flames’ longest drive trip in my tenure as N&A LU beat hack. So let’s get to it:

5a. Some leftover stuff from the Brandon Streeter story I wrote the other day. One of the things that’s really impressive about his first season as offensive coordinator was his ability to mesh a bunch of new and unknown talent quickly. Liberty’s offense didn’t look great in the first few weeks of the season. But as he figured out what he had to work with and became more comfortable with his duties, Liberty’s offense has soared.

To review, Liberty entered the year having to replace an NFL tailback, a three-year starter at QB, two senior receivers, a senior tight end, a four-year starter at center and two other starting offensive linemen.

“I told the kids from day one that we were going to find the best 11 players,“ Streeter said. “Whoever it is, that’s who we were going to play. We would not be very smart coaches if we did not play the best 11. You start with that. Whoever shows us that in practice and shows us that in games, they’re going to be the guys that are going to do those jobs. Being able to piece those things together, I’ve got to find the jobs the running backs do well, the quarterbacks do well, what Mike Brown does well, and just put them in those spots so they can be successful and maximize their talents. There was some unknown going into the year just because of the youth of our team and losing some key senior players from the year before. But it’s going pretty good. The kids have accepted their roles very well. They’ve all been very team oriented.“

5b. Liberty is playing a championship game tomorrow in a venue that’s new to just about everyone on the team. LU coach Danny Rocco has been here before, albeit to watch a college lacrosse game at Hofstra. It shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment. The Seawolves installed FieldTurf before this season and the weather tomorrow is expected to be very Central-Virginia-In-November like.

“It was like that two years ago for me when I went to Gardner-Webb,“ quarterback/receiver Mike Brown said. “It’ll definitely be a little bit weird.“

5c. SBU coach Chuck Priore said on the Big South conference call Tuesday that he expected a pretty good atmosphere for the game, noting that all of the Pop Warner leagues in the area were done playing so more families should be able to come out.

5d. One thing Rocco noted about freshman Demetrius Ward, who scored a crucial touchdown last week in the second half at Gardner-Webb. Ward scored four times as a senior at Hampton Pheobus, and Phoebus’ defense actually scored more points than it allowed last year.

5e. Injury note: B.J. Hayes WILL play, and expect to see a lot of him split out at receiver tomorrow.

6. THE PICKS. I nearly forgot to do them, and I would have been 0-1 had I put them up yesterday, seeing as I would have picked Eastern Illinois to beat Tennessee State. But here are the rest of the picks for Saturday. I’ll be back tomorrow with a pre-game post from LaValle Stadium.

LAST WEEK: 18-5 (.783)
SEASON RECORD: 216-43 (.834)

BIG SOUTH (home team in CAPS)
#16 Liberty 34, STONY BROOK 24
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 27, Coastal Carolina 22
Gardner-Webb 38, PRESBYTERIAN 31
Old Dominion 27, VMI 24

TSN TOP 25
#1 Southern Illinois 38, SE MISSOURI STATE 20 (seems like a random time to play this out of conference game ...)
#2 VILLANOVA 31, Delaware 14
#3 Montana 31, MONTANA STATE 28
#5 William & Mary 27, #4 RICHMOND 24
#6 APPALACHIAN STATE 48, Western Carolina 14
#7 SOUTH CAROLINA STATE 31, North Carolina A&T 21
#8 McNEESE STATE 45, Central Arkansas 17
#9 Northern Iowa 20, ILLINOIS STATE 14
SAMFORD 21, #10 Elon 17
#11 NEW HAMPSHIRE 28, Maine 24
#12 South Dakota State 34, WESTERN ILLINOIS 14
#13 Holy Cross 26, BUCKNELL 21
#15 Stephen F. Austin 38, NORTHWESTERN STATE 14
#17 JACKSONVILLE STATE 41, Eastern Kentucky 20
#18 Eastern Washington 37, NORTHERN ARIZONA 24
#19 WEBER STATE 30, Cal Poly 17
#20 PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 37, Ark.-Pine Bluff 27
#21 Lafayette 28, LEHIGH 27
#24 PENNSYLVANIA 24, Cornell 3