- Quick promo: The Twitter feed is here.

- Here’s a link to today’s story on Liberty OL Josh Weaver.

- Also, for those who enjoy high-school football, I’ll be making the trip to Dublin Friday to see Amherst face Pulaski in a rematch of last year’s state semifinal game, won by the Lancers. Look for coverage in Saturday’s News & Advance.

- Plus Saturday, a story on the Liberty-West Virginia Wesleyan game, along with the game blog Saturday and game coverage appearing in Sunday’s paper.

THE PICKS:

LAST WEEK’S RECORD 23-3 (.855)—lost on Liberty, Sacramento State and Wofford
SEASON RECORD 97-8 (.924)

BIG SOUTH GAMES (Home team in CAPS)

VMI 27, Gardner-Webb 24
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN 28, Savannah State 10
STONY BROOK 31, Presbyterian 14
LIBERTY 55, West Virginia Wesleyan 6

TSN TOP 25

#2 VILLANOVA 34, #5 William & Mary 20
#3 NORTHERN IOWA 31, Indiana State 0
#6 New Hampshire 44, TOWSON 14
#7 James Madison 23, HOFSTRA 21
#8 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 34, Illinois State 17
#10 Appalachian State 30, THE CITADEL 20
#11 WEBER STATE 34, Montana State 27
FURMAN 31, #12 Elon 20
#13 CENTRAL ARKANSAS 45, Missouri-Rolla 10
SOUTH CAROLINA 33, #15 South Carolina State 14
#16 South Dakota State 38, #19 CAL POLY 7
#17 Eastern Washington 51, IDAHO STATE 24
#23 EASTERN ILLINOIS 27, #18 Eastern Kentucky 23
#20 JACKSONVILLE STATE 34, Tennessee-Martin 17
#21 Holy Cross 30, NORTHEASTERN 7
SOUTHERN UTAH 35, #22 Texas Southern 31
#25 COLGATE 30, Cornell 20

Let’s knock out a few quick notes now:

- The Flames made it out of practice this week fairly healthy. Offensive tackle Justin Vargas (high ankle sprain) is out for Saturday. No sense in risking him against a Division II opponent with a bye week coming up. He should be ready to go by the time conference play begins Oct. 17 against Coastal Carolina. Another offensive lineman, Aaron Lundy, has been rehabbing well from a broken foot suffered early in training camp and should be ready to go for the Coastal game.

- I know most people who read this blog are Liberty fans, but for those who get linked here from some other place, an explanation is in order in regards to this game. Why West Virginia Wesleyan?

Well, at the end of last season, Liberty had a full Division I schedule planned, and the final piece of the puzzle was an Oct. 3 home date against Iona. Now, Iona wasn’t great or anything. Stony Brook rushed for eleventy-billion yards against the Gaels at the end of the season. But, still, it was a Division I game, and the Flames had never played a schedule that didn’t include at least one Division II team.

Then Iona dropped its football program, there was a scramble to fill the spot ... and that’s how West Virginia Wesleyan came to be. I’ve heard the Flames were in talks with Cal Poly to fill that date, but that the Mustangs wanted the game to be in San Luis Obispo and weren’t willing to head back east for a return match. That was a no dice proposition. I think Liberty would have been willing to play five at home and six on the road if the result was a home-and-home with Cal Poly, a pretty good FCS program. With the options limited, WVWC was the choice.

- Liberty’s 217 yards of total offense last week against James Madison was the second lowest total of the Danny Rocco era, the lowest being 180 against Towson in 2006. Not shockingly, those two games were the two lowest scoring games in the Rocco era. Liberty scored three against Towson and 10 against JMU.

- The biggest positive last week was the punting of Mike Larsson. The Big South rewarded Larsson with its special teams player of the week award, and for good reason. Larsson had the best night of his career against the Dukes. He averaged 41.4 yards on five punts and pinned the Dukes inside their own 15 three times and inside their own 10 twice. He’s quickly turned into a major special teams weapon. Larsson is completely healthy this year after missing about a third of last season with a hamstring injury.

- Saturday’s game will be televised live by MASN, which isn’t available on local Comcast Cable but is available on DirecTV and Dish Network.

- The Big South has not been a good offensive league thus far. Of the seven teams in the league, only Gardner-Webb (33.0) and Liberty (21.0) are averaging more than 20 points per game. Liberty’s numbers are way off its past gaudy offensive numbers, but that’s what happens when you actually play a real schedule to start the season, rather than opening with two Division II teams. There’s no doubt those big offensive numbers got a huge boost from games against North Greenville, Tusculum, Shippensburg and such.

That’s it for tonight. We’ll be back Saturday with some pre-game talk on the blog.