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This is truly a shocking situation to those close to Liberty. The AD Jeff Barbet just announced he was resigning immediately. Just this week he was on a podcast talking about future plans at Liberty and in no way sounded like he was leaving. I don't want to speculate, but this can't be good on either side.

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I agree. This is out of the blue. Wonder what's going on at LU. This announcement caught me completely off guard.
Wow. That is really an unexpected action. And it is highlighted with his son joining the basketball team. Or will he still?
This is a little surprising, though not entirely the more I think about it.

During Barber's tenure, he hired Rocco and Gill for football. Rocco did well to elevate the football program out of the lowest of lows and made them competitive and top 25 caliber. Gill took that program that had stagnated and reach the playoffs for the first time before crashing and burning the following two seasons. If Barber is gone, it likely means Gill is as well. And I even think attendance is down this year.

Barber fired Dunton, hired McKay, hired and fired Layer, and rehired McKay. Layer is all Barber's doing but so is McKay so I think it is argued for mixed results and trending upward. How has attendance been lately? I know it was awful for Layer's last couple years. I'm sure it had to pick up since McKay took over.

Baseball has been rocky as well. As someone else mentioned, Toman was forced out after being rather successful but in a down period. Barber hired a new coach and won't be able to see how that turns out.

Overall, Liberty's complete athletic package is alright as evidenced by winning the Sasser Cup most years. However, our big revenue sports of football, men's basketball, and baseball have all had very underwhelming years lately and only basketball is showing signs of life. To be fair, baseball has a new coach this year so it could return to winning. I don't know if it is a good idea to let Barber go or not. I do know that we aren't where we want to be but I don't know that he isn't the one to lead us to where we want to go. But now we have an opportunity to get a new AD who can take us to where we want to go.

Does President Falwell hire someone before he leaves (if he leaves)? I would think that if he were to temporarily join Trump's team then he'd want to hire his new AD for when he'd return. If he won't be around, then I'd think the new president would want a fresh start with the AD of his/her choosing. I hope we continue our path to FBS and I hope the new AD reflects that. Thank you Jeff Barber for your contributions to Liberty University and good luck on your future endeavors.
If you read a sea of red there's some claims that the v athletic budget is going to be scaled back from an FBS type budget to a high FCS budget. I think that means Gill is fine as well. The thing I don't get about this is the timing. Really strange that Barber new nothing about this yesterday. We'll learn more in the coming days.

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(11-18-2016 12:12 AM)Libertygrad01 Wrote: [ -> ]If you read a sea of red there's some claims that the v athletic budget is going to be scaled back from an FBS type budget to a high FCS budget. I think that means Gill is fine as well. The thing I don't get about this is the timing. Really strange that Barber new nothing about this yesterday. We'll learn more in the coming days.

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If true, that is disappointing. It probably means we are giving up on FBS and accepting a long FCS tenure. I guess Jerry was wrong when he said we'd be FBS in a couple of months.
If true, that stinks. What else can I say? I haven't given up the dream of FBS.

It appears there are turbulent times ahead with all this uncertainty surrounding JB, JFJ, HCTG.
I don't buy the scaling back theory. You don't spend 25 million dollars on an indoor practice facility to then scale back. I see this more about a stagnant athletic department. The Charleston Southern game was probably the nail in the coffin for both Barber and Gill. You can't use 3 years in a row to a team you outspend 4 to 1. I think change can bring new excitement, so I'll take a wait and see approach.

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Any names to be thrown around for new AD?
Without knowing how they would fit into Liberty, I'm impressed with how Louisville and Baylor have transformed their athletic departments over the past eight years or so. However, we now know that it has come at the cost of cutting corners and each have had major NCAA investigations.

Barber was from the University of South Carolina and it wouldn't surprise me to hire someone from an SEC athletic department.
Would it be likely we hire a current AD away from a school or hire an up and coming Asst. AD?
(11-19-2016 08:46 PM)army56mike Wrote: [ -> ]Would it be likely we hire a current AD away from a school or hire an up and coming Asst. AD?

When I was talking about Baylor and Louisville athletic departments, I meant hire an assistant AD from them as their ADs likely would just laugh at Liberty or take it as an insult.

I think a good judge would be if Liberty is on the same level or above, an athletic director likely won't move to Liberty. If Liberty is a level or more above, then he/she would move to Liberty. I don't think Liberty is higher than too many schools; certainly not FBS schools and not higher than schools in conferences with multiple bids to the NCAA tournament like the Big East, A-10, etc. We'll see what people think of Liberty based on the caliber of candidate they hire or look at. I'm afraid I'll be disappointed.
That is correct. LU will not have a shot at any AD's from any schools in major or mid major conferences. We may be able to snag an AD from a fellow low level institution. We can get an assistant AD from a major or mid major though. And I guess if there was a current AD that wanted to be part if the Liberty family they could come.
The caliber of the hire for the new AD for LU will provide the best representation of how LU is perceived from it's peers. This hire will have a greater impact than any single coaching position. The more quality of the hire the more LU is perceived as moving upward. The less desirable a hire from a modestly successful program, or an older AD brought in to "stabalize" the program would set back LU years in it's FBS quest.

The best bet would seem to be an up and coming, younger AD in an assistant position in a high level FBS conference. LU could be considered a stepping stone for them, especially if they could bring LU to FBs, increase on-field success and build attendance. AD's have as much heat, if not more heat on them for on field success as any individual coach.

With facilities, budget and continued athletic expansion, LU has made the financial commitment to compete. It's now time to make the on field investment with a top hire AD to achieve the same.
I would certainly think facilities and budget would be strong selling points. I would love to get someone in the mold of Tom Jurich at UofL (minus the dirty coaching scandals). We definitely need someone who can generate more fan support, continue facility improvement, move us to FBS and maybe a stronger conference, and develop consistant winners. But, isn't that the job of every AD?
Isn McCaw, former AD if Baylor. Well, he fits the Tom Jurich mold I was desiring. However, he does come with controversy. We all need second chances though. I am mostly happy with this hire.
(11-19-2016 07:47 AM)GE and MTS Wrote: [ -> ]Without knowing how they would fit into Liberty, I'm impressed with how Louisville and Baylor have transformed their athletic departments over the past eight years or so. However, we now know that it has come at the cost of cutting corners and each have had major NCAA investigations.

Barber was from the University of South Carolina and it wouldn't surprise me to hire someone from an SEC athletic department.

(11-28-2016 05:49 PM)army56mike Wrote: [ -> ]Isn McCaw, former AD if Baylor. Well, he fits the Tom Jurich mold I was desiring. However, he does come with controversy. We all need second chances though. I am mostly happy with this hire.

Well, we got Ian McCaw. I really like how the Baylor program was transformed but I really hate all the accusations that are directed there. They put too much emphasis on winning at all costs and I hope Liberty doesn't fall victim to that. I am really disappointed at the selection but it could pay dividends. There is already chatter of Liberty hiring Art Briles as the new head football coach. That would be more disappointing than McCaw.
Did I miss something? I thought we still had a football coach?

Art Briles as coach would be hard to stomach. But I'm all for second chances.
Turner Gill is currently our coach but a new athletic director would almost assuredly want to hire his own coaches, especially at THE most important sport at the school, football. Gill wasn't safe even with Barber as the AD and now we've hired someone who has his guy available. The Briles speculation is just the assumption that Gill would be fired. In my opinion without any sources, I would expect Gill to be let go with the fresh start at AD.
That would surprise me. I think he has one season left to show his worth.
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