CSNbbs

Now that the semester is wrapping up let's talk what grade you would give each sport. I'm only going to list the major sports, but feel free to add any other sports you want.

Football: At the beginning of the season I felt we would make another playoff run and possibly win a couple games. With deep rb's, a sr at qb(Woodrum) and wr (Petey) we were posied to make some noise. The loss to Monmouth and Gardner-Webb really did us in. Both of those games were head scratchers and led me to believe there were chemistry issues on this team. Very disappointing season. D

Basketball: The expectations were really low for the 2015 Flames. The conference coaches picked LU to finish last in the conference. McKay led his team to a 10-8 conference record to go on to win the Big South coach of the year. At the beginning of the season I predicted a 6-7 win season, so I was pleasantly surprised at how competitive the Flames were in McKays first year back. The future is bright, with a recruiting class that is as good as I can remember. B+

Baseball: Pitching, pitching, pitching were the demise of this years team. Many times LU would jump out to what should be a comfortable lead, only for the middle relievers and closers to give up the lead. At the start of the season Tomlin went on record to say this may be one of his more talented teams. Overall, a disappointing season even with the late run in the Big South tournament. Liberty had a strong recruiting class coming in, but many people in the know believe some of the top recruits will get drafted and never make it to campus. Overall: D

What say you?

Good job on the grades. I pretty much agree with you.

Football had the two disappointing losses as you mentioned but they were sort of offset by the wins against Georgia State, Montana, and Coastal Carolina. Did anyone honestly expect us to win all three of those? Overall though, a very disappointing season. I hope Turner Gill turns it around and makes the playoffs this season or else I'd like to bring in someone new.

Men's basketball blew away my preseason expectations. It was an exciting breath of fresh air to have a season like that. I felt like one of the more optimistic ones prior to the season (whether that is revisionist history or not) and all I predicted was about 10 wins or so. To see us be competitive most games and to win some were real treats. During the season, I felt we lost a couple we should have won but I feel greedy thinking that way after what we expected before the season. Well done Coach McKay and the basketball team! I have such high hopes for the upcoming year and think we should compete for the NCAA tournament birth.

Women's basketball did well as always, but finished on a sour note by losing in something like double overtime in the Big South championship. It wouldn't hurt so bad in a vacuum, but seeing the way the football season played out, it stings to not win the auto-bid.

Another sport, another disappointment: baseball. I just happened to look up how they did in the Big South tournament, saw they lost in the finals (to Coastal no less) 1-0. That pretty much sums up the athletics for us this year; close but no cigar.

Really tough break for us and I feel we aren't getting a good return on investment. If you break it down to dollars per win, Liberty is paying their coaches too much money for each win (I don't know salaries but if Liberty is as "FBS ready" as they brag, then they certainly aren't cheap with contracts and we've been told that money isn't an obstacle anymore). I will say that we don't have any NCAA violations (that I know of) so we appear to run clean programs. I certainly enjoy that and wouldn't want to compromise that. Additionally, we are not in Baylor's shoes right now. It could be worse for the Flames but if it doesn't improve then I expect/hope for changes, particularly football followed by baseball.

Yep the main sports let us down (MB, WB, FB, BB). But overall, the athletic department performed well. We won the Sasser Cup. Best athletic department in the BSC.

Our Olympic sports are fantastic. And to think that two of our best women's sports don't even play in the Big South (FH, Swim).