LU’s senior class ranks as winningest in school history

When Liberty football coach Danny Rocco first decorated his office at the Williams Football Operations Center when it opened in 2006, he adorned the walls with photos from previous coaching stops.

There was a shot of Virginia’s linebacking corps, which included players like Ahmad Brooks and Darryl Blackstock. There was a shot of Boston College beating Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

As the years went by, he replaced the art with photos of Liberty’s football accomplishments. There’s a shot of the Flames winning their first Big South crown on Gardner-Webb’s field. There are photos of key members of this season’s senior class, a group that’s near and dear to the head coach’s heart.

Seven players who started as freshman in 2006 remain in Liberty’s program today — Derek Bishop, Wes Cheek, Spencer Landis, Trey Jacobs, Donald Manns, Chris Rocco and Tim Torrence. In reality, those seven were dreamers. They had no tangible evidence of anything to go on, other than the coach’s word and the promise that things would turn around for a football program that was stuck in the mud.

And as that group prepares to play at Williams Stadium for the final time Saturday night against VMI, they’ll leave Liberty as the school’s winningest senior class ever.

They never experienced a losing season and won’t this year, even if the Flames lose their final three games. Since they’ve arrived on campus, the seniors have helped Liberty compile a 30-12 record and win two Big South championships.

So undoubtedly, this group is near and dear to Rocco’s heart.

“They certainly have put us on the map in FCS football,” Rocco said. “They’ve certainly helped me in launching my career as a head football coach, as these kids came in here and helped turned this thing from a program of low or little expectation to a program of much higher expectations.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to go out the way they all deserve to go out.”

All seven of those players from the 2006 freshman class have gone on to play key roles for the Flames. Six are starters. The exception is Landis, who has dealt with an elbow injury since the spring and is now working with the scout team offense.

Those aren’t the only seniors who bought into Rocco’s sales pitch. Eight players redshirted during the 2005 season, Ken Karcher’s last at LU — Ian Childress, Mario Cosby, Chuck Duffey, Cameron Gillespie, Terron Lawrence, Bryan Mosier, Will Quarles and Josh Weaver. (Three other seniors — Aaron Hewlett, Mark Malvaso and Tim Hartman — either transferred in after 2006 or walked on.)

Everyone in that group save for Gillespie and Lawrence have started for the Flames, and all played a key role in turning the program around. If Liberty wins two of its final three games, it will mark the first time in school history that LU has won at least eight games in three straight seasons.

Said Childress: “We went 1-10 that first year, but last year, the fact that we went 10-2, you just know that something has changed in this program, whether it’s the coaching staff or just everybody’s mindset in general.”