LIBERTY REPORT: Western Carolina, the day after

Some next-day thoughts about the Flames' victory last night.

GAME BALLS

* Liberty linebacker Chad Brown. The converted defensive end has been thrust into a starting role this season thanks to the injury to Kyle O'Donnell, and Brown has responded well. He tied for the team lead last night with seven tackles and came up with one of the game's biggest plays, a momentum stunting sack after Western Carolina had marched inside the Liberty 10. With 2nd-and-goal from the 19, Western was forced to pass and Liberty's secondary held the Catamounts out of the end zone.

* Liberty linebacker Ian Childress. Yes, he whiffed on tackling WCU receiver Marquel Pittman in what ended up being a 78-yard touchdown. Here's how LU coach Danny Rocco put it: Childress is a tall, rangy guy who still does most of his hitting high. He still isn't adjusting and learning to bend and hit and wrap up below the waist. It's very easy to shake out of an upper-body tackle, not so much when you've got a guy's thighs wrapped. That was one of the things that made Vince Redd so good at the position. He was a great open-field tackler for a 6-6 guy. Once Childress learns to adjust and hit lower, he'll improve his tackling considerably. Take away that play, though, and Childress was destructive. He forced two fumbles, including a big one in the second half that led to a Liberty score.

* The Western Carolina band. I understand there were some shenanigans going on between the band and Liberty's players toward the end of the game. That won't diminish the band's intro, a nifty rendition of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," complete with an electric guitar and a guy who sounded not entirely unlike AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson.

More notes ...

* My egg on the face moment: In the pre-game blog, I suggested that I was amused at the thought that Liberty would not score in the 30s at WCU. Boy, was I wrong on that one.

* I asked Brock Smith about his timing with his receivers, especially in the first half when he was overthrowing everything. A couple of times, it simply looked like he and his receivers weren't on the same page, like the receiver was running one route and the quarterback was reading another. Smith said he really didn't know how to answer the question, and that he wanted to look at the film before coming up with a concrete explanation for the misfires.

* Take away the 78-yard Pittman reception, and Western Carolina finishes with 169 yards of total offense. LU's defense was outstanding.

* I didn't see Chris Everett in the act of "leaping" during the third-quarter field-goal attempt, but the rules are very clear on that. You cannot use another player for leverage in blocking a kick. You can't jump on his back. You can't have someone help push you up. Clearly, the officials saw something and made the call.

* And the same thing goes with Kent Hicks' helmet-to-helmet penalty. I initially thought it was an awful call when the flag was thrown because I thought they were going to call a late hit on Hicks. WCU's Quan Warley was still bobbling a pass when Hicks left his feet, so that would have been a bad call. You can't ask Hicks to stop mid-leap. But officials are very stringent on helmet-to-helmet hits. If they see it, they'll call it. Once I heard that was the call, it made more sense to me.

* This is why we talk to people after games to find out what really happens on the field. To the naked eye, it looked like Liberty's offensive line was struggling to get any push in the first half, and that's why Rashad Jennings was struggling to find holes on up-the-gut runs out of the I. I could tell Western was stacking the box, but center Mike Godsil mentioned that WCU was stunting and slanting, trying to use their athleticism to seal any running lanes. Credit to Dennis Wagner's staff at Western for making a solid adjustment early in the game.

* The 2008 Catamounts really remind me of the 2006 Flames in many ways. There's certainly some talent at WCU, but when you've had a couple of awful seasons like Western has, it takes a while to gain confidence. This game reminded me a lot of the Liberty-Towson game in 2006. Liberty was in position to win, but against a more experienced team, faltered down the stretch. I think Western will at least be a middle-of-the-pack SoCon team by 2008.

* Several Liberty players mentioned that it took some time to get adjusted to the speed of the game playing against Division I athletes, rather than DII athletes.

* The bye week comes at a perfect time for the Flames, who hope to heal up some nicks and bruises before heading to Youngstown State Sept. 27. Also, the nature of the victory Saturday will give the coaching staff plenty of good film to work with. This week's practice will be more focused on Liberty improving itself. The Flames had 11 penalties for 99 yards, including a lot of procedural stuff on the offensive line. Not good.

* And for those who say Liberty didn't win by enough, I present a few scores from ranked FBS teams going on the road against unranked FCS teams yesterday: Georgia 14, South Carolina 7; East Carolina 28, Tulane 24; Auburn 3, Mississippi State 2. Winning on the road isn't easy, so the Flames will happily take a win over a SoCon team on the road, no matter how ugly it was. They don't happen often. The win improved LU to 3-20 on the road in non-league games since joining the Big South.