Liberty has made things easy this go around. That's just fine for the Flames program which has suffered through some very long and agonizing seasons. Perhaps with an easier schedule heading into Big South play, they can hang around and be more competitive...

LU's football schedule not as daunting

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
March 8, 2006

Liberty's 2006 football schedule doesn't have the glitz and glamour that the 2005 slate did.

But, as new Flames coach Danny Rocco will point out, that 2005 schedule, filled with I-AA powers and a I-A money game, was a big reason why Liberty stumbled its way through a program-worst 1-10 season.

"These kids had no confidence," said Rocco, who finalized the schedule Wednesday. "They had very little self-esteem. We just wanted to give ourselves a chance early on, to give ourselves some confidence."

The Flames opened last season with a harder-than-it-should-have been 17-6 home win against Division II Concord before setting off on its record 10-game losing streak. A brutal stretch of games - at Connecticut, vs. Youngstown State, at William & Mary - set the tone for the season. Liberty lost the three by a combined 157-0 count, and the Flames never recovered. Instead of preparing the Flames for the conference schedule, the non-conference slate beat Liberty down.

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