FIU Panthers vs. Liberty Flames, 10/8/2024, 7pm

Flames 31 – Liberty 24, Attendance: 16,343

Weather: Sunny, 61; Ticket: $9, $35 Face, Parking: $21 (both Stubhub)

“Give me Liberty or maybe something else” by Tree

Liberty University is in Lynchburg, Virginia. While the mountain scenery is exceptional, getting there is not easy. The regional airports of Roanoke (one hour away) and Richmond (two hours away) are options. Arriving from DC airports will take three hours. It is a very nice area for outdoor activities, but not much else. Given the size of Lynchburg, lodging could be a challenge. However, with the Blue Ridge mountains and Skyline drive nearby, touristy hotels are another option.

Liberty University is a private, evangelical Christian university that was founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell, Sr. and others. Despite the relatively young age of Liberty, it has grown dramatically and with it their sports programs. The Christian roots remain and the Liberty campus is a dry one and so is the tailgating. My research suggested that discrete alcohol consumption at tailgates is tolerated but I did not get to test that out. Liberty is part of the Conference USA, who like the MAC, now have games on weekdays. I went to see Liberty host Florida International on a Tuesday night.

Admittedly, one should not expect robust tailgating on a Tuesday night. With adjusted expectations, I bought a parking pass online for the brown lot, which was the middle price point of lots over the pink and orange lots. I packed some of the tailgating stuff just in case, because the lot was quite close to the stadium. When I finally got to the lot, I was disappointed to see zero tailgating. I then headed over to the pink lot where it was full of cars but exactly only one small, friendly group of tailgaters. They said tailgating is better on Saturdays. I did not doubt that. It could not possibly be worse. A check on the orange lot also confirmed there were no tailgaters. The Liberty scene made the very weak BYU tailgating look like a massive rager.

The Flames play in Williams Stadium, which is a small stadium with a capacity of 25,000. The benefits of a small stadium are clear as just about any seat is going to give you a good line of sight on the game. I sprung for lower level seats on the home side which cost me the princely sum of $9. They came with the added benefit of seat backs. The other seats are standard bleachers and there is a small grass section in one endzone as well. There is one large video board in the end zone opposite that grass section and two video ribbons on each side of the field. The ribbons provide closed captioning on the penalty calls which is an added bonus. Much like the rest of Liberty’s campus, the stadium still feels relatively new and it’s a worthy stadium given the size of the school. The concessions are standard fare. I did manage to get a stadium cup ($10) but there is no beer served in the stadium.

It was a pretty good crowd for a Tuesday night, and the attendant gave me a smile cause she knew what I came to see. I hustled down to my seat just in time to catch the opening prayer. That may have been a first. I don’t recall that at BYU and it certainly didn’t happen at Notre Dame. Liberty’s colors are red, white and blue and it gave the stadium a 4th of July kind of feeling. The other thing I noticed about the crowd is the number of kids in attendance. I have seen that before. BYU had the same flavor. Likewise, whenever the scoreboard camera panned to someone holding a baby, the place went nuts.

The student section was vibrant, particularly for a Tuesday night. One might speculate that there’s probably not much else to do on Liberty’s campus, but it would be unfair to not admit their participation was impressive. There were L.U. cheers on first down, flashed L. U. hand logos, and a prominent “GO L. U.” chant was often heard. There were not any bits during TV timeouts except for an entertaining “Race the Flash”. The Liberty Band was big and sounded good. Their mascot, Sparky the Eagle, ran around entertaining the multitude of kids. They also had a Fourth Quarter Fury light show that would rival any Power Four conference display. The Flame faithful have also borrowed third down key shaking from their big brother Hokies down the road. As expected, attire at this game was low key. It was almost exclusively a sweatshirt/flannels and blue jeans crowd, for both fans and the student body.

With Liberty undefeated at 5-0 and FIU coming in at 2-4, this game had all the markings of a blow-out. The Panthers, however, came to play. The game was marked by some great returns in the kicking game, and some sloppy play. It opened with the teams’ trading punts and then field goals. FIU took the lead late in the first quarter off a run, but for most of the game, passing was their strength. Likewise, Liberty owned the ground. The Flames would tie up the game with a drive that was ten rushes and one pass. Rushing was the key for Liberty as even in their late two-minute drive of the half, their second touchdown drive was led primarily by running the ball.

An ugly, scoreless third quarter was highlighted by back-to-back turnovers. Perhaps fired up after the opening pyrotechnics of the 4th quarter fury, Liberty had a nice balanced drive to score a touchdown and go up 24 – 10. It looked like the Panthers were done. However, FIU managed to convert a fourth and one, followed by a 40 yard bomb, to ultimately score a touchdown. The Flames then went on a three and out drive that went backwards instead of forward. This gave FIU good field position which they used to drive the field in under four minutes and tie the game at 24 – 24.

The crowd went silent as the two teams could not muster another score before the end of the fourth quarter. To overtime we went with momentum clearly in the visiting Panthers hands. It carried over as they won the coin toss, but it did not matter. Liberty ran through FIU’s defense like a hot knife in butter to score in four plays. FIU, inexplicably ran the ball twice and then fumbled the ball on a third down pass attempt – game over. The win for the Flames was not exactly dominant and was a harbinger of bad things to come. The next week they would get upset by winless Kennesaw State in a shocker. They would go on to lose two more games and just miss the CUSA conference championship.

Visiting Liberty is a lot like going to see BYU, it just feels different. From the tepid tailgating to the recognition of the local pastors during the game, this is not a normal FBS environment. It is also a bit of a dichotomy. The dance team’s routine is as tame as a 1950’s sock hop while the celebratory first down cheer is accompanied by cheerleaders’ hip thrusting their way forward – “move those chains, move those chains, umph!” More alarming are the leather-lunged yells to “Ooh, rip his head off” on every Liberty kickoff. WWJD indeed.

Immediately following my Liberty visit, I had shoe-horned it into the ‘to be avoided experience’. However, the Flames have been a solid FBS program since making the jump from FCS so the football action itself is likely to be good enough. Couple this with the right timing of the fall leaf change in the Shenandoah National Park and it could be a pleasant weekend. It also has a sort of strange, Ripley’s Believe It or Not appeal. The overall vibe is so different from a normal FBS game that it is almost worth checking it out for that reason alone. Perhaps not a resounding recommendation, but not an outright rejection either.

Liberty: Bibles but not booze