Liberty Football

For the last few season's Liberty's football program has been growing by leaps and bounds. Last year they finished the season ranked #14 in the FCS, narrowly missing the playoffs, and this season they opened the year playing at West Virginia. They hung with them, too, losing only 20-33. Earlier this month, the Athletic Director, Jeff Barber, announced plans to expand Williams Stadium, home of our football team, from 12,000 to 30,000 seats when it is all said and done. And now, the team is getting ready to play what very well could be the most important in program history, against James Madison. Currently, Liberty is ranked #24 and JMU is #6 in the FCS. If Liberty wins, and is able to play well the rest of the season, we should easily make the playoffs. That in itself would be a major milestone for the team and school, legitimizing us as a true football university. But, what may arguably be an even more important result is a change in the student/fan culture.

Until now, Liberty students have been very much fair weather fans (granted this is only my second year on campus, but it is just that obvious). Last season, it was fairly rare to have a full stadium by the end of the game, either because Liberty had it rapped it up by half, or because it was raining, too cold, whatever. On top of that, after we lost a home game last season, the first in quite a while, attendance dropped by 1,100 (it was even Homecoming), and a few weeks later was down 7,500 after losing on the road. That's just not the way it is supposed to work. If we want to be a true football school, we need to have dedicated, die-hard fans that will support the team through anything, all the way to the end. But what I see now, two and a half hours before game time, is awesome. It's raining out, it's cold, and yet there are students lined up to get into the stadium! That is what we need! Yes, marketing did a great job of getting everyone hyped up during Friday's convocation, but in the past that alone has not worked. Something else is changing. Already this season we set an attendance record of 16,000+ at our home opener, and now they expect 20,000 to show for this game. I really believe that this game could be the deciding factor in changing the fan culture, and send Liberty students into a football frenzy.