Liberty University football should benefit from high number of Division I transfers

By: By Chris Lang Lynchburg News & Advance | WSLS
Published: August 01, 2009

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Once again, Liberty’s football program will benefit from an influx of Division I transfers.

Former Massachusetts and Heritage High running back Korrey Davis already announced his intentions to transfer to Liberty in June. Davis will be ineligible to compete this fall because he‘s transferring from a Football Championship Subdivision school. At Friday’s Big South media day, LU coach Danny Rocco confirmed that three more transfers, all from Football Bowl Subdivision schools, will be on Liberty’s roster when it opens practice next Thursday.

Receiver Freddie Brown will graduate from South Carolina next Thursday and is expected to be in Lynchburg by Aug. 8 to join the team. Brown’s transfer was made public in the spring, but he had to graduate from South Carolina first and then obtain an NCAA waiver to use his final year of eligibility at Liberty.

Marques Jenkins, a 6-foot-1, 238-pound linebacker, will transfer in from Ole Miss. He didn’t play for the Rebels last season and will have four years of eligibility remaining. Jenkins also spent time at Hargrave Military Academy.

“He has a good nose for the ball and moves well for a big kid,” Rocco said. “He kind of fits that bill that we look for in our linebackers. He’s a little bit bigger, a little longer. I think he’s going to have a bright future.”

Ronald Hobby, a 5-10, 175-pound cornerback, comes to Liberty after spending a year at Pittsburgh. He didn’t play at Pitt and will have four years of eligibility remaining.

“He’s talented and athletic,” Rocco said. “We need to know how well he can learn and perform in our system.”

The final new addition is defensive lineman Paco Varol, a 6-3, 255 pounder who grew up in Germany and “found us,” Rocco said. Varol won’t be with the team until the first day of classes because he’s still working out issues with his visa and other paperwork.

Back again

At last year’s Big South media day, Presbyterian quarterback Tim Webb talked at length about his return to the field from a broken neck, suffered in a 2007 game at Liberty. The only thing that changed this year for Webb was the injury.

Webb, a senior, missed the back half of last season after fracturing his foot on a play against North Greenville. He hopes the freak injuries are behind him as he gets set to battle sophomore Brandon Miley for time at quarterback.

“It’s really frustrating, but at the same time, it really makes me appreciate football and how fleeting it is,” Webb said. “I’m really privileged to be able to play. Of course, my mom doesn’t want me to play, but she supports me too. That’s kind of my goal, not to get hurt this year.”

Extra points

Three FCS conferences — the Ohio Valley, Southern and Big Sky — chose to cancel their media days this year and instead meet with the press via video teleconference. Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander implemented some cost-cutting measures, including cutting the yearly media gathering to one day. But he didn’t want to eliminate the event altogether. “This has been an event that’s grown over the years,” Kallander said. “It was too important for us in promoting our football programs and our conference to cancel it.” … Liberty has two non-conference opponents secure for its 2010 schedule — James Madison (in Harrisonburg) and St. Francis (Pa.) (in Lynchburg). There’s a date conflict with North Carolina Central, whom Liberty was supposed to play in Durham, N.C. NCCU signed a contract with LU, so it would have to pay to get out of the deal. Rocco said LU has offered to move the game to Lynchburg on a different date in lieu of a buyout. … Liberty, the preseason pick to win the conference, placed five players on the preseason all-league team. In contrast, Gardner-Webb, picked to finish fourth, placed 10 on the team.