Turner Gill has long said he felt like Liberty University was home sweet home. Now it looks as though his team isn't as sweet as FBS opponents would hope. Gill, who is a former Nebraska football player and an assistant coach led his team against the Baylor Bears on Saturday night and came away with the biggest upset of the weekend.
Since Gill took over the Flames, he's been building a program that is among the better teams in the FCS ranks. The team has been playing so well for the last few years they are looking to move up to the FBS level. If Saturday is any indication, it appears the team can hold its own.
Liberty pulled off the upset, in Waco, against a Baylor Bears team that wanted to prove its still a contender, with a 48-45 final score. The game was the first ever win over an FBS Power 5 conference school.
Liberty offense took Baylor to task
When looking for who should be the heroes of the game for the Flames, there are any number of different players to choose from. Yes quarterback Stephen Calvert had himself quite the game, completing 44 of 60 passes for 447 yards and three touchdowns. He didn't throw a single interception, despite putting it in the air so many times.
The bad news got worse for Baylor though, as they couldn't stop Liberty on the ground either. The Flames' starting running back Carrington Mosely had 28 carries for 122 yards.
Those numbers show an offensive attack that was surprisingly balance given how many times they put the ball in the air. Two Liberty receivers dominated the Baylor secondary, with Antonio Gandy-Golden really running wild thanks to 13 catches for 192 yards and two touchdowns.
Baylor continues to struggle
There may not be a football program that has been more maligned than the Bears over the last few years.
The team is on its third coach in three years after having to dismiss Art Briles for rank incompetence for his handling of some rather horrendous accusations filed against his football team off the field.
It appears the team, which has been a perennial Big 12 power over the last few seasons, has hit rock bottom again. One has to wonder if this is the beginning of a slide that saw the program be among the worst in college football for more than a decade before Briles turned the program around. Meanwhile, Turner Gill, who had a successful run as head man at Buffalo before a disastrous two seasons at Kansas, might be getting looks from bigger FBS programs in the very near future.
