GWU now must turn its attention to league power Liberty

BOILING SPRINGS — As much as loyal Runnin’ Bulldog fans may want to fret about back-to-back Big South Conference defeats by a mere seven total points, this Gardner-Webb squad has no time for that.

Such is the case when you face a trip this Saturday to play league kingpin Liberty University (3-0, 6-2).

“We’re certainly jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” said GWU head coach Steve Patton at his weekly press luncheon. “Defensively, the last few years, they’re the team that’s probably given us more problems. in Mike Brown (QB), they have the most dangerous offensive player in the league, and in Chris Sumner, they’ve got a 6-3, 6-4 receiver who’s putting up great numbers this year.

“They’ve given us trouble with what they do. They’re very physical, they have a good scheme and are good at what they do.”

Before deciding how to best scheme against the Liberty offensive and defensive sets, GWU has to get its own house in order. That means eliminating mistakes.

“they are good enough if we have those kind of mistakes and turnovers, instead of a three-point game it’ll be a 23-point difference or more,” said Patton. “I thought we had a good game plan last week (with Coastal Carolina). we held them to less than 300 yards and our offense moved it. we had a great drive to go down and score with 28 seconds to go to tie it. But we did some things that really hurt.

“we got a turnover deep and didn’t get points out of it. Anther time we’re driving into their end of the field and we fumbled. One that really hurt was when we dropped the snap on a punt. Then we had the ‘pick six’ interception run back on us.”

Despite the overtime loss, Patton did see some positive signs.

“I liked a lot of what happened,” he said. “we played pretty good against a big, fast football team. we only had one running back healthy and yet we ran it 34 times. After the sacks we had the week before, that helped us a little.

“But I saw a lot of energy and effort out there. we had more guys going across the middle and catching tough balls. our quarterback played good at times. it was just discouraging to come so close and lose.”

GWU will likely have quarterback Chandler Browning back in the mix this week and linebacker Jeffrey Williams could get the green light. But linebacker Dami Teniola will likely miss Saturday’s contest and GWU’s running back situation remains clouded.

<a href="http://www.shelbystar.com/sports/league-51129-liberty-power.htmltag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.shelbystar.com/sports/league-51129-liberty-power.htmlTue, 02 Nov 2010 22:07:20 GMT 00:00″>GWU now must turn its attention to league power Liberty

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