Liberty football coach Turner Gill recently announced cornerback Chris Turner was dismissed from the university for a violation of school policy, and is one of two players who were dismissed from the team and will not return to the Flames for their inaugural season in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Defensive tackle Gregg Storey, who like Turner was in his redshirt-junior season at the university, is no longer on the roster because of a violation of team rules.
Turner appeared in all 11 games with three starts in 2017. The 6-foot-3, 175-pound cornerback finished with 28 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack, an interception for returned for a touchdown, seven pass breakups and eight passes defended.
He was known for his highlight-reel interceptions that landed him on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays on several occasions.
Storey missed one game because of a personal issue last season, and finished with 19 tackles to go with six starts at nose guard.
Linebacker Jaylyn McKinney and cornerback Cameron Jones previously announced they were transferring following last season’s conclusion. McKinney has enrolled at the University of Cincinnati and has two seasons of eligibility remaining as a graduate student.
Wide receivers Spencer Jones and Brett Bitter, offensive lineman Adam Fields, and defensive lineman Peyton Stallard are also no longer listed on the roster.
Nerness transfers
Seth Nerness, a defensive end who was one of the first players to transfer to Liberty after the program announced its move to the FBS, has transferred.
Gill said he was notified of Nerness’ decision when the team returned from winter break.
“He felt like he had some other things he wanted to go and accomplish,” Gill said. “He doesn’t know whether he’s going to play football or not. He’ll make that determination after this semester.”
Nerness transferred from Iowa State and sat out the 2017 season because of NCAA transfer rules.
Early spring practices
The Flames’ spring practice session begins Saturday, which is about a month earlier than the program has started its 15-practice slate in previous seasons.
Gill said the move was made because of two reasons. He wanted to give his players an extra month to recover from any injuries suffered in the 15 practices, and he wanted to take advantage of the NCAA rule of having juniors make official visits beginning April 1.
Teams can call juniors during a period between April 15 and May 31, and official visits are permissible April 1 through the Sunday prior to the last Wednesday in June.
“I wanted us to get done before spring break,” Gill said, “so that would give us a little more time to be focused more on recruiting and we’re prepared a little bit better before we go out on the road.”
Previous spring practice sessions began in March and the spring games were held in mid-April. The expansion of Williams Stadium prevents the Flames from hosting a spring game, and Gill said the fanfest held prior to the start of the season will be a little more involved for the fans to see the team.
Recruiting update
The traditional signing day is set for Wednesday and Gill is planning on reaching 30 players signed between Wednesday and the early signing period back in December.
The Flames signed 19 players (14 high school seniors and five junior college transfers) in December, and are eyeing to sign 11 players Wednesday. Two high school seniors and two JUCO players have already verbally committed.
Gill said he was pleased with the number of players who visited campus and signed in December.
“We’ll see what happens on Wednesday to finalize as far as people coming on campus and they actually committing and signing,” he said. “That’s huge.”
