Childress: I’ve sat long enough

By Chris Lang
Sports writer
Published: August 6, 2008

Liberty linebacker Nick Hursky recalled the first meeting with defensive coordinator Tom Clark after the Flames’ spring game in April. Liberty’s offense spent the afternoon toying with the first-team defense. No one tackled. No one flew to the ball. Very few Flames looked remotely interested in slowing the offense.
“Coach Clark said it best: It wasn’t good, it wasn’t us,” Hursky said. “We were out there, just not really doing anything. If we would have played like that in a game, we would have lost. It was bad. That’s what happens when you let your guard down.”
Of course, that spring game was the only sample size in which to judge a re-vamped Flames’ linebacker corps in live action. Vince Redd is gone to the NFL, where he is trying to make the New England Patriots’ roster. Stevie Ray Lloyd was an all-conference pick and LU’s leading tackler, and Brandon Duke was a three-year starter at outside linebacker.
The three combined for 203 tackles, more than 20 percent of the team’s total for the season. Redd led the team in sacks and tackles for loss.
So it’s understandable that there was some concern in the offseason about Liberty’s linebackers, the linchpins of the 3-4 defense.
“Coach Clark had a bad taste in his mouth after that game,” said Ian Childress, a Liberty High graduate who will assume Redd’s role at weak-side linebacker. “We had a lot of stuff to learn from it.”
Hursky, a second-team all-conference pick, returns for his second full season as the “Mike” linebacker. Sophomore Pat Bannon moves from the inside to take Duke’s spot on the strong side. Another sophomore, Kyle O’Donnell, moves into Lloyd’s “Jack” linebacker position.
Childress, who played defensive end and offensive tackle at Liberty High, came to LU after spending one season at Hargrave. Former Flames coach Ken Karcher wasn’t quite sure how to utilize Childress, playing him at defensive end in LU’s old 4-3 scheme, then moving him to tight end. Once Danny Rocco took over as head coach, he installed a 3-4 defense and moved Childress to outside linebacker.
Childress isn’t the same caliber of athlete that Redd was, but he shares similar characteristics with his former teammate. Childress is 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds and has long arms. He played a stand-up defensive end in the 4-3, so he’s well versed in rushing the passer, but he’s agile enough to slip back in pass coverage and provide support.
“Vince Redd was a special young man,” Liberty linebackers coach Robert Wimberly said. “But Ian is long and rangy. He looks very good. He allows us to do so much coming off the edge as a pass rusher. But he’s also good in coverage because of his wingspan.”
Childress is the only returning outside linebacker with appreciable experience, and he’s eager to prove he can be an impact player.
“I’ve sat long enough,” he said. “I’m ready to play.”
Rocco said in the spring that he was excited to see what O’Donnell could do in place of Lloyd.  He played in all 11 games last season as a redshirt freshman and had 14 tackles, including a season-high four stops in LU’s victory over Coastal Carolina.
O’Donnell is quicker than Lloyd (he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds) and excels in pass coverage, especially against opposing tight ends, who took advantage of the Flames’ inability to cover seam routes last year.
Neither O’Donnell nor Mike Connolly, a redshirt freshman expected to play significant minutes backing up Childress and Bannon on the outside, played very well in the spring game.
“In spring practice, we nailed everything, and we firmly believed we knew it,” Connolly said. “But the spring game, personally, I felt like a deer in the headlights when I was out there. It was my first opportunity to play on a college level. As a unit, we definitely could have performed better, made sharper movements, made more precise calls.”
Liberty’s linebackers have chosen to view their collective struggles in the spring game as a learning tool. They understand chemistry isn’t built overnight, and that it will take some time for the new group to grow together and learn each other’s tendencies. Now that training camp has arrived, there’s a sense that the growth process must hasten. They understand that the linebackers are the backbone of any solid 3-4 defense, and that come Aug. 30, any “deer in the headlights” moments will come with a heavy price.
“I’m really optimistic about it,” Rocco said. “We’ve got some guys who are kind of suited to play in this defense.
“We’ve got four guys that can run and hit. So that’s very encouraging.”