As Liberty gears up for Saturday’s game against Syracuse, Hugh Freeze met with the media on Thursday to give an update on his team’s week of practice.

“Our kids are excited about this challenge,” said Freeze. “It’s a great opportunity and one that we’ll have to play our best to have a chance to compete in.”

“Tuesday was a tough day for us,” Freeze said of this week’s practice. “We had a lot of different types of obstacles that none of us could control that kind of messed up a little bit of our Tuesday, but sometimes that’s good to throw everybody out of our routine. But, we didn’t have a great practice Tuesday, that could have been just my mentality too.”

Below are the 5 most interesting comments from Freeze from his Thursday press conference …

FLAMES STAY FOCUSED ON PLAYER SAFETY

“Not a day goes by without us having that conversation (about players staying mindful of the threat COVID-19 presents). It’s obviously part of the world we live in now and certainly college football cases are not exempt to that. Whether its coaches or players or other staff members, we all are subject to get the virus whether we are playing football or not, but certainly our game depends upon us doing well and taking care of each other the best we can. So, we stress it daily.”

LIBERTY TO RIDE MACK SATURDAY

“Let me be clear, there’s nothing between he and I. It’s just a matter of everybody’s got to be held to the same standard for class attendance or whatever else we ask our team to do. There’s no issues. He’s had a great week and we told him we’re going to ride that horse this Saturday. He’s the guy we’re going to ride.”

FREEZE PREPARED TO FACE SYRACUSE TEMPO

“That’s never something that’s really concerned me, whether or not our guys will be able to handle a tempo offense. We can make it as fast as we want to make it in practice, which we have this week a few times. It’s not so much the tempo, it would be, to me, if they’re able to do that and get continuous first downs. Then, it’s not a matter that we can’t line up, it’s just  man those become difficult to process your assignment, the call, in that pace. That’s when tempo really gives you problems, when you’re on the field for a sustained amount of time.”

RUN GAME IS KEY

“We go into every game hoping to run the football so we can stay balanced. I think their front is very good, they flash. Can we handle all the stuff they do and allow us to run the football? I sure hope so. I think we can make it a game if we can run the football.”

EXCITED FOR THE OPPORTUNITY

“I love coaching in those type of environments and I think our kids enjoy playing in them. I’ve been very clear with everybody that has asked me about scheduling. I think one of the advantages we have as being an Independent is being able to put our kids in a lot of different scenarios with different opponents each year. I’m a big fan of playing two Power Fives a year. I don’t think you should play three or four. I don’t think that’s the right thing for our program right now. But for those two that we get, or in this year’s case three of them, I know our kids and coaches will be excited to prove that you belong on that type of stage. This is the first of three of those opportunities like that.”