Liberty opens training camp this weekend in preparation for the 2020 season. There are many questions to be answered in the coming days and weeks, but here are the top storylines we are following entering camp.
Will there be a season?
Despite the calendar turning to August and the scheduled 2020 football season opener 30 days away, there are still many questions left regarding Liberty’s and college football’s 2020 season. Will there be a season? How many games will be played? When will the season begin? Who will be on the schedule?
This will be a trending topic throughout camp until the schedule has been finalized.
Breaking in a new QB
It’s been 4 years since Liberty was looking to find its new signal caller, a battle that was eventually won by true freshman Buckshot Calvert. Now, Hugh Freeze and the Flames are looking for Liberty’s all-time passing leader’s replacement. Auburn transfer Malik Willis transferred into the program a year ago and sat out the 2019 season due to NCAA transfer requirements. Freeze also brought in grad transfer Maine quarterback Chris Ferguson who will compete with Willis for the starting nod.
Replacing key contributors from 2019
Not only will the Flames have to replace Buckshot, but also several other key contributors from 2019 including Antonio Gandy-Golden, Frankie Hickson, Dontae Duff, Alex Probert, Bejour Wilson, Jessie Lemonier, Elijah Benton, Solomon Ajayi, and several others.
How will these losses be accounted for and who are some new names that will step up in their absence?
Freeze looking to go through full camp at LU for first time
Early in his first training camp at Liberty last year, Freeze left the team’s first scrimmage with severe back spasms. We all know the story as he was eventually diagnosed with and had surgery for a severe staph infection. It led to him coaching from the press box the first two games of the season. With Freeze hoping to go through a full camp at Liberty for the first time, how big of an impact will that have on the team early in the season?
Trying to get back to a bowl game
After making the program’s first ever bowl appearance in the team’s first season as a full FBS member, the Flames are looking to get back to a second straight bowl game. As the Cure Bowl agreement has expired, Liberty now enters into a new 6-year secondary bowl agreement with ESPN which could place the Flames in one of the following bowls – Boca Raton, Camellia, Famous Idaho Potato, Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco, Myrtle Beach, or the New Mexico Bowl. Of course, in a COVID-19 world, we don’t know how the bowl season will look or if there even be a bowl season.
