Ever since Coach Freeze was hired as Liberty’s head football coach, he’s stressed the importance of competition at every spot. Even at quarterback, Freeze has often said he wants incumbent starter Buckshot Calvert to be stressed. That’s very different from what we saw the last 3 years under Coach Gill.
“We’re going to play the best players irregardless of what class they’re in,” Freeze said during his opening press conference of training camp. “Quarterback is a little different, you’re going to play 1, maybe 2, hopefully, in a season. If you’re having to play 3 or 4 quarterbacks, something bad is happening – either you’re turning it over or you’ve had a lot of injuries and that’s not good.”
Buckshot took over as Liberty’s starting quarterback early in his true freshman season and he has not looked back, rewriting the Liberty record book for passing yards and touchdowns in the process. Then Freeze brings in a very talented true freshman QB in Johnathan Bennett, who was originally recruited by Gill’s staff, but Freeze pushed hard to get Bennett on campus for the spring so he could get acclimated to the new system.
The competition in the room wouldn’t stop there as the Flames brought in talented Auburn quarterback Malik Willis this summer. Willis is currently ineligible this season, but he and the Flames’ compliance staff are applying for a waiver so he could be immediately eligible.
“He brings a level of maturity to that room because we’re pretty young after you get past Buck,” Liberty offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kent Austin said of Willis who has a redshirt year and 2 seasons of eligibility remaining. “He’s been at a high level for a couple of years and has had that level of coaching and that level of environment. He brings those qualities into that room. He’s a complete gym rat, he has a desire to be really good.”
Malik Willis
With the two new additions and a lot of praise being thrown their way, one has to wonder how stable Buckshot is as the starter.
“Yeah, 100%,” Austin said when asked Sunday if Calvert is the starter. “He’s got a lot of experience, for good reason. He’s a good player. It’s our job to continue to push him to make sure that he reaches whatever level he can reach in our offense for this year, to make sure that he accomplishes that for our football team.”
Coach Freeze did not sugarcoat his message this summer to his senior starting quarterback.
“I speak very frankly with Buckshot,” Freeze said. “The guy can make every throw. Chad Kelly’s the best quarterback that I’ve coached arm strength wise, ball knowledge. Buckshot can make every throw just like Chad could. I notice there’s a big difference though, Buckshot doesn’t study a lot of film.”
“After a couple weeks of summer, I sent him a text and said, ‘What did you see on this cut up da da da?’ Knowing…He’s honest. I said, ‘That produces average results like 22 touchdowns and 18 picks,’ which he had last year. ‘If you really want to change the stats, then we have to have a plan. I’ve done all the cut ups for you. Coach Austin has done all the teach tapes. For you, at some point, I can’t do it because of the NCAA rules. I can’t go sit and make you do this.'”
Both Freeze and Austin have emphasized how important it is to protect the football in this system. If Buckshot is on pace for 18 interceptions again this season, we will probably see another quarterback on the field. If he’s able to protect the ball and keep his turnovers down, he will be the Flames’ starter the entire season. It’s really that simple.
“Buck is a naturally talented quarterback,” Austin said. “He has a great arm, great natural accuracy. Sometimes he relies on his arm talent too much. So, we’re focusing more in on poor decisions. We want to eliminate Buck’s disaster plays or poor plays, turnovers. He’s going to make his plays with the receiving corp he has, as long as we protect, which we believe we can. Buck is going to find that the explosive plays he will be able to make with his arm talent will always be there. The most important thing is to make sure we protect the football and give the offense a chance and give our defense a chance.”
In the meantime, Freeze and Austin will continue to develop the talent behind Calvert. Bennett really impressed during the spring and again during the start of fall camp. Willis has some natural talent, he just needs to learn the system and we need to see if his appeal gets approved.
“JB has outstanding intangibles,” Austin said of the true freshman who is currently getting all of the work with the 2nd unit. “He is somebody that possesses natural leadership qualities. He’s another guy that cares quite a bit about being as good as he can be and reaching his ceiling. Whatever God gave him physically, mentally, emotionally to reach his ceiling JB understands that. He’s one of our better decision makers in the room right now, even as a freshman, which says a lot about his maturity and the growth he has experienced since he’s been here.”
Liberty OC & QB coach Kent Austin
If Willis’ waiver is denied, Bennett will enter the season as Buckshot’s backup. This is where the new 4-game redshirt rule could come into play. We could see Bennett play in 4 games early, but still maintain his redshirt season. If Calvert progresses as the coaching staff hopes, he will remain the starter and Bennett will redshirt. We could also see Bennett push Calvert to the point that Freeze can’t keep him off the field and gives him a package that gets him in the game every week.
“They just tell me I need to keep playing hard like I did in the spring and let everything unfold the way it does,” Bennett said. “They didn’t promise me anything. I don’t really expect anything as far as any special treatment or anything. I’m just looking to compete and play hard. That’s all out of my control. The only thing I can control is what I bring to the table everyday in practice. That’s all I can control. If the coaches think it’s the best thing for me to be on the field, then I’ll be on it. If not, I will learn and hopefully learn every week and get better.”
Behind Bennett and Willis, the Flames have several other young quarterbacks that have shown some promise. Redshirt-freshman Brandon Robinson got all the reps at 3rd string on Sunday. Landon Brown, Will Bowers, and Henry Van Dellen also had solid days during Sunday’s open practice.
“Their understanding of how to execute our offense, their anticipation on the throws, getting pre-snap read on coverage to shorten the decision tree for our quarterbacks has gotten a lot better,” Austin said of his group. “Pre-snap recognition is really important. If we can limit the amount of decisions they need to make post-snap down to 1 or 2, they are going to play faster and the game is going to come easier.”
“We’ll see how it plays out. Right now, the most important thing is that our starter is prepared and that we find our 2 and 3 that is trustworthy. That we can count on.”
Freeze thinks Calvert will make the leap he needs to be successful this season.
“I really think if we can just get a plan that he totally understands and he understands how to take care of the football, then he is going to have a special year,” Freeze said. “I believe that, but it’s a process of getting him to the point of how to evaluate and know pre-snap this has a good chance of happening. I have a lot of weaknesses, but I also think I have a gift to be able to help a quarterback in a game preparation setting. To be able to say, ‘Here is some clues and this is a good chance this is going to happen post-snap, and what are we going to do?’ Our stuff is post-snap oriented, a lot of it. I could change it at any time and just make us something, but a lot of it is if this, then this. I was a geometry teacher for 6 years, and it’s a lot of if-then stuff. Defenses don’t just give you 1 or 2 looks, they give you, it feels like 100 sometimes.”
