Liberty outlasted Southern Miss, in four overtimes, on Saturday night to open the 2022 season at 1-0. The Flames won the game, 29-27, and here is everything head coach Hugh Freeze had to say following the win:

OPENING THOUGHTS

“It’s very satisfying. I’ve never been a part of a game quite like that. First of all, Jimmy Wilder passed away in this state. That guy is a legend to high school football here. Our prayers are with his family. He was one of the kindest men I’ve ever known.”

“Secondly, our team showed a ton of grit. I did not coach them well tonight. Made some good calls at times, but certainly feel like we didn’t play as disciplined football as I’m used to. I’ve got to get that corrected, but you can’t say enough about our grit, our fight, kids making plays. Obviously, it was a shock to us to lose Charlie. Hate that for him, all the things he has been through to prepare for this moment. That’s one of the toughest things about coaching, but it happened. Props to JB for doing some good things and obviously for Kaidon doing some nice things also. Obviously, we’ve got some things to improve on also. It feels really good to leave here with a win.”

“I told everybody that would listen, I had this feeling that this team is going to be one of the more improved teams. I know they are defensively. Offensively, they are still searching at quarterback. Not sure how that will play out. Defensively, watch what I’m telling you. They will be one of the top defensive units in the country. Bill and his staff, I give congratulations to them. I know it hurts, but they’ve already taken leaps and bounds and improved from last year. I’m pulling for those guys.”

HOW IMPRESSED WERE YOU WITH KAIDON SALTER?

“KSalt has always done good things in practice. Physically, he’s gifted. It’s just mentally he’s still learning. He’s young and he’s still learning the system. Even tonight, he called a few protections wrong that got us in trouble. Tried to force a ball down there, but you also see the other side of that in the guy can make a lot of dynamic plays. Obviously, we are very happy he is with us. Probably don’t win the game tonight without him. Now, we’ve got to go coach him and get him better. Hopefully, get a package that he totally understands where we’re in the right protections and we’re doing the right things at the snap. That hurt us a little bit, hurt us in overtime a little bit pretty bad. We hadn’t showed him that look. I should have called a timeout. That’s the things I’m saying, I should have called a timeout.”

FOR HIM TO BE THE 3RD GUY GOING INTO THIS GAME.

“Listen, you can’t say enough about him. I don’t think we win the game without him. I’m telling you, I have confidence that Nate (Hampton) can go in and do good things too, as I do with JB. Tonight, KSalt showed we needed an athletic guy because we were struggling to block their front. He gave us that mobility we needed.”

WHAT DID THE DOCTORS TELL YOU ABOUT CHARLIE BREWER?

“I don’t want to say. I know it’s a fracture of some type. I haven’t had conversations yet enough to really speak intelligently about it.”

WHAT ABOUT THE DEFENSIVE LINE’S PLAY?

“They got turnovers. The game shouldn’t have been as close the way they played. Now, we did some crazy things over there too. Some of the pass interferences, we’ve got to coach better. We were in position. We’re just not playing the ball at all, we’ve got to get that fixed. You can’t say enough about our D-Line. They probably played too many snaps. I don’t know what their play count was, but I felt like I had to go a little faster to try to move the ball on that front. You can’t say enough about the way our defense played.”

WHAT CAN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THIS GAME?

“We won. Bottom line, whether you have 0 turnovers or 5 turnovers, a win…our ultimate goal is to be bowl eligible again in year four. We have a very difficult schedule. This puts us one step closer to that against a really quality defense. We’ve got to get ready for another tough one. Our schedule is rough. It sure feels a lot better though, knowing we can grind. I loved our staff. Our staff really never got rattled. We just kept talking about things we could do to find a way to fight and win on the road, it’s gratifying.”