Liberty improved to 3-1 on the season with a 21-12 win over Akron on Saturday night. Entering the game as 26.5 point favorites, it wasn’t the game many expected, but Liberty was able to pull it out in the 4th quarter. Here is everything head coach Hugh Freeze had to say following the game:
OPENING STATEMENT
“Look, winning college football games is hard. I’m thankful. Thankful that our kids fought, found a way to win the game. Had a feeling it was going to be a difficult task by the way the week kind of went. We celebrate the fact that we’re one step closer to our goal of being bowl eligible. They all count the same at the end of the year and you’re not going to worry about it.”
“Now, having said that, there is a lot that we’ve got to fix, particularly offensively and some special teams wise. Defense continues to play well. I tell you, Coach Moorhead had an outstanding plan tonight against us. Really give them credit for the plan that they had. They are really good coaches. They had good skill people too and the quarterback played really, really well. But, we’ve got to fix some stuff offensively and that lies in my lap.”
“Again, we celebrate the fact that we have three victories and protected The Mountain. Glad that our kids continue to fight for the full 60 minutes.”
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE TONIGHT?
“Defense and I thought Aidan Alves punted the ball extremely well. We didn’t cover it well all the time, but the 4th quarter he really flipped the field and kept them pinned back and gave us some short fields where we could get in some things where we felt like let’s just try to run the ball and hammer, and get that last score in. He’s probably our MVP as well as our defense bowing their neck and keeping them out of the end zone so many times.”
WHAT SPARK DID HAMPTON GIVE THE OFFENSE?
“Well, in my mind, was he in just really one drive that we were running all of our stuff and we scored, so that’s pretty good. I think the others we were really trying to milk it and they were loading the box on us pretty heavy. I thought he could have got one of those runs in, he’s upset on himself on that. Obviously, that was a good package we had for him. Thankful we have him and JB, because we are obviously down to both of those two and it will take both of them moving forward if that’s the case for us to compete and win games.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR RBs TONIGHT?
“I thought both of those guys were solid. I can’t tell you how many times we put ourselves behind the chains. I’ve got to see it on film. Cooper got called for three false starts, he swears he’s not moving. I don’t know, I will have to see it on the film. But we put ourselves behind the chains over, and over and over again, that’s coaching. If we’re moving or something, and then negative plays, we busted two times on just simple bubble routes that we throw and we didn’t block the corner. It should have been really big plays, solid plays that get us on schedule. Instead we are 2nd and 12 or something. Why that’s happening all of a sudden, I don’t know. We just had a really strange week. I wish I could chalk it up to that alone, but I’ve got to figure it out for sure, we can’t have another week like that.”
DID YOU CONSIDER GOING TO NATE EARLIER?
“I love JB. He’s been with us a long time. You want to give him every chance to lead our team to victory. Certainly, he threw two really good touchdown passes tonight, but it really came down to once we kind of flipped that field, thinking we’re not protecting extremely well. Let me see if I can get some plus one runs and get the ball in the end zone. That’s what we did.”
“Nate was on his way to lead us for another one that we got called for offensive PI and I think it was a good call. Which, again, we’ve got to get that cleaned up.”
HOW IMPRESSIVE WAS THE DEFENSIVE LINE?
“We’ve played well, for four games, up front defensively. I think it’s one of the strengths of our team. Where that stacks up nationally, I don’t know, and don’t know that that matters to us. I know that they are one of the strengths of our team. Hopefully we can stay healthy there and they can continue to lead.”
“Football starts at quarterback and then it goes to D-Line. If you play really well at both of those, you’re going to win a lot of games.”
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SUCH A FLUKE INJURY WITH BARRY FINKE THERE ON THE SIDELINE?
“Golly, I’m glad you brought that up because I’m just sick over that. I’m really just, I thought about him a lot. Barry gives so much to this team and serves and serves and serves and serves. To see him go down to an injury like that, that you know, I could see, you’re almost in shock. Man, that’s a guy we don’t need to lose. Thankfully we have others here that can step in his stead, but our prayers are certainly with him. I hope to hear from Dr. P and those guys tonight that they are able to do surgery fairly quick and get him certainly out of pain I hope because I know that had to be painful. I knew as soon as I saw it that it was not good. When you can see the blood coming out, that’s not a good break. Man, Barry, our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
KIND OF IRONIC TO HAVE YOUR TRAINER GO DOWN WITH ALL THE INJURIES.
“It’s been a strange week. Certainly, man I just hope everything can be repaired great with no significant damage long term to him and that he can be back with us as soon as possible.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE BLOCKED FIELD GOAL?
“I thought the kick was a little low. Our guys said they leveraged them to leap too. I don’t know, I’ll have to see that. I’ll have to watch the film, I’m not sure.”
