No. 23 Liberty picked up an upset win over Arkansas on Saturday in Fayetteville, knocking off the Razorbacks, 21-19. With the win, the Flames improve to 8-1 on the season and pick up the program’s first ever win over an SEC opponent. Here is everything head coach Hugh Freeze had to say following the game, beginning with his opening statement:
“I’m kind of lost for words. I’m not much for an opening statement right now. Just to see our kids celebrate and our staff, to do it with the number of kids we have out, at quarterback, I just can’t say enough about JB and just his maturity in handling the last two games that we’ve had with BYU and at an SEC stadium.”
“I’ve brought a lot of good teams up here to this stadium back when I was in the league as an assistant and then as a head coach. I never left here real happy. Who would have thought that my first win at Fayetteville would have been with Liberty, a little FBS school just turned in the FBS the last four years. I think it speaks to our culture, our staff, our kids grit. Man, this season has been wild with the injuries. Then, to lose Dae Dae tonight, that’s a huge blow to us.”
“I don’t feel like I called a great offensive game, just tried to manage it to where our defense was playing so good but they played too many snaps, for sure. We got beat up on that side too with TreShaun and Durrell going out. We are playing a bunch of freshmen out there at the end, don’t even know where to line up it seemed half the time.”
“We are going to celebrate this one. Sam Pittman is a heck of a coach. I know the hurt and sting that comes with losses like this one. I hate that for him, Barry and his staff, but I won’t take away from our celebration. I’m more happy for Liberty than I am sad for them. I do understand what you go through in this profession. So thankful. Thankful for our administration, just really thankful for our kids.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE ON THE TWO POINT CONVERSION?
“I think Ahmad (made the tackle). It was probably several. I thought the replay, absolutely there was no way you could overturn it, the call on the field. I thought it was the right call. I don’t know who made it, but the way Ahmad was celebrating, I would guess he was in on it.”
YOUR DEFENSE GOT THE JOB DONE, DOMINATING THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE.
“I thought early on, we were the better team. I thought we were the better team. I thought we played harder. I just thought we were better at halftime. Their depth wore us down some, but I thought our kids played really hard. Defensive played really, really well the first half.”
WHERE DOES THIS WIN RANK AS A FIRST AMONG WHAT YOU’VE DONE AT LIBERTY?
“This one may be number one. I don’t know, I’ll have to process all that. We’ve beat some ACCs, but to come into an SEC stadium. I know, it’s hard as heck to bring an SEC roster in a stadium on the road in this league and win. It’s hard. I lived it. Again, to bring our Group of Five roster in here to win, it’s going to be hard-pressed to say this is not at least 1A or 1B.”
WHAT DOES IT SAY TO WIN THIS AFTER BEING SHUT OUT IN THE 2ND HALF?
“I don’t know, I wanted to be more aggressive because I thought we had shots with Demario in the pass game. They just, really, I was kinda shocked, but they really just said, ‘We can’t stop ’em, let’s just blitz every play.’ I really thought we could have gotten 12 personnel and thrown some double moves. I keep looking at the clock and saying, we’re two scores ahead, that’s with two two-point conversions, just be smart. I’m a risk-taker by chance, maybe should have taken that field goal, but the book said to go and I kinda felt like we had a good play. I thought Shedro, he bounced it wide, instead of plugging the double team. It says a lot for us to manage the game we did, not score in the second half, and beat an SEC team, for sure.”
HOW DID YOU SLOW DOWN KJ JEFFERSON AND ROCKET SANDERS?
“We didn’t do anything special other than played hard. We felt like our D-Line, we could put our guys on the move and stop the run, and try to make them throw it. Durn, we had them a couple times, all those dang fourth down conversions and the game wouldn’t have been that close, I don’t think. We had our mits on big KJ several times and just couldn’t get him on the ground. That was a little frustrating. Josh and Jack, Jeremy, Tanner, Eubanks, they do a good job coaching our defense. They had a good plan. Our kids played really hard for 60 minutes.”
YOU HELD THEM TO 144 YARDS RUSHING, THAT’S A SEASON LOW, THE ONLY OTHER TEAM TO HOLD THEM UNDER 200 WAS ALABAMA.
“You said it, I didn’t. Pretty good.”
HOW MUCH BETTER IS YOUR DEFENSIVE FRONT THAN LAST SEASON’S?
“We were pretty good last year too. I would say we are a little deeper this year, thank God, because we needed some bodies there at the end. I think we are a little deeper and maybe a little, I don’t know, twitchier at a couple spots.”
3 TOUCHDOWNS CAME AFTER OPPORTUNISTIC PLAYS, HOW IMPORTANT WAS THAT?
“Huge in a game like this. You knew with our quarterbacks that are out and then Dae Dae going down, I really thought we were hammering them some in the run game with Dae Dae. Shedro did too, but they really started bringing more people than we could handle in the run game. I think we had some things, anyway, it was big to be opportunistic, for sure.”
THURSDAY YOU WERE UNSURE JB AND SHEDRO WOULD EVEN MAKE THE TRIP, HOW PROUD OF THEM ARE YOU?
“Yeah, thrilled for Shedro. Obviously, the loss of his father was difficult. We just loved on him and let him make the decision. He chose to be with his teammates and we are sure thankful that he was here to play such a vital role for us.”
ANY UPDATE ON DAE DAE?
“We are hopeful that it’s just an LCL, but we’re not real sure until we get the MRI.”
HOW BIG WAS HIS EMOTION ON THE SIDELINES AFTER BEING INJURED?
“That’s hard for me to say, I wasn’t part of that. I know he’s crushed because he loves the game. He loves to practice, he loves to play. He loves being the ball in his hands. I’m sure he’s hurting, but he’s happy for our teammates too.”
YOU HAD A 2 POINT STOP TO WIN AT SOUTHERN MISS, DOES THAT FEEL SIMILAR TO TONIGHT?
“Not even close. Not even close, this is a whole different deal.”
TO DO THAT AGAIN, TO STIFFEN UP WHEN THE DEFENSE WAS GASSED.
“You just got to make a play. Obviously, I felt like we had control of the game. Give them credit, they converted I don’t know how many third downs and fourth downs on those last two drives, it felt like a hundred. We just got to make a play at some point. We were gassed and thin, but, man, we made one.”
