Liberty picked up a historic win on Saturday in Lynchburg, Virginia, defeating BYU, 41-14 . The Flames move to 7-1 on the season with the win, coming from behind after trailing, 14-3 in the first quarter. Here is everything head coach Hugh Freeze had to say following the game, beginning with his opening statement:
“I’ve got a lot on my mind, I don’t know how to express it all. First, I love BYU and what they stand for. I love their coach. I love the way they play the game. Kilani and I texted this morning, and said, ‘What a great honor it is to compete and show the world that we can be different Universities.’ I just respect the heck out of him and his players, I know they are going through a hard stretch. I hate that for them. I hate if they were offended by any of our excitement from our students and everyone. I hope that’s not the case. I want to say that first.”
“Then, secondly, the vision Dr. Falwell cast many decades ago, to be able to walk in that today. To see the stadium full, the excitement around campus today. Even downtown last night. I didn’t particularly like it, but there was a lot going on. Restaurants were full. I had a couple of my buddies who have restaurants, saying, ‘Dude, thank you. This is the biggest weekend we will have all year.’ All of that is a product of Dr. Falwell’s vision and then, I think we would be remiss not to also, Jerry Jr. and his vision to create a plan to put in place so many things that fund the things that are necessary to be competitive at this level. What a great plan he had. I wasn’t here when he did it, but, obviously, he was part of the crew along with Ian and Todd and Mickey that brought me here. I just think there’s a lot of people that share in this night.”
“Obviously, then, get to our fans, what an incredible atmosphere. To see them so ecstatic and having the time they did, just brings me great joy. I could have stayed out there a while but it was getting a little tight for me. I’ve gotten to experience that twice before and it never gets old, even though I know it’s not quite the protocol.”
“I just think it’s a big night. Then, our players, golly did they fight. All week long, I kinda knew that we had a great plan and our kids had a little edge about them. Had a great week, a great Monday. I am so happy for JB. I’m just so happy because he takes the brunt of a lot of our inconsistencies that we’ve had this year with our injuries. For him to raise his game tonight, such an important night in the history of our program, that’s just so dang awesome. I’m just so happy for JB and to be able to experience this moment. That’s gratifying.”
“Our kids, man, we had a great game, great plan, great execution of it. I’ve been holding some back a little bit offensively, as you saw. Maybe I shouldn’t do that and make some of these other games quite so interesting, but really it came down to JB being a consistent quarterback tonight. Using his legs when he needed to, his check downs when he needed to.”
“I’m rambling, but it’s a big night. I made it big from Monday. I debated if that was the right thing to do, but I think our players know me. If I said anything other than that, I think they would have thought, ‘Man, Freeze, he’s not being true to himself.’ So, I just told them point blank this is the biggest game in school history. I don’t know, I told them at the hotel this morning, I have no idea what the scoreboard will say at the end. I have no idea. I don’t even want you to look at the scoreboard. I want you to just immerse yourself in a fist fight for four quarters and let’s see what it says. The only thing that would make you a failure today would be you not offering up something that cost you something. Just proud of the way they responded.”
HOW DOES THIS FIELD STORM COMPARE TO YOUR OTHERS?
“Yeah, for me, I think. I don’t know, this is not about me, but obviously to have them when you beat Alabama who was the #1 team in the nation was quite fun. But to have the opportunity to come to a place that loves you for who you are, that gets to know you and judges you for who you are, good and bad. Then, gives you the reigns to prove that you can have field stormings at a place like this, it makes my gratitude level is pretty high. I’m just thankful. They are all fun, but this one, right now, it ranks way up there.”
FELL BEHIND 14-3, THE RESOLVE YOUR TEAM SHOWED, WHAT WERE THEY ABLE TO DO TO OVERCOME THAT?
“I don’t know if we have to keep talking about this, but our team has shown resolve every single game. Even if we played ugly. If you expect that our team is not going to show resolve then you guys really haven’t been paying attention. That’s something you should write about the whole season, our team has shown grit. Now, we may have played as ugly as you can play, but never once have they folded and not fought. That was never an issue. Truthfully, my coaches say, these fouls that they called on our huge plays with linemen down field, which we have not had a single one all year on our RPO play, now, suddenly, this crew from a different conference is flagging them. The coaches up top, saying coach we are not beyond three yards. I’m anxious to see it. I thought that kind of killed our momentum. JB had one bad throw. It was a bad one. It was a turnover, but we had good stuff planned for them. Felt like we could stay balanced. I think we did, I haven’t seen the stats, but I thought it was a really solid game other than one possession that we kind of fooled around on. Thought it was a solid game. We just kept doing what we did. I never felt like they stopped us. We just thought we kind of stopped our selves. Defensively, I thought we played really well too, to hold them to 14 points, not many people have done that.”
HOW ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE OF THE GUYS LIKE TREON SIBLEY, CJ DANIELS, NOAH FRITH, AND OTHERS?
“They had to step up. We were wanting to redshirt CJ Daniels. Went to him, just said man we’re really thin. I think you could really help us win this football game. He said, ‘Coach, I really want to redshirt so that I have healthy years, but let’s do it.’ He never blinked, carried himself. I thought everyone around JB played well. Our tight ends played well, our running backs caught the ball out of the backfield well. Truthfully, I don’t remember a drop tonight. I’m not saying we didn’t have one, I just don’t remember one. Noah’s been in a lot of fights and wars with us. Not surprised to see him play well.”
THE DEFENSE HELD BYU TO 142 YARDS OVER THE FINAL 45 MINUTES, NO POINTS, WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THEIR ADJUSTMENTS?
“They’ve played well all year, other than maybe third and long. Our coaches, just don’t blink. Keep working to figure out the next series and what we can do. I think our front is playing well and stopping the run. I don’t know what they had rushing, but it wasn’t much, I don’t think. 71 yards against that offensive line and that quarterback and backs. Some of those were on scrambles I think. I thought our DLine and front, I thought Mike Smith played a heck of a game. I’m sure there are others. Just really proud of Josh, Jack, Eubanks, JG, all the guys on the defensive side. What a great job they’ve done all year. Sometimes it wasn’t real fun because they are having to go back on the field a lot. I think tonight we kind of relieved them some of that pressure and they were able to play with some freedom.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GET CHARLIE BACK ON THE FIELD?
“Well, he just didn’t feel good. He came as soon as warmups were over, he told me, ‘My hand is throbbing.’ I kinda knew it probably wasn’t going to happen. I hate it for all our kids that are injured that they didn’t get to experience tonight, but at the same time I’m proud of all the ones who stepped up to get it done.”
AFTER ALL THE UPS AND DOWNS OF JB THIS SEASON, WHAT DOES HIS PERFORMANCE SAY ABOUT HIM?
“I just think, he’s been with us for all four seasons. He’s a mature young man. Quarterbacks are going to get criticized. We’ve been inconsistent. He’s been inconsistent to this point through the year, but I’ve seen him at times be really hot too. I’ve seen him practice. I do think that I probably freed him up more this week to make sure he loved the plan. I told him I believed in him. I texted him one night this week and said, ‘Dude, you can execute this plan. Just go believe it.’ Heck, I’ve been with quarterbacks that got criticized, criticized, criticized, but I want to say this, the bottom line for a quarterback is the overall win-loss record. I believe he is 4-0 as a starter. We will take the criticism and will deal with it and tell him to keep winning games.”
DAE DAE HAD 213 RUSHING YARDS, IT WAS HARD TO TAKE HIM DOWN WASN’T IT?
“You have to give credit to the OLine and the tight ends, they did block really well. But he did run really well. I almost lost it on him on that 4th down where he took the swing to him out of the backfield and started dancing around the marker, I almost panicked. I literally almost threw up, right there on the sideline. He gets so emotional into the game, but sometimes he kinda loses sight of what’s really happening right here on this play that got it. But boy did he lay it all out there, for sure.”
RIGHT BEFORE YOU GUYS RAN ONTO THE TUNNEL, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE LOOKING AT THE SCOREBOARD, WAS THAT JUST TAKING IN THE MOMENT?
“Yeah cause I don’t want to get run over. I know we’re supposed to say when my face comes on there with Flames Nation Rise With Us, I’ve got to get moving because I don’t want to get run over. I saw the look in our kids eyes and I thought man I’ve got to get out of the way.”
7-1 WITH A LOSS BY 1 POINT ON THE ROAD TO WAKE FOREST, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR TEAM IS A TOP 25 TEAM?
“I don’t know. I let all you guys that vote on that decide on that. Here’s the deal with that, you get in it one week and then you lose and all of a sudden you lose your value which makes no sense to me all the time. I don’t even know if we’re getting any votes or anything. I know this, is Wake Forest still a top 25 team? They’ve had one loss to a top 5 or so team at their place, a dead even game. I would think we would probably get a few votes here or there, but you got to go to Arkansas next and if you don’t get it done against an SEC team they just dropped you out of it. How much value we put on that is pretty small, really. Now, at the end of the season, I think there is some value that would be put on that if we end up in it.”
24,012 FANS, HOW GREAT WAS THE ATMOSPHERE?
“I thought our atmosphere is always good here. Obviously, it was another level tonight. Standing there at the gate coming out and seeing the stands full was really, really gratifying. I said Monday, I came here for moments like this where hotels were sold out and all the restaurants are full, hopefully we can have more nights like that. It was pretty dang special.”
