Liberty came from behind, trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, and scored 21 straight points to pull out the win as an underdog on Saturday night in a wet Williams Stadium. The Flames defeated UAB, 21-14, to improve to 2-0 on the season. Here is everything head coach Hugh Freeze had to say following the win:
OPENING THOUGHTS
“I feel like I’ve been in a 15 round fist fight. I do, I’m old, but our kids they’ve got a lot of grit, a lot of fight. Certainly, it’s not always pretty right now, that drives me crazy. I’ve got to get us improved, our coaches and our players our just going to fight and battle for 60 minutes and try to figure out a way to create enough plays to win the game. Felt like we should have won it by two scores. Obviously, we’ve got to clean up four minute offense a little bit. Kaidon made a lot of good plays, and made some that hurt us. That’s going to come with some growing pains. I’ve got to coach him better. I don’t know why he’s trying to pull that ball in the four minute offense. There’s nowhere to throw it. We’re not going out. They just kind of shocked him with a little wheel fire. He kind of freaked out there for a minute. That’s on me, I’ve got to coach him better.”
“I think, again, man our defense got turnovers. Man, they played with such heart. That’s a really good offensive line, really good running backs. I thought we limited the explosive pass plays. They got theirs in the run game, but we sure bowed our neck too. I couldn’t be prouder of our coaches and our kids. What a great atmosphere on The Mountain tonight.”
WHAT WAS YOUR ADJUSTMENTS TO THEIR RUN GAME?
“We played a few more kids and tried to get some fresher legs out there because they were converting a lot of third downs and had to play a lot of snaps. I’m not going to say what our adjustments were, but we certainly made some at halftime on both sides. I thought they were both really good adjustments for us. Obviously, helped us win the game.”
THE PACKAGE FOR NATE HAMPTON, WERE YOU PLEASED WITH THOSE RESULTS?
“Yeah, we scored. It was a good package tonight.”
THE RUN BY KAIDON TO PUT THE GAME AWAY, HOW BIG WAS THAT?
“That was Coach K. He’s been wanting to run that one for a while. I asked him how good he felt about it. He said, ‘I feel really good.’ They were going Bear 0 there. If the end just squeezes a little, we might have an explosive play. We needed two first downs, well we needed three really. Ended up Shedro got the one on the first run. Then, that run was big. Good call by Coach K there.
9 TURNOVERS BY YOUR DEFENSE IN THE FIRST TWO GAMES, WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THEIR PERFORMANCE AND THE JOB COACH ALDRIDGE AND COACH CURTIS HAVE DONE?
“Please keep going. I love those guys. I think it’s just the chemistry that we all have in the building right now. I think it’s easy to see it for our kids. Even though I don’t spend a ton of time in the defensive staff room, I have great trust in both of them. I know that we are united. I know our kids are playing hard for them. It’s not just them, but the job JG is doing with these young guys. Bryce gets in and makes a big play. They put pressure on the quarterback with just the front four. I’m very proud of our staff and our kids on that side.”
HOW PROUD ARE YOU OF YOUR OFFENSE TO KEEP FIGHTING DESPITE STRUGGLING EARLY?
“It’s invaluable. We’re playing with a quarterback that has relatively few snaps. So, you’re kinda hesitant to call everything. You don’t feel like you have to. You feel like, let’s just stay in the fight and manage the game. We had a few chances to get points, we missed a field goal that could have helped for sure. Then, we had another turnover in really good field position, got a chop block called on us. That put us behind the chains. When your defense is playing well, you don’t feel like you have to panic and just throw the ball all over the place. We had a few chances to hit a few shot plays. We will have to see the film, maybe he overthrew them just a little bit or guys could run through it better, I’m not sure.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM DAE DAE AND SHEDRO?
“I thought they (ran hard) and they are both banged up. We went with Malik there at the end. It wasn’t Malik’s fault there at the end. We felt like he was some fresh legs and could protect the ball. Kaidon just can’t pull that. The other two ran really, really well. We need to get TJ Green back too, that would help us.”
HOW DID YOU FEEL AMARIAN WILLIAMS DID PLAYING A LOT MORE SNAPS?
“It’s hard for me to say, but I don’t think he gave up any explosive plays. I think he played solid.”
HOW PROUD OF YOU OF THE CROWD AND THE STUDENTS?
“I can’t say enough about our students. I hope y’all put that out on all the social media. I thought they were absolutely incredible, phenomenal. Better than any school I have been at. Our student body was that good from the start of pregame, throughout the game. I’m just thankful that our students show up and are so into it. They are the best.”
YOU WON THE ROAD AND NOW AT HOME, WHAT’S NEXT?
“We’re going to enjoy this one tonight. I’m going to go eat some soup. Tomorrow, go to church, and then start trying to figure out a way to get on the road and compete with a top 25 team in the country. Our schedule is brutal, if I haven’t said that before. It’s brutal. We are fighting like heck to have a chance to win games, whether on the road or at home, and get bowl eligible for a fourth straight year.”
