Liberty head football coach Hugh Freeze met with the media on Monday morning, for the first of his weekly, in-season press conferences of the 2020 season. The Flames will open the season this Saturday at 12 Noon Eastern in Bowling Green, Kentucky against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Here is everything Hugh Freeze had to say during the press conference, beginning with his opening statement:
“So excited that it is finally game week. It’s been a long time coming. It’s certainly felt a little bit different in our preparation. I think we’ve gone through a couple weeks with a little lull in energy, and yesterday it seemed in our get together with our kids and our practice on Sunday that the energy was back up like I kind of expected it to be.”
“We’ve got a great challenge ahead of us against a team that is expected to compete for a conference championship in Conference USA with 26 returning seniors and 50 juniors and seniors. So, it’s a very mature team that won 9 games last year and certainly are going to be a great test for us to open the season.”
Have you decided on your starting QB?
“Yes, Malik will get the start on Saturday. He probably doesn’t even know it yet, but he’s coming in in a little bit. We feel very good about he and Chris and even JB, they both have continued to improve, just felt like Malik would maybe give us a little extra something when plays don’t quite go the way we want with his legs. So, he’s going to get the start on Saturday.”
How much do you look into what the other team is going to do compared to just focusing on your own team?
“I think it’s a combination. Coaches are creatures of habit typically. Obviously, we have looked at everything they did last year. They’ve got the returning staff, same coordinators, Tyson did a great job last year turning that program around quickly winning the 9 games that they won. So, you pay a lot of attention to that, and then we watched their game Saturday night to see if there’s anything a little bit different. So, you certainly pay attention to that and you try to put a game plan in that can be successful against the things that you think you are going to see. Obviously, coaches are always making adjustments in games and have a different game plan than maybe what you expected. Back to your original point, we’ve got to do what we think our kids can execute and hopefully those things are good enough and our kids understand them well enough to be successful. Going into game one it’s really more about what do we think our kids can do, and taking from that doing things that we think will be good against their schematics that they have shown they like to do. Obviously, then making the adjustments, but definitely I think it’s more of what do we think our kids can do.”
How did Chris Ferguson take the news of Malik winning the job and is that competition still alive?
“It is. That would depend upon how they perform when they get their opportunity. Chris will be disappointed, but he’s a mature leader, one of the best leaders on our football team, can’t say enough about him. I think he’s continuing to improve. The unknown is how either one of them is going to perform and particularly Malik. He’s really not had the opportunity to lead a football team in its entirety yet at the college football level. It really will depend upon how he is executing the offense and is he consistent in that. In my mind, the competition is still ongoing right now until we get some live film in game situation to judge them on.”
What’s the injury status, typically at WR and DB?
“I think the receivers, I think everybody is going to give it a go. DB wise, Isaiah Avery is questionable as is Tim Kidd-Glass, I think everybody else is ready to roll.”
What did you learn from watching WKU against Louisville?
“We already knew from watching film from last year, that front, in particular they have one special, special player, number 10. He’s a different dude. DeAngelo Malone. He’s an NFL guy. He’s a handful that can create some negative plays in a hurry. We definitely don’t need to be behind the chains early. I think their front is very physical, their whole front 6 is very physical. Last year they were 7th in the nation in 3rd down defense and top 25 in total defense and they return near about everyone of them. It’s going to be a great challenge.”
Can you give us an idea what the offense looks like under Malik, it’s a pretty sharp contrast going from Buckshot to Malik?
“It is. I talked to Buckshot last night. It’s a different deal really. We won’t change our offense. We’re a tempo, RPO offense. We’ve got to find out if he can do those things. Obviously, he’s able to run the football should we want to call some quarterback runs. Even in years where I had kids that could run it, like Chad Kelly, you’re selective when you call those. Having a quality guy sitting there like Chris, it maybe gives us the freedom to call some more of those should we need them to be successful. We will go into the game trying to be who we’ve always been and that is a tempo, RPO type offense that will look very similar where we do have the option to run him whereas last year with Buckshot that just wasn’t his deal at all, but he sure could throw it. We will find out, but we will go in trying to be who we want to be.”
Have you gotten more clarity at kicker and where you will be comfortable to call for a field goal?
“I’ll lean on Tanner when we see the situation Saturday with weather, wind, and all of those things, how pregame went. Barbir is going to get the start and he’s actually performed very well over the last week and a half. Our confidence has grown in that regard toward our field goals and extra points.”
What has your team done in regards to social justice?
“We’ve had a great two weeks of really open dialogue and discussion around all issues that are going on in our world today. I’ve been really pleased with the leadership of our team. We actually, this past Saturday, adopted our Liberty Football stance and beliefs. We did what we believe and we did what we want to see accomplished and we actually put some game plan action steps in place to hopefully accomplish change in and around our hearts and our communities. I’m excited about that. I’m waiting on final approval from our University to roll that out, but really really exciting. Our team believes we are all created equal and that our actions as a team, as a whole, we should be an example of that and how the world should operate. Hopefully that’s what people sense when they see us.”
How is the linebacker depth looking?
“We’re going to be a bit shallow at linebacker the entire year, but Dupree is ready to go so that’s definitely a bonus. We can’t fix that until another recruiting cycle, so hopefully we can stay healthy there and those guys will perform very well. We’re excited to have him back though, for sure.”
What are your main concerns going on the road to open the season?
“That’s pretty easy. We’ll start with number one – the anxiety over three tests this week and waiting on those results to come back. The latest one will come back Friday before you leave. We have been very blessed by the results the last two weeks, but then you start testing three times a week, and there’s so much unknown to us coaches about the accuracy of tests and you try not to get overly anxious about it, but everyone’s having to deal with it. That’s a concern. Will we have everybody that we hope to have come Saturday for the kickoff?
Secondly, it’s been a not normal spring practice and not a normal summer. So, as you progress through camp, I’m really concerned, are we really prepared physically to play an 80 play game on both sides of the ball? I still don’t know the answer to that, in particular when you add into that the adrenaline that drains you in games and how your kids are going to respond to that when all of a sudden they feel that initial fatigue from being hyped up and the energy you spend in that regard. That’s definitely a concern.
Thirdly, tackling. Normally in spring practice, you’re going to have a period in spring practice where you tackle every single practice that you have pads on. We didn’t get that. Then, you get to fall camp, you don’t want to tackle because the priority is getting everyone on the bus to get to the game as healthy as possible. We haven’t changed that philosophy. I still think it’s important getting our team to the game, but you’re really concerned – how will we tackle, particularly against guys that they have at quarterback, running back, and receiver. They’re very, very talented and athletic there. I’m very concerned with how will we tackle.”
How much did you want to push the issue some to make sure your team was ready to tackle when the season starts?
“I didn’t change a whole lot in fall camp. We just didn’t tackle a whole lot to the ground. We had one, one and a half scrimmages, where we did, and we didn’t tackle great in those. Obviously, they are working on that individually with the dummies and the wheels and everything you have, but I didn’t really change a lot. Are we physical at the point of attack of the line of scrimmage? Yeah, we practice that a lot, but as far as the actual form of tackling, we didn’t practice it a whole lot on purpose. You think you want to until you have a guy come up injured and then you’re kicking yourself because you need him to play in the game. We will find out, hopefully we will improve from week 1 to week 2 to week 3 in tackling.”
You are so close to starting the season, how would you described how the team has been mentally tested?
“I can’t think of another season that I’ve been a part of that was more mentally challenging. I’ve been through some different scenarios where you have some tragedy that hits your team that will cause you to have some, definitely test you mentally, but those are typically in a span of 24-48-72 hours and then you kind of get back in the group. This has been over the span of what since March? The taxing and challenging that’s faced all of us in college football, particularly those of us who are trying to get to game week with a full roster, has been unlike any other. I think our kids have handled it as well as possible. I think our staff has, but yet you see Memphis-Houston had to postpone their game, Navy-BYU had to do the same, and La Tech and another one this week, and Virginia-Virginia Tech, so when you hear those things, you immediately get a sick feeling in your stomach thinking ‘Oh my goodness.’ If my phone rings this week Ian, I will be anxious before I answer it not knowing what could happen, but it’s a reality we all have to face that the health and safety of our teams is the priority. We’re trying to do everything in our power to make sure that we remain that way, but reality is in the times we live that it could affect us. It could affect us, it could affect a team that we’re playing. That’s totally out of our control.”
How did the players and your staff react to testing 3 times last week?
“I think we’re used to it now. I didn’t notice any reaction. Everyone walks down and you get teared up pretty good when they put it up your nose, but you’re getting pretty used to it. Nobody’s complaining. We understand that’s one of the things we’ve got to go through in sacrificing to try to have a season.”
Did you have a chance to watch some NFL?
“We were busy. I caught a little bit of the night game – Rams and Cowboys. One of my former players Van Jefferson a receiver, I kind of wanted to see what he was doing there. I just caught a little of it really though, I didn’t get to see much of it.”
How will travel to WKU look like?
“We’re flying this week. We’re keeping a seat open in the middle, but it’s impossible to social distance. Here’s the thing, we’re testing 3 times. We get the results back Friday. The only people that get on that plane are the ones that are tested this week. SJ Tuohy, who is kind of in charge of that part of the operations here, has done a good job of trying to put different people around each other so that the contact tracing doesn’t affect the same people, whether we’re in roommates or you’re sitting next to each other. So, a quarterback is probably going to be sitting next to a DB. Or, if you can put them sitting with a roommate, that’s the best scenario because they’re already around them. We’re trying to think through every scenario that could minimize any of the contact tracing. We even asked parents that are coming to this game, it’s not normal, but they won’t be allowed to be at the hotel and around our kids once we get there on Friday.”
