Liberty opened training camp with its first practice on Friday morning, and following the session head coach Hugh Freeze held his first press conference of training camp. Here’s everything Freeze had to say during his media session, beginning with his opening statement:
“It’s so exciting to be back at it. It started last night with our first team meeting. We had Eric Thomas, ET, in, and it was an incredible night for us. What a guy he is. His message is so relevant for young men today and old men like myself. It’s a special friendship that I think we’ve started and I look forward to having him back. I thought everything went well last night. All our families at dinner it was nice to see.”
“Getting to get on the field this morning was, man as coaches we don’t ever need to forget the blessing we have to be able to work with young men in this great game. For me, it’s even special to do it at a place like Liberty. I loved our prep this morning.”
“Once practice got started, I think Dom and his staff, one of my first thoughts that I wrote down is I think that they’ve done a nice job. Our bodies look good. We move pretty well. I think we have a chance to have some decent depth if we can stay healthy. That was really one of my first thoughts and then as practice progressed, I thought the biggest issue that we had today that we’ve got to change is I did not do a great job of making sure our transitions were smooth and quickly done. I’ve got to get our coaches right on that. Number two, we’ve got to quit dropping the football. Our receivers cannot do that. We had way too many today for it to be ok. It’s not ok.”
“Other than that, there were no pads, it’s teach tempo, I thought we moved around well. Once the drills got started, it wasn’t the kids fault that they didn’t get started like I wanted in about three cases. That’s my fault and our coaches fault. Probably highlight of the day for me was our young specialists. Our young long snapper Austin (Turner) and two kickers Nick (Brown) and Brayden (Beck) and those guys. They were pretty dang impressive for day one. There’s a lot of people out there that are looking for kickers and stuff. I feel very blessed. I think we’ve got a few.”
YOU COME INTO THIS SEASON AFTER SO MUCH SUCCESS LAST YEAR, WHAT IS THE GOAL THIS SEASON?
“I don’t do goals. I’ve always said that. I don’t put goals out there. The longer I’ve been living the life I live and coaching, husbanding, fathering, when you go through the peaks and the valleys and all of those things, I think the secret to having the success that you want is chasing the standard. We clearly identified what the standard is for us and what it should look like as players, students, as a man, as a friend. What is the standard and what should it look like? And then, the more percentage of time in a given day that we chase that standard effectively, the chances of you having ‘the success that you want’ at the end of the day is greater. I don’t know who can argue with that. That’s the secret to us going back out this year.”
“10 wins last year, what a great year. None of that really matters for this year. It’s a different team, different DNA. What does matter is how effectively we chase the standard. Again, 7 wins this year, 6 wins this year may equate to 10 last year. You never know with the differences in scheduling that we have here. How that really looks at the end of the year, but we’re excited to chase that standard and see what the results come.”
“If you’re always just result-driven and oriented, it’s very difficult to continue playing the next play and doing it with the same enthusiasm and same energy as you did the last unless you just created in yourself this drive to chase the standard on every single moment. Look yourself in the mirror every day and be honest with yourself in how well you chased the standard today in all the different areas of your life. Most of my life, when I have answered that question that I kinda chased it well, I liked the results too, most of the time. That doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to win, but I think it brings a peace with whatever area of your life you’re in. I know that’s a long way around to answer your question, but the truth is we haven’t talked one minute about what the goal is other than today did we chase the standard well.”
HOW ARE THE GUYS LOOKING IN TERMS OF COVID TESTING NUMBERS AND VACCINATIONS AND BEING ABLE TO GET BACK TO SOME NORMALCY?
“The first I think I would say to you is, man I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that we can turn to some normalcy. Truthfully, all signs right now are a little iffy to me in terms of what the season is going to look like. I’m going to certainly pray and keep my fingers crossed that it can have a sense of normalcy for both teams and fans. I don’t understand, there’s so much information out there, I don’t understand exactly what’s real, what’s not. I know that obviously this virus has affected a lot of people. I hope that it can get contained. Whether that is through number of vaccinations that can help with it, but then you see people that are vaccinated are testing positive also. I’m a football coach. I’m going to control what we can control here, and we will obviously abide by whatever testing rules for the unvaccinated and hopefully the vaccinated stay healthy also. And then we can have a nice season for all to enjoy. There’s a lot of unknowns right now to be perfectly candid as to where we are as communities and as a country in terms of dealing with it. I certainly don’t have the knowledge to be able to quantify where we are, but we have been fortunate to stay healthy even the ones who have tested positive we have been fortunate that they did not experience severe illness of any type so we are thankful for that and hopefully that will continue.”
HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING SPECIFIC ABOUT HOW TO MAINTAIN THE ENERGY LEVEL THROUGHOUT CAMP?
“I think it depends on your team first. If you are a team that has some experience on it, like I think ours does, particularly with the number of COVID seniors we have returning, I don’t think that we have to get, if I’m going to put some number out there and certainly it’s not the right number, but let’s say all fall camp is 80 reps for your 1s, I don’t think you have to grind on the number of reps. They need to be quality and they need to be the standard of which you expect, but those kids have played a lot of football for me and our staff in two years. The more the reps need to be on those younger kids. I think that helps them both mentally and physically knowing coach believes in us, he’s not grinding us, certainly there may be some extra condition that Dom and his staff have to do to make sure they are ready for an 80 play game or whatever it is that we have to expect to have. That’s part of it, dealing with your team according to what your experience level is.”
“Secondly, making sure they understand all the way through the grind that there’s more to this journey than what we’re going through even though it seems like it’s all about ball, ball, ball on the field. Making sure they understand this is actually part of the process that is developing you into the man you’re going to be one day. We try to do some extra things within our team room setting to do that. Lean on your nutrition team a lot to keep them fed right and hydrated. And your strength staff to judge with all the apparatuses they have right now where you’re at and the heat index. Talking to your trainer. I think through the years I’ve been able to have enough experience that I can have a pulse for some of that. The main thing probably is the fact that we have a somewhat experienced team so it’s more to me the quality of the rep than the quantity of it for them.”
YOU HAVE A LOT OF RETURNERS AND TALENTED TRANSFERS, HOW DO YOU MANAGE EVERYONE’S EXPECTATIONS WITH THEIR OWN INDIVIDUAL PLAYING TIME?
“I’m really transparent. This is our team. This is not last year’s team, it’s this year’s team. Whether you are a transfer on it, a newcomer, or a guy that has been here four years, we’re all equal parts of the team. Some have different giftings and all of that, we understand that, but once we say this is this year’s team then it’s on the field. We are going to play the ones that earn it and that are producing the best standard over the period of this camp and throughout this season. I know of no other way to do it and wouldn’t want a coach that does it another way. The kids that respond to that correctly and can honestly look at the film of themselves and understand what is going on, that is hard for them because some expect it to be just like last year or the year before. I’m always trying to outrecruit you. I’m always trying to find the next class. That’s what I owe to this program and what our staff owe to this program. I wish everyone on this roster could play the number of snaps they want to, but ultimately this is this year’s team. I do not look at it as a transfer group over here and a returning group over here, I want to look at the film this afternoon and let’s see who graded the best and who performed the best.”
HAVE THE EXPECTATIONS CHANGED FOR LIBERTY FOOTBALL BECAUSE OF YOUR SUCCESS?
“It hadn’t changed it my eyes. I’m quite certain that media or people in general or fans, boosters, maybe I don’t know. I would love to hear how you quantify the expectations. To me, it’s about chasing a standard. I don’t know what the results will say at the end of the season, particularly when you are an Independent school. If we were in a conference or something, I could put some things on it for you that I think would reveal whether or not we, in our minds, were successful. When you’re every year playing a different schedule of different strengths, to me, I think it’s important that our program is competitive and we are putting ourselves in position to go to bowl games right now. We’ve been able to do that the first two years, which has increased everyone’s expectation of that happening again. I’m ok with that, but the only way I know to achieve those expectations is we win today by the way we chase our standard of how we prepare, how we practice, how we go to meetings, how we go to dinner, how we go to lunch and the training room. That’s the only way I know to accomplish whatever expectations may or may not be there.”
WHAT IS THE STATUS OF TRANSFER WR JJ HOLLOMAN?
“Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen for us here with us and JJ. I wish him all the best, I really can’t comment much on that. He and FIU have got to, whatever is going on between those two, that’s between them. I really can’t comment on it.”
