The Flames have their home opener against Jacksonville Saturday night at 7pm. It is the first ever matchup between the two teams and the first meeting with a Pioneer Football League opponent. It will also mark the first time Liberty has hosted a Florida-based opponent at Williams Stadium in 18 years.
Stopping the option will be paramount for success on defense this week.
While this will be the first game Jacksonville has played under new head coach Ian Shields, and he is operating with almost an entirely new roster, the Flames expect to face the spread option. Shields has been very successful with this offense in his previous stops including offensive coordinator at Army and, more recently, head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne.
“(Stopping the option has) been an issue that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Liberty defensive coordinator Robert Wimberly said. “We’ve definitely done a lot of study. I’ve talked to some coaches that have ran the option that are retired. They’ve given me some insight on how to look at things. A lot of it really boils down to, as I’ve talked to those coaches, personnel. Being able to run from sideline to sideline at the linebacker position. I feel real excited about the opportunity this year to showcase how we can respond to the option just because we have some young men, that displayed last Saturday, that we can run sideline to sideline. So, that’s probably helped me in the past couple years not be so much as frustrated with the results that we’ve produced going against option teams as I talked to some of those older coaches that have told me, ‘Your scheme is sound, you’ve got to find different personnel to make sure you can get guys at those key positions to be sideline to sideline guys.’ So, I’m excited to see how to go about it this Saturday.”
Coach Gill and Wimberly have praised their team speed on defense all summer. We’ll see how they perform Saturday.
Juwan Wells
The coaching staff was very pleased with Juwan Wells’ play at Virginia Tech and anticipates him continuing that strong play.
Sophomore defensive end Juwan Wells led the team with 10 tackles against Virginia Tech in last week’s season opener. He also was credited with half a sack and 2 forced fumbles. Both Coach Gill and Wimberly spoke very highly of his performance. “We anticipate him being a very, very good football player for us,” Gill stated. “He has not disappointed us coming off the first game, and a very good opponent, an FBS opponent. Playing against those offensive lineman, there’s no question he was as good as them and better in some cases. He played lights out.”
“Juwan Wells really stepped up,” said Coach Wimberly. “I was very pleased with him.”
Reducing the number of penalties, particularly pre-snap penalties, has been a focus this week.
The Flames had 13 penalties called on them Saturday, including 8 false start penalties. This put the offense in many difficult situations early in the game. Gill says he’s told his team there should be no illegal procedure penalties this week.
Gill’s message to the team to reduce the penalties: “Just relax, you now have played a game. You know what you can do and how you need to correct it. Now, throw away the anxiety. Just know that you’ve been there and you’ve done that. Focus on your task at hand and finding ways that we can make sure we correct those things.”
Coach Gill
The most improvement is said to happen between the first and second game, and the Flames had 4 offensive linemen playing in their first career game at Lane Stadium. Coach Wagner has been experimenting with different lineups since training camp began, and that rotation continues into the first couple weeks of the season. True freshman Ethan Crawford is expected to make his first career start against Jacksonville, replacing Sam Isaacson in the starting lineup.
The Flames are looking for their 6th straight home win.
Liberty won all 5 home games in 2015, including wins over nationally ranked Montana and Coastal Carolina. The Flames look to extend that streak to 6 against Jacksonville on Saturday. LU has also won 12 of its last 13 home openers including 3 straight. The only loss in that stretch came against Norfolk State during Gill’s first season in 2012.
Some other notable quotes.
Aharown Campbell on what the offensive line needs to do to improve – “The emphasis was just a return to form. This week Coach Dailey challenged all of us to come with a hard hat on. Come with a mentality to just go to work and to be really detailed about what we do. I think that’s going to be really good carrying over to the rest of our games and then conference play at the end. I know Wagner is going to be experimenting with different combinations. He’s been doing that since fall camp, even before camp even started. He’s still kinda churning in his mind who belongs where.”
Robert Wimberly on the defense trusting each other – “That’s been sometimes our Achilles’ heel on the sideline. Guys coming and trying to do somebody else’s job, and then it costs us a touchdown, it costs us this. Saturday was the first time probably since 2013 where I can say those guys believed in each other. Those guys trusted each other. It didn’t matter who was in the game when we started substituting. Those guys really believed that every young man on that field knew what they were supposed to do.”
My prediction:
Liberty 27, Jacksonville 13
