The Liberty Flames, looking for its first back to back wins of the season, play host to the Idaho State Bengals. Idaho State is the first of two FCS opponents the Flames’ are scheduled to play this season, and it will be Liberty’s first ever matchup against an FCS opponent as an FBS team.
ISU is facing its 2nd FBS opponent this year, something they have done each of the past 11 seasons. After losing to California, 45-23, in September, the Bengals are attempting to defeat an FBS foe for the 2nd straight season, having defeated Nevada, 30-28, last year.
“This is a very good football team,” Gill said of the Bengals. “Watch them on tape, they know how to execute. Their team plays with passion. They execute very well, particularly on offense. I don’t care who you’re playing, if you’re able to average 500 yards (of offense) in every football game, you know how to do some productive things on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve got our hands full.”
Idaho State has one of the top offenses in the FCS, checking in at #5 in total offense and #6 in scoring offense. They are led by quarterback Tanner Gueller who has passed for 1,675 yards and 14 touchdowns through the first 6 games of the season.
“He has confidence and he knows how to manage the game,” Liberty defensive coordinator Robert Wimberly said of the Bengals’ signal caller. “We’re going to have to do a great job early in the game to keep the ball in front. We have to do that because if we allow him to have some success early, then it can be a long game.”
Gueller definitely has the ability to get hot early in a game and stay hot. In the Bengals, 62-28, win against Idaho, he threw 5 touchdown passes in the first half alone, including quick strike scores that went for 62 and 87 yards, respectively. He finished that game with 492 yards passing and 8 touchdowns on 30 pass attempts.
“He will run the ball,” Coach Gill said of Gueller. “They might not run a lot of run-play designed (for him), they do a few of them. He will take off running, that’s probably the biggest thing he does. When he drops back to pass, he’s not afraid to run. He’s a pretty accurate passer, has good size, and he knows where he’s going with the football.”
His top target is his older brother, Mitch, who has 760 yards receiving and 4 touchdowns this season. Wimberly calls the Gueller brother connection a “1-2 punch.” Mitch was a first round draft pick by the Phillies’ organization and spent 5 seasons with them in the minor leagues. Michael Dean is the only other receiver who has double digit receptions, hauling in 27 passes for 394 yards and a team leading 6 touchdown receptions this season.
The Bengals are also very proficient at running the ball, averaging 240.2 rushing yards per game. They are led by James Madison who is averaging 108.3 rushing yards per game with 10 touchdowns. ISU has a two-headed monster at running back, as Ty Flanagan is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and 80.8 yards per game. These two backs have rushed for over 1,000 yards and scored 15 touchdowns in 6 games.
“They do a great job of run-pass tendencies,” Wimberly said of Idaho State’s offensive attack. “You can’t really get a beat formationally. They do a lot of things when it comes to doing things with the same formation. Once we get a feel for what their M.O. is going to be that game, because each game they’ve had a tendency, we’ll be able to do somethings that I think will allow us to be successful.”
Liberty’s defense is looking to follow up its best performance of the season with another solid outing against one of the top FCS offenses. Last week, the Flames held Troy to just 16 points – only 1 touchdown and 3 field goals. Liberty’s defense only allowed 3 explosive plays and forced 2 turnovers with 4 sacks and 8 tackles for loss.
“We gave up only one touchdown, that’s tremendous,” Gill said of the defense’s performance last week. “In today’s football games, if you can only give up one touchdown, obviously, you skyrocket in your opportunity to win a football game because there are a lot of points being scored. I don’t care what team you’re playing, how you’re playing them, what kind of offense they have, or whatever, to only give up one touchdown that means a whole lot to our defense. It says a whole lot about our staff and it says a tremendous amount to our players.”
After the game and during this week’s media availability, the coaching staff pointed to the changes they made leading up to the Troy game, most notably, Wimberly moving to the press box for the first time in his Liberty coaching career.
“The two of us got together and continued to talk about the things we need to do to continue to improve our defense,” Gill said describing his interactions with Coach Wimberly prior to the Troy game. “He brought some ideas, I brought some ideas, and we came to a conclusion, as he brought the idea of him going to the box.”
With Wimbo in the box, linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder and cornerbacks coach Marshall Roberts moved to the field. This gave each defensive unit a coach to talk to on the field between series. It also allowed Wimberly to see things quicker. Instead of waiting on a coach from the box to relay to him what personnel grouping the opponents were going with, he is now able to see those things with his own eyes and get the play call in sooner.
“I do believe having coach Roberts down on the field,” Wimberly explained, “it allowed us to adjust some things between times when we’re on the sidelines. (Compared to earlier) when I’m on the field communicating with all 3 groups – linebackers corners and safeties – in a 2-3 minute span. I saw the results of us being a lot more detailed because we had time to do that by having the position coaches down there.”
In addition to those changes, the Flames also elected to “thud” a lot more during the week. This is something we’ve discussed previously, and it helped the defense in the win against New Mexico. Prior to New Mexico State, Coach Gill elected to go lighter in practice. The defense followed that week of practice with its worst defensive performance of the season. The coaching staff then decided to go back to the “thud” practices a couple times leading up to Troy.
Will the trend of more thudding in practice continue the rest of the season?
“I would love to, and I will leave it at that,” Wimberly said.
“We were probably in the 90 percentile proficiency with tackling (against Troy),” explained Wimberly. “That’s what we want. Tackling is about confidence. In my coaching career to where I (was a graduate assistant) to how we practice now, it’s a lot differently. You’ve got to get young men to where they trust their technique in open space. The ball is on the perimeter a lot faster now than when I first started coaching. You’ve got to get young men to really believe they can go make that tackle with confidence. I think the last 3 weeks, the times we’ve implemented that in practice, it’s carried over.”
On defense, Idaho State is allowing 31.7 points and 432 yards per game. They operate out of an odd front and mix up coverages a lot. The Bengals also show one look and then post-snap they change into something else. Kody Graves leads the team with 51 tackles and also has 2 interceptions and 1 sack.
Liberty is hurting at the skill positions on offense, particularly at wide receiver. Antonio Gandy-Golden will miss his 2nd straight game as he continues to battle mono. Damian King will be missing his 3rd game with a lower body injury. He was originally slated to miss at least 4 weeks which will take him through the bye week. Kevin Shaa has decided to redshirt. JT Wood is questionable. True freshman Sean Queen is out for the year.
Despite all that, the cupboard isn’t completely bare. B.J. Farrow and D.J. Stubbs are still very good receivers. The pair have combined for 57 catches for 837 yards and 5 touchdowns this season, and we all know how experienced the 5th year senior Farrow is. Khaleb Coleman made his first career start last week, catching two passes including a touchdown.
Lionell McConnell and Noah Frith are the only other receivers listed on the depth chart. McConnell is a redshirt-sophomore who hasn’t played much this season after missing the final 10 games of 2017 with an injury suffered against Baylor. Frith is a true freshman who made his collegiate debut against Troy but has yet to record any stats.
We’ve also seen the tight ends get more targets in recent weeks, Fidel Ogbeifun had 3 catches for 46 yards last week. Unfortunately, that group is banged up a bit as well with Zac Foutz doubtful and Jerome Jackson questionable. Perhaps opening the door for Chris Barrett or Mason Yost to make an appearance.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for the Flames this week will be mental. Coming off a big upset win against Troy and facing an FCS opponent, human nature would allow the chance to overlook an opponent easily. Coach Gill is hopeful he and his coaching staff can prevent that.
“Every game is always unique,” Gill said. “Just like anything, how do you handle prosperity? How do you handle adversity? That’s life. That’s a challenge. I think every week is always a challenge. I think every week of this particular season is a challenge. Every year is always, but this is a unique situation that we’re in FBS and all the different challenges. We know that every game is a challenge no matter what we have done the week before.”
“It’s so much parity now in college football,” Wimberly said. “All it takes is 60 minutes of playing well and you can find yourself winning any football game. Our challenge to our young men is to make sure we continue to trust the process, not get distracted, and make sure we’re focused and ready to go to represent Liberty University in a great way Saturday.”
Prediction
Liberty 38, Idaho State 30
The Flames lean on the run game to keep the Bengals off the field and establish control of the game. Both teams can score, and will find ways to put points on the board. In the end, Liberty’s extra scholarships and depth are enough to hang on to the win.
