Since moving to the FBS ranks a season ago, Liberty has not been good on the road. The Flames are just 1-6 away from Williams Stadium during that time, including a loss in their only road contest this season, 35-14 at Louisiana, and losing to this week’s opponent, New Mexico State, last year in Las Cruces by a score of 49-41.
“I actually like it, it’s kind of weird,” Freeze said of road contests. “I’m a weird guy with some things. How hard can it be? I coached the first game in (Texas) A&M’s new stadium. There’s 110,000 of thema nd maybe 3,000 of us, and I just loved it. That’s all I talked about all week. I just can’t wait. I think our kids take on that persona if they hear that from us, hopefully. I don’t know that yet, we will see. I’m excited to go test it out.”
This will be Freeze’s second time leading his Liberty Flames on the road, but could be the first time he gets to travel with the team. He was a game day decision in Liberty’s road game at Louisiana back on September 7th, not travelling to Lafayette until just a few hours prior to kickoff as he was recovering from his back surgery. This week, he’s hopeful to travel with the team.
“Mental toughness and focus,” Freeze said those are the two characteristics of a good road team. “Nothing distracts you, nothing bothers you. It doesn’t matter where we play, what they say, where they are, how many there are. It doesn’t matter. They will hear that all week from me.”
For the players, this won’t be their first trip to New Mexico State, having been there a season ago; however, this will be the first time Freeze has ever traveled to Las Cruces. He wants to learn everything he can about what his team will experience on this road trip before this weekend.
“I’m anal about this football program,” he said. “If I have a surprise, I’m upset with somebody. I want to know everything, and I expect to know everything. From hotel, to the buses, to the drive, to the locker room, to the size of the lockers, to where I’m having a team meeting, to the food, the noise, the stadium size, how close are the stands. I ask every question I can possibly think of.”
When Liberty made the trip to New Mexico State last year, it was coming on the heels of a trip to Alburquerque the previous week to take on New Mexico. The Flames won the contest against the Lobos, but were unable to make it 2-0 on the two game road trip. Liberty won’t have to deal with that this go around.
“I remember it being so dry, it’s like hard to breathe,” defensive end Jessie Lemonier said of his trip to New Mexico State last year. “It was exciting going to that game – people are talking, home field advantage is on their side. It’s a challenge for us to come in and break people’s walls down. This time around, I’m really excited to go there and show how dominant we are.”
The Flames are looking to keep the good vibes from a three game win streak going into the bye week and completing the first part of the season.
“My concern is about us going into this game,” said Freeze. “How we handle the travel, how we handle the food, how we handle the prep, how we handle fall break, how we handle the nights this week. Our kids, are they mature enough to not pat ourselves on the back because we’ve won three in a row, but to see we’ve got a one game season left? Everything, besides academics and our social decisions, everything else should be focused on this one game. Are we ready to approach it that way?”
The Flames are 6.5 point favorites despite being on the road as the Aggies have opened the season at 0-5. Of course, they’ve played a tough schedule with games against the likes of Washington State and Alabama. This is their homecoming game, and they will be expecting to pick up their first win of the season after splitting the pair of games against the Flames a year ago.
“Once we step on the field, it’s no looking back,” quarterback Buckshot Calvert said. “Burn the boat behind us, it’s no turning back. If you don’t want to be there, just stay on the dock, don’t even board the ship. Once we step on the field we’re going to be ready.”
