After a much-needed bye week, the Liberty Flames will play host to the Maine Black Bears this Saturday on homecoming weekend.
Maine sits at 2-4 at the season’s halfway point. After beating Colgate on Sept. 21, the Black Bears dropped a road contest at Villanova and a home matchup vs. Richmond, 24-17. Liberty is arguably the toughest opponent Maine will play this season, as they also played FBS and Sun Belt member Georgia Southern. The Black Bears lost that one, 26-18.
Senior receiver Earnest Edwards is the player to watch for Maine. Edwards, a close friend of Liberty running back Joshua Mack, is averaging nearly 100 receiving yards per game. Edwards has yet to eclipse one receiving touchdown in a contest this year, but he tallied 140 yards receiving at Villanova a couple weeks ago and has scored exactly one touchdown in four of the team’s five games this season.
Redshirt seniors Joe Fitzpatrick and Emmanuel Reed split carries at running back for the Black Bears. Fitzpatrick holds a slight statistical lead over Reed: having totaled 60 total carries to Reed’s 56, and 50 yards per game to Reed’s 40. Junior quarterback Chris Ferguson commands the Maine offense, provided he is able to go. Ferguson was knocked out of the first half of last week’s game against Richmond and did not return.
Ferguson has completed 57% of his 201 passing attempts this year for 1,655 yards and eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. His best game was a 423-yard, three-touchdown performance against Sacred Heart in Maine’s season opener. Under Ferguson, Maine is averaging 25.33 points per game.
Maine’s defense surrenders an average of 27.17 points per game. Senior linebacker Taji Lowe is the leader of Maine’s defense, having tallied 44 tackles through six games. Defensive lineman Kayon Mitchell and Charles Mitchell have added a combined for 11.5 tackles for loss and three sacks this season.
Liberty co-offensive coordinator Kent Austin described Maine’s defensive line as “comparable to Syracuse” in a LFSN radio show interview Monday evening. Given Liberty’s zero-point performance against the Orange, the Flames will need do a better job of controlling the line of scrimmage against Maine.
Maine is a beatable but dangerous opponent. Liberty is the better team, and the outcome of Saturday’s game will be contingent upon the Flames’ ability to execute from start to finish. I like Liberty in this one by a final score of 38-13.
