No. 23 Liberty (9-1) head coach Hugh Freeze met with the media on Sunday evening, just a few hours after the Flames officially accepted an invitation to the Cure Bowl. Liberty will face No. 12 Coastal Carolina (11-0) in the game to be played on Saturday, December 26 at noon on ESPN. Here’s everything Coach Freeze had to say, beginning with his opening statement:
“I’m thrilled. What a crazy year 2020 has been, it’s obviously been a lot of challenges, but at the same time we’ve experienced a lot of great times also. I think those are the things that make for great memories. Certainly, we’ve got a lot of things we can talk to future family members and kids and everything about. Certainly, the 2020 season for Liberty Athletics, in particular for football, has been an outstanding year. Certainly, we are proud of our administration and their support. Obviously, all the things that go into just getting to a game in 2020 it took a lot of people supporting you financially. Ian and our administration has done that faithfully to our kids and our program. Our kids, just overcoming all the obstacles. Starting back in spring practice which was canceled. Then not knowing with summer workouts. You get here and not sure when the season will start, if it will start. We’re able to run off 10 straight games, unfortunately didn’t get to finish the last one off, the regular season one, but then to get today’s news that we’re going to be able to play an undefeated Coastal team that is ranked top 15 in the country in our second consecutive bowl game, we’re just elated. So excited.”
“Our staff is fired up. Everybody couldn’t wait to get out of staff meeting to get into their meetings so that we can get ready for practice tomorrow. We’re thrilled. I’m thankful. Thankful to Ian, all of our support we have here at Liberty, from our administration, to everyone else academically, nutritionally, our medical staff, everyone. We’re just thrilled. What a great opportunity, we’ve got a great challenge, but that’s what you want in a bowl game I think. To go measure us and see where we are, we can’t wait for this challenge on Saturday.”
WITH THE SHORT TURNAROUND DOES IT HELP THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY BEGUN PREPARATIONS FOR COASTAL?
“It’s huge. Talked with Ian several times today not knowing which way it was going to go. When I found out Coastal was a possibility, we kind of had our fingers crossed, if not it was going to be a really long night for a lot of people. It’s not going to be that way. We already have a game plan in place that we had from a couple weeks ago. Will it tinker some? Maybe, but it’s not like we have to start from scratch. We felt good about our game plan the first go around. I doubt it will change very much. I’m sure that is advantageous for both us and Coastal.”
DOES IT HELP THAT YOU HAVE YOUR ENTIRE STAFF TO WORK ON THE PREP?
“Of course. They were involved the first time we put it in, they just couldn’t be in the building, but now everyone is back. We hopefully have had our COVID run and won’t have anymore bad news this week with that. All the staff is in the building tonight and excited about prepping.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO SHARE THE NEWS WITH THE TEAM?
“Well, I haven’t seen them yet. They did their COVID test this afternoon and then we will have our first team meeting in the morning. I’m sure they heard the news. Look forward to meeting with them in the morning.”
THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF BOWL GAMES CANCELED AND TEAMS THAT HAVE OPTED OUT, WAS THAT EVER A CONSIDERATION FOR YOU?
“It’s always the goal (to make a bowl game). To my knowledge I’ve never had anyone from administration or our staff ever consider the alternative. I did talk to our team openly this past week and just said I know 2020 has been a crazy year. Us having to stay here through the Christmas holiday is not ideal and all of that, but I don’t know I just feel like we owe it to, I’m not saying anybody else is wrong or right, everybody’s got to do what they think. I just think you ought to finish what you start. That’s what I want for our kids, that’s what I want for our program. It may not be ideal, but that’s life. Life’s not always ideal. We’ve got an opportunity to go to our second consecutive bowl game in our second year here. To me it never was another alternative other than Ian tell me where we’re going so we can get ready to play.”
WHAT WAS THIS AFTERNOON LIKE?
“I went and played golf. Jill and I did church this morning and then I went and played golf. Ian would text me. It’s nothing I could do. I didn’t want to come in and prepare for South Carolina or whoever. I just made my mind up I was going to wait. Only way I knew to take the time up was to go play golf. I went out and played a round of golf while Ian would keep me updated. I think I finally got the confirmation around 2:30. I was on hole 17, I know that. Got the confirmation that it was going to be Coastal and I immediately sent it out to our staff. Everyone was just elated, said let’s go.”
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE COASTAL CAROLINA TO THE OTHER OPPONENTS YOU FACED THIS YEAR?
“Well, I haven’t studied everybody they played, but anytime you run the table with whatever schedule you have in FBS you are a very good football team. From watching them on tape, there is no question, they do an outstanding job. They are well coached. They play extremely hard. They’ve got a trigger man that is very very good. Defensively they are very stingy. They beat teams like BYU and Louisiana, that’s two really good football teams. We’ve beat some good football teams also and been right there in the one we lost and had a chance to win. I think it’s a great matchup. Certainly, we’ve had a lot of time off, that’s a concern, but they will have some time off too before that. We’ve got to get ready to go play and take care of the football and execute. I think it’s a great matchup. I think it’s one of the more intriguing matchups in the bowl season. I think it will be well received, and hopefully we will put a great product out there and represent Liberty.”
IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE TO PLAYING IN THE SAME BOWL GAME AS LAST YEAR?
“I don’t think so. We’re staying at a different place, it’s at a different venue, it’s kind of an away game atmosphere because of COVID. I don’t think there’s an advantage to that one way or another.”
HOW DID YOU DO ON THAT PAR 3 AFTER YOU GOT THE NEWS?
“Made an up and down from nowhere. It was like out of a garbage can and I got up and down from par, so it was good.”
WHERE WAS THAT PIN PLACEMENT?
“It was back right. I shot even par today.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THIS RIVALRY A FEW WEEKS AGO?
“It definitely means a lot to the people here. Our players, I think we have two players who have any kind of recollection of what this game is. Certainly, to hear others like Matt Bevins and those talk about it and Ed Gomes talk about what the rivalry is. I appreciate rivalry games. I get that. Now to do it in the Cure Bowl with them and us being ranked in the top 25. That’s exciting. I know there will be a lot of emotions going into it, but still will come down to who executes the best that will win the game.”
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE REST OF THE PLAYOFF RANKINGS?
“I’ve always been pretty vocal that I like the way the BCS was set up. I don’t think there’s any perfect way, but I did like the way the BCS was. Every bowl meant something. It was pretty special. I’ve always been a proponent of the BCS model plus one after all the BCS is over. I don’t think you’re ever going to satisfy every single, whatever you choose, whether it’s playoff or BCS, it’s very difficult. I don’t envy those people in the room, in particular in a year with COVID where there’s some teams played 6 games, some played 10. That’s a very difficult task for anyone, so I don’t want to act like I would have the answer. I don’t. I just have always been a fan, I like the old way of the BCS. I would like to see us play the bowl games and then have one more game after the bowl games for a national champion, but there would be people that complain then also.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS OPPORTUNITY FOR THIS PROGRAM?
“We believe in it. We believe any time we get to put our program on a national stage that it’s of value and it has merit. We’ve endured everything that came at us this year, our team has, as have many. We think it’s important to finish. I think it’s important for our partners, the bowl game, the TV partners, and everyone that we finish. That’s our goal. Hopefully COVID will leave us alone this week and we will be able to do that, but that’s what we’ve always felt like was important. For us to get to represent Liberty on a national stage on ESPN on the 26th against the top 25 opponent, look where we are in our program in year two. That speaks to it and it speaks to recruits. That’s what we want to be about every single year, playing these type of games. We embrace it and we’re excited about it. I know a lot of people may not be real excited about going into a bowl game, but our staff and our kids are.”
