The Liberty Flames improved to 4-1 this weekend, defeating UAB, 36-12, on Saturday night in the first ever game played at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. The Flames face MTSU this week with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia as part of Liberty’s annual homecoming. Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze met with the media for his weekly press conference on Monday and here is everything he had to say beginning with his opening statement.
“Excited to be back home, for sure,” he said. “Love playing at home, and I know our kids will be excited. I think UAB was probably our most complete game that we’ve played. I thought there were a lot of positives, defense especially. Not many penalties at all on our defense, only one. Did get one turnover, should have had three. We had two right in our hands that we didn’t make, but just really thought, they gave up a total of 26 yards I think in the 3rd quarter. Those three and outs were huge, allowed us to wear them down a little bit on their defensive side.”
“Offensively, we outrushed them. We had 14 explosive plays which we knew no one had been able to consistently drive the ball on them without having explosive plays, so we worked really hard on that. I thought we just took control of the game in the second half. Obviously, disappointing not to get more points in the first half. Had two opportunities in the tight red zone and only got three points. So, that was a little disappointing. We didn’t protect great, at times, and Malik was just able to make plays with his feet. We’ve got to continue to work on our protection, but I will tell you those two defensive ends they could play in Power Five conference, 16 and 44 were a handful. They were really, really talented.”
“I thought our special teams played well except for our PAT/field goal unit which we are still not where we need to be. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got to go to work and get that team better, it’s going to cost us. I thought it was a great bounce back week. It said a lot about our kids and our staff to go play a very talented UAB team on the road in their opening of their new stadium. Really well coached by Coach Clark and his staff. I think it says a lot about our kids, really, of how we bounce back from a difficult loss at Syracuse the prior week.”
“That’s the truth of it. We are thrilled to be 4-1. One step closer to bowl eligibility. Now, we’ve got to face another tough opponent in Middle Tennessee.”
WHAT WAS YOUR THOUGHT ON BECK AND THE KICKS THAT WERE MISSED?
“Obviously, he made the first field goal which was good. Made all the extra points up until those last two. The next to last one, the snap was iffy but should have been handled. We’ve got a new holder with Aiden being out. I think it could have been handled. The last one, the kick’s head-high. It’s really, really low. There was a little leakage but nothing that should have blocked a kick that has the correct trajectory. We’ve got to continue to work and keep challenging those kids to get better.”
WHAT IS YOUR IMPRESSION OF MTSU, COMING OFF A 6 TURNOVER GAME?
“The ball is always the most important thing to us, offensively. We have to take care of the ball. If you lose the turnover battle your chances of losing, the percentages go way, way up. We’ve taken care of it pretty decently here. We’ll continue to preach that, for sure. I think Middle is playing with an enormous amount of confidence right now. They’ve got a veteran staff. Coach Stock, I’ve known him for a long time, have great respect for him. He’s got a veteran staff. They are just playing with a lot of confidence. The only thing I’ve watched thus far is their defense. Man, 0 and 91 are a handful. Their linebackers play downhill and force the issue a lot on you. That’s just in the small amount that I’ve watched. I know the quarterback, from talking to Scott, is running around and throwing. So, he’s a dual-threat guy. They are impressed with their running backs also, and receiver. It’s another difficult task. They are coming off a big win at Marshall. Marshall, I know, has got a really good football team. We’ve got another tough assignment. It will be one that I’m sure, hopefully, we will do good preparing for it like last week. I thought last week was our best week of preparation. Hopefully that’s something our kids can learn from is you do play a lot better when you play better.”
HOW HAS KENDY CHARLES RESPONDED TO TREATMENT?
“We only had treatment yesterday afternoon and this morning. He’s a long way away from being ready to play.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM YOUR TEAM IN HOW THEY BOUNCED BACK FROM ADVERSITY?
“I was thrilled. I loved their look at halftime. I was, obviously, not very happy at halftime. Not necessarily with our kids, but I was just frustrated. I loved the way they looked in their response to me at halftime. I have full confidence that our kids are going to play 60 minutes. We don’t necessarily always play perfect, I don’t know of any team that does, but our kids are going to play. That’s what they did Saturday night.”
ARE YOU HOPEFUL TO GET CHIBUEZE AND ZACHARY BACK THIS WEEK?
“That would be nice. It is too early to tell. I’m hopeful for both of them, for sure, Rashad. We are hopeful, but I don’t know the answer to that right now. I felt like we were pretty deep there, now all of a sudden we are playing a bunch of freshmen. I will say this now, Chris Boti played. He played really well for a freshman. That was great to see. Ralfs and Elijah had to play way too many snaps for what we’re used to. Hopefully we can get a few of those guys back.”
HOW ABOUT THE PLAY OF YOUR WRS AND CJ DANIELS, ESPECIALLY?
“I tell you it was our receivers best game. I thought they competed for the ball. I thought they ran against difficult press coverage, solid routes with good technique. I thought they finished runs well. I thought their transitioning from being a receiver to being a blocker for a Malik scramble or another receiver that has broke a tackle I thought was excellent. I thought our scramble drills were good, where they work to get open when Malik is scrambling. I know we got called for those holdings that really hurt us on those drives in the first half. The effort they are giving to try and make blocks that create explosive runs for us, I wouldn’t change a thing. Need to change our hand placement a little bit for one of those that got called on Noah. The other one with CJ, I thought it was a great block and his hands were right on his shoulder pad. I thought he had great effort and technique. I thought it was our receivers, not just CJ’s, but everybody’s best game. It’s definitely good to see CJ coming on.”
HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS JAVON SCRUGGS PLAY THROUGH 5 GAMES?
“He’s our leader, defensively. You expect a lot out of him. The standard is high. I think he has played solid. I think he can play a little better, but he’s been really, really solid. The one thing that stands out is he doesn’t normally miss tackles, and in the last two games he’s missed a few tackles. Other than that, he’s going to grade high because he knows what to do and he knows where to be. He’s going to play with great effort. It’s not just him. If there’s a negative defensively the other night, we just didn’t tackle well. There were some plays that should have been 2nd and 13 and they are 2nd and 8. Now, some of that is we were facing good backs, too. Hopefully we can tackle a little better. Javon is the leader and is going to do everything the right way for us.”
HOW VALUABLE HAS STOREY JACKSON BEEN?
“Storey, we’re so glad we have him. He’s so athletic and physical and brings a different type player to us than we’ve had the first two years. He’s just really dynamic and physical. Last week he prepared better and it showed on the game. While he flashed at times against Syracuse, he also was out of position about 12 times that cost us. All of this transitioning into this new system, I think he’s only going to get better and better and better. He played really solid, but he prepared better last week and came in on his own and really watched how he’s supposed to fit runs. I think he’s only going to get better and better as we move forward.”
ARE YOU STILL HOPING TO REDSHIRT CHRIS BOTI?
“You’re not going to hurt the team by saying we are going to redshirt a kid. I tell all these kids all the time at the beginning of the year, don’t ask me. I can’t tell you. I have no idea who we are redshirting. Would I love to redshirt a lot of kids and have 23 year old seniors in a few years? Yes, but that’s not always realistic. We will see what happens after he plays in his 4th game and where we are, but if we need him for our team this year, that’s the priority, the team.”
YOU FACED COACH STOCK PREVIOUSLY, WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES FROM THOSE?
“They’ve changed some with his hiring of different coordinators throughout the years, but one thing is consistent with Rick’s teams, I mean the guy is just a tough, hard-nosed football coach and they are going to play that way. They are well coached and they are going to play the game the right way. You are going to have to out-execute and have better effort in order to beat his teams on given days. He is a heck of a coach.”
“My memories of playing when we were at Arkansas State, I remember vividly the year I was the head coach playing at their place and winning that game because there was a bowl rep there and he came into the locker room after to give us our invitation to a bowl which was big for Arkansas State at that point in their growth into FBS football. I remember that vividly. That was a very exciting day. Rick is a heck of a coach. Heck of a guy. He will have his kids ready.”
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO ALL THE FESTIVITIES AROUND HOMECOMING?
“I don’t know. I don’t do any homecoming festivities. I don’t even know what they do. I never have. Maybe I’m bad, I don’t know. Maybe I should be out doing the festivals and things. And our kids won’t be doing whatever it is either. I hope it’s a packed stadium though. I think homecomings are great. I’m not against homecoming. I think everybody should come back that has ever graduated from Liberty and they all ought to be here on the hill somewhere on Saturday, and there ought to be 100,000 of them out there. I’m all for that, but you won’t find me doing any festivities. I can’t do both, but I hope they have some. I hope ya’ll go, and I hope it’s a packed place and it’s super loud and we have a 12th man advantage there when it comes to us having a home game. I do look forward to seeing, hopefully, I’m sure some people it’s their one time to come back because they just can’t make it happen travelling wise, so I feel a little sense of hopefully we will give them a product that they are proud to see.”
