The Liberty Flames (7-5) will look to bounce back from a disappointing end to the regular season in dropping three straight games. The Flames take on Eastern Michigan (7-5) in the 2021 Lending Tree Bowl. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. EST at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. in a game that will be televised on ESPN. Coach Freeze met with the media for his weekly press conference to preview the game and here is everything he had to say beginning with his opening statement.
“It’s been a great challenge to be honest to do them all well (recruiting, preparing for bowl game),” he said. “Last year, we had a bowl a bit later than this but we had the COVID recruiting rules where you weren’t tied up on the road all week or two weeks. Then, with official visits on the weekend. It has been a great challenge. We haven’t slept much, but that’s good. It’s dead today. We can turn our full attention to this game.”
“I’m really excited for our team to be able to play on national TV and represent our university and our efforts to go 3-0 in bowl games in our time here. Really didn’t like the way our season ended. Felt like it’s my fault and I’m responsible and I want to have a different feeling going into the offseason. So, we’re really excited about this opportunity. Playing a wonderfully well coached team in Eastern Michigan. Chris Creighton is one of the best men in coaching. He’s a molder of men. His kids play extremely hard for him, and obviously their record reflects that. Big, physical offensive line. Very, very, very disciplined defense. We’ve got a great challenge, but it’s one we’re looking forward to.”
“Can’t wait to get there. I hope our people get tickets, come support us in Mobile. I think the weather is supposed to be good. Come on down and let’s try to get a third bowl win.”
IT’S BEEN BUSY ON YOUR COACHING STAFF WITH SAM GREGG GOING TO SOUTHERN MISS AS OC, DOMINIC STUDZINKSKI GETTING PROMOTED, DARRY MARSHALL RETIRING, HAS IT BEEN A CHAOTIC WEEK FROM THAT STAND POINT?
“I wouldn’t call it chaotic. I think there’s all kinds of different change. There’s good changes that are better for people and maybe better for us at times. Then, there’s ones where you’re simply happy for your guys to get opportunities. I texted Ian the other night, I said I think we obviously have hired the right people because it seems like our guys are sought after. I think that’s a compliment to our kids and our program, and the people that we’ve hired. So, we’re happy for Sam. Obviously, to go back to his home state and be a coordinator is a step that he felt like was in the right direction for him.”
“Darry’s retirement was really just health drive. He’s in our prayers. He’s had a lot of surgeries on his back and his neck, and obviously he has battled cancer twice. I think he and his wife have just decided it’s time for us to be grandparents. We wish him the best in that.”
“I truly believe (Dom’s) our assistant head coach. I thought it was time we reflected that. There’s not many things I do scheduling wise or anything that he is not the only voice I listen to. I don’t seek other people’s advice or even their opinion other than his in regards to that and what’s best for our team. I think he’s probably the most important hire I have in this building. I wanted to reflect that in both title and in honoring the job he has done here. Our kids look different in a short amount of time than when we arrived. That’s really him and his staff.”
“Miss Danielle plays a role in that too. We’ve got several other changes. I don’t want to get ahead of HR. I never really know how that works. We’re blessed to have Danielle come with us full time as a nutritionist just for football. Thankful to the administration and to Ian, seeing the need for that.”
“Matt Bevins is going to be moving into Darry’s role, he’s earned that. I trust him immensely. He has the great disposition and demeanor to listen to me complain and stuff when I do. I think he’s going to do a heck of a job there. I can’t remember, there may be others, but we will tackle them as they come.”
DO YOU WORRY ABOUT MOTIVATION FOR YOUR TEAM GOING INTO THIS BOWL GAME?
“I worry about this team, period. We are a good team and we won games and we’re bowl eligible, and we should celebrate that always, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t feel like I pulled the right switches or found the right button to hit to get us to click on all cylinders. That’s not something that sits extremely well with me. That is motivating for me. To say that I would sit here and not worry about just our team in general. We’ve had a tendency not to have complete focus or we’ve just been off in our operations. Whether it’s one guy, whether it’s two guys, and it just kills a drive or kills a play or gives them a touchdown pass. I’m determined that we’re going to play better in this bowl game.”
“I’ve been pleased, so far, with practice. We practiced Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I liked two of them a lot. Didn’t care for one of them much. Excited to get back out tonight after exams today and practice again. Then, we will travel tomorrow, obviously. Yes, I’m worried about the motivation factor, but optimistic also that we will respond the right way.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO FINISH THE SEASON ON A POSITIVE NOTE?
“I really don’t care how people remember it. I care what happens with the people on this campus and in our building. It’s important to me. I believe I’m 5-1 or 6-1 as a head coach in bowl games so they are important to me always. We somehow found a way to get our kids to believe that, understand that. We hope that will be the case this year. It’s important to me. I like going into the offseason feeling like we got better, at least for this bowl game, and got to another eight win season. It’s hard to win college football games. I think everybody is finally listening to me on that. Unless you just have the better players every single week. I don’t know that that’s going to be the case in our world right now in the scheduling that we have. We’re not going to roll our there and just have the better players from top to bottom than others. So, you better play well, and you better take care of the ball. Unfortunately, I don’t think we always reached our potential. That’s, again, frustrating, so I want to reach it in this bowl game. That will make us all feel a little better heading into spring practice, for sure.”
HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE WITH EASTERN MICHIGAN’S PLAY IN THE TRENCHES BE?
“They are big, physical offensive lines and defensive lines. That is concerning. Our D-Line has held up pretty well against most of the lines we have played this year, so I’m optimistic there. We’ve got to handle their RPO world and shot plays off of their run action. Then, we’ve got to handle 55’s a heck of a pass rusher. We’ve struggled with that all year. We’ve got to have a plan for that. Their big inside guys are really, really strong and hard to move. I think we’ve got a good plan. Excited about the opportunity to go out and do it. They are a really good team. You’re going to have to play really well to beat them, but that’s what you want in a bowl game.”
IN THIS WORLD OF PLAYERS ELECTING TO OPT OUT OF BOWL GAMES, WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT MALIK WILLIS TO WANT TO GO OUT WITH HIS BROTHERS ONE MORE TIME?
“I would be so disappointed if one of our players, I don’t care what your status is, whether you’re a first round pick or headed into the work force, I don’t understand that thinking. I guess they could turn it on me and say well head coaches leave and go to other jobs and don’t finish. I don’t know. I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but I wish they would let me get on a committee with a few other coaches. I think we could help solve some of this craziness. Maybe there ought to be a hiring season that you can’t hire a coach until they are able to finish with their durn team. I don’t understand. It’s just a bad, I think we are headed down the road of some things that are not great for our sport.”
“I was talking to a brand new head coach last night, Rhett Lashlee. He was asking me some questions. I said, let’s just remember this Rhett, you and I have a chance to impact people and a great job that we love doing, so let’s don’t forget that with all the craziness. I could tell you there are some craziness going on. We are recruiting kids right now that we don’t even know. You are bringing them to campus and yeah their tape looks good and you sure hope that they fit and here we go. It’s fool’s gold in a lot of situations probably, and I’m part of it.”
“I got on a tangent. I just think everybody ought to finish. Let’s get a committee that says you can change coaches but you’ve got to hire them after December the 15th or December 31st. I don’t know. I wish we could all just finish for our kids. We’ve got to all finish together. I probably don’t have all the answers to that. I just wish it wasn’t the case, but I’m proud of Malik. I’m proud of all of our kids that have chosen that this is what I want to do, I want to finish, we want to go to bowl games together every year. Yeah it’s a sacrifice, but the things in life, the good things in life, usually come from things that you had to sacrifice or work for. The easy things that you usually get, they don’t last and they probably don’t lead you to much good to be honest. There’s a little sacrifice to stay here after school’s out and to get ready for ab owl game, but this is what we signed up for so finish. Learn to finish in marriages and in families and in jobs. That’s my tangent for the day.”
WOULD YOU LOVE TO MOVE THE EARLY SIGNING DAY BACK?
“If you would come to our meetings with all the rest of the coaches, you would have heard clearly what we said. But the people on whatever committees don’t listen. We said do not do this. Fine, if you want to have an early signing period, great. Have it August 1, right before the senior season. Let them sign and then have the other one in February.”
“This idea that we can pull off this transfer portal world in a two week span before the December 15th with two weekends to trip people and have it not be chaotic. Now, that’s why you’re firing all these coaches early because you’ve got to get ready for an early signing period because you might miss out. The people created this and they don’t sit in these meetings with us. I can tell you that. The coaches don’t feel that way. We are fine for an early signing period. Do it before the season starts, before the high school season starts, before the Junior College season starts, let the guys make a decision that are prepared to do that. We’re letting them trip now in the spring, they come all summer. So, let them do that. Let us have our dead period in July so we can be a husband, family, father, and recharge. And then, let them sign August 15th, August 1st, I don’t care the date. This December 15th deal with them handing us the transfer portal world also is, to me, we have lost our mind on that one. I think it’s going to create more issues. You see that. They are firing coaches and coaches are leaving their teams. In an effort to try to get players for this early signing period. When if it was before the season and the next one wasn’t until February, everyone’s got a little time to at least breathe and let’s really think through these decisions of who we’re signing and recruiting. I don’t have all the answers, sitting here ranting, but I don’t have all the answers. The problem is the transfer portal kids want to be here in January. Right now it’s a dead period. Maybe we need one more week just for transfers, if that makes sense. Trying to get it all done right now is definitely creating some ripple effects that are not good for our sport.”
WHAT HAS BEEN THE RECEPTION YOU HAVE GOTTEN THE PAST TWO WEEKS IN RECRUITING?
“Incredible. The Liberty brand is growing. We are becoming a program that is one when they get the call from us it’s received differently than two, three years ago. Totally different. They are taking your calls. They are wanting to come visit. To be honest we are battling for our top guys right now with Power Five teams in many cases. I think that means we are on the right players and that their view of us has changed.”
“We’ve had some success, as you’ve seen, with some of the commitments, and hopefully we can get them across the finish line Wednesday. We’re right in the middle of it for some really good players. I think everyone that I’m speaking of right now, most every one of them, it’s either ACC or a Big Ten school that we are trying to get across the finish line a few guys. It’s definitely changed, the way we are perceived.”
ARE YOU GUYS HEALTHY HEADING INTO THE BOWL GAME?
“Yeah. Only one that I’m really, really concerned about right now with his status would be Ralfs. He really took a pretty good injury in that last game in Army to his knee. It’s not long term, but I am concerned a bit.”
HOW MUCH ADMIRATION DO YOU HAVE FOR WHAT EASTERN MICHIGAN HAS BEEN ABLE TO DO WITH THEIR PROGRAM?
“I think that goes to their head coach. Coach Creighton, I have known him for a while. Just salt of the earth guy, a believer. He hired RJ Fleming from here. I think that just speaks to the culture to which he’s used to build the program now. Been very, very competitive all year long with really good teams. Congrats to them on their success.”
COACH CREIGHTON MENTIONED HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU, COULD YOU EXPOUND ON THAT?
“The initial introduction came when I hired Tom Allen at Lambuth. That was the first time I hired him, got him out of high school. He and Chris were really good friends. Then Chris hired him at Drake after I left Lambuth to go to San Jose with Mac MacIntyre. I didn’t stay there very long, went to Arkansas State and re-hired Tom from Drake. I’ve had a lot of dealings with him because of that connection. We get together every year we have that AFCA deal that they ask us to come to for head coaches meetings. Typically, him, myself, Tom, Gus (Malzahn), a few others try to get together right before that just to kind of talk about the state of our game because I think we all kind of have the same mindset of what coaching is really about. Hopefully we remind each other. He’s always got great wisdom when we sit in those meetings. Think he’s a heck of a guy and great coach.”
CLOSING STATEMENT
“Pray with us for Storey Jackson. He lost his mom suddenly. It has just been a terrible week. Just shocking news. They are having the funeral today. We’ve got several staff members that are there and players. Just pray for him as he is dealing with this tragedy.”
