No. 23 Liberty is coming off their bye week following the team’s win last Saturday over BYU, 41-14. This week, the Flames will take on Arkansas in a 4:00 p.m. EST kick in a game that will be televised on the SEC Network. Liberty opened as a 14-point underdog against the Razorbacks. On Monday, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze held his weekly press conference, here’s everything he had to say, including audio of his press conference:
“It was an incredible bye week in a lot of ways. In this profession, you don’t, so to speak, bask in your victories very long because you realize that you’re facing another opponent right in the face. In this world of college football today, every game is a lite of its own. You’ve got your hands full in a heart beat if you’re not careful. Coming off the BYU game, being such a special game to our university and our program and to so many people, it was really nice having a bye week to kind of enjoy truthfully. That was really nice.”
“Then, you had the week of enjoying that and resting up and hopefully getting our legs back under us and some healing for some guys needed. We only practiced one time. We did some walk-throughs, but really tried to take it easy on them. Then, fast forward to the end of the week, you find out Malik Willis is going to start his first NFL game, so that added even more excitement to it. He’s 1-0 as a starter, that record will never be broken. He will always hold that record, tied with a bunch of others, but he’ll always own it.”
“Then, I got to play a little Ryder Cup with my group out at Boonsboro and we won that, so that was good. Then, you find out you’re ranked in the top 25 for the second time in school history, the other time being in 2020. It was a really, really good week in a lot of ways. We also got some recruiting in. Good week. Open week.”
“We got to have a little head start on Arkansas. The Hogs are going to be a handful for us. When you are playing an SEC roster with a Group of Five school it is tough, it’s hard. You can’t even hardly make any mistakes if you want any chance to be in it. They needed an off week a couple weeks ago and it benefited them greatly. They got some guys back on defense against Auburn and started looking more like themselves.”
“I have great respect for Sam Pittman, I don’t know him very well, but I’ve always thought that he did a heck of a job recruiting and coaching his guys. Obviously, the turnaround at Arkansas from the time he took over is pretty dang incredible. I am good friends though with Barry Odom. We are really good friends. I think the world of him. He’s one of the best coordinators in the game. Then, the respect I have for the Briles family and their offensive mind. Kendall is doing a great job there, just look at their stats and what they have been ranked in the SEC in both rushing and total yards. They are very balanced, they are very tough to defend, scoring points on most everyone. It’s going to be a tall, tall task.”
“It’s exciting. I wish we were coming into this ranked 23rd in the country and feeling like, I don’t know who’s the worst team in the 131 college football teams, but I would like to be playing them this week not the Hogs. It will be a fun trip. I’ve got a lot of friends at Arkansas from my time there. I’ve gotten a lot of texts about people that will be at the game and come by the hotel and I will get to visit some with them. Ultimately, it is our job to try and get our kids ready to try and compete in a game we will be excited to play. Our kids, they’ll be ready. Do we have enough firepower to hang with these guys, we’ll see, but it will be fun trying.”
ANY MEMORIES OF COACHING AT ARKANSAS?
“I’ve never had success at Fayetteville. The two times I’ve been there, it was the worst weather I think I’ve ever coached in both times. It was awful. My daughters, to this day, still they think Fayetteville back then they thought we were going to Alaska the way our trips were in late November there when I was at Ole Miss. I experienced success in Little Rock but not in Fayetteville. Hopefully, I haven’t looked at the weather, I’m scared to, but I hope it’s not like it was the last two times I was there. As long as it’s not freezing rain like it was the two times I was there. It was freezing rain.”
LAST WEEK, ALSO GOT THE CONTRACT EXTENSION.
“Oh gosh, how did I forgot that, I’m sorry. I don’t know what day that came out, but we had already talked about it. The social media has already covered it. Ian has been incredible to me here along with Dr. Prevo and the Board of Trustees. Every single year I’ve been here I’ve never had to go to him to ask for anything, he always comes to me. It’s quite humbling, truthfully. You feel kind of guilty that you are the beneficiary of so many people’s work that you know you couldn’t really do without. From the players to the staff to everybody, so that’s kind of humbling because they don’t get to benefit quite in the same magnitude that my family and I do. It is quite humbling. Thankful, again, for this opportunity and for their vision for the future.”
DO YOU STILL BELIEVE LIBERTY CAN BE ONE OF THE BEST TEAMS IN G5 WITH THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO YOU?
“I’ve made no bones about it since I came here I thought our goals should be one of the top G5 programs in the country. We’re 3-0 in bowl games, been in the top 25 our share of times, had a 10-win season, headed to our fourth straight bowl, are sitting in the top 25 now, I guess it would be arguably you could say that we’re close to being there. Certainly with the resources that the administration is willing to provide to our staff and our players and our facilities and everything, I’m not going to back track on that. I think that’s a reasonable goal.”
IS YOUR TEAM COMING INTO ARKANSAS WITH A LOT OF MOMENTUM?
“Well, everybody on the Mountain is feeling great. I hadn’t gone anywhere this past week where everybody is just so excited about what they’re witnessing in this football program in such a short period of time of us transitioning from FCS. We are also coming off our most well played football game. Truthfully, we haven’t been very consistent all year, particularly offensively. Defensively we have and obviously some of that has to do with our injuries to our QB1 and QB2. Last week I thought we played a really, really solid football game on all three phases. We’re going to need that to build some confidence in us to go and be able to compete with the likes of Arkansas, but I do think we certainly have a lot of momentum right now.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW BARRY SO WELL?
“He was really good friends with Matt Luke who was my OLine coach at Ole Miss and a dear friend. He was the DC at Memphis, we played them both years and I said I like this guy, I like the way his kids play. Matt introduced him to me after one of the games and we just started developing a relationship. Then he went to Missouri, I think it’s fair to say he would bounce things off me from time to time. I like what he thinks about coaching. I like his philosophy, his core values, just think a lot of him.”
IN YOUR EXPERIENCE OF HAVING A RANKED PROGRAM, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO USE THAT AS MOTIVATION?
“I really don’t use the rankings too much in the season. I get it. I’ve lived this life at Ole Miss we were ranked a lot, here not so much, but when you do it’s pretty special. You celebrate that, but you also better be real and know that Arkansas is going to be favored this week and they should be, they’ve got better players and probably better coaches. You can easily get knocked out of the top 25. The one that’s quite gratifying is if you can finish the course of a 12 game season and put yourself in a position to be in it. Like from 2020 I have a framed picture of, it’s pretty special. We celebrated it in our truth meeting last night. It’s a little different week so we went ahead and did our truth meeting last night so we could get an extra practice in today. It’s pretty special but it could be very fleeting also at this moment.”
BEING ABLE TO CROSS SCOUTING WITH THE BYU GAME, HOW CAN THAT PLAY INTO THIS WEEK?
“I wish that Barry was a little more like he was at Memphis. He was in one front, now he’s in all kind of fronts. I’m not exactly sure how he’s going to play us. He’s played some teams a bit differently. We’ve got to prepare for all of them. No question getting to watch some of that stuff for an extra week, I feel like, I don’t know if we can block them or have the right calls or anything, but I do feel like I have an understanding of what he’s trying to do when he’s getting in his odd fronts or his load fronts or his even fronts. There’s a lot of moving parts with it. We will have to get in the game and figure out how he’s going to play us. It certainly didn’t hurt that we got to watch that much of them.”
YOU MENTIONED YOUR QBs, WHAT DOES YOUR SITUATION LOOK LIKE?
“(Charlie) had a good practice today. Kaidon ran today, don’t know if he will be ready or not. I would expect Brewer to do like he did in BYU and try to go, but I think the off week really helped him. He threw it a lot better today than he did two weeks ago when he was trying to practice. I would anticipate right now both JB and Brewer being ready, not sure about Kaidon.”
BUT BENNETT HAS BEEN SO GOOD, ARE YOU RELUCTANT TO CHANGE?
“He’s been very inconsistent and then he just won the biggest game in school history and looked really good doing it. I’ve got these two things battling in my mind. If you watched all of our games up until BYU, you would say they are very inconsistent. Then, you watch the BYU game and you’re like, dang, he’s really accurate and good. I’m glad we have him. Both will probably see time. I would anticipate JB getting the start, but again it’s just Monday. I would anticipate that and kinda see how it goes, but Charlie looked pretty good today too.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS ARKANSAS TEAM?
“Look at them and they are second in SEC in yards per game, I believe, 6th in the country in rushing, 13th in the country in yards per game. Obviously, averaging around 35 a game. KJ, I know him well from Sardis, Mississippi. He’s as much involved in the run game as he is the pass game which is a challenge. Then, #5, that running back, he’s an SEC dude. I think he’s at the top of the SEC in rushing. Tight end, 7, is a good player. Those wide receivers, then you get to the OLine, it’s the best we’ve faced probably in the four years I’ve been here I would say. They are very seasoned, very physical. It’s going to be a tall, tall challenge.”
HOW MUCH DOES THE GAME AT OLE MISS HELPS YOUR TEAM UNDERSTAND THE ENVIRONMENT WILL BE LIKE?
“I try to explain to them the environment of the given stadiums we are going into. I don’t like our kids to be surprised or shocked. I knew what the Ole Miss atmosphere would be like for an 11 o’clock kick and they’re not playing an SEC school so I knew what it would be like. I have a good feel for what I think the Arkansas will be like also. We will have to handle it. I showed them how you do Woo Pig Sooie and Arkansas Razorback. You’ve got to get into it, you’re going to hear it a lot so you got to get into it and know what you’re talking about. I want them to be familiar with the whole deal and enjoy the atmosphere. We played Ole Miss really, really good and had a chance to make it a one score game there without a penalty and a drop. This is a different task. I don’t think our kids, the stadium and atmosphere shoudl be one we look at to enjoy and not be intimidated by. I think we will look at it that way.”
HOW IS THE REST OF THE HEALTH OF YOUR TEAM, ESPECIALLY WR AND TRESHAUN CLARK?
“TreShaun is back. He practiced today. Receiver, we are still thin, don’t know exactly how everybody will come a long this week getting ready. We will piece it together like we have. We’ve really been beat up at that spot this year. I hope Caleb can go, I hope Yarbrough can go, that would really help us add some quality depth to that spot.”
WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR TEAM HAS MADE THE MOST IMPROVEMENT SINCE WEEK 1?
“Well, just based off the last game. I would say the offensive consistency was so much improved last week compared to what we had witnessed. I hope that is a sign that we are taking a step in the right direction and we can expect some of that moving forward. Hopefully that is it.”
IS DAE DAE HUNTER AN SEC RB?
“He could have played for me in my days at Ole Miss. We didn’t have maybe the greatest running backs in the conference at that time. He would have played for me there. Dae Dae, he’s got some stiffness, that’s why he didn’t sign with Power Fives, but boy he is physically really, really strong and has enough burst. He’s not a blazer but enough burst to make explosive runs. I think it would just depend on what the makeup of your roster is. In my days there, there were some weeks that we would have loved to have him. I think he’s right on the borderline probably. If you are in an offense that is like the one I ran at Ole Miss, I think he can play. If you are in one that is a little more power oriented he may not be quite big enough.”
DO YOU GET FIRED UP FOR SEC GAMES?
“Sure. You know that more eyes are on you. More eyes are on your team. I don’t think any coach that is worth his salt wants to put an embarrassing product on the field at any time, much less when a lot of the eyes are on you. You want it for your program, for your kids, to be able to compete and get into the second half and be in a ball game in this arena. It fires you up some. Still, when we kick it off, I think I will just be like normal, but certainly it will be exciting.”
HAVE YOU TALKED WITH BARRY ANY?
“I texted with him this morning. I said quit laughing at my team on film. He said, oh I’m not laughing at all. Then, we both just said hope I get to see you for a few minutes before the game.”
WHAT TYPE OF CHALLENGES DOES THEIR DEFENSE PRESENT?
“They are bigger, faster, and stronger. Barry’s got them playing a lot of multiple looks. The Pool kid I think is maybe the program’s leading tackler of all time, second in the SEC I think right now. Sacks they are up there. 50 is a man up front, very consistent player for them. Sanders, the transfer from Alabama, is a really good player too. They just got healthy in the secondary, more healthy. You’ve got Barry calling it with really good players. They also have Dominique Bowman who is one of my players that I coached. I think I’m somewhat of a mentor to him. I’ve got change, probably, some verbiage too. He played for me and we’ve talked ball a lot. It’s one of those type games.”
WHAT IMPRESSES YOU ABOUT THE ARKANSAS RB ROCKET?
“Well, it would be nice if he had like an in-grown toenail or something that he couldn’t function properly on Saturday. I don’t want anything bad to happen to any player. He’s the best running back we’ve seen this season, maybe in our time here. Really, really talented player, quick twitch, good instincts, big, strong, patience, impressive speed and agility for his size. I mean, you already rush for 1,000 yards in that conference, it says a lot about your running backs. OLine, and tight ends.”
