Liberty (2-0) has opened the season at 2-0 with two dramatic victories. The Flames defeated UAB (1-1) on Saturday night, 21-14, in a game filled with wet weather. Now, Liberty begins to turn its attention to this week’s opponent, No. 18 Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons opened as 15-point favorites with kickoff from Winston Salem, North Carolina scheduled for 5 p.m. on the ACC Network. On Monday, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze held his weekly press conference, here’s everything he had to say, beginning with his opening statement:
“When I looked at our schedule, obviously, it was pretty daunting, the schedule we have. Truthfully, I kinda in my mind, and always on Monday I always tell our team the truth of how I see the games. I felt like both of these first games were 50-50 games, they could go either way. That they were both quality opponents that could beat us, but also we could win the games, also. So, we’re fortunate to be 2-0 because we really haven’t played that well, truthfully, on offense.”
“I look at this last tape, the throws we missed, the reads we made, the mistakes we made, were pretty glaring. Some of it had to do with UAB, very quality opponent. The truths of the game, special teams wise, we created two explosive runs. Our punt protection was pretty good against a team that tries to eat you up. Netted 38 yards a punt and we had a takeaway on a punt. Chris Megginson made an outstanding effort on that play. Those were the positives. Negatives, we had a foolish penalty that looked like we haven’t coached at all on how to properly make sure you down the ball inside the five yard line. When a guy’s fair catching it, that’s uncalled for and we’ve got to get that fixed. We continue to miss field goals that are necessary points to win close games. We’ve got to try to improve there also. We gave up an explosive kickoff return.”
“Defensively we were 67% again on third down. That was good, we got takeaways again, which was good. I thought we adjusted to the rush attack pretty well after the first quarter. I thought Durrell Johnson played his best game since he’s been here. It was good to see that for sure. Mo Williams at corner, I thought, was gritty and played well. Good to see that also.”
“Offensively, we averaged 4.7 yards a rush which is pretty decent. Created 13 explosive plays which is something we’re going to have to do with this unit. We had no interceptions, which was good, but we did turn over a ball in 4-minute offense which is just unexcusable, we can’t do that. Negatives, too many third and longs. Most of it, after watching film, was because of us and Kaidon’s got a long way to go in just understanding progressions. Now, give him credit, he made some plays that helped us win the game, but we’ve got to improve at the quarterback position. I thought our pass pro was pretty good, pockets were there, we’re panicking and starting to run around when we don’t have to. That was the truth that I shared with them this morning. Main truth is we’re 2-0 on two games that could have gone either way. Excited to be in that position.”
“It doesn’t get any easier playing an ACC Divisional champ and conference runner-up who won 11 games, I believe, last year and has most of their returners back. Coach Clawson, I’ve had great respect for him, the way he does things. He’s a winner. What they do offensively is a little different that you don’t see a lot, which gives you problems, particularly when they’ve got a trigger guy like Sam Hartman and two receivers like 9 and 11 who are as good as you’re going to see. The running backs are very shifty and a veteran offensive line. Offensively, they are a problem. Their tempo, just everything about it. They are averaging a lot of points against a lot of good defenses. We’re not going to stop them, just got to hopefully be stingy in the red zone and make them settle for some field goals and try not to give up too many explosive plays, but they are creating those against almost everybody they play. It’s going to be difficult.”
“They have won 10 straight home games, I believe. It’s a great challenge, but also a great opportunity. I think our season is going to be full of that with the likes of them and BYU and Arkansas. They are all going to be ranked in the top 15 or so, it appears, whenever the polls come out. You are playing three top 20 teams, for sure. It’s a great, great challenge. Sometimes I wish it was easier so we could rest some this week, but there will be no rest as we’ve got our hands full.”
“Defensively, Brad Lambert, I’ve known him for a while. He’s always done a good job. Veteran defensive coordinator. They are in the right spot, doing the right thing over and over again. It’s a tough challenge.”
9 TAKEAWAYS THROUGH THE FIRST 2 GAMES, DO YOU THINK THEY ARE THE STRENGTH OF THE TEAM?
“Well, I don’t think you can ever predict how the takeaways are going to turn out. One thing I do know, I felt like we have recruited. I made no secret when I came here I wanted to recruit defensive players. I’ve been in this game long enough. I know at this level, I’ve coached at this level before. I’ve coached in a league where you’re probably not going to have as equal of talent as some others, and if you can recruit defensively to where they can keep you in games and you have a good system offensively, you can find a way to win football games sometimes.”
“So, I wanted to build our program around playing good, tough, physical defense. I think what you’re seeing is we have some kids who have played a lot of snaps for us over there now. Not that we’re perfect. We’re not tackling well right now, we’ve missed like 40 tackles in two games, but we do have maturity over there and we have grit and toughness. I think you’re seeing some of that now. Hopefully that trend of us getting takeaways continues, but I think the grit will, for sure.”
ONLY 10 POINTS OFF THE TAKEAWAYS, IS THAT SOMETHING THAT NEEDS TO BE HARPED ON?
“I think you know the answer to that. I don’t think you can harp on it. You’re going to call what you’re going to call, that’s in the game plan. We should have gotten three points out of the field goal, we should make that field goal. Then, we got a chop block, we had a good run on the other one we got in plus territory. Felt like we were in good shape but then you get a chop block called, which wasn’t a chop block on the film. You’re not going to convert on these when you start 2nd and 25 and stuff, or first and 25, it’s hard for us right now. We’re not ready for that scenario very well. When a break comes our way, we want to score. We haven’t been very good at that this year.”
IS THE COMPETITION BACK OPEN AT FIELD GOAL?
“I think we’re going to go one more week with Nick. Brayden is not quite healthy yet. I think that is the plan right now.”
WHAT IS TJ GREEN’S STATUS?
“He went through our workouts this morning. It will be a day to day deal. Hopefully we can get him back for Saturday. We can use him. Today was his first day to do something. We will see how he does tomorrow and then progress him into indo periods tomorrow. Then, hopefully into team periods Wednesday or Thursday, that’s the plan.”
HOW DID HE LOOK TODAY?
“Good, but we don’t run around a ton on Mondays. Not at least at full speed. So, it’s kind of hard to say.”
YOU HAVE HAD SOME BIG WINS IN YOUR TENURE THERE, DOES THAT MAKE PLAYING A POWER FIVE TEAM LESS DAUNTING?
“I hope that our kids take from our staff, and I hope I set the tone for our staff, with the fact that they don’t see any difference in me whether we’re playing an ACC Divisional champ or UAB or Arkansas. I think they will see the consistency in our approach that prepares us hopefully to compete against what I consider to be a superior opponent. That we seize the opportunity as one that can be exciting. You’re not going to win all the games when you play Power Five opponents at a Group of Five school, but I think it’s been proven on the last few weekends that it certainly is possible. I think we’ve proven it’s possible here a few times. I think that does breed some confidence that you can go in and enjoy the opportunity and kind of see where it leaves you in the fourth quarter.”
IS THERE A DANGER IN PLAYING UP BECAUSE IT REINFORCES THE FACT THAT YOU GUYS AREN’T AS TALENTED?
“I don’t ever say it like that. I don’t ever talk like, ‘hey they didn’t recruit you, man.’ I don’t get into all that. I think those are mind games that have really nothing to do with us preparing properly. I want us to prepare properly and be a confident football team, no matter who we’re playing. Certainly it is, we will talk about the opportunity to compete on a stage like that where I think we’re on ACC Network, so I believe, if I’m right, there will be more eyes on us for our program. A chance to show this is our grit and toughness and how we play. I won’t ever talk to our kids about, ‘You should be upset with them because they didn’t recruit you or they are superior to you in some way.’ I tell them the truth. As a team, as a whole, we will be underdogs this week and rightfully so.”
WHAT WAS CONCERNING TO YOU FOR THE WAKE FOREST OFFENSE?
“9 and 11 are special. They are just really, really good. It’s just different too. I’m really intrigued by it truthfully and kind of jealous that I haven’t studied it more to see if it’s something I might want to do some. It’s just really odd. Their run game, when they are in that mode, obviously they have other modes too, but man this idea of never blocking linebackers and just really being patient on the line of scrimmage and let your running backs who are really shifty misfit it. Throwing the ball from one yard from where he took the snap. It is a challenge for us. We started working on it this morning. Just to get our service guys to do it the right way is a challenge. No one has stopped them. It’s obviously effective. It’s very difficult. It’s hard for me to feel great sitting here on Monday that we’re going to do a great job in preparing properly for it.”
WHAT IS CJ DANIELS STATUS? AND BRODY BRUMM?
“Both TJ and CJ are in the same protocols. Starting indo tomorrow and see how they go. Brody is probably 4-5 weeks from being back.”
CAN YOU FIND GROWTH IN FILM AND PRACTICE FOR KAIDON, OR DOES IT HAVE TO COME IN LIVE REPS?
“I don’t know, but after watching his film he better improve or we’re going to have to do something else. It made me sick watching the film on seeing his progressions. Not hard ones either. From 2 to 1 back down and a check down standing down there that is totally by himself that is going to run for 15 yards. We duck our head down and run out of the pocket. That’s got to change fast.”
WHAT DOES NATE GIVE YOU AT THE GOAL LINE?
“A package that Kaidon didn’t have to learn and a bigger body that is probably more durable.”
THE MALIK CAPER AND THE FUMBLE, TAKE ME INTO THAT DECISION.
“Malik is the most physical back we have. He is built for 4 minute offense. That was not Malik’s fault. He did what he was supposed to do. He formed a good pocket and Kaidon freaked out. He freaked out. They brought Will-fire and he just spaced out on 4 minute offense. We don’t care what they bring, hand the ball off and make them use their two timeouts. He just spaced out on it. Again, I’ve got to coach it better. I said that after the game. Obviously, I didn’t get the message across of how our thought process should be, but that wasn’t Malik’s fault at all. I’d love to see him pound it in there and see what he did.”
HOW DID THE OFFENSIVE LINE GRADE OUT?
“I thought our pass pro was incredible. There were pockets there. We blew one assignment between a tight end and tackle that caused pressure on us, but outside of that I thought the pass pro was incredible. We didn’t give it good run push at the line of scrimmage for a large part of the first half. Second half I thought we did.”
KAIDON SAID HE SPENT A LOT OF TIME WITH JESSIE STONE LAST WEEK AT NIGHT, DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OUT OF THAT FROM HIM THIS WEEK?
“Our analysts can’t coach. He needs to spend time with Kent and myself in the film room and the practice room. We’re in there a lot. He’s got to come up here and study some on his own, would be helpful. He really needs to look at this tape. We’ve already watched it this morning. He needs to look at this tape and hopefully learn from it. If there’s too many things that are in the game plan for him and he doesn’t feel comfortable with it, then he needs to speak up and say so. But these weren’t hard now. These were not hard at all. These were some 2 to 1 checkdown. Not 4 to 1, it was 2 to 1 checkdown and we’re not getting it done right now so we’ve got to coach it better.”
IN YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH YOUNG QUARTERBACKS, DOES THE SPEED OF THE GAME MAKE THAT BETTER FOR HIM OR IS IT IN THE FILM ROOM?
“Initially it’s really his first college football game to play significant snaps in the start. I’m sure he was excited. Plus, you’re dealing with a guy that is athletic enough to run around when he needs to. Maybe that comes naturally to those guys, particularly when in high school he’s probably faster than anybody. Could miss a read and miss a checkdown but still run around and get 10 yards. Well, that don’t happen here. The first three plays we should have had completions and he decides to run around and they are -2’s or throwaways. So, I do think there is no better teacher than experience. Hopefully, as we continue to get him reps and experience in live situations, the learning curve becomes easier for him. It would be nice to have a couple more games under his belt before you have to go take on a team like Wake but we don’t. He’s going to have to learn quickly.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE DEFENSIVE LINE THAT’S GOING TO BE CHASING HIM AROUND?
“Those two inside guys are difficult. They are a problem, and the depth they have there. I think the ends are very, very solid and talented. They don’t jump off the page quite like those inside guys do, but that doesn’t mean they’re not really, really good Power Five players. I love the way their defense is on the same page. They are in the right spots. They are smart, intelligent, and tackle well. They are not going to make a mistake and blow some coverage and just give you something. The D-Line, it starts with them, for sure. Ya’ll got a good one there.”
WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE JB?
“JB is going to be ready. He was ready last week. I’m mad at myself. I should have put JB in in the 4-minute drill. I suggested it and then we talked, but there was still 4 minutes left and we needed two first downs at least. I thought Kaidon might give us the better chance to do that. Which he did on the next possession on some of our zone read stuff, but maybe should have put JB in there. JB is ready to go. You know what, if we keep missing these progressions, you will see him. I have confidence in all three of these guys. I want to keep saying that. I don’t know that ya’ll have believed me, but I think that all three of those guys could make plays for us should we put them in the game.”
