Liberty is now 2-1 on the season with each of their first three contests being decided in the final minutes and all three being decided by a combined 10 points. The Flames suffered its first setback of 2022 on Saturday night in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, falling to No. 18 Wake Forest, 37-36. This week, Liberty returns to play at Williams Stadium on Saturday at 6 p.m. against Akron (1-2) in a game that will be streamed on ESPN+. 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:
“We had a great meeting this morning. Obviously, we are looking at the positives of the game. We played a top, I don’t know, I guess they are ranked 16th now in the country, at their place, had 4 turnovers, 2 missed field goals, and still had a chance to win it. So, that’s the positive that we will take from it. I loved the grit of our team, the fight. There was some resolve on the sidelines to compete in it. Certainly, just proud of the effort. Disappointed we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but I think we’ve played 5 ACC teams in my time here, we’ve won two and the other three losses have been by one point, one point, and three points. Those are tough ones to swallow, but we certainly are finding a way to have a good game plan, and our kids are executing it well enough to be in the games.”
“This is what I showed our team this morning, I showed them six plays, the margin of winning and losing football games, particularly against evenly matched teams or teams that might be a little better than you depth chart wise, the margin is so small. We could take six plays out of that game, probably more, but any one of them make a difference. We’re up a score and we get a turnover, we take a shot with Demario, he’s winning, we’ve got to make those layups. We complete that pass, we’re up two touchdowns and I think the game is over. We could go through all of those, those are the ones we’ve got to make in these evenly matched or when we’re underdog in games.”
“The positives are, again, we did all of that. There’s a lot of things we did not do well, particularly at the beginning of the game, offensively, that we’ve got to get fixed. Obviously, I say it all the time, it’s on me. Kaidon’s a freshman, and he hasn’t played a lot of snaps. I’ve got to make sure that he can execute, particularly, against some different looks that you may not see. I tell people all the time, I think sometimes game planning is overrated. I really do. People laugh at me, but I think it’s overrated. We probably spend too much time game planning and practicing stuff that is so good on paper and on film. Then, you get in the game and you figure out well crap they practiced this week and planned something different. I think that’s when you’ve really got to be a good coach and adjust. I don’t know, I’ve got to figure out, he’s so coachable, I’ve just got to make sure. He settled in and did better in the second half, but the first half we were all over the place, not motioning guys. I’m either asking him to do too much or not practicing what we’re going to do enough. I’ve got to figure that one out.”
“There were a lot of positives, special teams kickoff unit was excellent. Blocked punt, obviously, by Jolly was big, had a big explosive return. Negatives are we missed two field goals and didn’t protect really well on the field goals either. Had a penalty that cost us field position that’s due to injuries and our communication from the training staff to Tanner’s got to be quicker, it caused us to have two same number jerseys on a play. That’s got to get cleaned up.”
“Defensively, man, held them to .8 yards a carry, that’s pretty strong, had 9 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 takeaways, 7 three and outs, just really good effort on the defensive side. Negatives, gave up 5 explosive passes, two of which resulted in scores. When Josh and Jack made the call on the headsets, I said that is a perfect call. Both of them were, our kids just didn’t execute it. It was that first score, we went trap and there’s no way they should throw an outside route to the corner of the end zone, it should be dead, intercepted, or totally dead play. You know, we just didn’t execute it. Those are some of the plays that I’m talking about the margin of error is just so small. I thought our defense played really hard and really well though.”
“Offensively, I loved our resolve, adjustments, and the way we played in the second half. We were 4 for 5 on 4th downs. The first one should have been a conversion but we forgot to motion a guy out. I think he would have been wide open. We’ve got to take care of the ball, and have certainly got to protect our quarterback better. I’ve got to get a plan where Kaidon is really, really comfortable.”
“A lot of positives. Obviously, excited to go back to work. I love coaching this group, I told them that this morning when I taught our lesson on our spiritual development and character development I teach on Mondays. Love coaching them. I think they are one of my more enjoyable groups to coach in 30 years. I like the staff, I think everybody’s got resolve this week. I think it’s a cross roads for us again, that’s our theme for us this year.”
“We’re teaching a series on cross roads. We are facing another one. We’ve had three very difficult battles, games that were 50-50 games at the end that could have gone either way. We’re beat up. Physically tired and hear we are coming back home to play a team that’s lost two games by large margins. You better look at who they played. They played two really, really good football teams in that. It’s a cross roads. How will we handle coming off a loss, disappointing loss, returning home to play a team that everyone should say you should beat them, you should beat them, you should beat them. Well, you’ve got to earn it. Everybody that has FBS football, has 85 scholarships and they’ve got players. The dang tailback is a guy we tried to recruit from Minnesota. He’s a heck of a player. That quarterback, you better watch him, dual threat, 6’6″, can throw it, can run it. Receivers are good. Defensively, 44 and 4, I’ve watched them all morning. They’ve got my attention. They can rush the passer. 5 is a really good linebacker. Joe Moorehead, obviously, one of the best play callers. Been around at Penn State, Oregon, and other places, and knows what he’s doing. His DC was at Oregon State for a long time, spent time at Wisconsin. They are in the creeper world which gives you problems. They are very active on defense. I know they will be hungry to come into our place and compete. I’m real curious to see how our kids respond to working and earning the right to win a game and improving on those margins where we’re not getting them quite right. I think it’s an interesting week for us. Hopefully we handle it well.”
HOW PROUD ARE YOU OF YOUR DEFENSE?
“One of the scores was that critical turnover. Our pass pro was terrible and Kaidon didn’t secure the football and throw it away. It’s a tie game at that point. That’s 7 of the points. The others, you know Wake Forest is going to score some points, but our defense played well enough for us to win the game. It could have been better. Again, we gave up two touchdowns to calls. We missed Scruggs. We had to do some juggling. We had to ask Quinton Reese to play a high safety and he’s really our nickel. We played some different coverages against them because of what they do. It was some juggling. Had to start taking plays after Tuesday. We got beat on that last scoring drive, another great call that I think Jack made it, Quinton just hadn’t played enough of that high safety to be exactly where he needed to be. His effort was incredible, but it was a big third down conversion on an explosive play that got them down the field. But our defense played well enough to win, but could we have played just a little better on some critical plays, yes. But they played well enough for us to win the football game against a very good offense that’s going to score a lot of points against a lot of people.”
DO YOU EXPECT TO HAVE SCRUGGS BACK THIS WEEK?
“I do. He was here today. He’s ready to go. There’s another big third down conversion that the ball hit the ground and they didn’t replay it. I don’t know, that irritates me too.”
THE OFFENSIVE LINE GOT BEAT UP, DO YOU EXPECT NAASIR AND JACOB BACK?
“I don’t know yet, they are all seeing doctors today, tomorrow. We are beat up. We are going to have to get some younger kids ready to play this week, for sure. Not sure on either Naasir or Bodden for this week.”
HOW PLEASED WERE YOU IN THE RUNNING BACKS?
“Feel great, about the room, feel great about Dae Dae, just we haven’t been healthy as a whole. We haven’t been healthy with TJ, Shedro has been beat up. He didn’t play a lot the other night, four snaps. He hurt his ankle, so we are thin there right now. We need Dae Dae to stay healthy, for sure and get TJ back hopefully.”
TOO SOON TO KNOW ON LOUIS?
“Yeah, it’s too soon.”
DOES TREON SIBLEY GO BACK TO RB?
“I don’t know. I have to see how Shedro and TJ practice Tuesday. Malik is about healthy. I would doubt that would happen this week, but if we got in a pinch that would be the move.”
MOVING GUYS AROUND DURING CAMP ON THE OL, DID THAT PAY OFF AGAINST WAKE?
“I think K does as good a guy as any coach that has been around in trying to get as many people acclimated to playing different spots. That’s going to be the case this week too. We’re going to have to do some juggling to get a two-deep ready, but he does a good job with that.”
WERE YOU TRYING TO LOOK FOR A SPARK WITH JB?
“They were absolutely when Kaidon was in there, adding safeties to the fit and he was not seeing it correctly. I just needed him to calm down. It really set me off on the 4th down when he didn’t motion the guy. I said, dude, I need you to calm down. I wanted to go with JB and see if we couldn’t hit some of those RPOs. I thought the run game had some possibilities, also. Just kind of to settle Kaidon down. It wasn’t anything other than that, just kind of calm down.”
AKRON, JOE MOORHEAD, IT’S A NEW LOOK, WHAT DO YOU SEE?
“I don’t know that, I haven’t watched them before this so I couldn’t compare them. I know that Moorhead is doing the same things he’s been doing offensively. Gives you a lot of tight, closet sets. A lot of pictures. This big quarterback is a lot of plus one quarterback run which is a problem that you have to prepare for. He is big and strong. Obviously, Coach Moorhead has done good everywhere he’s been. I’m certain he will have a good plan and his kids will be ready. Defensively, it’s a lot. It’s a lot. We’ve got to go to work today, soon as I get through with media to get in with the offensive staff and kind of figure out, we need to get a beat on what they’re doing because they are bringing it from a lot of places. They give you a lot of different looks that can make you look really silly or bad at times. They have my full attention.”
HOW MUCH DOES IT HELP AT RB, BEING ABLE TO BRING A GUY LIKE DAE DAE IN?
“We’re always looking to develop high school kids. I don’t want to get away from that. It’s a new world, the transfer portal world, we knew we were losing two running backs out of that room. Truthfully, we were just wanting to get one more and get the scholarship numbers back to how I want them. We thought he was the best available at that time. It had nothing to do really with how he’s played, if he had been in high school and I thought he was the best that would have been the one I would have tried to get. Sometimes you can get a better player out of the transfer portal and that was the case with him.”
DID YOU EXPECT HIM TO COME IN AND DO WHAT HE HAS DONE SO FAR?
“I did or I wouldn’t have recruited him.”
CAM WAS THE ONE YOU RECRUITED THAT ENDED UP AT AKRON?
“Yeah, I really liked Cam. I flew into Minnesota, one of the coldest days I can every remember recruiting. Met with him, same day I met with Austin who came with us. I really like Cam. Very mature, big, good looking kid who can run. We chose ultimately Dae Dae, but man he was a good player.”
Nothing on the two point conversion, really?
YOU KIND OF ANSWERED IT THE OTHER NIGHT, UNLESS YOU SAW SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
“No, I just did a poor job coaching it obviously, the play. We’ve got a guy running wide open in the back of the end zone when I looked at the video. Nobody around him. Just got to do a better job coaching it to CJ at the time. They did a really nice job. Actually, I don’t know if it was a nice job, truthfully. I think a guy just fell into it, fell into covering Kaidon. That was the first option and then the second option was the back line with Khaleb. He is by himself. I think, I just didn’t do a good enough job coaching CJ not to panic. That’s sickening to me that I didn’t get that point across enough.”
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU PRACTICED THAT?
“We’ve had it for two straight weeks. Repped it at least twice on Thursday and then walk through it on Friday, but obviously I did not teach it well enough.”
WFU’S HEAD COACH SAID DAE DAE, DEMARIO, AND SHEDRO WOULD PLAY FOR ANY ACC TEAM, HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THAT GIVE YOU WITH YOUR RECRUITING?
“It says that we’ve got a staff that’s doing a decent job of evaluating talent. That’s flattering for him to say that, I’m glad we have them and he doesn’t. I mean that’s flattering and if it’s true then we’ve done a good job evaluating.”
YOU’VE COME WITHIN SINGLE DIGITS OF ACC TEAMS, WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOUR PROGRAM?
“I said when I came here that I want us to put a product on the field that is very competitive with the given schedules that we have. I don’t know that that’s possible every single game for the last three years but there’s been very few that we didn’t compete in. That’s something I’m proud of. I think we should have won, heck out of the five, we should have won Syracuse last year, I say should, we easily could have won those games. But I think it gives our fans and our people something, if they understand the big picture of where Liberty has come in a few short years in the FBS world, three bowl wins and competitive against schools like that, I think it should give them reason to come support us. Let’s grow the support. Hopefully we are putting a product on the field that they are excited to watch. I think it’s certainly a positive. Would we have liked to have won those games? Yes, but certainly to be in them I think says positive things.”
