Following Liberty’s, 62-27, win over Hampton this past Saturday to move to 2-2, head coach Hugh Freeze met with the media.
WINNING ISN’T EASY
“Winning a football game is never easy, I don’t care who you play. There’s too many factors that can happen, too good of coaches on either sideline to ever take anything for granted in whatever game you play. The day we stop being able to celebrate winning a football game is a sad day. Our kids did and we have celebrated it and it was extremely fun to get back to .500.”
ON NEW MEXICO
“Now, some more work begins as we turn the page to New Mexico. Their quarterback (Tevaka Tuioti), ever since he took over in the Notre Dame game, they have skyrocketed offensively. The numbers they put up from the 2nd half of the Notre Dame game with him through this past game, pretty staggering. He presents a problem both throwing and running.”
“We have a great challenge, I’m glad it’s at home. Our crowds have been good, we need them to be great this Saturday night. We really need everyone to be here from the student body, to our fans, to the Flames Club. It’s going to be an exciting night, and I think you will see a real exciting football game between the two of us.”
INJURY UPDATE
“(Johnathan Bennett) is out for the season, which is unfortunate. We will get him ready, and he will work to get back. I’ve said it many times, injuries are the most difficult part of coaching. My initial reaction was I wanted to get on him, but he was so excited for his teammate. That’s what you want in a teammate, just a freak thing that happened.”
“(CB Emanuel) Dabney, the report yesterday was he’s day-to-day for practice. I would anticipate him trying to go (Saturday), but have no idea until we practice tomorrow where he is. That’s the case with several guys.”
“No one ever told me (WR Noah Frith) was cleared to play last week. I wouldn’t have played him anyway, but he did go through our red zone work yesterday that we do on Sundays. I anticipate him playing (against New Mexico).”
“(CB) Bejour (Wilson) will play. You won’t be able to keep him off the field. What percent he will be, I don’t know, but he will play. (S) Isaac (Steele) has struggled with a hamstring for a while. The report today was that he was about 85 percent this morning. We’re hopeful he will be able to play also.”
FREEZE’S BIGGEST CONCERN AND WHAT HE’S MOST PLEASED WITH THROUGH 4 GAMES
“Biggest concern is depth. When you go through the injury report and say, ‘That one stings, that one stings, that one stings.’ A 12 game season is a long, long season for college kids. I wish that the NCAA would let us go to like 100 scholarships for depth-wise, that would be an extra burden on the schools obviously. It hasn’t changed in a long time and the season has gotten longer and more physical. I worry about depth to sustain the level of play we want to sustain throughout the year.”
“Most pleased, probably with the leadership with the kids we needed in our coaching staff and Liberty’s support with what they’ve had to deal with with my situation.”
ON THE SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY
“I think (ST Coordinator) Tanner Burns is doing just an extraordinary job, I really do. Obviously, he was upset with the penalties, but two of them I question. One I really, really questioned the other I questioned too, and one was a legit call that affected the play. He was frustrated with the penalties. Our safe punt team, we have not coached well enough on that to get the bounce off the helmet that shouldn’t happen in safe no way, no shape, no form that should happen. We’re not trying to return the ball, we just want to have possession of the ball after the punt. Tanner is the first one to say, ‘Coach, you know what, that’s on me. I haven’t covered that with this cornerback particularly.’ I sit in his meetings and he just does a great job. If you look at our rankings, some of them are skewed a little bit I think, if we would have had those 3 returns the other night we would be way up there, but our kickoff cover unit has done a phenomenal job. I thought our punting team the other night when we had to pin teams down did an outstanding job. Khaleb Coleman is really standing out, he is on every special team except for PAT/field goal. PAT/field goal team I have such a small sample size to judge that on right now. So, I don’t really have a feeling one way or another. I see them in practice, he has the ability to do it now he just has to carry it over into the games. I’ve really been pleased with our teams.”
NOTE
Frank Boyd entered the program as a running back, was moved to corner during training camp, and he has now moved back to running back.
