Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze has tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, the football program has announced. He has experienced some mild symptoms, according to the team statement, and he has self-isolated himself since learning of the positive test result.

The Liberty football program paused all team related activities on Thursday, Dec. 3 following an increase in positive COVID test results beginning Sunday, Nov. 29. The Flames had to cancel its top 25 showdown with Coastal Carolina in Conway, South Carolina on Dec. 5. The Chanticleers went on to face BYU, knocking off the previously unbeaten Cougars.

As we reported last week, Liberty quarterback Malik Willis tested positive for COVID, as did other football players and members of the coaching staff. Freeze is hopeful to return to the football program next week as the Flames hope to begin preparations for a potential bowl game. The early December signing period is this coming Wednesday.

This is not the first time Freeze has been forced to miss time from the Liberty football program due to health reasons. In August 2019, just prior to the start of his first season with the Flames, he was away from the team as he fought through a potentially life-threatening strand of staph infection which entered his bloodstream. He coached his first ever game at Liberty from a hospital bed in the press box of Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia. In his second game as head coach of the Flames at Louisiana, Freeze coached from the press box in a medical chair. He returned to the sidelines in the third game in what he dubbed a NASCAR style pit box behind the team’s bench.

Freeze is one of a number of FBS head football coaches who have tested positive for the virus including Alabama’s Nick Saban, Louisiana’s Billy Napier, Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst, Florida’s Dan Mullen, Kansas’ Les Miles, Miami’s Manny Diaz, UCLA’s Chip Kelly, former Southern Miss interim head coach Scotty Walden, and Florida State’s Mike Norvell.