No. 23 Liberty (8-1) picked up an upset on the road over Arkansas (5-4), 21-13, on Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville. It is the first win in program history over an SEC school and improves Liberty’s win streak to six.
The Flames entered the game as two touchdown underdogs despite being the ranked team playing an unranked opponent. Liberty didn’t care as the defense immediately asserted its will to begin the game. The defensive line held the Razorbacks in check, keeping the nation’s 6th ranked rushing offense to negative rushing yards through the majority of the first quarter.
Fighting through the flu this week, Johnathan Bennett was able to travel with the team and make the start. He continued his strong play from the BYU game two weeks ago. Bennett connected with Noah Frith for a 16-yard touchdown strike late in the first quarter as Liberty struck first and took the lead over an SEC opponent for the first time in school history.
That strong play wouldn’t stop, as Bennett threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers in the first half, and the Liberty defense nearly went into the locker room with a shutout. Arkansas utilized a 22 yard pass completion and a personal foul penalty on the Flames to set up a 50-yard field goal on the final play of the opening half, making the score 21-3.
Liberty was able to hold off a late 4th quarter rally by Arkansas, who got in the end zone for the first time of the date midway through the fourth quarter. That made it a 21-13 score, but the Flames were able to hold off for the win, getting a stop on the two-point conversion.
BENNETT DOES IT AGAIN
Coming off the win over BYU in which Johnathan Bennett had a career game, many thought that head coach Hugh Freeze would go back to the redshirt-junior to begin today’s game at Arkansas. That seemed to be the plan until it was revealed late in the week that Bennett was fighting the flu and had missed practice time.
Bennett would fight through his sickness to get the start and he had another outstanding game, further cementing himself as the team’s starting quarterback. He remains unbeaten as a starter, improving to 5-0, and now owns arguably the two biggest wins in school history by knocking off BYU and Arkansas.
On the day, Bennett would compete 15 of 25 passes for 224 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. His favorite target was Demario Douglas who had 7 receptions for 145 yards and a score.
DEFENSIVE LINE DOMINATES UP FRONT
From the first play of the game, Liberty’s defensive line proved that it was up to the challenge of going up against an SEC level offense. The Flames’ defensive front frequently got pressure on KJ Jefferson and held Rocket Sanders in check. The Razorbacks had negative rushing yards for most of the first quarter.
Arkansas entered the game as the nation’s 6th leading rushing offense in the country, averaging 244.5 yards per game on the ground. The Razorbacks had rushed for over 200 yards against everyone this season not named Alabama. Liberty held Arkansas to just 144 yards rushing on the day, a season low.
LIBERTY MAKES A SPLASH ON NATIONAL STAGE
The Flames moved into the top 25 polls this week with their 7-1 record, and playing on the road against an SEC opponent, there were more eyes on the Liberty football team that at perhaps any other time. The game was televised nationally on the SEC Network and it was played in front of the second largest crowd to ever watch the Flames play a football game.
Up Next
Liberty will play its final road game of the 2022 season next week as the Flames travel to take on the UConn Huskies. Under first year head coach Jim Mora, UConn is 5-5 on the season and coming off a win over UMass, 27-10, on Friday night.
