Liberty (4-1) will head to Amherst, Massachusetts to take on the UMass Minutemen (1-4) on Saturday afternoon. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff and will be streamed on ESPN+.
UMass and the Flames have become familiar with one another since Liberty moved to the FBS ranks. The Minutemen are the only opponent the Flames have faced during each of its first five FBS seasons. The Flames are 3-1 against the Minutemen, having won each of the last three head to head meetings. Liberty is averaging 57.3 points per game against UMass all-time.
Liberty fell to host UMass on Nov. 3, 2018, 62-59, in a triple overtime contest. Since that game, the Flames are 32-14, including three wins over the Minutemen, while UMass is just 3-32 over the same time period. Last season, Liberty scored touchdowns on their first two offensive plays and rolled to a 62-17 victory over UMass.
Don Brown is in his first season of his second stint as head coach at UMass. He led the Minutemen to a 43-19 record from 2004-08 as the program saw tremendous success under him at the FCS level.
The Minutemen opened the season with a pair of losses at Tulane (42-10) and Toledo (55-10) before picking up a win in their home opener against Stony Brook, 20-3. The past two weeks, UMass has lost at Temple (28-0) and Eastern Michigan (20-13).
“I tell our kids the truth, I think we should be favored, that means absolutely zero. It means nothing,” said Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze. “You have to earn the right to win college football games. They all have players. I was hoping I would turn the tape on yesterday and feel great, but I don’t.”
Brown is a defensive-minded coach, spending most of his career on that side of the ball including stints as defensive coordinator at Michigan, Boston College, and Arizona. They have a multiple defense that gives opposing teams several different looks that are difficult to prepare for. The Minutemen have also been able to cause turnovers, as they have 10 takeaways on the season.
“They are ranked in the top 50 in the country defensively and have had some really good transfers in to play,” said Freeze. “It’s got my full attention and hopefully our players will respond accordingly. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy task to walk up there and just walk out with a win, we’re going to have to earn it.”
Brown’s defensive system does their best to try and take the run game away. They are holding teams to 176.2 rushing yards per game and will try to force their opponent to pass. Jalen Mackie transferred in from Dartmouth and is the team’s leading tackler with 36. The 6’1″ linebacker also has six tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and an interception.
Tyler Rudolph (Penn State) and Jalon Ferrell (UConn) are also transfers on the defensive side who have made an impact early in their tenure with UMass. The two defensive backs are both among the team leaders in tackles and have combined for three interceptions.
“It is totally different,” Freeze said of the UMass defensive system. “Don Brown is legendary, Michigan, Arizona, other places. He has brought in his system. His system is totally different than what they ran, it’s totally different. Then you add the transfers that they have from Power Five schools that make an immediate impact. He is so multiple. I don’t know what his plan will be, we will have to figure that out when we get in the game. It’s odd, it’s even, it’s an extra hat in the box all the time, it seems. He is going to force your hand to have to block a lot of different looks.”
On offense, things haven’t gone so well for the Minutemen. 6’3″ redshirt-junior Gino Campiotti has won the starting quarterback job after transferring in from Modesto Junior College where he completed 55.4% of his passes for 1,931 yards and 18 touchdowns last season. In five games this year, he has completed 32 of 67 passes for 252 yards, 1 touchdown and five interceptions.
His top targets have been George Johnson III and Cameron Sullivan-Brown. Johnson has 13 receptions for 144 yards while Sullivan-Brown has caught 11 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown.
UMass uses a running back by committee approach in their backfield. Gino Campiotti is their leading rusher with 360 yards and two touchdowns on 79 rushing attempts. Ellis Merriweather has carried the ball 56 times for 219 yards. Tim Baldwin, Jr. has 33 carries for 165 yards.
“You’ve got to have good discipline like anything, but it’s even more so when you are facing a team where three different people could carry the ball on a given play,” said Liberty co-defensive coordinator Josh Aldridge. “You have to have good eyes, understand your assignment. They’re not running true, what people on the outside looking in view as triple option, but from a coaching perspective that’s what it is. You have to have somebody for every hat. They do a good job of finding ways to outnumber you. You’ve got to be in advantageous calls and advantageous alignments.”
PREDICTION
Liberty 33, UMass 7
Line: Liberty -24.0
Picks results this year:
Straight-up: 5-0
ATS: 4-1
