Three times this season Liberty (8-3, 5-3 CUSA) battled back from deficits of 13 or more points. The Flames nearly made it four but were unable to climb out of a 17-2 deficit, faltering at Sam Houston (9-3, 6-2 CUSA), 20-18, on Friday afternoon in Huntsville, Texas.
Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter was not 100% after injuring his ankle late in the 4th quarter of last week’s win over Western Kentucky. He tried to fight through it, but was clearly not himself. He was limited during practice throughout the week and the playbook was limited some due to his injury. The Flames’ signal caller completed just 7 of 21 passes for 43 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in the opening half. The Flames had just 93 yards of offense in the opening 30 minutes, trailed by 17-9 at the break.
The visitors from Lynchburg were fortunate to only be down one score at the intermission. Redshirt-freshman Donovan Dozier had a huge impact on the game in the first half, keeping the Flames within striking distance. Entering the game with just one career tackle to his register, Dozier broke free and put pressure on Sam Houston quarterback Hunter Watson, forcing him to throw the ball away on a play in the first quarter. Watson threw the ball out of play from out of his own end zone to keep Dozier from getting to him for the sack and safety. After a brief discussion, the officials whistled Watson for intentional grounding, with the penalty occurring in the end zone it led to a safety, as Liberty cut the deficit to 3-2 late in the first quarter.
The Bearkats pushed their lead to 15 at 17-2 following two touchdown passes from Watson to Simeon Evans in the second quarter as Sam Houston looked to take control. With time running out in the first half, Dozier was able to intercept a deflected pass near midfield setting the very sluggish Liberty offense up with terrific field position. It would turn into points, as Salter guided the offense into the red zone before connecting with Elijah Canion on a 10-yard scoring play, bringing Liberty with 8 entering the halftime break.
After intermission, Chadwell and his staff elected to turn to backup quarterback Ryan Burger to try to get things going for the offense. Getting the ball to open the second half, Burger would lead the offense to pick up two first downs and move the ball into Sam Houston territory. On a 3rd and four, the Bearkats stuffed Quinton Cooley for a 1-yard loss forcing a 4th and 5 from the 42. The Flames would go for it, but Burger’s pass intended for Reese Smith was incomplete.
Sam Houston would add a field goal on their first drive of the second half, making it a two-score game. Burger and the offense would go three and out after he was stopped for no gain on a 3rd and 2 rush to the right, forcing the Flames to punt.
“(Salter) wasn’t (100%),” Chadwell said. “We were hoping that he could play and do some things. He was obviously limited and it showed. We put Ryan in there in the 2nd half to try to give us a little spark. He was gutsy. It was hurting him. He was able to play through that. I think that says a lot about him.”
Moving into the fourth quarter and still trailing by two scores, Chadwell turned back to Salter. His first drive of the second half ended in an interception, setting the Bearkats up with the ball at the Liberty 30 yard line.
Like they did the entire fourth quarter, the Liberty defense would get a stop and give the ball back to the struggling offense. The Flames got a turnover on downs, keeping the score at 20-9 with 10 minutes remaining.
Going up against the toughest run defense in Conference USA, Liberty was only able to pick up 84 yards rushing on 22 carries through the first three quarters. In the three prior games, all Liberty wins, the Flames surpassed 300-yards rushing in each contest, including 419 in the win against Western Kentucky a week ago. It helped the Flames surge into 2nd place rushing nationally entering Friday’s contest.
Liberty would turn to the run game to attempt to get the comeback jumpstarted. Billy Lucas picked up 18 quick yards on two handoffs to move Liberty near midfield. He then ran for 24 yards to get into the red zone where the Flames would settle for a 43-yard field goal to get the game back to one score at 20-12 with 7:13 to play.
The Flames’ defense got a quick three and out to get the ball back with 5:24 left. This time, it was Quinton Cooley’s turn. The Liberty bruising running back ran for 30 yards on five straight runs. After a Sam Houston penalty, the Flames had the ball back in the red zone looking for the potential tying score. Salter threw an incomplete passes on 3 of the next 4 plays with the other being a sack, and the Flames turned the ball over on downs with 2:38 left.
The defense responded again. The Flames would get a three and out, used all three timeouts, and the offense got the ball back on its own 36 with 2:16 on the game clock.
Liberty would mount one more drive, with its CUSA Title dreams hanging in the balance. Salter completed two passes to Tyson Mobley and then Cooley ran for 6 yards up the middle on 4th and 2 to get to midfield. Salter then completed a pass to Treon Sibley for a gain of 17 to the 33. On the next play, Salter broke free and was able to turn it into another gear, bad ankle and all, to get into the end zone, bringing the score within two, 20-18, with 1:09 remaining.
On the two point try, Salter attempted to roll out to the right, but Sam Houston got pressure from both ends, pushing Salter upfield. Backpedaling to about the 18-yard line, Salter tossed the ball up into the end zone in double coverage for Jacob Jenkins but the pass was intercepted.
“We had an opportunity to roll to the right,” Chadwell said of the two-point play. “We had a little play over there and if it was covered we had a throwback. Looking back right now, we probably should have had a better call on but it was the best one in the situation as we discussed it. You wanted to give the quarterback a couple of options and then you wanted to move him just a little bit because we thought they might pressure us. It’s a play that we ran before but they covered it down pretty decently.”
After Liberty’s onside kick attempt was recovered by the Bearkats, they were able to kneel on the ball and run the clock out to preserve the win.
Liberty would finish the game with 36 rushing attempts for 179 yards. 14 carries for 95 yards came in the final 10 minutes. The Flames were held to a season-low 262 total offensive yards. Salter finished the game 12 of 35 passing for 83 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions.
“I think they are really good,” Chadwell said of the Sam Houston defense. “They dictated to us. We had some opportunities to get some big plays in the run game. There were a couple of times we should have pitched the ball and we didn’t. There were some things there that could have got us explosive runs. Versus a team like them that is really good defensively, you’ve got to make sure you are set up the right way with all those things. We had some little things that weren’t completely right and that turns a run that could be 8-10 yards into 3 or 4. They did a nice job. Then, when we get in a situation when the clock is running, then you have to abandon it a little bit and do some other things. We will look back. I thought they were really good. I thought we had a good plan coming in. With where Kaidon was and some of the things, we probably needed to adjust a little bit sooner, but they are pretty good too.”
The win keeps Sam Houston’s hopes of making the CUSA Football Championship game alive. The Bearkats need Jacksonville State to defeat Western Kentucky on Saturday to secure the title game berth. A WKU win and the Hilltoppers will advance to take on Jacksonville State for the championship.
Liberty now awaits its bowl game selection which will be announced on Sunday, December 8. The Flames will be making its sixth straight bowl game appearance. The Flames have qualified for a bowl game each year they have been bowl eligible since moving up to the FBS level in 2019.
“Discouraged because I thought we were capable of being a championship team,” Chadwell said. “Disappointed. It’s hard to win games. We are 8-3. Out of those three games, we had opportunities to win them too. It’s not like we were blown out in any of them. I think we had a caliber to be (a championship team) we just didn’t get that done, just a lot of different things but ultimately from a coaching staff we didn’t get that done. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t finish it and put ourselves in that position to go win one because that’s your expectation. Our guys wanted that. The coaches wanted that. Anytime you come up short of that it’s discouraging, but there’s a lot that we will look back on and excited about from the season. There’s a lot of things there, but also things we have to improve.”
*photo courtesy Liberty University Athletics
