Setting Liberty’s recruiting footprint
Under former head coach Turner Gill, the Flames didn’t have a set recruiting footprint. Instead, he liked to say Liberty was a national brand, but he did target the southeast the hardest as well as Texas. Under Freeze, he is zeroing in on a recruiting footprint he would like for his coaches to focus on establishing relationships with high schools.
“We’re doing really well from Georgia, North Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, and the DC area is a really good home base for us,” Freeze said. “Our coaches have good ties there.”
Of the 23 signees that make up the 2020 recruiting class, 15 came from that area, and the majority of the ones who didn’t were transfers.
“Last week we were out, we got into Ohio a bit for the ’21 class,” said Freeze. “We’ll starting working on that area and think we may have a little niche there too.”
Flames preparing to move into LFC
Since Freeze and his new staff arrived in Lynchburg they have been operating out of the 5th floor of the Carter Tower at Williams Stadium in makeshift offices as the Football Operations Center (now Liberty Football Center) has been undergoing an expansion and renovations. It was expected that the LFC would be completed in January, but that target date has been pushed back slightly.
“We’re excited about getting into our own place soon, hopefully that’s around the end of February or so, before spring ball that we get to move in,” said Freeze.
Freeze still building full FBS roster
Prior to the start of the 2019 season, Freeze frequently referred to the Liberty football team being made up of primarily FCS talent as the Flames had just made the move to the FBS ranks. Now, Freeze and Liberty have two recruiting classes at the FBS level as the team’s depth gets closer and closer to a full FBS team.
“If our projections are accurate, I would say 50% of our 85 (scholarship players) are going to give quality depth to an FBS program,” Freeze said when asked if the depth is closer to what he’s hoping for. “I wouldn’t want to go much beyond that right now. It’s nobody’s fault and that doesn’t mean the other kids won’t be significant contributors, but if you just look at our entire roster, which we’ve gone through who offered them out of high school and would we take them again. That’s the question you always ask when I go through it, would you take them again knowing where we want to be in FBS? They’re ours and we love them and we’re glad they’re here, but probably 50% of the roster will be, if our projections were accurate in this class, that we think would be contributors at an FS program.”
Freeze thinks AGG was best WR at Senior Bowl
Liberty wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden recently completed a week of practice in Mobile, Alabama leading up to the Reese’s Senior Bowl. It was the first of many important steps for AGG as we head towards the 2020 NFL Draft. Both of his head coaches from his time at Liberty, Turner Gill and Hugh Freeze, spent time in Mobile watching him practice. Freeze said he stood out.
“I watched the entire practice,” said Freeze. “I only saw the North practice, I did not see the South practice. I thought he was the best receiver on the field. The most complete from blocking to route running to ball skills. I thought he was the most complete. The NFL teams, many cornered me there, and we had deep conversations about his strengths, weaknesses, comparisons to others that are in the league that we’ve coached. He’s going to get an opportunity and that’s all you can ask for. The way he’s representing us at the Senior Bowl and now going to the Combine is big, just makes our brand more visible, more known. We’re pulling for him.”
He’s currently being projected by many as 2nd-4th round draft pick, including being selected in the 3rd round by the Patriots in the latest NFL Mock Draft on NFL.com.
“His mom asked me, ‘Where do you think he’s going to go?’ You never know what people’s needs are at receiver, that’s the unknown,” Freeze continued. “My comment always is don’t worry about where, it’s just get the opportunity. It’s called draft day not draft career. Get the spot and then go make the career. He’ll get the spot.”
