AGG CHASING PETEY DESPITE FRIENDSHIP
Not only is Liberty WR Antonio Gandy-Golden attempting to lead the country in receiving yards, he’s also on the verge of breaking every career receiving record in school history.
With his two touchdowns against Hampton last week, he tied Darrin “Petey” Peterson for first on the career receiving touchdown list with 27. He’s also chasing Petey’s records for career receptions (215) and career receiving yards (3,170). AGG needs just 31 receptions and 109 receiving yards to pass Petey.
“(Petey) actually messaged me before the (Hampton) game and just told me, ‘great luck to everything that you do this year,'” Gandy-Golden said. “That was real encouraging.”
Peterson’s career ended in 2015, just a few months before AGG arrived on campus. The pair met in November 2015 when Gandy-Golden took an official visit to Liberty during the THursday night game against #4 Coastal Carolina when B.J. Farrow scored the game-winning touchdown in the final moments.
SHAA EMERGING AS 2ND RECEIVER
Since B.J. Farrow graduated and Noah Frith has been injured through the first four games, the Flames have looked to find a receiver on the opposite side of the field from AGG that defense’s have to respect. That guy might be Kevin Shaa.
“I thought Kevin had, offensively, probably the most solid fall camp,” Freeze said of the junior receiver. “It’s no surprise to me that he is having the production he’s having because of what I saw in fall camp. He and Noah being back will help balance out some of the things that people can do to double AGG.”
Frith is expected back this week. Meanwhile, Shaa is second on the team with 13 receptions, 176 receiving yards, and 1 touchdown.
Liberty WR Kevin Shaa
BUCKSHOT NO INTERCEPTIONS IN TWO STRAIGHT GAMES
It had been since the 2017 season that Liberty quarterback Buckshot Calvert went two straight games without an interception, so doing so the past two weeks against Buffalo and Hampton is definitely good news for the Liberty signal caller.
After throwing 18 interceptions in 2018, Coach Freeze and quarterbacks coach Kent Austin made it a priority this offseason to improve his turnover numbers. That made it so much more frustrating when he opened the season with two interceptions against Syracuse and then another against Louisiana.
In the last two games, both Liberty wins, Calvert has completed 33-of-46 passes (71.7%) for 644 yards and 6 touchdowns. He’s also been sacked just 3 times in those two wins compared to 8 sacks in the first two games.
TWO STRAIGHT WINS MEANS IMPROVED CONFIDENCE
When the team opened the season 0-2, many fans began to voice their wavering confidence in the team for the 2019 season. Had the losing continued, it certainly would have made its way to the locker room as players would have begun lacking confidence. With two straight wins, the team is riding the confidence waive up to new heights.
“I do think confidence is helped by winning two games,” Freeze said. “Particularly when you see we beat a really good Buffalo team. I don’t know how many know that, but we beat a really good Buffalo team, that should bring confidence. We did some good things the other night (against Hampton), that should give us confidence.”
FLAMES’ MONITORING PRACTICE REPS ON DEFENSE
With the number of injuries Liberty has experienced in recent weeks, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, Coach Freeze and his staff have begun monitoring the amount of reps everyone is getting during practice. He relies on strength coach Dominic Studzinski to help monitor the players’ workloads.
“Dom is someone who I have complete trust in,” Freeze said. “I can’t say that about everybody. I like to micro-manage some things; I don’t fool with his area. It’s his job to monitor where we are. He thinks our defense has had too much of a workload. He thinks, offensively, we are in a good spot. I trust him to manage that, those coaches have to listen to him.”
As the Flames continue to build towards a full FBS roster, most of the guys in the 2-deep on defense are also playing on special teams. This has caused their workload to increase at a much faster pace than the offense.
Dominic Studzinski
“Our defensive staff I think are excellent,” Freeze said. “But they are young and sometimes they are all for, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!’ Well, there’s times to say, ‘Woah, woah.’ Maybe we can get it in a different way and that’s Dom’s job. He knows.”
Studzinski and Freeze were together for five years at Ole Miss, and he was one of the first Freeze hired to his new staff when he got to Liberty last December.
“I never want to coach a game where I walk off that field and say, ‘Dom, we had a tired football team,'” Freeze stated. “We’re not deep here, it’s different. I need him to really monitor that for me.”
TRUE FRESHMEN EXHIBITING MATURITY
Liberty’s crop of true freshmen have been discussed a lot during the first four weeks of the season. There are several of them that are getting significant playing time and some even pushing for starter’s reps. Not only has Freeze been impressed with their talent on the field, he’s also been impressed with their maturity.
“I’ve been amazed at our freshmen’s maturity, most of them are even-keeled,” Freeze explained. “Those guys are getting a lot of snaps right now, and none of them seem to change the way they prepare or their emotions on game day. I think we are good with them about ‘play the next play.’ That’s the mentality I want them to have. They’ve got a bright future. They want to do it now, and I like that about them. I’m with them, let’s win a few this year.”
