FREEZE PLAYING COMPLIMENTARY FOOTBALL

His entire coaching career, Hugh Freeze has been an offensive mind focused on scoring points, bunches of points. He’s also always employed a very fast tempo in his offenses. This season, though, he’s resorted to playing much more complimentary football and not using as much tempo as he would like.

“There’s times I think I should go tempo, and our kids would play better because that’s the way we practice all fall camp,” Freeze explained. “When we get a lead and I know our depth on defense is so thin, I would love to get through a game and see our defense has only played 50 or 60 snaps. That kis kind of my mentality in certain types of games.”

It was the two years he spent away from coaching that he took a step back and realized playing complimentary football at certain times would make him a better head coach.

“When you’re coming through the OC ranks, it’s selfish I admit, but, ‘How many plays can I get and how many points can I score?’ That’s the mentality I brought into head coaching. It worked for me for many years. My last two years at my previous stop, we should have played more complimentary football. We were very good on offense and not very good on defense.”

When Liberty has gotten leads this season, most notably against Buffalo and Hampton, Freeze has elected to slow the game day and milk the clock. In part, that’s one reason why the Flames have been outscored in the second half this season, 60-31 compared to a 97-53 advantage in the first half.

“It is totally against my nature to milk the clock, but it’s something that I believe is beneficial to our team in some of the games we’ve played. Will it be this week? I don’t know.”

JIMMY FAULKS IS BACK

Liberty cornerback Jimmy Faulks exploded onto the scene in 2017 by playing all 11 games and starting six of the final eight games of the season in Chris Turner’s place. He impressed the previous coaching staff a lot during that season as he finished the year with 15 tackles, 4 pass breakups and 1 interception. Much was expected of him going into his junior campaign in 2018, but after playing in one game at Army, he was shut down and redshirted.

As soon as the new coaching staff came in, Faulks was quickly inserted back into the starting lineup opposite Bejour Wilson at corner. This past Saturday against New Mexico, Faulks recorded his first interception since 2017 to end the Lobos opening drive.

“That’s the best play of the game, in my opinion, to show people I’m back,” Faulks said recalling his interception. “365 days can really change everything for you. Just the work that I put in is showing right now, and the coaches, the schemes they’re putting us in right now. Practice, all the hard work, late nights, early mornings are really paying off.”

FREEZE AND MARTIN TO FACE OFF ONCE AGAIN

Saturday’s game between the Flames and the Aggies will not be the first time Hugh Freeze and New Mexico State and head coach Doug Martin have faced each other. In 2015, Freeze’s Ole Miss Rebels faced Martin and the Aggies with Ole Miss winning, 52-3.

“I’ve got a good film for our defense to study from my past where we played this (system),” Freeze said. “Our DC Dave Wommack did a great job defending. We will use every resource we can to make sure we are prepared for facing something new.”

The system is the Tony Franklin system which has been made popular by current Middle Tennessee State offensive coordinator Tony Franklin. It’s a pass heavy system that uses lots of crossing patterns and picks.

NMSU IS A WINNABLE GAME

Both New Mexico State and Liberty will enter this weekend’s game thinking the game is winnable. Liberty is currently a 6.5 point favorite while the Aggies are looking for the first win of the season after a very challenging first five games of the season. Saturday will mark NMSU’s homecoming game.

“I think they will view us as somewhat of a more equal opponent, whether that’s right, wrong, or indifferent,” Freeze said. “It’s a winnable game for both teams. I believe that when I watch them on film.”

NMSU and Liberty split the two games between the teams a season ago, each winning on their home field. Both games were decided by a touchdown

“This is a defining week for us and a defining game,” New Mexico State head coach Doug Martin said.

HOW TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND

Saturday’s game at New Mexico State will be televised on FloSports, a premium streaming service which is $29.99 per month. FloSports can be seen on any desktop, laptop, or mobile device as well as Apple TV (4th Generation), Roku, and Amazon Fire TV. Also, Liberty’s game at UMass on November 2nd will also be carried on FloSports. Both games will be played within a month of each other, hint, hint.