UMASS ATTEMPTING TO PLAY THIS FALL

Earlier this week, UMass announced it will attempt to put together a football schedule this fall. This comes after the Minutemen canceled their season this summer amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Liberty was scheduled to face UMass on Saturday, Nov. 28 before they canceled their season and the Flames announced an adjusted 10 game schedule. That date is still open for the teams to meet in Lynchburg, as originally scheduled.

It sounds as though Liberty will have that game penciled in as a backup plan if one of the Flames’ other games gets canceled.

FREEZE AGAINST FORMER PLAYERS

For the second straight week, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze will face a former player he used to coach. Last week at Western Kentucky, Co-Offensive Coordinator and Running Backs Coach Ryan Aplin played quarterback at Arkansas State under Freeze while also serving as an administrative assistant at Ole Miss in 2013 after Freeze took over as head coach of the Rebels.

This week against Florida International, Freeze faces Drew Davis, son of FIU head coach Butch Davis and the Panthers’ tight ends coach. He was a quarterback at Ole Miss from 2014-16 before entering the coaching ranks.

“I’m really proud of those kids,” Freeze said of his former players now rising up the coaching ranks. “I have Tanner BUrns here with me, RJ Fleming, Ben Aigamaua, I knew all those kids were going to be great coaches. Dominique Bowman is doing well. Chaz Scales, Mark Kelly, Bo Wallace.”

“Drew and Ryan, there’s no question, because they sat in the quarterback room. Ryan sat in the quarterback room with me for two years because that’s when I coached the quarterbacks too. So, I knew that he had a lot of knowledge. Drew is the same. I wasn’t in the quarterback room as much then because Dan Werner had them, but there’s no question certainly somewhat advantageous for them to have sat in all of those meetings. I’m very proud of them. Took a picture with Ryan and my family and will do the same with Drew if he allows me to.”

FREEZE THINKS SOME CURRENT PLAYERS WOULD MAKE GOOD COACHES

Prompted by his previous response, Freeze said there are several current players he thinks would make good coaches, as well.

“Chris Ferguson jumps out at me,” Freeze said. “He might want to be a lawyer or something, I don’t know exactly what, but he would be a great coach. He’s got great wisdom, maturity, all of those things that you look for in it. I think Anthony Butler would be a good coach. I hate to single any of them out because some of them will get mad at me. There’s a lot of guys that are going to go into it for sure. Those are a couple that jump out at me.”

PLAYING IN FRONT OF EMPTY WILLIAMS STADIUM

Well, it technically won’t be empty, but due to government restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams Stadium is currently limited to an attendance of 1,000 on Saturday. That’s well below the 18,272 fans Liberty averaged in attendance last season.

“Having less fans, lately our defense especially, even our offense, our whole team, we’re able to create our own energy now,” LB Aaron Pierre said. “It is a little different not having the fans out there, but we don’t really see that. We can celebrate with someone when they make a play. We make our own energy and we’re able to hype each other up. We love having the fans out there, but not having them out there, we’re able to create our energy, have fun with each other because we all love each other.”

ROUGH WEEK OF PRACTICE

It sounds like the Flames had a rough start to practice this week before bouncing back on Thursday. It’s no secret Freeze has been guarding against a let down all week after the team’s big upset win at Western Kentucky a week ago.

“I wasn’t real happy with the way we practiced (Tuesday or Wednesday),” said Freeze. “That concerns me greatly with where we are as a team and our maturity. I think handling both successes and failures can both be your enemy and your challenge. I’m curious to see how our kids will respond this Saturday.”