The Liberty Flames improved their record to 4-3 with a 48-41 win over Idaho State. The Flames now enter a much needed bye week before the stretch run.

WHAT IT MEANS

Liberty was able to take care of business at home against an FCS team just one week removed from a very emotional win. That’s no small feat and shouldn’t be overstated. Every week is a unique challenge, and Idaho State is a worthy FCS opponent. They are a team that will compete for a Big Sky championship and playoff bid.

It’s easy to look at the defensive stats and continue to be frustrated, and rightly so. After performing so well against Troy, the Flames had arguably its worst performance of the season, giving up over 600 yards of offense and 41 points. On the bright side, the team did that and was still able to pull out a victory.

For the 2nd straight week, the defense posted a season high in sacks, this time with 5, one week after recording 4. In the first 5 games of the season, Liberty had just 5 sacks. The Flames also had 9 tackles for loss which were its most this season and the most in a game since 2016. This effort was led by JUCO transfer Jessie Lemonier who had a career night with 5 TFLs and 3 sacks. Liberty also forced 3 turnovers. All 12 of Liberty’s takeaways this season have come in wins as in the team’s 3 losses Liberty had 0 takeaways.

He didn’t even make our quick-hit notes immediately following the game as its become expected for Buckshot to put up the type of numbers he did on Saturday. His 362 passing yards against Idaho State marked his 12th career 300-yard passing game and 5th this season. Calvert also moved into third place in program history with 7,550 career passing yards and into 4th place in school history with 7,274 total yards of offense. His two touchdown passes moved him to 60 for his career. He needs just two more to pass Josh Woodrum for 2nd place in program history with touchdown passes, the career mark is 64, held by Robby Justino.

LOOKING AHEAD

A much needed bye week awaits the Flames as they hope to get rested and healed for the stretch run. Following the bye week Liberty heads on the road for the first of 3 straight games away from Lynchburg. LU meets fellow FBS Independent UMass on November 3rd. The Minutemen are 2-6 and coming off a 24-13 loss at home to Coastal Carolina. They face UConn Saturday.

Following UMass, the Flames have games scheduled at Virginia (5-2) and Auburn (5-3) and home contests against New Mexico State (2-6) and Norfolk State (3-3).

As we’ve discussed before, Liberty needs two more FBS wins to set themselves up with an opportunity to get a bowl bid if there are not enough bowl qualifying teams. FBS teams are able to use 1 FCS win as an FBS qualifying win towards bowl eligibility. The most winnable FBS games remaining are obviously UMass and New Mexico State.

BY THE NUMBERS

250 | Liberty won its 250th win in program history with the win against Idaho State. The Flames are 250-234-4 all-time.

7-2 | The Flames are 7-2 in one possession games dating back to late November 2016.

3 | Frankie Hickson rushed for 3 touchdowns, the most by a Liberty player since Des Rice had 3 rushing scores at Georgia State on October 3, 2015. ||| Jessie Lemonier had 3 sacks, the 2nd most by a Flame in a single game and most since Aaron Deberry’s program-record 4 sacks in 2003.

73 | Aidan Alves had a 73 yard punt which tied Ben Rogers for the 2nd longest punt in program history and is the longest by a Liberty player in Williams Stadium history.

THEY SAID IT

Flames head coach Turner Gill on the defense:

“Defense obviously wasn’t quite up to par, but I’m proud of the way they kept fighting. They made enough plays when they had to make them. They got some turnovers, that was huge in the ball game. We had our guys in their gaps. There were some situations where guys did not do their responsibility. They capitalized on it. They’ve done it all year long. They get you off balance. Their quarterback is a good football player. They have good receivers. Missed tackles, obviously, was one of it, but we’ll get it corrected. We’ve got a bye week coming in here, we’ll get some rest for some guys, but also work on some things we need to work on.”

Gill on recruiting during the bye week:

“Going to have an opportunity now to go out and recruit. We’ve got two wins here back to back, and obviously we’ve got a winning record in our first year at FBS. Going to talk to high schools now I think we’re going to have a lot of people that at least know about our brand. We’re going to have a great opportunity to recruit people that fit Liberty’s brand and also what we’re all about as a University.”

AGG on his last couple of weeks:

“I didn’t have (mono) at all. It was weird. They said it was a false positive, I never heard of that. I didn’t know what it was, I never had it before. I knew I felt horrible. Even if I could have played I probably wouldn’t have played very much because I was that sick, but then it came back false. (Starting practicing again) Thursday. I was going to start running Thursday anyway just to stay in shape because I wasn’t playing, but they called me Thursday morning and they told me. I started feeling better like Sunday going into Monday. I had a lot of congestion, but my body started feeling better and my head too.”

Frankie Hickson on his late touchdown run:

“That’s huge. We always talk about finishing. We want to start fast, we want to finish strong, and that was a perfect example of it. The team needed a spark throughout the game and we definitely needed one to finish it off. I’m glad to be that guy.”

Alex Probert on finally getting back on the field:

“It’s been a long time, but just walking out in full pads knowing I’m actually going to be able to contribute and help the guys, was probably the biggest thing. Just the feeling of being able to help. Lost for 8 weeks. To be able to actually help again was huge.”

Corbin Jackson on the defense’s performance:

“It was just finding a way to win towards the end. It was a good team win. Offense helped us out. Defense we did enough to get a win, that’s as much as I can say. We’ve got some improvements to make.”

Jessie Lemonier on his day:

“It was a great feeling, just being able to dictate the game in some way, pinning them back when they think they have momentum. When I came in pregame warmup I knew then, just from that point forward.”