2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. Obviously, some have been impacted by the year’s events more than others. It has also played a toll on Liberty University, particularly off the playing field and court.
As you all know, over the past several months, the school and it’s former president Jerry Falwell, Jr. have been entangled in a series of events that have played out in the public sector and ultimately led to Falwell’s resignation. Late last month, Falwell filed a lawsuit against his former employer for defamation and breach of contract. The series of scandals involving Falwell have become a public relations nightmare.
Meanwhile, across campus and operating in their own bubble amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Liberty football team has become a beacon of positivity. Under head coach Hugh Freeze, the Flames continue to achieve program firsts and soar to new milestones. In its first season being eligible for a bowl game after transitioning to college football’s highest level from the FCS, Freeze and Liberty not only earned a berth but won the program’s first ever bowl game, defeating Georgia Southern, in the 2019 Cure Bowl.
The Flames have continued its win streak which began last year in the regular season finale into the 2020 campaign where Liberty has tied the school’s best ever start to a season at 6-0, claiming the program’s first ever win over an ACC school by virtue of beating Syracuse earlier this season, and currently have the second longest winning streak (to Notre Dame) in the country. Just this week Liberty cracked the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time ever.
“I don’t even feel like there’s negative stuff swirling around me and our program,” Freeze said on Monday when asked about the success of his team amid the cloud of negativity surrounding the school and its former president. “I really don’t focus on any of that. I have zero control over very little to do on this campus other than making sure our kids, hopefully, respect each other and operate in a manner that makes the university and our mission and present that in a good light. We’re not perfect in that and we never will be.”
Many times sports can serve as a distraction to all that is wrong in the world and our daily lives. Being able to escape, if even for a few hours, can be welcoming. For Liberty fans, this football team has provided that through the first two months of the season.
“I do hope, in some way, for those that are experiencing whatever negative things that could go on in life, in general, I would hope if they’re a Liberty fan that our football team certainly gives them something to have some joy about,” said Freeze. “I think I told (Athletic Director) Ian (McCaw) or somebody the other day, we’ve had a really fun, good season and I wish our stadium was full so that they can get some of the enjoyment, but again that’s out of our control. As far as being some beacon, I don’t know if we’re that, but I do think we’ve played in such a way that hopefully gives the Liberty family something to be proud of and to receive some joy from.”
Williams Stadium has been limited to 1,000 spectators through the team’s first four home games due to Virginia government orders during the ongoing pandemic. The same will be the case this weekend when Liberty puts its unbeaten record and national ranking on the line against the team with the strongest football tradition in Virginia, the Virginia Tech Hokies.
Freeze and his staff have played up to his team this year about playing as an underdog and crashing the national party. That has been a successful play thus far, and, with the Hokies currently two touchdown favorites, that line of reasoning is at play once again this week.
“They are bigger, faster, stronger, and deeper,” Freeze said of Virginia Tech. “When you see it in those terms, as a coach you know it’s an uphill climb.”
This won’t be the first time Freeze has led his upstart team to face a traditionally strong program that on paper had the advantage. At Ole Miss, he led his Rebels to wins over Texas, No. 6 LSU, No. 3 Alabama, No. 14 Texas A&M, No. 2 Alabama, No. 15 Texas A&M, No. 15 LSU, No. 12 Georgia, just to name a few wins he had in his five-year tenure in Oxford.
“I’ve always loved the challenge of it,” Freeze said of being the underdog. “I don’t know your success rate when you’re not playing with equal parts, what that’s like in my past. I don’t know, but you are right in the fact that there’s something about that that excites me. I’m weird. Probably a little off. I’m excited about it. I’m excited about our kids and our program. It’s another chance for our kids to put a product on the field that helps us to continue to recruit and build this program.”
