For the first time since Nov. 21, 2020 and only the second time since Nov. 23, 2019, the Liberty Flames’ football team is coming off a loss. The Flames fell in heartbreaking fashion, 24-21, on a last second field goal against the Syracuse Orange this past Friday night. It has the Liberty coaching staff, players, and fans dealing with a disappointment they haven’t had to face very often in the past couple of years.
“Well, you never like losing a game that you felt like you had a chance to win,” Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze said. “Look at the film and see so many different individual plays or calls that could make a difference in it. The older I get, unfortunately, you don’t enjoy the wins as much as you should and the losses sting probably worse than they should. Every single Saturday there are 60 some odd teams that have to experience either side of that. We are experiencing the disappointing side of athletics and sports this week, but that’s when you get tested.”
Coming off the loss, the Flames are now preparing for a 3-1 UAB team that has their eyes set on winning a fourth straight Conference USA West Division championship, second Conference USA title, and the third C-USA championship in the past four seasons. The Blazers’ only loss this season was to No. 2 Georgia, and Freeze says it is a team that is better than the one the Flames just lost to.
“I think they are the best team we have played, I do,” he said. “That’s no offense to anyone else. I think they are the most complete team that we have played offensively, defensively, special teams. I think they are the best we have seen…I think they are the best team we have seen thus far, complete team.”
The odds makers in Las Vegas agree with Freeze, as Liberty is listed as an underdog for the first time this season, after opening as a 2-point under dog to the UAB Blazers on Sunday. Coming off a 2020 campaign where Liberty finished the year 10-1 and ranked No. 17 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll with wins over previously unbeaten Coastal Carolina and ACC teams Syracuse and Virginia Tech, many expected Liberty to reach the top 25 once again and possibly win double digit games for a second straight season.
With just one loss, those goals are not out of the equation at this point, but Liberty has several challenging games remaining on the schedule, beginning this Saturday night in Birmingham against UAB. The Flames also have a very difficult final three game stretch to close out the regular season at Ole Miss and against Louisiana and Army. Those three teams currently own a 10-1 combined record through the first four weeks of the college football season.
“We’re still developing our roster,” Freeze said. “Even after we develop it, and I love the fact that we’re Independent and we have a variety of games, but from year to year schedules are going to differ with difficulty. This one is very difficult this year. It’s not going to get much easier. You can say I forewarned you and I forewarned our kids, but we will probably in my tenure here lose another game or two or three.”
Freeze spoke frequently throughout the offseason and into training camp and the early weeks of the season about the challenges his team would face this season. He warned that the schedule was much more difficult and winning 6-8 games against this schedule could be as good as the 10 wins the Flames had last season.
Coming off the difficult loss at Syracuse Friday night, where the Flames had two possessions in the final six minutes of the game with the score tied, including one where Liberty had a first and goal inside the five-yard line, Liberty’s players and coaches will have to find the extra resolve from within to fight through the let down and prepare for a very good UAB team.
“Are the options to feel sorry for yourself for self pity or to be thankful that people are disappointed when you have a loss, we should be too,” said Freeze. “This isn’t the last time we’re going to lose a game. I don’t know if you look at the schedules we’re playing, I tried to warn. This mentality of because we’ve won two bowl games in our first two years that all of a sudden in year three you’re ready to declare yourself as the rightful heir to some New Year’s Day bowl game or something is absolutely just crazy.”
Expectations have certainly risen among those around the Liberty football program since Hugh Freeze has taken over as head coach. The Flames have gone from a program content to win 6 games a season to being expected to win against a Power Five team on the road in such a short period of time. It was just two years ago when that same Syracuse team shut out Liberty, 24-0, in the 2019 season opener, Freeze’s first as Liberty’s head coach. Since opening 2019 at 0-2, Freeze and the Flames have gone 21-5, including 15 wins in the past 17 games.
“If you can’t handle, as a coach, player, fan, having a difficult loss, particularly with the good that we’ve experienced, then you’re not in the right frame of mind to be what I want this program to be,” Freeze said on Monday during his weekly press conference. “I shared the same thing with our kids and with the coaching staff. I shared it with the coaching staff last night and the kids today.”
This is the first bit of adversity this team has faced in quite some time. Even last year’s loss at NC State, the Flames had already picked up two wins over ACC opponents and many felt Liberty was playing with house money. Now, Liberty hopes it is able to respond to that adversity and make a statement that this program deserves to be listed among the top non-Power Five teams in the country.
“It’s the next one on our schedule and what an opportunity for our kids,” Freeze stated. “They are a really good football team, but so are we. We are a pretty good team too. Hopefully we will go and play like it.”
