Liberty’s quest to find its next signal caller following the careers of Buckshot Calvert and Malik Willis is on during spring practice. Those two have started every game for Liberty over the past nearly 6 seasons, but there will be a new man behind center as the team’s QB1 to begin the 2022 season.
For the first time in a long time, there is more than just two names vying for that quarterback spot, as the Flames have four in the mix in the early stages of spring practice. Head coach Hugh Freeze is hopeful to be able to narrow the focus for the next quarterback to as few as two by the end of the spring.
“Very inconsistent, you see flashes of good things, you just hope that those good things start increasing in consistency,” Freeze said on Monday following the team’s sixth of 15 practices this spring. “I’m optimistic, cautiously, really about several of them. I think we have a good room there with JB, Nate, Kaidon, and Charlie. I think all of those guys have potential to be good players, you know. Malik (Willis) was out there today and stood with me a lot during all the drills. I was curious to see, and he kinda said the same thing. ‘I don’t know how you are going to make that decision.’ I said, ‘well, it usually plays itself out by the time you play one or two games.’ But, I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Johnathan Bennett has been in the program for three years and is the only quarterback in the room with any amount of significant playing time at Liberty. He spent the 2021 campaign as Malik’s backup, seeing time in nine games as he completed 15 of 33 passes for 299 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. Bennett also had four carries for two yards.
He doesn’t have the same explosiveness as a runner as Willis, but Bennett provides a capable runner who showed poise in the pocket during his snaps in 2021. He entered the program as a highly rated recruit that first committed to former head coach Turner Gill, but stayed true to his word when Freeze took over. Now, he hopes to take a huge step forward during the spring and seize control of the quarterback battle.
“I think JB is a great leader,” Freeze said of Bennett. “We actually elected a culture counsel that the kids voted on, I didn’t have anything to do with it, and he was the highest vote-getter. I think that speaks volumes of what the people think of him. Whether he’s the starter, whether he’s not the starter, he has created value for himself within this team. His voice means something in the locker room. That will continue because of who he is, irregardless of how the quarterback battle shakes out.”
In perhaps the biggest surprise of this past recruiting cycle, Freeze went out and got former Baylor and Utah quarterback Charlie Brewer. He started 39 games at Baylor from 2017-2020, helping the Bears to the Big 12 championship game in 2019. He still ranks second on their career list for passing yards with nearly 10,000 and with 65 passing touchdowns. He started three games at Utah in 2021, before being benched and entering the transfer portal. Alongside Bennett, Brewer is one of the favorites to win the starting job entering spring practice.
“It’s just verbiage,” Freeze said of the learning curve for Brewer in a new system. “We run a similar system to what he did at Baylor. He understands the RPO game and the timing of those things. Obviously, it’s all new in how he sets the protections here and the verbiage. It’s definitely a learning curve, but he’s picking up fast.”
Kaidon Salter may be the dark-horse candidate. He provides something that the others don’t with perhaps the most upside. He transferred to Liberty last summer after originally signing with Tennessee as a blue-chip prospect out of Texas. He redshirted last season but did see some limited playing time, when he completed 1 of 2 passes for 39 yards and a touchdown while also rushing five times for 53 yards. His skill-set is the closest to Willis among the group of challengers, but the biggest question for Salter will be if he has mastered the playbook yet.
“I am really proud of Kaidon,” said Freeze. “I think he’s just changed his approach, his attitude, his work ethic, he worked his tail off with our strength staff getting prepared for spring ball. He texted me over spring break, asking me questions about the last practice. It’s good to see that.”
At 6’6″, Nate Hampton was also a highly rated recruit out of high school that signed with the Flames before redshirting last year. He also got into one game during his true freshman campaign, completed 1 of 4 passes for 63 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed four times for 30 yards.
“I anticipate this thing going all the way to the fall and probably a few weeks into it,” Freeze said. “It’s just with the number of guys that we really want to look at, it’s really difficult to get enough reps in a given spring probably to make that decision. I hope that we have an idea, kinda, of these are the top two out of spring, but I don’t anticipate anything being decided probably until well into fall camp.”
