Liberty opened preseason training camp on Thursday and held its first preseason practice on Friday, setting in motion the final charge to its season opener against Campbell on Sept. 4.
Hype and expectation have followed the Flames since its Cure Bowl win in overtime against Coastal Carolina eight months ago, culminating with a program-best final ranking of No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. This is only Hugh Freeze’s third training camp since coming to Lynchburg in December 2018.
Liberty returns 20 of 22 starters from the 10-1 campaign it saw in 2020, and while there are question marks at certain positions, namely wide receiver and linebacker, Heisman Trophy candidate Malik Willis and five returning starters on the offensive line alleviate most concerns for head coach Hugh Freeze. A Flames defense that has lacked sufficient depth throughout the unit since moving to the FBS level finally has a legitimate two-deep and even three-deep at some positions for defensive coordinator Scott Symons.
The Flames’ lofty potential makes for national fodder during the summer doldrums, although the start of practice on Friday allows for Freeze and his coaching staff to redirect their players away from the headlines and projections to the minutiae required to reach such expectations.
“10 wins last year, what a great year,” Freeze said during his first press conference of training camp. “None of that really matters for this year. It’s a different team, different DNA. What does matter is how effectively we chase the standard. 7 wins this year, 6 wins this year may equate to 10 last year. You never know with the differences in scheduling that we have here, but we’re excited to chase that standard and see what the results come.”
While the players were jacked up for the start of preseason practice at the Indoor Practice Facility and the adjacent field outdoors, there was a necessary level of intensity permeating the practice fields. For a team that reached a final ranking in the top 25 last season, this is serious business if greater rewards are desired.
“”Expectations are too far in the future,” Willis said. “We’ve got to live in the present. We’ve got to live day by day. If I live by expectations, my expectations last year would have been a lot less than what we did. I was like 123rd out of 130 starting FBS quarterbacks (last year). That’s cool to me. That’s where you want to be so you have something to work towards. I try not to listen to that because it doesn’t matter. I try to listen to what my coach tells me. He’s the one that’s going to be correcting you every day and seeing your flaws. Everybody else sees the highlight plays. I have a lot to fix. I just want to go in there and try to fix that stuff and work to be a better player to help us win games. That’s the main goal.”
There were significant improvements that needed to take place in Freeze’s first training camp at Liberty in 2019 and much more depth needed to be developed. The margins are slimmer now, requiring even greater workloads to scratch out minimal advancements. That’s what the Flames will attempt to do over these next 16 practices before seeing how much progress they have actually made when the season kicks off in September.
Due to the NCAA’s five-day acclimation period, Liberty practice in shorts and jerseys on Friday and will do so again on Saturday before switching to shoulder pads beginning Sunday. Following a day off on Wednesday, the Flames will practice in full pads for the first time on Thursday.
