For just the second time in program history, Liberty will play host to a top 25 FBS team when the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns visit Williams Stadium this Saturday. Louisiana is currently 9-1 on the season and is currently ranked No. 21 in the Coaches’ Poll and No. 22 in the Associated Press Poll.
Under fourth-year head coach Billy Napier, Louisiana has established themselves as one of the better Group of Five teams in the country. The Ragin’ Cajuns have advanced to three straight bowl games and made a bowl appearance in eight of the last 10 seasons. Napier has guided his team to the Sun Belt West Division championship each of the past four seasons, including this year. They will play in the Sun Belt Championship game in a couple of weeks.
“It’s one of the better Group of Five programs in the country over the last several years,” Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze said of Louisiana. “Can’t compliment the job Billy (Napier) has done there enough.”
The only other top 25 ranked team to visit Williams Stadium was Syracuse. The Orange was ranked No. 22 in the preseason poll when they faced the Flames in the 2019 season opener. It was Hugh Freeze’s coaching debut at Liberty as the team lost 24-0 with their head coach leading the team from a hospital bed in the press box of the stadium as he recovered from a staph infection in his back.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are arguably the best team to ever play at Williams Stadium. They come in as the highest ranked team to ever play in Lynchburg against the Flames, and, at 9-1, they have the most wins of any FBS team to play a game at Williams Stadium. The Syracuse team that played at Liberty in 2019 ended the season a disappointing 5-7. Buffalo, who the Flames played just a couple of weeks later in 2019, finished that season 10-4 and MAC Champions. In 2018, Liberty played two teams who ended up having really good seasons in North Texas who finished that year at 9-4 and Troy who ended up 10-3.
Liberty has made a lot of growth since that previous matchup with a ranked opponent against Syracuse in Freeze’s first game with the Flames. His Liberty coaching debut that he jokingly said he wished he could forget earlier this week. The very next week, Freeze and Liberty traveled to play this same Louisiana team in his second ever game at Liberty. The Flames would drop that game to fall to 0-2 to begin the Freeze era.
The tide would begin to turn the following week, and Liberty hasn’t looked back. Under Freeze, the Flames have gone 25-7 since dropping those first two games of his tenure while winning two bowl games and spending much of the 2020 campaign ranked in the top 25. Liberty is now widely considered one of the top non-Power Five teams in the country.
“There’s obvious growth,” Freeze said of his team since those first two games. “I think the results that are out there of what we’ve done here in three years, being bowl eligible in each one, 2-0 in bowl games, a lot of firsts last year and competitive in most every game we’ve played in. The judge of growth is the fact that we are bowl eligible again in year three with two games remaining. Hopefully, have a chance to compete. We competed our last game against a top 15 team, and I thought we were in the game. Hopefully, we can do the same against another top 25 opponent this Saturday. It’s hard to argue. I think if you were to poll coaches around the country, I have no idea what they would say, but I do think they would recognize Liberty as one of several non-Power Five schools that would get your attention if you’re playing them. I think we have become somewhat relevant and hopefully we will continue to compete at a level that make people feel that way.”
