The Liberty Flames (5-2) will be looking for another bounce back victory on Saturday afternoon as the Flames take on the North Texas Mean Green (1-5). Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. EST on ESPN+ from Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas.

This will be Liberty’s first ever visit to Denton to take on North Texas. The Flames and Mean Green have met only once previously, doing so on Sept. 22, 2018 with UNT coming out on top with a decisive 47-7 win over the Flames at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia. Since that game, Liberty is 28-12 while North Texas is only 14-23.

The Mean Green are the only Conference-USA team to ever defeat the Flames. Liberty is 7-1 all-time against CUSA opponents including a 3-0 mark so far this season with wins over Old Dominion, UAB, and Middle Tennessee by an average score of 40-14. UNT has also faced UAB, falling on their home field to the Blazers, 40-6.

This won’t be Coach Freeze’s first ever meeting against North Texas. When he was head coach at Arkansas State, Freeze defeated North Texas, 37-14 on Oct. 29, 2011.

The Mean Green opened the season with a 44-14 win over Northwestern State on Sept. 4. Since that win, head coach Seth Littrell and North Texas have dropped five straight games, losing to SMU, UAB, Louisiana Tech, Missouri, and Marshall. UNT did hang with SEC member Missouri, falling 48-35. The Mean Green did fall behind 31-7 at halftime in that game and 41-14 early in the fourth quarter. North Texas would score 21 points in the final nine minutes of the game to make the score respectable.

UNT also has a very talented running back in DeAndre Torrey who ranks No. 7 in the country with 780 yards. He’s averaging 4.8 yards per carry and 130 yards per game to go along with his six rushing touchdowns.

“I think the running back is awesome, very talented,” Liberty defensive coordinator Scott Symons said of Torrey. “Honestly, him or the back from Syracuse is definitely the best back we have seen.”

Like Liberty, the Mean Green are led by a former SEC quarterback. Austin Aune spent the spring of 2018 at Arkansas before transferring to North Texas. This season, Aune has completed 56 of 114 passes for 639 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.

“I think they are just waiting for a breakout game to start having more confidence or whatever it is that is causing them to lose games,” said Freeze. “It’s certainly a scary team. Our roster is not going to be any more athletic than theirs are at very, very few positions. Same as last week. We can’t afford, we’ve got to go play well every week if we’re going to win football games. This one is no different.”

NOTABLES

  • The Flames’ defense ranks No. 5 nationally for yards allowed (280.3 ypg), No. 15 for points allowed (16.7 ppg) and No. 4 for sacks (3.71/game). Dating back to last season, Liberty has held eight of its last 11 opponents to 20 points or fewer.
  • Liberty has not lost a game by more than three points since Nov. 23, 2019 when the Flames fell to Virginia, 55-27.
  • Liberty is 2-1 all time during games played in Texas. The Flames defeated Texas State in 1993, lost to SMU on Sept. 17, 2016, and beat Baylor, 48-45, on Sept. 2, 2017.
  • Liberty will be looking to claim its sixth win of the season on Saturday and become bowl eligible for the third consecutive year. Additionally, the Flames are looking to extend their streak of consecutive seasons with at least six wins to 16 years, one of only eight Division I teams with at least six wins every year since 2006.

QUOTABLES

Hugh Freeze – “I don’t know how North Texas is not winning games. They’ve got a good plan and they’ve got really good players. It will be an interesting test for us, for sure.””

DC Scott Symons on UNT – “This is by far the best Group of Five offense we have played so far. When I watch them, all the way across the board, they are physical, they have a quarterback that I thin is the best quarterback we’ve seen all season as far as distributing the football.”

Javon Scruggs – “What we showed (at ULM) is not our standard, and I promise you that you will not see that again from any of these guys this year on the defensive side of the ball. It will not happen again.”

Malik Willis on UNT – “Their DLine is really good. They are coached well. They are disciplined. They are a real good defense as a whole. You can tell those guys are trying to help each other out. That defense is really well coached.”

Cooper McCaw on the OLine – “There definitely is a chip on our shoulder. We have given up multiple sacks each week. That’s not acceptable.”

Jerome Jackson – “We are all hungry right now to show what we can do Saturday. Last Saturday wasn’t our best game, but we’re ready to come back with a vengeance to show what we can do and to show who Liberty is because we are tougher tougher and we all have that mindset that we’re the best.”

PREDICTION

Liberty 37, North Texas 20

The Flames will look to get back on track after a tough loss last week to ULM.