teamLiberty finalized its 2015 football signing class on Wednesday. The Flames received NLIs from 13 high school seniors and have one mid-year enrollee. Here are a few notes/thoughts on the class:

  1. Of the 14 signees, 4 came from Virginia, 4 from Florida, and 3 from Texas. Coach Gill has always had a large contingency of his classes come from Texas since he’s been at Liberty. The remaining signees came from South Carolina, Georgia, and Norway.
  2. Rankings aren’t everything, especially at this level with a lot of kids that fly under the radar, but everyone wants to talk about stars. The Flames signed two 3-stars and two 2-stars. Damian King and Denvre Daniels are the first 3-star prospects Coach Gill has signed since being at Liberty.
  3. 7 of the 14 signees had FBS offers. Some schools that reported offers came from for Liberty’s signees include Mississippi State, Iowa State, Ball State, Indiana, Kansas State, Missouri, West Virginia, FIU, New Mexico State, Colorado State, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Troy, Arkansas State, Texas State, Kent State, Akron, Marshall, Navy, and Air Force.
  4. The Flames signed 3 defensive lineman, two offensive lineman, two safeties, 2 cornerbacks, 2 wide receivers, a tight end, a linebacker, and a running back. It’s interesting there was just 1 linebacker in the class since Liberty is graduating 5 linebackers including Nick Sigmon.
  5. The wide receiver combo of Damian King and Denvre Daniels could be fun to watch throughout their career. This duo combined for 48 touchdowns in one full season of high school football. They also led each of their teams deep into the playoffs, Daniels’ team won state championships in his junior and senior season. As mentioned above, they are both rated as 3-star prospects and both had multiple FBS offers. Coach Gill says King will get a chance to immediately compete for a job as a return specialist.
  6. Zac Foutz could end up as a stalwart at tight end for the Flames.  His list of accolades from his high school career is impressive.

    Foutz after signing his NLI on Wednesday

    Foutz signing his NLI on Wednesday

  7. Running back Frankie Hickson has some crazy high school stats. He rushed for over 2,000 yards and 37 touchdowns as a senior. That’s ridiculous.
  8. Coach Gill noted that 14 of 16 athletes that took an official visit ended up signing. The two that didn’t? Nate Dalton who went to Arkansas and Malik Clements who went to Cincinnati. Impressive.
  9. Maybe Coach Gill will let some of these guys play basketball as well? (Kidding, sort of). Several of the signees excelled on the hardwood with a couple even leading their teams to state championships in basketball.
  10. No quarterback was signed in this class, which is a first for Coach Gill’s time at Liberty. In fact, we tracked down 66 offers the Liberty staff made to high school seniors. Not one of them was a quarterback. With Josh Woodrum entering his senior season, this shows the coaching staff has supreme confidence in either Stephon Masha or J.T. Bradwell in becoming the Flames’ signal caller in 2016.