Year four of the Hugh Freeze era gets underway with a road trip to Southern Miss on Sept. 3. Today, we conclude our early look at Liberty’s 2022 schedule with the Flames’ regular season finale against New Mexico State.
WHO: New Mexico State (2-10)
WHEN: Nov. 26, TBD
WHERE: Williams Stadium (25,000)
SERIES: Liberty leads 3-1
WHAT’S NEW: Jerry Kill enters as head coach after Doug Martin posted a 25-74 record in 9 years at the helm of New Mexico State. Kill has seen success as a head coach at all of his stops including Northern Illinois and Minnesota. He’s been an assistant at Rutgers, Virginia Tech, and TCU the past several years.
WHO TO WATCH, OFFENSE: TCU transfer RB Ahmonte Watkins has the chance to be special. He was ranked at the No. 1 all-purpose running back in Texas and No. 4 in the country in the 247Sports rankings coming out of high school. Watkins spent his true freshman season last year at TCU with Kill where he saw limited playing time during the year.
WHO TO WATCH, DEFENSE: Another transfer, defensive tackle Izaiah Reed, Jr., comes in from Murray State where he made 45 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 5.5 TFLs during his first two seasons. Last year, Reed played in just six games but had 12 tackles and a sack.
OUTLOOK: The Aggies have been to just one bowl game since 1960, as Doug Martin led them to the postseason in 2017. Martin is out after nine seasons and there is some hope from within the program for the first time in quite a while with Kill at the helm and the program moving to Conference USA (with Liberty) beginning in 2023. New Mexico State has won more than three games just once since 2011 and have enjoyed just one winning season since 2002.
Coach Kill will want to run the ball as his teams are built on controlling the clock. The offensive line should be solid and the Aggies have options at running back, including Watkins and Michigan transfer O’Maury Samuels. Quarterback will be a question mark, but sophomore Weston Eget could get the nod at 6’3″, 225 pounds with limited experience.
The defense and the front seven should be the strength of the team, which says something after this unit allowed 489 yards and 40 points per game in 2021. Eight starters are back and there are several new pieces from the transfer portal that join the roster.
MORE SNEAK PEEKS:
Sept. 3: @ Southern Miss
Sept. 10: UAB
Sept. 17: @ Wake Forest
Sept. 24: Akron
Oct. 1: @ Old Dominion
Oct. 8: @ UMass
Oct. 15: Gardner-Webb
Oct. 22: BYU
Nov. 5: @ Arkansas
Nov. 12: @ UConn
Nov. 19: Virginia Tech
