Liberty will conclude training camp on Saturday with its 13th practice in 3 weeks as the team begins to turn its attention to the season opener on September 1st against Old Dominion. For the final time during training camp, Coach Gill and various members of his staff and players were made available to the media after Friday morning’s practice.
DeArmon finalizing receiver rotation
With AGG, B.J. Farrow, and Damian King, the top of Liberty’s receivers are extremely experienced. The rest of the room, while talented, is relatively inexperienced. Wide receiver coach Kyle DeArmon says he’s comfortable with the rest of the rotation.
“We’re very pleased (with the receivers at this point),” DeArmon said. “We like to have 6 guys in the receiving corp that we feel good about. I think we’re at that point now. We feel pretty good about 5-6 guys.”
Alongside the top 3, Kevin Shaa, Khaleb Coleman, and D.J. Stubbs all figure to find their way into the rotation. Shaa patterns his game after the likes of Antonio Brown, T.Y. Hilton, and Taylor Gabriel while DeArmon compared him to former Liberty receiver Dante Shells.
“Kevin Shaa has done a fantastic job,” Gill said of the JUCO transfer. “He will be in the mix. He will be rotated in there quite a bit.”
Liberty receivers coach Kyle DeArmon
Coleman redshirted last year, but has quickly made an impressive jump up the depth chart.
“We felt like he may take another year to develop, but he really pushed himself this spring and summer,” said DeArmon. “He’s put himself in a really good position to be able to help us.”
As the team’s top punt returner, Stubbs also hopes to take a big step forward in the receiving game.
“D.J. hopefully can take over that role that Cephas (Reddick) had last year as a 3rd down guy when we go 4-wide,” said DeArmon. “He will also be able to come in and spell Damian, and will also have different packages and a different role.”
Update on AGG
A story line we’ve been following since media day on August 3rd is Antonio Gandy-Golden’s injured wrist. He recently got his cast off and is wearing a splint now. He’s also begun participating in practice, including Thursday’s scrimmage.
Redshirt decisions begin to come into focus
The Flames brought in its largest freshman signing class ever, and certainly some of them will play this year. With the new redshirt rule that we’ve discussed previously, Coach Gill can elect to play guys in up to 4 games without burning their redshirt year. So, there will certainly be some that play in a couple of games, but will maintain their redshirt.
On Friday morning, Gill said that quarterback Brandon “Pop” Robinson will redshirt this year. Of the three wide receivers, JT Wood will definitely play week 1 while Sean Queen and Noah Frith are likely to redshirt.
Mason Cunningham
Cunningham solidifying himself as Buckshot’s backup
The backup quarterback position was contested during camp, with Landon Brown pushing Mason Cunningham in the spring and summer. Gill had thought about redshirting Cunningham and letting Brown be the backup, but it appears those plans will not materialize.
“At the beginning of (camp) Mason Cunningham started off very slow. Some of the things we thought he would be further along on, he did not do as well,” Gill said. “He’s come on strong. We did have a little bit of competition between Cunningham and Landon Brown, but right now I’ll have to say Mason Cunningham is really the person that is on his way to being a solid guy, that can back us up if something happens to Buckshot.”
