In the largest upset in college football of the season, the Liberty Flames (5-2) were knocked off their perch by the ULM Warhawks (3-3) on Saturday night in Monroe, Louisiana. The Warhawks scored 28 unanswered points in the third quarter and nailed home a 53-yard field goal with 1:44 remaining to upset the 32.5 point favorites.
“This is a great lesson for us,” Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze said following the game. “We have to come to play every single day, every single night. We have to prepare better, obviously. I’ve got to coach better. I’ve got to coach our coaches better. I’ve just got to look at everything right now because obviously it is a game that we felt like we should have won. I don’t want to take anything away from Monroe. They coached a great game, their kids played extremely hard.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Liberty was able to get on the scoreboard with two touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 14-0 lead into the locker room. It felt like the Flames, who have been dominant in the third quarter all season, would continue on that path and coast to the sixth victory of the season. Louisiana-Monroe had other ideas though.
ULM never really threatened offensively much in the first half, but they would get the ball to begin the second half and put some points on the board following a 10 play, 73 yard drive to get within one score. Just two plays later, Liberty quarterback Malik Willis was intercepted and D.J. Newton returned it 24 yards to the one yard line. One play later, the game was tied and all the momentum was on the home team’s side.
The Liberty offense was unable to produce anything offensively in the third quarter, and the Flames’ defense surrendered 28 points to a ULM team that was only averaging 15.6 points per game entering Saturday night.
“Disappointing for sure, shocking,” Freeze said of the third quarter. “Rich Rod did some good things in the third quarter that we didn’t see in the first half, but we’ve got to tackle better for sure. We hurt ourselves with penalties again which is disappointing.”
The Flames would respond and scored twice in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 28 following a 53-yard Malik Willis touchdown scamper with 7:49 left in the game. That would be the end of the good news for Liberty.
Monroe got a huge third down conversion from their own 12 yard line on their eventual game winning drive. With a roughing the passer penalty added on to the end of the 33 yard pass play, the Warhawks had moved into Liberty territory. After two negative plays, ULM quarterback Chandler Rogers got free for a gain of 12 on 3rd and 18. It set up a decision for ULM head coach Terry Bowden with his team facing a 4th and 6 at 36 yard line with less than two minutes to play.
After a timeout, Bowden would call on his field goal unit to attempt a 53-yard field goal. Calum Sutherland would drill the kick with several yards to spare. It is the longest made field goal of his career and helps first-year head coach Terry Bowden get an incredible boost to the rebuilding of his program.
Liberty and Malik Willis would get the ball back with just one timeout remaining, but the highly rated quarterback would get sacked and then threw his third interception of the game. After starting the year without throwing an interception all season, Willis has now thrown three interceptions in each of the last two games.
“I mean we’re not taking care of the ball,” said Freeze. “We’re not winning the line of scrimmage offensively. Obviously, I did not have them prepared. I’ve got to figure out how to make sure no matter the circumstances or where you’re playing. Credit ULM, Rich Rod called a heck of a game, and they made the plays when they had to. That’s a great kick for their kicker. We can’t turn the ball over like we did. We never established the line of scrimmage offensively at all.”
This marks Liberty’s first loss to a Group of Five team since the second game of Freeze’s tenure at Liberty in 2019 when the Flames lost at Louisiana, 35-14, on Sept. 7. The Flames are now 0-2 all-time in games played in the state of Louisiana.
“I know this is a tough place to play,” said Freeze. “We were a little short-handed, obviously, and that probably wore on us probably defensively some. We missed (wide receiver) Demario (Douglas), some, possibly, also, but there’s no excuses for us to play as poorly as we did tonight other than it falls in my lap. I told our team that. I told them it’s going to be a disappointing flight back, for sure.”
Liberty will return to the road again next week as the Flames travel to Texas to take on the North Texas Mean Green. UNT dropped to 1-5 on the season with their 49-21 home loss to Marshall on Friday night. Saturday’s game from Denton, Texas next Saturday is scheduled to kickoff at 4 p.m. EST and be streamed on ESPN+.
*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics
