Not many people gave the Flames a chance going into Saturday’s match-up against Troy. The Trojans came into Williams Stadium boasting a 5-game overall win streak and 7-game win streak on the road, the 3rd longest in college football. Liberty had just lost a winnable game against a struggling New Mexico State team and the defense hadn’t showed up for a couple weeks. And on top of that, the Flames were going to be without one of the best receivers in college football. Despite all that, Liberty did what they like to do and proved everyone wrong. After giving up at least 530 yards in their last 3 contests, the defense came to life, forcing 3 turnovers, getting 4 sacks, limiting Troy to their lowest score of the season, and keeping their offense below 300 total yards. Thanks to this and the special play of a few MVPs, the Flames got the upset over Troy.
OFFENSE
MVP: WR B.J. Farrow
Liberty fans were blindsided Saturday as it was announced that star WR Antonio Gandy-Golden would be sidelined due to an illness for their matchup against Troy. This didn’t phase veteran receiver B.J. Farrow, who rose to the occasion and earned himself MVP honors this week. Farrow was Buckshot’s clear favorite throughout the game with 15 total targets. No other receiver got half that. He hauled in 8 of those targets for 101 yards and Moss’d a defender in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown near the end of the 4th quarter. And to top it all off, Farrow was on the receiving end of a Philly Special-esque two-point conversion after his touchdown to lift the Flames 22-16 over Troy.
DEFENSE
MVP: CB Bejour Wilson
We have talked at length about the impact JUCO transfers have made on this team and CB Bejour Wilson made that apparent with his performance Saturday. The San Francisco transplant had 8 tackles along with 1 behind the line of scrimmage. Midway through the 3rd quarter, Wilson also snagged Liberty’s only interception of the day as Troy, in Flame territory, was looking to retake the lead.
SPECIAL TEAMS
MVP: WR KHALEB COLEMAN
Redshirt freshman Khaleb Coleman got his first collegiate start for the Flames this week. While he contributed offensively to Liberty’s victory on Saturday, Coleman made the play of the day for special teams. Punting from their own endzone, Aidan Alves managed to get the ball back to midfield. Troy’s punt returner then misjudged the direction of the ball, overshot where it was going to land, and attempted to field it with nothing more than his hands. The ball slipped through his fingers and bounced off the turf right into the hands of Coleman who was a gunner. Nothing but green turf lie before him and he pranced in for an easy touchdown. The only problem….you can’t advance a muffed punt. Everybody and their mother forgot that rule existed including Liberty head football coach Turner Gill (pictured), but it was still an exciting and heads-up play.
