Liberty ties the program’s best start at 6-0 to begin the season, tying the 1989 and 2008 squads for the mark, behind the Flames’ 56-35 win over Southern Miss on Saturday afternoon.
“I told our team at midfield that I don’t know if I would have believed it if you would have told me in year two of FBS play that we’d be sitting here at 6-0 with the schedule we’ve faced,” said Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze.I couldn’t be prouder of the kids, the staff and so many others. The athletic training staff, the strength staff that has had to do so much extra work with COVID and the different things we have going on. So many people have poured into this to get us to this point. I couldn’t be prouder of the kids and the staff and for our school.”
Malik Willis was the story of the game as the Liberty signal caller set a program record with 7 touchdowns scored as he also tied a school record with 6 passing touchdowns while adding another on the ground. Willis finished 24 of 31 passing for a career high 345 yards and rushing for another 97 yards.
“I thought he had his best week of prep,” Freeze said of his quarterback. “I thought he had his best week leading up to the game throwing the ball. I really wasn’t surprised. I felt like we were going to have to throw it early. The plan was to throw it early, and I thought we did it and did it very well. I think it was a really solid day. There were really only two times in the passing game that I thought he kind of went off script and didn’t do the exact way we had talked about doing something. That’s pretty good for a quarterback.”
The Flames jumped out to a commanding 35-7 halftime lead before the Golden Eagles responded with 21 unanswered points to bring the score within a single touchdown in the third quarter. Willis responded with a 42 yard touchdown pass to true freshman CJ Daniels, his first career touchdown pass, to push the lead back to two scores. That allowed Liberty to regain control, as they pushed the lead back to four touchdowns at 56-28 before USM scored a touchdown with 18 seconds remaining.
The Golden Eagles began the game with possession and were able to quickly march down the field to take the lead 7-0 behind redshirt-freshman quarterback Tate Whatley who got the start in place of regular starter Jack Abraham. Abraham did not make the trip to Lynchburg, neither did the Southern Miss interim head coach Scotty Walden.
This was the second straight week Liberty fell behind 7-0 to begin the game, and second straight week LU responded with a tying touchdown less than a minute later, as the Flames did the same thing against Syracuse last week. It was Shedro Louis who broke free for a 75 yard touchdown run against the Orange, and this week Hugh Freeze turned to Willis who connected on three straight passes to get the Flames on the scoreboard.
That was the first of five straight touchdown drives for Liberty as the Flames found the end zone on all five first half possessions. Willis led the way with a passing touchdown on all five of the scoring drives in the first half. Liberty’s quarterback had just three touchdown passes in his first four games of the season. He ended the first half completing 16 of his 21 pass attempts for 216 yards.
Looking like they were dead in the water, Southern Miss came with a lot of fight in the second half. They were able to sack Malik Willis on the second play of the second half, and the Liberty quarterback fumbled the ball as he was hit from the blindside. Quarterback Tate Whatley took the next play 16 yards on the QB keeper for the touchdown to cut the lead to 35-14.
On the ensuing kickoff, Southern Miss caught the Flames off guard with an onside kick they would recover at the Liberty 35. Eight plays later, the Golden Eagles were able to get back in the end zone to cut the score to 35-21.
After Liberty was forced to punt on its next possession, Southern Miss went on a 13 play, 94 yard drive that ended in the team’s third straight touchdown drive to cut Liberty’s seemingly insurmountable lead to 35-28 with 3:27 left in the 3rd quarter.
With all the momentum and looking for a stop to get the ball back with a chance to tie, Southern Miss was unable to stop Liberty and Willis. The former Auburn quarterback completed 4 of 5 passes on the next drive for 70 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown strike to true freshman CJ Daniels, his first career touchdown catch. That would stop the Golden Eagles’ momentum as the Flames were able to control the 4th quarter to win the game.
Liberty has an open date next weekend before returning to action on Nov. 7 in Blacksburg against the Virginia Tech Hokies.
