We are mere days from the February signing period which opens this coming Wednesday, February 6th. This will give us our first opportunity to see what new head coach Hugh Freeze and his freshly assembled staff can pull off with some time, albeit just slightly more than 1 month. The Flames will be adding to the 14 that were announced as signing in December, which doesn’t include the 3 that signed then but are waiting to have their signings announced this week (Nakota Shepard-Creer, DeMario Douglas, Malik Caper).

Jeremiah Houston verballed to the Flames in October under the previous coaching staff. He was the only verbal commit prior to the December signing day that did not put his name down in ink. He immediately picked up a few other FBS offers, and he has now committed to UNLV.

Coach Freeze and staff currently have one other verbal in 3-star JUCO DT William Green, Jr. The 6’6″, 290 pound defensive tackle will have 3 years of eligibility remaining. He also has offers from Western Kentucky, Southern Miss, UAB, and West Georgia.

Other prospects to watch:

Offensive Line

Jonathan Boyd is a 3-star, 6’6″, 280 pound prospect from Sacramento where he attends Capital Christian. He visited Indiana last week and has named a top 5 of Liberty, Indiana, Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. Prior to contrary reports, Boyd will not be visiting Lynchburg this weekend.

Reed Buys visited campus on January 18th as the 6’5″, 290 pound high school senior from Vicksburg, Mississippi has also been recruited by Northwest Mississippi Community College. He received interest from several P5 schools, and his offer list includes Georgia State, Louisiana Monroe, and South Alabama. He is visiting Mississippi State this weekend.

Maisen Knight visited Lynchburg the weekend of January 25th. The 6’5″, 300 pound offensive tackle also visited Liberty in December ahead of the early signing period. He’s currently at Ventura College and is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah. He went to Ventura immediately following high school, after just one season he picked up numerous offers and committed to Arizona. He attended there for 2017, redshirted, and transferred back to Ventura for the 2018 season. He’s a 3-star prospect and has 2 years of eligibility remaining.

Carson Williams visited Liberty on January 18th and then followed that up with a visit to Indiana on the 25th. He’s also picked up an offer from Arkansas State just this week. Williams is a 6’4″, 290 pound high school senior from Forest, Mississippi.

Ryan Alexander is a grad transfer from South Alabama who was recently offered by Liberty. As a transfer, he doesn’t have to make a decision to sign by Wednesday, but he is a name to watch. He’s picked up several offers including Rutgers, Syracuse, SMU, Charlotte, and Tulane. The Orange appear to be high on his list as he plans on taking a visit there sometime this spring.

Tight End

Micaiah Overton is a 3-star tight end from Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s Bessemer Academy. The 6’5″, 225 pound prospect is visiting campus this weekend. He also has offers from UConn, UAB, and Arizona State and several FCS schools including Southeast Missouri State where he visited last weekend.

Defensive Tackle

Brian Merritt is a 3-star DT from Colquitt County in Moultrie, Georgia. The 6’0″, 295 pound prospect has more than a dozen offers including Georgia State, MTSU, Pitt, South Alabama, West Virginia, Tulane, and UAB. He was scheduled to visit UAB and South Alabama in January. He will be on campus for an official visit this weekend.

Elijah James is 3-star DT from Iowa Western Community College. He committed to Kentucky on December 16th, but decommitted earlier this week. He also has an offer from Southern Miss. James is 6’4″ and 300 pounds and recorded 57 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, and 8.5 sacks this season. He will be on campus for a visit this weekend.

Defensive End

Zach Edwards was part of the group that visited on January 18th. He spent the following week at Louisville and will be at Ole Miss this weekend. The 6’3″, 220 pound, 3-star prospect will likely choose between one of the latter schools.

Christian Harris is a 3-star defensive end that was offered under Coach Gill’s staff, but now the new staff has heated up their pursuit by offering him last week. He has visited Lafayette, Western Carolina, and Army, and has announced he will be making his decision publicly on signing day. He has not taken an official visit and will not be visiting Liberty this weekend.

Marcus Harris visited Lynchburg January 18th. His prior visits include South Alabama, Southern Miss, and Tulane. Just recently, he picked up offers from Akron, Kansas, Troy, and Washington State. The 6’3″, 250 pound 3-star prospect from Montgomery, Alabama is visiting Kansas this weekend. He will likely choose between the Jayhawks and the Flames. Les Miles vs Hugh Freeze. Harris was also visited by Iowa coaches this week, no word on an offer from the Hawkeyes.

Clarence Hicks visited Liberty on January 18th. He visited East Carolina this past weekend. The 6’2″, 230 pound prospect is originally from Pensacola, Florida and is currently at Hutchinson Community College. His decision will likely come between those two schools, unless he surprises us all with another visit this weekend.

Defensive Back

We’re still keeping tabs on Ryan Nixon. Nixon visited campus in December, but never committed. It doesn’t appear he has any other strong candidates though, but the Flames could have backed off as well.

Athlete

Marvae Myers-Glover visited Liberty on January 18th, but it looked like Louisville was the front runner for his services as he visited there on the 25th. Despite appearing to be in the driver’s seat, it seems as though Louisville has backed off of him at the last minute. He will be a good name to keep an eye this weekend leading up to signing day.

In total, the Flames are expecting 5 official visitors this weekend. We’re also getting wind that we could all be in for a surprise on signing day, a very, pleasant surprise. Stay tuned!