Liberty has been picked to reach the Conference USA Championship Game by Athlon Sports, in their recently released 2026 college football season preview magazine. Be sure to pick up the Athlon College Football Preview Magazine, now available, to help preview the upcoming season.
Liberty is coming off a 2025 season where the Flames went 4-8 overall and 3-5 in conference play, finishing in eighth place and failing to reach a bowl game for the first time since the program’s move to the FBS level prior to the 2019 season. The Flames will open the 2026 season in Harrisonburg against James Madison on Saturday, September 5.
In the new 10-team CUSA for 2026 with the departures of UTEP and Louisiana Tech, Liberty and Western Kentucky were picked by Athlon to reach the CUSA Championship Game with the Hilltoppers winning the championship. Defending CUSA champ Kennesaw State is picked to finish third in the league by the magazine with Jacksonville State following at fourth. Delaware is pick to finish fifth, followed by FIU, Missouri State, New Mexico State, Middle Tennessee, and Sam Houston.
Here is how all of the CUSA teams are ranked by Athlon nationally out of 138 FBS teams:
89. Western Kentucky
91. Liberty (down from last year’s preseason ranking of 67)
105. Kennesaw State
106. Jax State
107. Delaware
112. FIU
128. Missouri State
129. New Mexico State
133. Middle Tennessee
137. Sam Houston
And here’s where Liberty’s non-conference FBS opponents are ranked:
82. James Madison
119. Coastal Carolina
135. Ball State
Bowl Projection
Athlon projects the Flames to get back into a bowl game after a one-year hiatus, picking Liberty to take on Marshall from the Sun Belt in the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
Liberty in CUSA All-Conference Picks
The Flames have three first team all-CUSA preseason selections from Athlon – OL Aaron Fenimore, OL DJ Geth, DL Mike Jarvis.
CUSA Position Rankings
Athlon also ranks each team’s position groups within Conference USA. Here is where Liberty checks in at each position:
- Quarterbacks: 4th
- Running backs: 1st
- Wide receivers: 3rd
- Offensive line: 1st
- Defensive line: 2nd
- Linebackers: 4th
- Defensive backs: 6th
CUSA Transfer Rankings
According to Athlon, Liberty has three of the top five transfers coming into Conference USA this season. QB Deshawn Purdie is ranked as the second best incoming CUSA transfer, only trailing FIU incoming transfer QB JJ Kohl from Appalachian State. Liberty WR Makai Jackson ranks as the 4th best transfer while running back Kam Davis is ranked the 5th best.
On Purdie, Athlon states, “Now on his third school, Purdie has Power 4 experience and a knack for the big plays.”
On Jackson, Athlon states, “Jackson is a downfield threat who previously earned all Sun Belt honors.”
On Davis, Athlon states, “Davis has the talent to be the Flames’ next 1,000 yard rusher.”
Scouting the Flames
An unnamed, opposing CUSA assistant coach has this quote on Liberty:
“It all goes back to the quarterback. Had a lot of turnovers and a lot of system changes. Things like that. Their portal deal with their money situation, they’ve gotta take the right football guys that love ball. It’s not so much an offensive deal. It’s, are the players that they have truly invested in football? They’re just not as tough as they were when that coaching staff first got there… Are they getting guys for the right reasons? I think they found out the hard way last year that they were paying some guys that just wanted to get the money, collect a check and move on from there. We’ll see how well they did this year from a character standpoint and just figuring out if they took the right guys that want to play football.”
