This is the second piece in a five-part series taking a look at Liberty football entering 2025 fall practices. Be sure to check back for the rest of this series throughout the week as we tackle a variety of Liberty football topics.
Obviously, there are a lot of question marks on this Liberty football team entering training camp for the 2025 season. We took a look at some of those question marks yesterday in our discussion of the team’s biggest storylines entering camp. Still, there are some concerns about just how good this team can be. Training camp is about beginning to find some of those answers and eliminate some of those concerns.
Liberty football can eliminate concerns if…
…a QB1 quickly emerges.
Whenever there is a quarterback competition, it becomes the biggest question mark and story line of training camp. It’s no different for Liberty this year. The most important thing is that the coaching staff is able to quickly find who its QB1 is, giving that guy ample time to get the reps he needs to learn the offense and mesh with his teammates on the field. Whether it’s Ethan Vasko, Ryan Burger, Michael Merdinger, Jayden Bradford, or Ethan Houck, it doesn’t matter, but having that guy picked out early could be key to the team’s success, particularly in the opening weeks of the season.
…the offensive line quickly gels.
The biggest strength Liberty in 2023 was its offensive line. It was another strong group once again last year. Under OL Coach Bill Durkin, the Flames have a few key pieces that have departed while also having brought in a few new faces to help pick up the slack. This group will almost certainly end up being one of the best in Conference USA, but how long will it take them to gel? If they can find that cohesion during training camp and in the first couple weeks of the season, then they should be able to continue to pave the way for one of the most dynamic rushing attacks in the country.
…the defense takes a step to be one of the better units in Conference USA.
The defense seems to have the talent it needs this year to become more consistent and help out an offense that may be finding its way in the early part of the season. There are several returners, particularly in the secondary and at linebacker, as well as some talented looking newcomers that should add to the depth of the group. If the defense can take that step, it will take a lot of pressure off the offense, and Liberty should be right back in the mix at the top of CUSA.
