On Thursday, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze met with the media as his team continues to go through spring practice. The Flames will complete their third week of spring with practice number nine of 15 on Friday. Saturday, March 27th Liberty will have a Red, White, and Blue Preview in front of a limited capacity crowd. Here’s everything Freeze had to say during his media session on Thursday:
HOW IS TJ GREEN DOING THIS SPRING?
“Really pleased. Think that he improved our running back room. Obviously, we haven’t been in a game yet, or really any live situations to this point. We are going to go around 30 snaps of live tomorrow. Then, next Saturday do some live stuff. Love his demeanor, he’s a quick learner, I like his feet. I think he’s got enough size and enough speed to improve us. Think the combination of he and J-Mack and Shedro, I’m optimistic that we’ve improved ourselves there.”
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO HIM IN THE RECRUITING PROCESS?
“I loved his demeanor, loved his personality. I think he wants to be coached, he wants to be good, he loves ball. Obviously his tape spoke for itself to me. I thought he had good vision, and I thought he had good change of direction. It’s hard to really tell sometimes how fast somebody really is. I think he’s fast enough. He’s everything that I thought about him, and our conversations on Zoom and getting to know him, his personally, it was accurate. He loves to work, loves the film room, has really been a pleasant kid to coach since he’s been here.”
HOW MUCH DOES JAVON SCRUGGS’ LEADERSHIP HELP WITH THE NEW GUYS?
“Every day. He’s the leader of our defense. That’s the expectation, that’s what comes with his life right now and I think he’s embraced it. He’s done that every single day of spring ball, very, very pleased with Scruggs.
ARE THERE ANY EXAMPLES OF THAT YOU CAN GIVE?
“Every day. That’s the expectation, that’s what we talk about when we meet. While he’s not getting reps, he’s back there getting coaching, encouraging, and correcting. Pulling them off to the side, a kid got beat in a one on one drill and immediately his body language changed and immediately Scruggs is on him. ‘No, no, no. That’s not how we do it. It’s ok to get beat, but just play the next play. Our body language doesn’t slump and we become discouraged.’ I’ve said it all along, the great teams have a coaching staff that are of one voice, but they also have players that are a voice in the locker room. I think that’s what we have in him.”
WHAT IS CB COACH RICKEY HUNLEY WORKING ON WITH THE CORNERS?
“First, Coach Hunley is a great developer of men. I think he’s a great mentor. That room is typically filled, every where I’ve been, with people who need some mentoring. It’s just the way it is. In the corner, receiver room, and D-Line room, there’s a lot of great players in there, but seems like they always come with, man, we need some guys. Coach Hunley is very good at that. We’ve said since we’ve been here we need to elevate that room, it needs to have more depth and more kids that we can put on an island and guard, whether it be a boundary guy or field guy. Obviously, we think we’ve added some good kids there. Of course, Megginson is back and Haskins is back. Biggins, I think, is going to be really good, you just got to bring him along. He’s just a freshman, but he’s already improved a lot since his time getting here. Duron Lowe, I think’s going to be a guy you can put to the field and say guard a guy. Really pleased with Jimmy Faulks and his attitude, his leadership in that room too, and he’s competing which that hasn’t always been the case, really pleased with that. I tell you, Daijahn Anthony is a wild card in that. He could be a boundary corner. If he continues to impress, I could see him playing some, maybe a lot. I’m not ready to say that, but he is big and physical and into the boundary can be a handful if he gets his hands on you. Coach Hunley is working on developing all those guys. I’ve been pleased. There is no question we are better than we were.”
WHAT SHOULD FANS EXPECT OUT OF THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE PREVIEW NEXT WEEK?
“I don’t know. We’re going to have a practice. I told Ian, I have no problem with people coming to practice, I wish we could open it up and let everyone come, I guess the number is still 1,000, I’ve heard. I’m not really into who gets to be that 1,000 and glad I’m not. They will see a lively practice. There will be a lot of live periods. It will not be a traditional spring game of keeping score. They will get to witness a very, very physical, live practice.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU FOLLOW MARCH MADNESS?
“Absolutely, I’ve always thought it was one of the greatest sporting events in a given year. It’s just always so many great stories and great endings, competitiveness. I guess it starts tonight, those are play-in games tonight if my understanding is right, I don’t know if I will catch a lot of that, but when the tournament starts tomorrow, my TV, when I do have time, will be tuned into one or two of those games trying to find out who I think is hot. Me and my family, my girls, always kind of do our own little bracket together, just our family for bragging rights. I did see that we all, well 3 of the 5, had very similar Final Fours and winning it. So, that will be interesting to see.”
HOW NEAT WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO PUT YOUR FOOTBALL SEASON TO THE ONE SHINING MOMENT SONG?
“Yeah, you know we probably need to do something like that. I will get with our media people. That will be another recruiting tool, we can put it to some type of music like that. It was a great year, for sure, fun, celebrated, and will be a great memory, but we’ve kind of shifted gears now, flipped the script. We’ve got to move on to 2021 because the wins last year won’t help us come fall.”
COMPARE LAST MARCH TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW.
“I think we got four practices. I think we were getting ready for practice five when we got the word that we needed to shut it down. So, it wasn’t a lot, and two of those were non-padded. So, we didn’t get a lot, but obviously to fast forward to this point, we’ve been fortunate the last few weeks that our testing results have been very, very good. We’ve enjoyed going through spring ball. In our mind, I think one of the reasons we had success, and we just continue to say, we just control what we can control, and we have zero control over the COVID tests or what they say. We just don’t blink. You’ve got to play the next one and hopeful that should anyone in or around our program be caught up and positive with the COVID that it certainly is not severe or life-altering and that they don’t experience severe symptoms. That’s been our constant prayer and mindset. Let’s don’t worry about what we can’t control.”
HOW MUCH SPECIAL TEAMS WORK HAVE YOU GOTTEN IN THIS SPRING?
“The only thing we ever do in spring, I don’t know why, we just do PAT field goal and we do punt. We don’t work a lot of others in spring, we will wait until fall camp on that. I expect Aidan to be very solid again and Barbir to be the same. Barbir has had a little hamstring so he hasn’t kicked a lot, but would expect us to be even better in those areas.”
HOW ARE SOME OF YOUR OUTSIDE WRS LOOKING?
“Be truthful, we’ve got a ways to go with outside guys. We’ve got to get more consistent in winning our one on ones there. Noah’s solid, Lofton has had some up and down practices, we need more out of Sibley or Ahmad. CJ Daniels has been solid, but he has been hampered by injury too. That room has been a little beat up, so it’s really hard for me to have an accurate evaluation right now.”
HOW ARE SOME OF THE QUARTERBACKS LOOKING BEHIND WILLIS?
“Nate’s a high IQ, quick-learner, big strong kid. I think he’s got the potential to be a really good player. Also, Sean Brown and Will Bowers continue to impress with their accuracy. I’m happy with all those guys. We need JB to make sure he’s ready. He’s getting a lot more reps than Willis is this spring. We’ve got to have him ready to go.”
IN YOUR FAMILY, WHO IS THE BEST IN THE MARCH MADNESS PICKS?
“I don’t know, it’s too early to tell. We’ll see. I was disappointed that we all were too similar towards the end. If all of us are right, it will be pretty close. I have watched so little college basketball this year, I have no clue if there is any wisdom in my picks at all for our family bracket. I have no clue what’s going to happen, just know I pick Liberty to win, so hope that happens.”
