Liberty held its fourth practice of training camp on Friday and Hugh Freeze met with reporters following practice to discuss preparations for the season as well as provide insights on various Liberty players. Here’s everything he had to say.
“It’s felt different in whatever we’re calling this week, preseason camp, pre-camp,” Freeze said. “I’ts been really positive with most everything, today I don’t feel quite that way. I felt like we’ve got a lot of work to do. The defense dominated today in every drill we had, every aspect, energy. Which, I think we’re going to be better on that side of the football if we can stay healthy, particularly at linebacker, we’re thin, but I think we’ve got a chance to be better. Pierre is really showing up. The new DB’s, I’m really pleased with. Man, just left the field today thinking that we didn’t get the most out of the opportunity to practice, in particular, offensively today.”
Any new injuries to report?
“We’ve got a few that we’re going to have to have some docs look at them, really probably won’t comment until I get that. Demario Douglas was in a blue jersey today, he’s on his way back. CJ Yarbrough seems to be making good strides. Khaleb Coleman’s got to see the doctor with that shoulder that he’s had surgery on to see if anything is going on with that, it’s giving him problems. Amarii Jenkins has got a leg injury that we’ve got to see what happens with that, but I think that’s it.”
How is Malik Willis progressing and what driver do you recommend?
“I’m going to take the drive question first. Number one, just like sometimes in the media you have your information wrong, you have this one wrong. It’s not that I don’t try a new driver every two weeks, I don’t buy them though. I try them until I decide which route I want to go. If I were recommending a driver right now I would tell you to go get the SIM driver. It’s hot.”
“As far as Malik, boy it’s just moving really fast for him right now. Today, was just a lot on he and Chris, not just him. They would look good a play and then it’s moving. This is the first day, I should have expected this, but this is the first day we’ve gone to any kind of tempo. With all the quarantines we’ve had and all the missed conditioning opportunities that we’ve had, we’ve gone really methodically and tried to watch the workload. Today, we really turned it up a bit on the tempo and it showed that we’re not anywhere near ready for that. There’s no other position that reflects that more than the quarterback because it’s so obvious when they’re not understanding what’s going on and today was kind of that day. I’m really excited about he and Chris. I think they both bring something to us. We’ve got to see which one can be the most consistent in operating as efficiently as we want. He’s scary when he does some things and his arm strength’s phenomenal. We’ve got to get him ready to play really fast but in his mind feel like it’s slowed down.”
Was this a scrimmage today?
“It was just a normal practice, no tackling, just thud. We went up to 19 periods today. We had quite a few more snaps, and, again, started asking them to play at a faster tempo, and it looked really sloppy on offense.”
How much Shedro help your team?
“I’m real pleased. I think Shedro and Troy Henderson both give us something there. They’re both dangerous. If they get a crease they are fast enough to be a threat to have explosive plays, and they both are a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield. I think there’s definitely going to be some packages where you see those two involved.”
Does Treon Sibley factor in any of the return games?
“He’s getting reps in kickoff return right now. We haven’t done that live, but when we’re practicing the kick catches on that he will be back there, that’s the only one. I think punt return Stubbs and Shedro and Demario will all be prepared to do that. Sibley will be prepared to do kickoff return also.”
What are the teachable moments you had in practice today for the offense?
“We would be here all day. It was not good, we’ve got a long way to go offensively. There are so many teachable moments. It was just moving too fast, not just for the quarterbacks, but the o-line and the defense was bringing some different odd looks. We turned people loose, receivers ran the wrong routes, running backs missed protections, quarterbacks missed check downs, read the wrong side. We’ve got a lot of film to watch tomorrow.”
How confident do you feel with your wide receivers?
“I think once CJ Yarbrough and Demario get back and are healthy, I think we’re going to have a quality wide receiver room. The concern for me is not the giftedness of that room, it’s just we’ve got to get them all on the same page and learning the system, when to convert routes when not to. This was day one of us trying to do a lot of that, but it just reminded me we have a lot of coaching to do. I’m confident we will have a good wide receiver room.”
What is Demario’s injury?
“Demario had a sprained ankle. He is fine. He was in a blue jersey today. We expect him back Monday for practice.”
What’s the team’s schedule the next few days?
“Tomorrow is like Tuesday and Thursday of this week where it’s film, film, walk thru, and our strength staff will do either stretching, lifting, or conditioning, I can’t remember which one it is on tomorrow with them. I don’t think it’s conditioning because we pushed them pretty hard today. That’s what tomorrow will look like, just catch up and get all the film out of the way, having another walk thru to get prepared for Monday’s practice. Sunday will be off for everybody to rest, recoup. Monday we will get back after it. I think Monday we go back to a 17 period practice but it will be a physical one.”
That’s full pads Monday?
“We hardly ever go full. It depends on what you call full. We’ll have shoulder pads and thigh pads on, but will we be in full uniform, no. We hardly ever do that. We will do that a couple Saturdays. Hopefully our kids are starting to learn how to practice with that equipment on.”
No fall sports for the ASUN, will it be weird to only have football on campus this fall?
“Candidly, I hate that. Will it feel different? Probably not to us because we are in our own world. I don’t really get around to support any others like you want to until basketball season when we’re through. I don’t know if it’s going to feel weird. I certainly think it’s unfortunate and you hate it for those sports and certainly I don’t know that we’re completely out of the woods yet either. What we’re hearing nationally football-wise, there’s still hurdles to…We’re in the camp that’s going to continue to get prepared to play and hopefully that’s what happens, but none of us can sit here and look at each other with a straight face and say we know for certain that’s going to happen. We’re going to prepare like it is and hope that it is, but everybody’s still in wait and see mode. When all the students come back to all of these campuses that are trying to play, like us, then we all affect each other. It’s not just about one school, but there could be a school in the south that has a big issue and it affect all of us. It’s still kind of strange times and hopefully we get to, but it won’t feel any different if we’re fortunate to play for us because we are kind of in the grind of a football season. You don’t have a lot of time to focus on anything but that.”
What are your thoughts about early signing period this year?
“I go back and forth in my mind on that. There’s part of my mind that thinks it can benefit us. Then, obviously, there’s part of you that feels like have we gotten to know the young man and his family, and seen him enough to make an accurate evaluation. I think it’s a little of both. Certainly with us missing the camp season and not being able to go see them play this fall and then going on to sign them in December, we’ve got to trust our evaluation skills for sure.”
Turner Gill returns to Liberty what do you think about that hire?
“I think Turner, first, is one of the finest men that I’ve been around. Anytime you can add fine men to your institution I think it’s a good thing. Obviously, with all the events going on in the world today, to add someone with his character, his strength, his integrity, his wisdom, in a role to help with diversity here on campus I think is a huge positive.”
Did you get to interact with Kelvin Edwards when he got his jersey retired?
“Kelvin and I have had many phone conversations. He flew with me to one of the games when I couldn’t travel with the team, I can’t remember what game it was, but we got to spend a lot of time there communicating with each other. I know Kelvin fairly well. I know his love for Liberty. We will welcome him also.”
What are your preferences for this year’s schedule?
“I talk to Ian daily. We’re in constant communication about the ever changing scheduling. I appreciate him allowing me to have input and working together on that. You want to give your kids, first and foremost, if the season is played we want to ensure we have a schedule to play. That’s the first priority. If you can do that in a manner in year two of our journey here, to where you give them an opportunity to be in games that you have a chance to win and go to a second straight bowl, obviously that is nice. I don’t know that we have that luxury this year to look at a schedule and say we’re going to win that one, that one, that one, that one. I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I think there’s going to be a lot of very, very difficult, tough football games that we have to play. I don’t mind that, I’m excited about that, our staff is excited about that, our kids will be excited about it. That’s the priority. I wish we could pick and choose a few. We lost some games we felt very confident that we matched up really well with and probably have replaced those with games that I still think we can compete in but we can easily win or lose them. Ian has done a great job with managing relationships and keeping us in the talks of having games. I think the biggest question now is, how many is it wise to schedule and when do you really want to start. I think those are the things we will talk about even this afternoon.”
With the uncertainty of bowl eligibility requirements, how does that factor into your scheduling discussions?
“I think we do have word. I think it’s 50% of your games if you play 10, I think 5 gets you bowl eligible. If you play 12, obviously 6. I’m not sure about 11, what that does. It’s very difficult to manage the second part of your question right now. There is no way to judge where or how much an outbreak might be. You would be really dang lucky if your outbreak happened right around your open week. There’s zero way we can forecast that. You get the schedule to be what it is the best you can, and then you try to keep your kids in the bubble as much as you can. That’s going to be the biggest…I think our team, we’ve gone over two weeks without even having to have a test because no one has screened with any symptoms. Everyone is out of quarantine. We haven’t had a positive in over three weeks. We’re blessed right now. Having said that, you and I both know, that we could be week one of game and our policy is we’re going to test on Wednesdays and who knows what could happen with us or the opponent. But we’ve got to try to manage our kids to stay in our “bubble.” Our complex and their living quarters and our training table, the way we have to set up because I know it’s set up to protect them. They’re going to have to sacrifice some other things that are normal for a college student.”
Dealing with so many young kids, can you speak to their character by not having any positives?
“There’s no way I can say with 100% certainty that it’s totally by our self discipline or by luck or by God’s blessing. I don’t know because I’m not with them all the time, but in the conversations I’ve had with our players I do think there has definitely been a heightened awareness of accountability. We went through in July, I think we went through a period where we weren’t really accountable because we didn’t have a great understanding or maybe believe that it could really happen to us because we had gone so long of it really not affecting us here and we had a spike. I think from that time on to this point, I do believe our team has been much more aware of being accountable. Can that continue throughout? I sure hope so. I think in order for us to have a college football season I think that’s going to be critical at every institution that’s trying to play is just sacrificing and being very self disciplined with where you are and who you’re around and taking the proper precautions.”
“Today, I think offensively we weren’t very good, but not because we can’t be. This is the first day it’s moved kind of fast and you kind of expect the defense to be a little ahead. I look forward to, I know our staff will get them caught up and playing faster but slowing it down for them mentally some as we start to practice faster. That was the synopsis of practice today for me.”
*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics
