Liberty opened up spring practice on Friday morning, the first of 15 practices over the next several weeks. The spring period will conclude on Saturday, April 9 with the Football Spring Game held from 10 am – 12 noon. Following Friday’s practice, head football coach Hugh Freeze met with the media for the first of several press conferences he will hold this spring. Here is everything he had to say beginning with his opening statement.
“The energy was great,” he said. “I thought their attention from the few meetings that we’ve had for install was pretty decent, particularly defensively. I think the training that Coach Dom and his staff have done to prepare them to this point of the year. We looked good. I thought we looked physical. We looked like we move fast. I thought we, for the first day out, of course you don’t have pads on, I’m pleased. I thought we were one for one of our 15 opportunities. Just getting out there and trying to get better.”
“We’ve got a lot of question marks. It’s hard to really even comment on a lot of these battles without me watching the film first because so many things were going on. Really pleased defensively today. I thought they were really aggressive, covered us well, and created some turnovers. Was excited about what I saw.”
DO YOU HOPE BY THE END OF THIS SPRING YOU WILL HAVE A STARTER IN MIND AT QB?
“No, I anticipate this thing going all the way to the fall and probably a few weeks into it. It’s just with the number of guys that we really want to look at, it’s really difficult to get enough reps in a given spring probably to make that decision. I hope that we have an idea, kinda, of these are the top two out of spring, but I don’t anticipate anything being decided probably until well into fall camp.”
WHAT WAS YOUR DECISION TO MOVE AAKIL WASHINGTON AND KACI SEEGARS TO LB?
“We’re hoping (they can make an impact there). We met as soon as the season was over and talked about possible scenarios as we looked at recruiting and where we were deep at. Aakil is a football player. You still have the ability to put him on the edge to rush. Kaci, we think we are going to move back there also, but he is still recovering from his injury in the fall with the Achilles. We are excited about watching Aakil there. I don’t know how he did today, but I know he is excited and we are also.”
HOW MUCH DOES CALEB SNEAD AND CJ YARBROUGH CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT OUTSIDE RECEIVER?
“No question, as long as we can stay healthy. We lost CJ Daniels today. I don’t know how bad that is. You hate to see those things because he’s obviously one of our better players, but you add in Snead and getting Jaivian Lofton back to healthy, it looked like he ran well today, and Yarbrough back, Treon Sibley is coming on, I thought he had a good day. You add Yarbrough, Snead to that room, they definitely walk off the bus looking a little different.”
DO YOU HAVE AN UPDATED INJURY REPORT?
“Oh man, I should have brought that. We have several that were surgeries that were planned for after the season that are going to miss spring – Ahmad Walker, Cooper (McCaw), Austin Mock, it seems like there’s another shoulder, Kaci Seegars, will all miss spring practice. There may be a few more that we can cover in the next press conference, but those are pretty fresh on my mind. Oh, Jerome Jackson, same thing. So, all of those are things that we did to get cleaned up and they will miss a good bit of spring practice if not all of it.”
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT THIS TIME OF THE SEASON?
“This one feels a little different. I don’t feel like we’ve had much of a break from the season. I don’t know if it’s the transfer portal world, it just seemed like nothing ever really stopped, but that is what it is. Truthfully, I’m excited and thankful for everything that is happening good for Malik right now. I thought his representation of our program, our university, and our people here last night, I don’t think it could have gone any better. Every time they put the camera on him he’s smiling and just being who he is. It’s genuine, it’s real, it’s not fake, and we’ve tried to tell everyone that about him. He actually called me last night when it was all over, him and his father, they were just ecstatic and thought the week went really well, just so thankful for the good that’s happening for him. We are looking forward to Pro Day it will be a mad day here I’m sure for that.”
“I say all that to say this, I’m probably weird, I know I’m weird in a lot of ways probably, but one of the things that motivates me all the time is as happy as we are for Malik and everything, I want us to prove that we can do it with somebody else too. That motivates me. I use that position, obviously there are more positions than just that one, but that one is obviously one. That probably is the biggest motivation I have for spring practice is trying to prepare ourselves to prove that it doesn’t matter what year it is and who it is, and obviously next year’s schedule is different and we can’t control all of that. I get really excited about who is the next man up at spots, and I get really excited about teaching this time of the year. Whether it’s the five week course that I developed for this that I’m teaching called words from a father. Started it today. I really get passionate about that moreso than at anytime in my career. I’ve put a lot of time into trying to plan that. I’m excited to see guys starting to talk about it and coming by to say, ‘Hey, you said this today and this matters.’ And kids taking notes on it.
“So, those are the two things that really excite me the most about spring ball is can we as coaches develop the next man up and get it done with another guy. Then, obviously just the teaching part of the culture and who we want to be here.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE MORE VALUABLE IN THE NFL FOR MALIK, HIS ARM OR HIS LEGS?
“Oh gosh, well I think that depends on your offensive line. If your offensive line is a great protecting offensive line, his arm. If they’re not protecting really well like I saw in the playoffs, maybe his legs. You look in the playoffs last year, I don’t get to watch a lot of NFL until that point, but boy it seemed like everybody was struggling to protect the quarterback because these D-Lines are so talented. It’s definitely a combination, but him being able to extend plays certainly I think would be helpful in most cases where offensive lines are seeming to struggle a bit.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR 3 NEW ON FIELD ASSISTANTS HAVE MESHED?
“Leading up until today, I’ve been thrilled with Coach Eubanks, Coach Garrett and Coach Klenakis. I think they all have just melted into the culture here and brought new ideas. I will watch the film today and see how they did on the field, but I think our kids have rallied with them and to them. I saw Eubanks out there with his cleats on running drills with them and stuff, so he still acts like he’s an NFL player. I love the energy. I think we hit home runs with all of those guys.”
HOW MUCH DOES MALIK’S SUCCESS HELP IN RECRUITING?
“It certainly helps. Hopefully, young men will look at it and say, ‘here’s a guy who went to Power Five, for whatever reason that didn’t work out for him and then he chose to come to a place like Liberty.’ We were able to help him write the last few chapters of his college career and put him in a position to create value for himself. That looks different in every scenario. The value that Malik is creating, that we helped Malik create, it may be different than the value we help someone else that transfers create. What is not different is us helping young men put them in a position that when opportunities come that they are somewhat prepared for those. I think we’ve proven that, hopefully through more than just Malik, but obviously he is out there in the public so much that people see, hey, Liberty helped a young man create value for himself to where when they’ve got an opportunity, man he’s making the most of it. And, then also, the extra layer of the fact that we hope that our young men listen to us when we talk about being built different from a faith aspect, and Malik has modeled that as well as we could hope.”
JOHNATHAN BENNETT HAS BEEN IN YOUR PROGRAM THE LONGEST OF YOUR QBs, HOW MUCH HAVE YOU SEEN HIM GROW GOING INTO THE POST-MALIK ERA?
“I think JB is a great leader. We actually elected a culture counsel that the kids voted on, I didn’t have anything to do with it, and he was the highest vote getter. I think that speaks volumes of what the people think of him, whether he’s the starter, whether he’s not the starter, he has created value for himself within this team. His voice means something in the locker room. That will continue because of who he is, irregardless of how the quarterback battle shakes out.”
HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO BRING A GUY IN LIKE COACH KLENAKIS THAT LIKES THE X’S AND THE O’S?
“It’s probably why I haven’t felt like we’ve had much of a break because we have talked an awful lot of ball between the end of the season and now. We’re not going to change. That’s the thing with these O-Line guys, they know too much for me. I don’t mind trying new things, but they better be able to go fast and block them. We are going to go fast. He does have great ideas, but he has melted within what we’re going to do, and I think he kinda approaches some of the techniques different than we have in the past. I’m excited to see if that’s a better way, and obviously when we start game planning if he has ideas, which I’m sure he will, I will definitely listen to him because he knows football, for sure.”
