Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze met with the media on Monday afternoon to discuss his team’s upcoming game at Virginia. Here are his main takeaways from that session.

FLAMES’ WELCOME CHALLENGE AGAINST VIRGINIA

“It’s an exciting week for us, to play, an in-state, Power 5 team that has had a great year. They are scheduled to play for the Coastal Division next weekend, if my understanding is correct, for us to find a way to go to their place and compete is going to be a tall task, and it is one that our kids are excited about. I could tell it (Sunday), I was shocked at the energy that our kids had after a weekend off for a Sunday. I was really pleased with the attention, the excitement, the energy that the kids brought back from the off week. The task is a tall one for us at this state, but it’s one we welcome and are really excited about.”

ON UVA HEAD COACH BRONCO MENDENHALL

“Bronco, I have great respect for. You can tell a lot about college coaches when you go to other places and you’re around other coaches, be it the convention or other things. The assistant coaches, they are the ones that really tell you the truth about what this guy is really like to work for. Bronco his reputation is incredible. He’s a family man and does it the right way. I’m real impressed with him the times I’ve been around him. You watch it in the way his teams play. They play with discipline and a toughness. He’s done a remarkable job at virginia.”

CONCERNED ABOUT QB BRYCE PERKINS

“Quarterback’s the best we’ve faced all year. I don’t know who will receive the player of the year in the ACC, but I would be shocked if he’s not in the discussion. Probably 80% of the offense goes through him. Most every pass is a designed draw, whether it’s designed that way or not, which they do a good job with designing it that way, but it’s very difficult to contain him. We will have to play extremely well defensively, not only against their run game, pass game, but every play being a possible draw for him. He’s that talented.”

FREEZE CALLS UVA THE TEAM’S BIGGEST CHALLENGE THIS SEASON

There are no weaknesses that I can see. We will have to play our best football game of the year to have a chance to be in it in the 4th quarter, and that’s what our expectations are. They are the most solid opponent top to bottom (we have played this season). BYU was very talented. They had some injuries that maybe cost them some of their depth. This is the first one we’ve played that quarterback-wise is like they are. He is pretty special. I think it’s our toughest task of the year.”

ON LIBERTY FANS TRAVELLING THIS WEEK

“I would expect that our people travel for this. I know that in my brief time here, in the offseason when I got to go and play golf at a couple of places here, there are a lot of Virginia fans in this area and then obviously the liberty fans in this area that were around i think they all pointed toward this game as one that they looked forward to so i would anticipate us having a decent following there

INJURY UPDATE

“We’re good health wise. I can’t think of anybody that will be out for this game. You know you got the ones who have some hurt, but they’re ready to go. They all practiced yesterday and will give it a go.”

FREEZE CONFIDENT THE OFFENSE CAN MOVE THE BALL AGAINST VIRGINIA

“I’m always confident that we have a good plan to move the ball. I’ve been in a few games in my career where we haven’t and it was very disappointing. I don’t like that, I take it personal that we can’t. There comes a point where you have to win some one-on-ones to be able to do that. Whether it’s a receiver against a DB, or a guard against a d-tackle, or a tight end against a defensive end. If you don’t win any one-on- ones in a game, your plan is pretty futile. Do I feel confident we’re going to have the right plan? Yes. Do I feel confident we have the potential to move the ball? Yes, and I expect to move the ball.”

ON BEING A POTENTIAL BOWL TEAM

“I trust Ian and our administration to handle that. He gives me updates. We’re excited that we’re in the talks, but we’ve got to win another game. That would be huge for these seniors. It would be a blessing, we would rejoice greatly in that opportunity. Hopefully it comes our way.”

ON BEING ABLE TO RUN AGAINST UVA

“Only one team has really run the ball on this group. We go into every game with we have to have the appearance that you’re balanced. We’ve been pretty effective at doing that. That will be our attempt this week also. There will be a lot of runs called, what happens after the snap kind of will depend on how Virginia is playing us, but we certainly will have the appearance that we are attempting to run it.”

FREEZE CONCERNED ABOUT 3RD DOWN DEFENSE

“I’m obviously concerned about 3rd down regardless of who their quarterback was, and then you add him to the mix and it’s even more concerning because we haven’t played well on 3rd down. UMass we played really well on 3rd down, (BYU) we had some critical ones where we didn’t get it done. We started last Tuesday’s practice, in open week, we had two different 3rd down periods good-on-good. Wednesday we had a 3rd down period good-on-good. We did not yesterday. We will Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and just continue to try to put an emphasis on it.”