Liberty football has just finished up spring practice as the Flames went through 15 practices over the course of several weeks. With only one transfer portal window which closed following the conclusion of the 2025 season, Liberty knows its roster it will have for the upcoming 2026 season. We are going through a series where we break down each position on the roster. We continue today with a look at the safeties.
Previous
Quarterbacks
Running backs
Offensive line
Tight ends
Wide receivers
Linebackers
Defensive Line
Corners
Safeties
0 D-Icey Hopkins, 5’11”, 195 lb (Georgia State)
3 Ashton Whitner, 5’11”, 196 lb (Ball State)
10 Ronald Moore, Jr., 5’11”, 195 lb
17 Jayden Davis, 6’1″, 180 lb (Georgia Southern)
25 Jaleel Parker, 5’11”, 205 lb
26 Macaiden Brown, 6’1″, 180 lb
29 Tony Arnett, 6’1″, 180 lb
32 Davion Dean, 6’1″, 185 lb
OLB/Star
7 Izaiah Guy, 6’2″, 200 lb (South Florida)
19 Jayden Whaley, 6’2″, 185 lb
14 Elijah McKenzie, 5’10”, 170 lb (Bowie State)
Liberty had to virtually remake its entire safety room after losing Brylan Green, A’Khori Jones, Eldric Griffin, Eli Auguste, Christian Bodnar, Devin Henderson, and Jalon Rock. Those players combined to start 35 games for the Flames last season in the secondary. New defensive pass game coordinator and safeties coach Cory Peoples had his work cut out for him upon arriving on the Mountain. He brought in a few guys that he was familiar with from his previous coaching stops, part of five transfers incoming at safety that will look to make an immediate impact for the Flames.
Coming from Georgia State, D-Icey Hopkins was one of the highest rated safeties in the Sun Belt this past season where he had 51 tackles and 3 tackles for loss while holding opposing receivers to a 43.3% completion rate in coverage. He also had a team-high 5 pass breakups and played in all 24 games for the Panthers over the past two seasons. Jayden Davis comes to Liberty from Georgia Southern where he had 10 tackles in just one game played last season. He played at Georgia Tech previously, under Peoples. Ashton Whitner comes to Liberty from Ball State where he played 10 games in 2025, finishing the season with 41 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and a pass breakup. He spent the 2023-24 seasons at Old Dominion where he saw playing time in 19 games, finishing his time at ODU with 52 tackles.
Ronald Moore, Jr. is entering his third season at Liberty. After redshirting following a season-ending injury in 2024, Moore played in 8 games last season. He will look to break into the two-deep this fall. Davion Dean is a redshirt-freshman that did not see the field last year. Jaleel Parker, Macaiden Brown, Tony Arnett are all incoming freshmen who will look to make an instant impact.
Elijah McKenzie began his college career at Morgan State, where he played in nine games as a redshirt-freshman, finishing the season with six tackles. He then entered the transfer portal to join Bowie State at the Division II level. During his time at Bowie State, he finished the season with 33 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and 16 pass breakups. He ranked second in all of Division II this past season with 16 pass breakups to go along with one interception as he was named first-team all-conference.
Izaiah Guy is originally from Ocala, Florida and Vanguard High School. He began his college career at Georgia State, under Peoples, where he had 55 tackles, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, and a sack in 22 games across two seasons. Guy played in 2 games at South Florida in 2025 before missing most of the year due to injury. Jayden Whaley transferred to Liberty a year ago from Hampton. He played in 10 games in 2024 as a freshman, finishing the year with 30 tackles, two tackles for loss, and two pass breakups while playing more than 400 snaps while being named an HBCU Freshman All-American.
