Malik Willis was all the talk following Liberty’s win Saturday over Western Kentucky to open the 2020 season 1-0. Willis finished the game 13 of 21 passing for 133 yards and a school record 168 rushing yards by a quarterback and 3 touchdowns.

Here’s everything Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze and the Flames’ players had to say about the quarterback’s performance:

HUGH FREEZE

“We’re pleased with most of his play today. He made some mistakes that we can correct, but we knew he was athletic, knew we could do some things in the run game with him. I thought he was efficient in throwing the football. We really could have thrown it some more probably, but I probably started trying to run the clock out a little too early and probably should have thrown it a little more, but I was real pleased. He’s got to get better on his ball security when he’s running and stay in bounds there at the end and that would help us end that game a little quicker. For his first start in a college game, I’m pretty pleased.”

(on his final touchdown run which ended up being the game winner):

“It was a huge play in the game. Coach Harris was in the box, he and coach Gregg, they said they thought if they got in this set, that we would get that pull to the boundary. It was a great suggestion by our coaches and great to see Malik execute it and execute it right. We’ve just got to get him more consistent, and he’s going to be a very dangerous player to defend. He’s just a little inconsistent and will guess sometimes and puts us behind the chains. I think he’s going to get more and more comfortable. Really pleased with his first outing.”

 RB JOSHUA MACK

“We’ve seen glimpses of it, but during practice he has a knee brace on. So, we don’t really get to see that speed or his ability to make guys miss. I knew he had those abilities, but it kind of caught me off guard a little bit at the same time. It was definitely nice. I like having him in the backfield, it makes our job a little bit easier.”

S JAVON SCRUGGS

“It was basically going back to when he was scout team quarterback for us last year. Most of the guys on that defense, we knew what Malik Willis could do for our offense and for our team, as a whole. It wasn’t really surprising, but it was definitely exciting to see.”