Liberty football only has two weeks left to prepare for the upcoming season. The Flames took to the field at Williams Stadium on Saturday for an open practice and a short scrimmage for the team’s Fan Appreciation Day. While it was a very basic and vanilla practice and scrimmage, here’s what we can gather from the action.

Assessing the Quarterback play

Earlier this week, head coach Jamey Chadwell announced that Ethan Vasko and Ryan Burger were the last two quarterbacks standing in the fight for the team’s starter Week 1 and that Michael Merdingr was third on the depth chart. Saturday’s scrimmage was the first time we got to have an extended look at the quarterbacks taking live reps. Burger was the first quarterback to take the field during the scrimmage, but he and Vasko had an equal amount of opportunities on the afternoon.

Both Vasko and Burger were a bit inconsistent. They each made solid passes while missing on others. It’s hard to say one looked significantly better than the other. They both looked pretty similar. Both Vasko and Burger are mobile and will be able to make plays with their feet. Of course, during the scrimmage, if a defender touched a quarterback he was ruled down, so it’s difficult to gauge exactly how many running plays they would have had in a real game, but they both are comfortable to escape the pocket and make plays with their feet.

Burger connected with Elijah Canion for a 32-yard touchdown strike. Burger also connected with Jamari Person to convert a 4th and 4 near midfield.

Vasko completed a 40-yard deep pass down the left side to Jon Montiero. The ball was a bit under thrown, but Monteiro was able to make a nice adjustment and c one back to the ball to nab the reception despite good coverage on the play. Vasko also had a nice ball over the middle to tight end Caleb Ryan who got behind the defense and picked up over 40 yards on the pass play. Another highlight for Vasko was a 25 yard pass and run to running back Caden Williams who was open in the flat.

Both quarterbacks threw an interception during the scrimmage. Defensive lineman Eli Hall made a very nice, athletic play at the line of scrimmage. He was able to get a hand up to deflect the ball in the air and then grabbed the interception. Burger was picked off by Dexter Ricks who made a nice read in coverage. It looked like that pass was also deflected at the line of scrimmage.

When Merdinger got on the field, the ball looked really good coming out of his hands. He may have had the best pass of the day, a 35-yard touch pass on the post to Bryce Randolph for a touchdown. It didn’t seem like Merdinger took off and ran as much as Vasko and Burger did, but he did make some nice throws in his time on the field.

The true freshman Ethan Houck got onto the field late in the scrimmage, but the ball seemed to pop out of his hands, as well. He made a couple of nice looking throws.

Kickers showed promise

Liberty has a host of kickers fighting to win the job when the season opens, and it looks like Coach Chadwell has a couple of good options to turn to. At the beginning of the scrimmage, all of the kickers had opportunities to kick in rapid succession from various distances on the field. During this, the kickers combined to make 9 out of 13 kicks.

During the scrimmage, we saw 50+ yard made field goals from Wake Forest transfer Tyler Black and two by Gardner-Webb transfer Jay Billingsley. It also looked like Brayden Beck and Billingsley got most of the opportunities during the scrimmage.

Sticking with special teams, punter Max Morgan was the first kicker to kick off, something he has done for the Flames a good amount the past couple of years. Juju Gray, who was back deep with Vaughn Blue on the kick return, took the opening kickoff all the way to the house for the long touchdown. Jon Monteiro and Evan Dickens were the second group of returners back deep on kick return.

Penalties

Penalties were an issue for the Flames in 2024, ranking 116th out of 133 FBS teams. In the scrimmage Saturday, penalties were again an issue. I didn’t keep tab on how many were called, but there were several over the course of the approximately 90-minute scrimmage. There were a few holding penalties and a few false start/illegal procedure penalties on the offense. The defense also had a couple penalties called on them.  After penalties, Coach Chadwell would make the offending party, either the offense or the defense, do up downs including those on the bench.

Defensive Line Looked Strong

The defensive line looked pretty good. The Flames’ defensive front routinely was getting pressure on the quarterbacks and getting into the backfield. It wasn’t just one or two players forcing the pressure but several. Aaron Hester, the Florida State transfer, flashed. He was frequently chasing down ball carriers and getting into the backfield. He looks very explosive coming off the edge. True freshman Joker Jeffrey Hairston, Jr. also recorded a sack on Michael Merdinger during the scrimmage. We also already highlighted the play made by Eli Hall with his pass deflection and interception.

True freshman defensive lineman Kam Cullins, who is expected to make the rotation and play this season, was the only noticeable injury of the afternoon. He was able to walk off the field himself and went immediately into the blue medical tent. No immediate word on the severity of his injury.

The defense also had three interceptions on the day.

Depth Chart Talk

CBs

  • Amarian Williams and Damond Harmon were working with the first team at corner. Harmon made some good plays on the ball and had some good coverage throughout the scrimmage. The former four-star recruit and Oklahoma transfer could be a big impact player for the Flames.
  • The second team corners were Elijah Hopkins and Dexter Ricks.

Safeties

  • To no surprise, Brylan Green, A’Khori Jones, and Christian Bodnar worked with the first team at safety.
  • The second team safeties rotated some, so it was difficult to get a clear read. Eldric Griffin, Elijah Auguste, Tre Lawing, Devin Henderson, and Ronald Moore were all rotating with the second team at times throughout the scrimmage.

Defensive Line

  • CJ Bazile, Markus Clark, Mike Jarvis, and Donovan Dozier were the first team defensive line. Of note, Bryce Dixon did not participate in the scrimmage though he was dressed and in uniform. He just recently returned to practice after missing the spring and early part of camp as he recovered from an injury. He should be good to go by the season opener.
  • Brenton Williams, Eli Hall, Joe Strickland, and Nate Pirolli all worked with the second team defensive line as did Aaron Hester.

Linebacker

  • Joe Carter and Aidan Vaughan were the first team linebackers while Derrell Farrar and Deuce Spurlock were the second team linebackers.

Offense

  • There was really no change to the depth ch art offensive line from what we’ve seen throughout camp. First team was LT Trey Bedosky, LG DJ Geth, C Aaron Fenimore, RG Harrison Hayes, RT Jack Tucker.
  • Caden Williams and Juju Gray were the first two running backs on the field while Vaughn Blue was also prominently featured. Evan Dickens seemed to be the fourth running back, as expected.
  • With Jacob Jenkins continuing to be sidelined with a right knee injury, the tight ends that worked primarily with the first team were Austin Henderson, Caleb Ryan, and Bo Burklow. As we mentioned above, Ryan had a nice catch and run for over 40 yards. He nearly took it the distance.
  • One name that hasn’t been mentioned much during camp and has perhaps been overlooked is that of Darius Copeland. Remember, he was the camp standout last  year and was set to be prominently featured in the offense before going to down to an injury early in the year. He was limited at the beginning of camp, but didn’t seem to have any limitations during Saturday’s scrimmage. He was on the field with both the first and the second team offense, playing primarily at wide receiver but also lining up at running back on occasion.