Liberty was two weeks into spring practice when the cancellations of all major athletic events began. Under second year head coach Hugh Freeze, the Flames got five practices in before breaking for spring break and not resuming. The Flames missed out on 10 valuable practices as the team looks to replace several key contributors from a 2019 team that went 8-5 and advanced to and won the program’s first ever bowl game.
There were three positions where Freeze had the most questions, the most unknowns – quarterback, linebacker, and safety.
“Every group needed reps, but quarterback, linebacker, and safety we really needed to find out,” said Freeze. “We had some safeties here that just got here mid-year, that we were trying to find out about, actually had one more coming in after spring break enrolled in D-term.”
Those safeties he’s referring to include JUCO transfers Juawan Treadwell and Marcus Haskins, true freshman Jerome Jolly, and N.C. State transfer Tim Kidd-Glass. It’s expected that group of newcomers will make up much of the depth at safety, and the extra practice time would have been crucial.
We’ve touched on the situation at linebacker early in spring ball, but Liberty will be relying on several unproven pieces to fill in for Solomon Ajayi and Brandon Tillmon.
At quarterback, Liberty is looking to replace four year starter Buckshot Calvert, and the top three quarterbacks all have various hurdles to overcome as they compete for the job.
Malik Willis is still learning a new offense after he transferred from Auburn a year ago. Johnathan Bennett is overcoming a serious knee injury he suffered during the 2019 season. Chris Ferguson is learning a new offense and a new group of teammates after joining the program for the spring from Maine. He’s also fighting back from an injury suffered last season.
“I thought Malik was getting better from practice to practice, but he’s got some improving to do on his accuracy,” Freeze said. “He’s a heck of an athlete. Chris Ferguson – learning the system. JB is back from an injury. He really needed these (reps) at quarterback.”
The Flames aren’t alone. Every program in America either had spring practice cut short or lost altogether. Freeze is confident he will be able to have his team prepared when they are able to reconvene.
“Look, every program is that way,” said Freeze. “I’m not saying we’re at some disadvantage. Whenever it starts back, whenever that is, we’ll all be on equal footing. We’ll have to coach them up.”
