The Liberty football program continues to rise to heights never seen before and is riding a huge wave of positive momentum, as the LU Athletic Department’s motto of #RiseWithUs seems perfect.
Over the past year, the Flames have won 11 out of 14 games, including the program’s first ever bowl trip with a win over Georgia Southern in the 2019 Cure Bowl. Liberty rode that momentum into the program’s first ever top 100 national recruiting class which was finalized in February.
As the 2020 season has begun, the positive momentum has continued, if not increased. The Flames are riding a five game winning streak, following a 3-0 start to the season, which included a win over Western Kentucky, who was a 15 point favorite, on ESPNU. The national TV broadcast liked what they saw, apparently, as the Flames have been picked up two additional times by the station in the season’s opening four weeks, as LU was on ESPNU again for the Florida International game and will be again this Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe.
“Certainly, we love the fact that we’re going to be on national TV again this Saturday,” Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze said. “I think those are great opportunities, and all that does is give you exposure. Now, you need to play well when you get those opportunities. Hopefully we will. I don’t know that last year that if ESPN had a slot opening that we would have been chosen for that slot. I think we’re taking strides in the right direction.”
Following Liberty’s win this past weekend over North Alabama, the Flames received the program’s first ever vote for an FBS Top 25 poll in school history, as Liberty received one vote in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week.
“That’s certainly something that people will look at and give you some recognition,” Freeze said of the Top 25 vote. “It can be short lived, I know that, so I think of it as fake news kinda right now or rat poison, that’s what I told our kids (Monday) morning, if it’s not handled the right way. There’s no doubt that’s a positive. I love doing things that you’re first at, if that truly is the first that we’ve gotten votes for Top 25, that’s an accomplishment. One that hopefully we can capitalize on and make us hungry to stay in those discussions.”
Of course, the coaching staff and team can’t get ahead of themselves, but there are some huge opportunities on the horizon. Obviously, it all begins this weekend against Louisiana-Monroe, where the Flames are currently 19.5 point favorites. With a win Saturday, Liberty will have its first 4-0 start to a season since 2008 and be the program’s 6th consecutive win, which would be the longest winning streak of the FBS era.
“Our schedule is getting ready to get very difficult, not that it hasn’t been difficult,” said Freeze. “I work for a great administration but I tell them all the time, if coaches’ scheduled, we would do things differently a little bit. Our schedule’s getting ready to get very difficult. We will find out if we deserve to be in those discussions for real.”
After this weekend’s game against ULM, the Flames will head to New York to take on Syracuse, the first of three scheduled games this season against an ACC opponent. Then, Liberty returns home for a date with Southern Miss before a bye week as we head into November.
“My goal is to focus solely on this one and hopefully they follow suit to give our best effort on Saturday,” Freeze said. “”(We will) see where we are after Saturday.”
If his team is 4-0 after Saturday, Liberty will have a gigantic opportunity to grab some national headlines against Syracuse next week.
