Ragin' Dave's Liberty Preview
LIBERTY FLAMES PREVIEW
Our last out of conference game, but it is unusually late in the season. There were high expectations for Liberty coming off a very successful 2020 where they won 10 out of their 11 games including a win over #9/11 ranked Covid Carolina in the FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl 37-34 in overtime. There only loss being a 15-14 loss vs NC State late in the season. They also had wins over Virginia Tech and Syracuse during the 2020 season. In 2021, the Fighting Jerry Falwell’s (I know he is not there anymore) started the season 3-0 with victories over Campbell, at Troy and Old Dominion. The then lost a close game vs Syracuse 24-21 at in the Carrier Dome. They then went on the road and got a very good win over UAB and crushed Middle Tennessee at home. At this point in the season, they were 5-1 and still expecting a very good season ahead. They had to go on the road and play an over matched ULM team in a game they expected to win, but low and behold they lost 31-28, they followed that up with a win at UNT and vs UMASS at home. They then went on the road and lost to #15 Ole Miss and now they have us and then Army at home to finish the season. They are currently 7-3 on the year and this would be their biggest win of the season if they could pull it off.
QB—It all starts and finishes with their man behind center in #7 Malik Willis. Willis started his college career at Auburn and then transferred to Liberty. Willis a Redshirt Junior is a true dual threat at QB. He is very good throwing the ball and possibly even better running the ball. Willis at 6’1, 225 lbs. is hard to bring down. On the season Willis has completed about 66% of his passes with 21 TD’s but 9 INT’s. He is averaging close to 216 yards per game through the air, but what makes him even more impressive is his ability to run the ball as well. Willis has 755 yards on 153 carries and leads Liberty in rushing attempts, yards and TD’s. He is averaging 4.9 yards per carry and 76 yards per game after you remove his sack yardage. Willis is widely considered if not the best QB in the draft this year, at least a 1st round draft pick, if he choses to come out this year.
RB—This has been a little bit of a more challenging position for them, they have bounced between 3 different RB’s getting the starting nods during the season but all 3 have played quite a bit. Joshua Mack has played in 9 games starting 5 of them and is probably their best single back. Mack is a transfer from the University of Maine, he has 100 carries for 413 yards and 3 TD’s. Behind him is TJ Green who has played in 10 games starting 2 of them and has carried the ball 61 times for 329 yards and 3 TD’s and finally Louis Shedro who has played in 10 games started the other 2 games with 63 for 358 yards and 4 TDs. Green is a Redshirt Junior transfer from Utah. The combination of all three of these guys with Malik Willis running the ball makes for a dangerous combination. Lewis of all the backs is a little more of the shifty elusive back at 5’8 170, while both Green and Mack are closer to 6’0 205 range. Shedro is the only real threat out of the backfield receiving the ball. He does have 13 catches for 126 yards and 2 TDs on the season from there. Neither Green nor Mack are much of threats as they have combined for only 7 catches and no TD’s and only 56 yards.
WR/TE—Willis likes to spread the ball around quite a bit, he has 7 guys with double digit catches, but the main guy is Demario Douglas. Douglas is a 5’8 Redshirt freshman with 42 catches 618 yards and 5 TD’s. Behind him is CJ Daniels who has 27 catches for 463 yards and 7 TD’s. Daniels is 6’2 Redshirt Freshman. And then there is 5’10 Redshirt Senior Kevin Shaa who has 18 catches for 274 yards and 3 TD’s. A few other guys to keep an eye on are DJ Stubbs and Noah Frith who both have more than 10 receptions on the season. They do utilize their TE a little bit with two guys with catches, but the main threat from that position is Johnny Huntley, who has 11 catches for 119 yards and 1 TD. Huntley is a Senior transfer from the University of Colorado.
OL—Liberty has a big strong and experienced offensive line. At Center is Senior Thomas Sargeant a 6’1 290 lb. Senior, at RG is Brendan Schlittler a 6’5” 315 lb. Sophomore, at LG is Jacob Bodden a 6’5” 315 lb. Sophomore, at RT is Cooper McCaw a 6’5 305 lb. Junior and finally at LT is Tristan Schultz a 6’4” 305 lb. Senior. Except for Bodden all these guys have plenty of starts under their belts coming into the season. LT Schultz and RG Schlittler are probably their best offensive linemean, but they are all big, experienced, and strong.
Offense—Balance is the key for Liberty, they are dangerous on the ground and through the air. They are averaging around 35 points per game on offense and 447 yards per game. Of those yards 196 of them are on the ground while 251 of them come through the air. They are good at 3rd and 4th down conversions with a conversion rate of 46% on 3rd down and 50% on 4th down. One of their weaknesses is that they do give up a few sacks, they have given up 38 on the season which roughly 4 per game. They are good in the redzone as well, they are converting 71% of their RZ conversions into TD’s.
DL—The Flames will bounce from a 3-4 to 4-3 and at times play an extra Safety as a hybrid. They are kind of all over the board with their line ups to confuse the offenses they play against. Up front in the middle is Elijah James and Ralfs Rusins. James is 5th on the team in tackles, with 38, but does also have 5 TFL and 2 Sacks on the year. Rusins is 8th on the team in tackles with 29 tackles 6 TFL and 3 sacks. They are good in the middle with TreShaun Clark with 30 tackles 8.5 TFL and 2.5 sacks and Askil Washington with 23 tackels 4.5 TFL and 3.5 sacks. This group makes up 11 of their 28 sacks on the year. The Flames don’t have a lot of sacks on the year but are very good at getting TFL as they have a total of 81 on the year (about 8 per game) and many of those come from the front 4.
LB—At LB their best player and potentially their best on the team is Storey Jackson, a transfer from Prairie View A&M. He leads the team in tackles with 76 including 9.5 TFL and 5 sacks. Rashaad Harding is a good one as well, he is a grad transfer from ULM who is 3rd on the team in tackles with 51 including 7 TFL and 3 sacks. Freshman Ahmad Walker is another solid player for them as well with this group as he is 6th on the team in tackles off the bench.
DB—They have 3 transfers in the defensive backfield, with Chris Megginson being the only non-transfer at CB. On the other side is Duron Lowe a Redshirt Senior transfer from UTEP. At Safety is Skyler Thomas a Grad transfer from Washington State and Cedric Stone a Grad transfer from Georgia State. They other safety that plays the hybrid position is Javon Scruggs and he is a good one, Scruggs is a Junior Rover that is 2nd on the team in tackles.
Defense—This is a stout defensive unit, as they are only giving up 18.7 points per game and 316.6 yards per game. Of that they only give up 134 through the air and 182 on the ground. They do not have a bunch of sacks, only 28 on the season, but they do have a ton of TFL on this team. They also do not recover many fumbles as they only have 2 recovered fumbles on the season to go with 8 INT’s. They are -4 in the takeaway department as they have 10 takeaways but have turned it over 14 times. They are good at not giving up 3rd down conversions as teams are only 33% on third downs vs them. And they don’t give up a lot of TDs in the redzone either as teams have only converted 54% of their redzone appearances into TD’s.
ST—They are all over the board at Punter as they have used 2 different guys, Max Morgan and Aidan Alves have both punted for them, Morgan has 23 punts and Alves has 15. Morgan is averaging about 43 yards per kick and Alves is averaging about 41.5. On Kickoffs the same thing, as Alex Barbir is their main guy with 45 KO’s and Jason Stricker has 17. Stricker seems to have taken over the job though. He has 17 kickoffs with 13 Touchbacks and 1 out of bounds. They have struggled allot with FG’s. As Alex Barbir and Brayden beck has been their guys, it appears that Beck is the current kicker but over all they are 3 of 7 with a long of between 38 yards. Their main guy on punt returns is Demairo Douglas who is their best WR. He has 19 returns for 144 yards a 7.6-yard average including a 72 yards TD return. On KO returns it is Shedro Louis one of their RB’s. He has 15 returns for 305, a 20.3-yard average, but does have a 53-yard return as well.
Coaching—Hugh Freeze is their HC. We should be familiar with Hugh Freeze as he was the coach at Arkansas State for 1 year and we have faced this Liberty team with Freeze as the coach, even though he was not on the sideline for that game. Freeze coached at Ole Mis for 4 seasons and was out of football for a couple of years with some personal issues. Liberty hired him in 2019 and he has been the coach ever since.
This is going to be another fight in the trenches, this team on defense reminds you allot of Troy, but on offense they are much more dynamic at the QB position, but maybe not as good at the RB position. This is going to be a tough game on the road, but if the Cajuns can play like they did and keep Willis in somewhat check in this game, UL can pull out another victory.
Geaux Cajuns!!!!!!
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Re: Ragin' Dave's Liberty Preview
Originally Posted by Turbine
