Liberty College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Liberty Biggest Key: Offense
Score whenever there’s a chance. Liberty didn’t have too many problems putting points up on the board – doing a better job of holding on to the ball, though, is a big deal – but five of its games were decided by six points or fewer, winning five of them. The Flames can’t afford a bunch of missed opportunities, and there were too many of those in the red zone.
Even with a great kicker in Alex Barbir and an attack that knew how to make big things happen, the O failed to come up with points on 13 trips inside the 20. The blowout win over Southern Miss was the only time the team was perfect in the red zone.
Liberty Biggest Key: Defense
It would be nice if there were more tackles for loss. The Flames have no issues getting to the quarterback and applying pressure – they have the ends and the ability from several spots to get behind the line – but they weren’t nearly consistent enough at generating tackles for loss.
That’s a wee bit by design. The run defense was fine, and coming up with third down stops wasn’t an issue, but 24 of the 60 tackles for loss came in three games against a few of the weakest teams on the slate.
Liberty Key Player To A Successful Season
RB Joshua Mack, Sr.
He’s got the resumé, and he’s going to get the carries. Now he needs even more work to help take the heat off of QB Malik Willis and it would be nice if he became even more of a workhorse.
Willis is the team’s most dangerous runner, but Mack was able to hit 100 yards five times when he was able to generate a few big bursts. However, he only ran over 20 times once. Get him into a lather, let Willis be even more of a passer, and the offense should be even more dangerous.
Liberty Key Game To The 2021 Season
at Syracuse, Sept. 24
Campbell, at Troy, Old Dominion. Liberty should be able to start 3-0 without too much of a problem, but if it wants the big attention and to be a big thing, it has to get the job done at Syracuse for the second year in a row.
It rolled the Orange 38-21 last year, becoming the moment when the program arrived on the national scene. Win this, and the date at Ole Miss will be the most dangerous barrier left to an unbeaten year.
2020 Liberty Fun Stats
– 1st Quarter Scoring: Liberty 108 – Opponents 31
– Time of Possession: Liberty 32:57 – Opponents 27:03
– Fumbles: Liberty 18 (lost 9) – Opponents 13 (lost 5)