11/23/2020 football Edit

Hugh Freeze says NC State is the most athletic team Liberty has played

Justin H. Williams • TheWolfpackCentral

Staff Writer

Liberty suffered its first loss of the 2020 season after being defeated by NC State, 15-14, in Carter-Finley Stadium Saturday.

The Flames (8-1) had opportunities down the stretch to remain undefeated against the Wolfpack (6-3 overall, 5-3 ACC), but head coach Hugh Freeze admitted that NC State ultimately made more plays at the end.

"They are by far the most athletic team that we have played," Freeze said "They’re healthy: they got all their kids back. Number one, that middle linebacker, is a first-rounder. He gave us fits all night. I don’t know if we blocked him all night. They were very athletic at every position. The gaps on Malik closed extremely fast."

Liberty football Hugh Freeze — Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze is now 0-1 against NC State during his time with the Flames. (Ethan Hyman, The News & Observer)

The No. 1 he was referring to was Wolfpack redshirt junior linebacker and team captain Isaiah Moore, who led the Pack with 13 tackles and caused a safety late in the third quarter that shrunk Liberty's second-half lead to five points.

Freeze also referenced Liberty quarterback Malik Willis, an Auburn transfer that has been one of the best college quarterbacks in the country this season. Willis entered the contest averaging over 230 passing yards and 100 rushing yards per game. He had also thrown 15 touchdown passes with just one interception prior to Saturday.

But against the Wolfpack, Willis struggled. He completed 13 of 32 passes for 172 yards, two touchdowns with three interceptions. He was also held to just 44 rushing yards on 15 attempts.

"His fundamentals were a little jittery, throwing off his back foot some tonight," Freeze said. "He hasn’t really experienced this type of pressure. He’s hurting. I’m hurting because I don’t feel like I helped him enough.

"But we went toe to toe with a team in the ACC that I think is one of the top three or four most talented teams in that group and had a chance to win it. I’m proud of them for that, but it does sting.”

The previously undefeated Flames had an opportunity to take a fourth-quarter lead late in the contest.

Liberty faced a fourth-and-five situation with 1:24 remaining from the NC State 24-yard line and elected to attempt a 39-yard field goal that would have given it a two-point lead, but Wolfpack redshirt junior linebacker Vi Jones blocked the kick.

The Flames turned the ball over on downs, and NC State was able to run out the clock to seal the game.

"We talked about it on the headsets and felt like he earned that right," Freeze said. "Maybe we should have been more aggressive, but we gave ourselves a chance to win it there with him. I have to see the film to see exactly what happened, but the kick looked really low.

"Obviously, we are disappointed. We felt like our kids played their guts out as hard as they could for us."

Liberty averaged 490.9 yards of total offense per game entering the contest, which ranked No. 18 among FBS teams, but was held to 279 yards Saturday.

The Flames also had the 12th best run offense in the country. They averaged 254.5 rushing yards per game and ran for 293.5 yards in two ACC wins over Virginia Tech and Syracuse this season, but NC State held them to just 107 yards on the ground.

Under Freeze, Liberty is 12-0 in games in which it outrushes its opponent. However, the Flames weren't able to outpace NC State, which ran for 167 yards.

"We couldn’t run the football," Freeze said. "When you can’t do that, the defense has a big-time advantage. We couldn’t find a way to run it. It made it very, very difficult on us tonight. Give credit to them. It is hard to feel like you had a good plan when you can't find a way to run to where you can control more of the game.”