Liberty Flames 2022 College Football Preview
June 21, 2022
2021 Recap
Record – 8-5
ATS – 7-6
The Flames followed up their fine 10-1 mark during the 2020 SCAMDEMIC season with an 8-win campaign in 2021. They were 7-2 at one point but dropped their final three regular season games by a combined score of 100-44. The Flames ended the year on a strong note by CREMATING Eastern Michigan in the Lending Tree Bowl (W 56-20).
Liberty Flames 2022 Outlook
OFFENSE
Gotta deal with ELEPHANT in the room, yo. How will the Flames deal with the departure of superstar QB Malik Willis? It won’t be easy as the current member of the Tennessee Titans threw 27 TD passes LY whilst rushing for 878 yards and 13 TDs in his spare time. Enter the ageless Charlie Brewer who’s a veteran signal caller that’s played a lot of Power 5 football and booked a pair of 3,000-yard seasons with Baylor. They’ll obviously miss the devastating running ability of Willis but get a much more polished master of the THROW GAME. The WR group looks great with the return of their top-two WRs in Demario Douglas and CJ Daniels (combined 1,330 yards, 13 TD) and the addition of 1000-yard man Caleb Snead from FCS Campbell. They add the impossibly-elusive Dae Dae Hunter from Hawaii at RB to a deep looking group and that pretty much guarantees they’ll be SCORING the FOOTBALL on the regular. Three starters return to an OL that gave up 52 (!), yup FITTTY TWO sacks a season ago (2nd last FBS, Akron) and that’s our only concern with the offense. Hopefully, the transfers added during the offseason will help the situation.
DEFENSE
The Flames have been really good on D the L2Y allowing 21.5 (#24 FBS) and 20.5 PPG and recall that last season they had a strong pass rush (37 sacks). Liberty’s new co-DCs have some work to do as they need to replace four of their top-five tacklers and they only return four starters overall to the stop unit. The DL looks to be in good shape as they’re set at DE and they add a pair of 300-pounders from Auburn (!) at DT. Liberty only returns a pair of starters in the back seven and it’ll be up to the small handful of transfers to solidify the defense. We always love to see a talented DL as that can help mask weaknesses in the other two levels of the defense. Let’s call for a small step backwards in most of the key defensive metrics.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There’s continuity across the board and they should be better in the FG department with Brayden Beck handling the duties for the entire season (4-5 FG LY, Alex Barbir was 1-4).
Schedule Analysis
Overall – It’s an interesting combination of facing TOMATO CANS (Akron, UMass, Gardner-Webb, etc.) and some TOUGH HOMBRES (BYU, Hokies, Hogs, Wake Forest). They get their final two games and home and Hugh Freeze is 15-3 SU in Lynchburg.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – November 12th – at Connecticut
The FIGHTING JIM MORAS won’t be as horrible as LY and note that this game falls after tough contests with BYU and Arkansas.
Season Win Total
per BetOnline June 21
Over 7 -140
Under 7 +110
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Over
The Flames have seven REALLY winnable games. If they upset Virginia Tech or Wake Forest this one is an 89,000 STAR FAUCI IN A NOOSE POWER LOCK.
MEGAmazing Tidbit
The Flames boast a fine 26-11 record in three years of FBS play and have ended each of those seasons by winning a bowl game (Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Eastern Michigan).
MEGALOCKS Outlook:
The offense looks loaded and Liberty should be able to navigate 2022 effectively even without Mailk Willis under center. The defense is a bit of concern but the DL looks fine and Hugh Freeze can really COACH EM UP. We’ll call for eight wins and another (yawn) bowl bid.
Let’s go!
Want more Liberty Flames football ?
WEBSITE
https://www.liberty.edu/flames/football/
FORUM
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NEWS
https://newsadvance.com/sports/college/liberty_university/
http://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/2335/liberty-flames