2018 Liberty Flames football team

2018 NCAA Division I FBS independents football records
	Rankings from AP Poll

Liberty Flames football
2018 Liberty Flames football
Conference	Independent
2018 record	6–6
Head coach	Turner Gill (7th season);
Offensive coordinator	Joe Dailey
Co-defensive coordinator	Robert Wimberly
Co-defensive coordinator	Vantz Singletary
Home stadium	Williams Stadium; (Capacity: 25,000)

The 2018 Liberty Flames football team represented Liberty University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They were led by seventh-year head coach Turner Gill and played their home games at Williams Stadium. This was the Flames first year as a member of the FBS. Playing as an independent, they finished the season 6–6. As part of their transition to FBS, since they won six games, Liberty would have been allowed to apply for bowl eligibility had there not been enough teams with non-losing records to fill the available bowl games, but there were already four more teams than could be accommodated.

On December 3, head coach Turner Gill retired.[1] He finished at Liberty with a seven-year record of 47–35. On December 7, Liberty hired former Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze for the job.[2]

Previous season

In their final season in the FCS as a member of the Big South Conference, the Flames finished the 2017 season 6–5, 2–3 in Big South play to finish in fourth place.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	6:00 p.m.	Old Dominion	Williams Stadium Lynchburg, VA	ESPN3	W 52–10	20,425
September 8	12:00 p.m.	at Army	Michie Stadium West Point, NY	CBSSN	L 14–38	25,133
September 22	6:00 p.m.	North Texas	Williams Stadium Lynchburg, VA	ESPN3	L 7–47	14,112
September 29	6:00 p.m.	at New Mexico	Dreamstyle Stadium Albuquerque, NM		W 52–43	18,804
October 6	8:00 p.m.	at New Mexico State	Aggie Memorial Stadium Las Cruces, NM	Aggie Vision	L 41–49	8,337
October 13	2:00 p.m.	Troy	Williams Stadium Lynchburg, VA	ESPN3	W 22–16	17,389
October 20	2:00 p.m.	Idaho State	Williams Stadium Lynchburg, VA	ESPN3	W 48–41	16,502
November 3	3:30 p.m.	at UMass	McGuirk Stadium Hadley, MA	ELVN	L 59–62 ^3OT	10,338
November 10	3:00 p.m.	at Virginia	Scott Stadium Charlottesville, VA	ACCRSN	L 24–45	41,485
November 17	4:00 p.m.	at Auburn	Jordan–Hare Stadium Auburn, AL	SECN Alternate	L 0–53	81,129
November 24	2:00 p.m.	New Mexico State	Williams Stadium Lynchburg, VA	ESPN3	W 28–21	16,022
December 1[lower-alpha 1]	2:00 p.m.	Norfolk State	Williams Stadium Lynchburg, VA	ESPN3	W 52–17	13,243
Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Game originally scheduled for September 15, but moved in anticipation of Hurricane Florence.

Sources:[3][4][5]

Game summaries

Old Dominion

	1	2	3	4	Total
Monarchs	3	7	0	0	10
Flames	14	0	10	28	52

at Army

	1	2	3	4	Total
Flames	0	0	14	0	14
Black Knights	14	3	7	14	38

[6]

North Texas

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mean Green	14	7	6	20	47
Flames	0	7	0	0	7

at New Mexico

	1	2	3	4	Total
Flames	21	21	0	10	52
Lobos	7	3	13	20	43

at New Mexico State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Flames	7	7	14	13	41
Aggies	7	14	14	14	49

Troy

	1	2	3	4	Total
Trojans	7	3	3	3	16
Flames	0	14	0	8	22

Idaho State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bengals	0	17	14	10	41
Flames	7	13	14	14	48

at UMass

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	3OT	Total
Flames	14	10	0	21	7	7	0	59
Minutemen	14	10	7	14	7	7	3	62

at Virginia

	1	2	3	4	Total
Flames	7	10	7	0	24
Cavaliers	14	10	14	7	45

at Auburn

	1	2	3	4	Total
Flames	0	0	0	0	0
Tigers	15	17	21	0	53

New Mexico State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Aggies	14	0	0	7	21
Flames	17	11	0	0	28

Norfolk State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Spartans	3	7	0	7	17
Flames	10	28	7	7	52

This game was originally scheduled for September 15, but it was rescheduled due to Hurricane Florence. On December 4, 2018, Turner Gill announced that he would retire immediately.[7] On December 7, Hugh Freeze was tabbed to be the next head coach of the Liberty Flames football team.[8]

References

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/12/03/turner-gill-retiring-after-coaching-liberty-for-7-seasons/38667315/
Caron, Emily (December 7, 2018). "Liberty Hires Hugh Freeze". SI.com.
"2018 Liberty Flames Football Schedule". FB Schedules.
"2018 Season Football Schedule". Liberty Flames Athletics.
Walls, Dave. "Liberty dethrones Old Dominion, 52-10, for first FBS win". WSET. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
"Liberty vs. Army - Game Summary - September 8, 2018". ESPN. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
"Turner Gill Retiring". ESPN.
"Hugh Freeze Hiring". Lynchburg News.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[3] Game originally scheduled for September 15, but moved in anticipation of Hurricane Florence.

[1] ttps://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/12/03/turner-gill-retiring-after-coaching-liberty-for-7-seasons/38667315/

[2] Caron, Emily (December 7, 2018). "Liberty Hires Hugh Freeze". SI.com.

[4] "2018 Liberty Flames Football Schedule". FB Schedules.

[5] "2018 Season Football Schedule". Liberty Flames Athletics.

[6] Walls, Dave. "Liberty dethrones Old Dominion, 52-10, for first FBS win". WSET. Retrieved 2018-09-02.

[7] "Liberty vs. Army - Game Summary - September 8, 2018". ESPN. Retrieved 8 September 2018.

[8] "Turner Gill Retiring". ESPN.

[9] "Hugh Freeze Hiring". Lynchburg News.

Liberty Flames football
Venues	Lynchburg City Stadium Williams Stadium (1989–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Coastal Carolina
Culture & lore	Sparky "Fan the Flames!" Spirit of the Mountain
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

2018 NCAA Division I FBS independents football records
	Conf				Overall
Team		W		L		W		L
No. 5 Notre Dame ^			–			12	–	1
No. 19 Army			–			11	–	2
BYU			–			7	–	6
Liberty			–			6	–	6
UMass			–			4	–	8
New Mexico State			–			3	–	9

Rankings from AP Poll