Liberty Flames football

Liberty Flames football
2024 Liberty Flames football team
First season	1973; 51 years ago
Athletic director	Ian McCaw
Head coach	Jamey Chadwell 2nd season, 21–4 (.840)
Stadium	Williams Stadium (capacity: 25,000)
Field surface	FieldTurf
Location	Lynchburg, Virginia
NCAA division	Division I FBS
Conference	Conference USA
All-time record	307–258–4 (.543)
Bowl record	3–2 (.600)
Conference titles	9
Rivalries	Coastal Carolina (rivalry)
Colors	Red, white, and blue
Fight song	Fan the Flames!
Mascot	Sparky
Marching band	The Spirit of the Mountain
Website	Liberty.edu

The Liberty Flames football program represents Liberty University, a private Christian university located in Lynchburg, Virginia, in college football. The Flames compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of Conference USA. The program, which previously competed in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), announced it would start a transition to the top level of NCAA football in July 2017. The Flames became a provisional FBS member in 2018, and became a full FBS member with bowl eligibility in 2019. In 2020, Liberty entered the rankings in the AP Poll at 25 for the first time in program history.

In 2021, Liberty University announced the Flames would become full members of Conference USA effective for the 2023 football season.

History

See also: List of Liberty Flames football seasons

Liberty Flames football in 2007

In 1971, Jerry Falwell and Elmer L. Towns established a private Christian school in Lynchburg Baptist College. Falwell stated a plan to “have our athletic program comparable to USC, to Notre Dame, to Alabama, to anybody in time,”, with the football team beginning play in 1973. They played in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics until 1980 before moving onto NCAA Division II for seven years. They played in Division I-AA from 1988 to 2017. Fred Banks was the first Liberty player to be drafted in the NFL in 1985. The Flames had their practice facility on Treasure Island near Riverside Park until the flood of November 6, 1985, which devastated the facility. They moved their football operations to campus and, in 1989, to the newly constructed Williams Stadium there.

Danny Rocco era (2006–2011)

In 2007, the Flames captured their first Big South Conference Football championship with a 31–0 victory over Gardner-Webb. The Flames capped off their second year under head coach Danny Rocco with an 8–3 record and an unblemished 4–0 Big South record to claim the title.

Liberty ran its unbeaten Big South streak to 11-straight games, finishing back-to-back conference championship seasons with a 30–10 victory over Gardner-Webb. The Flames finished with a 10–2 record on the year and finished the conference slate unbeaten at 5–0. The Flames to become the first team in Big South history to win five conference games in a season and joined Gardner-Webb as the only two teams to post consecutive unbeaten seasons. Liberty finished ranked 15th in the FCS Coaches Poll and 14th in the Sports Network Poll.

Undefeated in Big South play for 2009, the Flames just needed to capture a win over Stony Brook in the season finale to secure a 3rd straight Big South Conference Championship. Stony Brook who had only lost one game in Big South play (a 30–27 overtime loss to Charleston Southern the previous week) for 2009 could claim half of the Big South Championship with a win over Liberty. The Seawolves won the game 36–33 to share the 2009 Big South Championship with the Flames.

Liberty again became conference co-champions again in 2010. Coastal beat Liberty for the first time since 2006 then the Flames bounced back the next week to secure a win over Stony Brook and a share of the conference championship (three-way tie with Coastal Carolina and Stony Brook).

After the 2011 season, Rocco left Liberty for the head coaching job at Richmond.

Turner Gill era (2012–2018)

Liberty became the conference co-champion for the third time in 2012. After starting off 2–0 in conference play, Liberty traveled to Coastal Carolina, where they lost to the Chanticleers 36–12, bringing their overall record to 3–5. Liberty would then play then ninth ranked Stony Brook, beating them 28–14, also extending their at home conference win streak which dates back to 2006. In order to win a share at the Big South title, they would have to beat the Virginia Military Institute Keydets. Liberty won the game 33–14, and won a share of the title along with Stony Brook and Coastal Carolina with a record of 6–5 (5–1 in conference play).

The 2013 Flames shared the conference championship for a second consecutive year in 2013. Liberty opened up conference play at home against Coastal Carolina, where they let a 19-point lead slip away in the second half as the Chanticleers rallied to win in double overtime, 55–52. The Flames would rebound with a shutout victory at Gardner-Webb to mark the first shutout in Turner Gill's eight seasons as a head coach. After victories at home over VMI and Presbyterian, the Flames captured a share of the Big South title with a 56–14 victory at Charleston Southern who has previously beaten Coastal Carolina. Liberty shared the title with Coastal Carolina, each with identical 4–1 conference marks, though Coastal Carolina received the automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.

Liberty became the conference co-champion for the third consecutive year in 2014. Liberty started Big South Conference play against Gardner-Webb with a 34–0 shutout victory. After three consecutive conference victories, the Flames fell at home to Charleston Southern, 38–36. The loss to Charleston Southern would be Liberty's only loss in Big South play. The Flames rebounded with a 15–14 win over rival Coastal Carolina (ranked No. 1 in the FCS polls at the time), and Liberty clinched a share of the Big South Conference championship. Liberty also earned its first ever FCS playoff berth in school history. Liberty defeated James Madison in the first round of the playoffs, 26–21, before losing to Villanova in the second round, 29–22.

Liberty earned a conference co-championship again in 2016, marking their eighth conference championship. They finished the season 6–5, 4–1 in Big South play to share the conference championship with Charleston Southern. Despite the conference title, the Flames were not invited to the FCS playoffs.

Citing the need to care for his wife, Gill announced his retirement from coaching after the 2018 season.

Hugh Freeze era (2019–2022)

Seventeen months after resigning from Ole Miss Rebels football, Hugh Freeze was named as Liberty's ninth head coach on December 7, 2018. For the 2019 season, the Liberty Flames would finish 8–5. They would make and win their first bowl game as an FBS program. In 2020, after a 6–0 start, Liberty made it in the AP Top 25 Poll for the first time in their program history, making it at No. 25. Liberty would go on to finish 10–1 in 2020 and finish the season ranked 17th in the AP Top 25 Poll. Freeze departed Liberty on November 28, 2022, to be the head coach at Auburn University after a few weeks of negotiations, discussions, and rumors.

Jamey Chadwell era (2022–present)

In Jamey Chadwell's first season as the Flames' head coach, he led Liberty to an undefeated regular season and a Conference USA Championship over New Mexico State in Liberty's first season in Conference USA. Following the Championship win, Liberty got the Group of Five New Year's Six Bowl Bid. On January 1, 2024, the Flames lost 45-6 to the Oregon Ducks in the Fiesta Bowl, their first major bowl appearance in school history.

Conference affiliations

• No classification (1973–1975)
• NAIA Division I independent (1976–1983)
• NCAA Division II independent (1984–1987)
• NCAA Division I-AA independent (1988–2001)
• Big South Conference (2002–2017)
• NCAA Division I FBS independent (2018–2022)
• Conference USA (2023–present)

Conference championships

Liberty has won nine conference championships: eight in the Big South Conference (two outright and six shared) and one in Conference USA.

Season	Conference	Coach	Overall record	Conference record
2007	Big South Conference	Danny Rocco	8–3	4–0
2008			10–2	5–0
2009†			8–3	5–1
2010†			8–3	5–1
2012†		Turner Gill	6–5	5–1
2013†			8–4	4–1
2014†			9–5	4–1
2016†			6–5	4–1
2023	Conference USA	Jamey Chadwell	13–1	8–0

† Co-championship

Rivalries

Coastal Carolina

Main article: Coastal Carolina–Liberty football rivalry

Liberty maintains a football rivalry with Coastal Carolina which began in 2003. The teams played every year from 2003 to 2016 and met in the 2020 Cure Bowl. The Flames have more wins in the rivalry, having won 8 out of 15 games.

Bowl games

Liberty has participated in five bowl games since joining FBS in 2018, going 3–2.

Season	Coach	Bowl	Opponent	Result
2019	Hugh Freeze	Cure Bowl	Georgia Southern	W 23–16
2020	Hugh Freeze	Cure Bowl	Coastal Carolina	W 37–34 OT
2021	Hugh Freeze	LendingTree Bowl	Eastern Michigan	W 56–20
2022	Josh Aldridge	Boca Raton Bowl	Toledo	L 19–21
2023	Jamey Chadwell	Fiesta Bowl †	Oregon	L 6–45
2024	Jamey Chadwell	Bahamas Bowl	Buffalo	TBD

† New Year's Six bowl game

Playoff appearances

Liberty made one appearance in the I-AA/FCS playoffs between 1989 and 2017, going 1–1.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
2014	First Round Second Round	James Madison Villanova	W 26–21 L 22–29

Head coaches

Liberty has had ten head coaches in program history, not including interim coaches.

No.	Tenure	Coach	Record	Pct.
1	1973	Lee Royer	3–3	.500
2	1974–1976	John Cartwright	14–13–1	.518
3	1977–1983	Tom Dowling	33–38–2	.466
4	1984–1988	Morgan Hout	20–29–1	.410
5	1989–1999	Sam Rutigliano	67–53	.558
6	2000–2005	Ken Karcher	21–46	.313
7	2006–2011	Danny Rocco	47–20	.701
8	2012–2018	Turner Gill	47–35	.573
9	2019–2022	Hugh Freeze	34–15	.694
10	2023–present	Jamey Chadwell	21-3	.875

Facilities

Liberty plays its home games at Williams Stadium which has a capacity of 25,000.

Retired numbers

Liberty has retired five jerseys in school history. The first was Jerry Falwell, who had founded the university in 1971. As such, a "71" jersey was hung over the press box suite, with the number being retired across all Liberty sports teams. The most recent jersey retired was Rashad Jennings in 2020.

No.	Player	Position	Years at Liberty
23	Rashad Jennings	RB	2006–2008
71	Jerry Falwell	-	-
83	Kelvin Edwards	WR	1982–1985
86	Eric Green	TE	1985–1989
HC	Sam Rutigliano	Head coach	1989–2000

Notable former players

• Walt Aikens (CB), former professional football player for the Miami Dolphins.
• Mike Brown (WR), University of Wisconsin Associate Head Coach and Wide Receivers Coach.
• Dwayne Carswell (TE), former professional football player for the Denver Broncos.
• Demario Douglas (WR), 6th Round selection for the New England Patriots in the 2023 NFL draft.
• Samkon Gado (RB), former professional football player for the Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and St. Louis Rams.
• Antonio Gandy-Golden (WR), former professional football player for the Washington Football Team.
• Eric Green (TE), former professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets.
• Wayne Haddix (CB), former professional football player for the New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cincinnati Bengals.
• Rashad Jennings (RB), former professional football player for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and New York Giants
• James McKnight (WR), former professional football player for the Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins.
• Malik Willis (QB), 3rd Round selection for the Tennessee Titans in the 2022 NFL draft who in 2024 was traded to the Green Bay Packers

Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of August 8, 2024.

2025	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034
Maine	at James Madison	at Virginia Tech	at Virginia Tech	at Virginia Tech	Virginia Tech	at James Madison	James Madison	at James Madison	James Madison
at Bowling Green	Ball State	at Coastal Carolina	VMI	East Tennessee State	Ball State	Appalachian State		Old Dominion
James Madison		UConn	Coastal Carolina	at East Carolina	at Coastal Carolina	at Ball State
at Old Dominion				Coastal Carolina

External links

• Official website