What if Liberty had made that kick against NC State?
Imagine Hugh Freeze going undefeated. It almost happened.
Saturday night’s tremendous Liberty-Coastal Carolina game gives us an opportunity to look back on two seasons that really exemplify the weirdness of the 2020 season.
Let’s start with Coastal Carolina. If Alabama’s philosophy is Joyless Murderball, the Chanticleers played whatever the opposite of that is. Not that they didn’t crush some folks: The season started with a 38-23 win over Kansas that was not as close as that score indicates. The Chants were up 28-3 at the half. That win capped a day when a trio of Sun Belt teams beat Big XII teams, and it was arguably the least interesting of the three. Nobody expected Kansas to be good, and nobody knew who Coastal Carolina was. Louisiana beating Iowa State? That was a big deal? Arkansas State beating Kansas State was a fun one. We’d learn.
Coastal took care of business against Campbell and Arkansas State, then traveled to Lafayette for what effectively became the Sun Belt Championship Game, although we didn’t know it at the time in mid-October. When I say this was an evenly matched game, I’m not kidding: The teams matched each other score for score in each quarter until the end, when Coastal sealed it with a 40-yard field goal.
They followed up that game with a big win over Georgia Southern without starting quarterback Grayson McCall. Two touchdowns in the fourth quarter kept the record perfect. Georgia State and South Alabama posed little threat, and the Chants again used a strong second half to hold off Appalachian State. An easy win over Texas State cleared the way to the Game of the Year.
What Coastal Carolina did to BYU was unbelievable. They held an explosive offense in check and ate up the clock with a churning offense that moved a few yards at a time. Tremendous game. Huge win. Play it every year.
Troy, in a game rescheduled from earlier in the year, gave the Chants a fight but McCall found Jaivon Heiligh with less than a minute left to seal an unbeaten regular season. Two big wins in nonconference play and a sweep of tough conference opponents. That’s one way to build a schedule.
The other way is how Liberty did it. The Flames played everybody they could get to sign a contract. That includes three ACC teams that probably hoped they were getting easy wins. They didn’t.
The Flames started off with close wins over Western Kentucky and Florida International, not exactly wins that indicated this team might be a big deal. Same with blowouts over North Alabama and Louisiana-Monroe. But a blowout win over Syracuse turned some heads. By late October, people were looking at the rest of the schedule and trying to see when they might lose. It wasn’t to Southern Miss, who they beat by three touchdowns.
Surely that loss would come at Virginia Tech. But the Flames kept it close. If you’re a team like Virginia Tech and you let a team like Liberty hang around, you’re putting the fate of the game in forces outside your control. And Virginia Tech made a few mistakes late, allowing Liberty to win it with a 51-yard field goal as time expired. Liberty was 7-0 and it was getting weird.
After a decent practice against Western Carolina, they traveled to NC State. Unlike the previous games, when quarterback Malik Willis could have his way with defenses. This time, it was a struggle. Willis threw three picks, completed less than half of his passes, rushed for just 44 yards. And yet. The Flames got within a field goal attempt, lining up for a 39-yarder with a minute or so left that would’ve won it. But NC State blocked it.
Then they beat UMass by like 12,000 because 2020.
All that is prologue for what happened Saturday. But suffice it to say, nothing in either of those schedules makes a whole lot of sense. That, of course, is what college football is all about.
Games That Happened
Wednesday
Memphis 25, Florida Atlantic 10
The Montgomery Bowl went about as you’d expect, with Brady White throwing three touchdown passes and FAU trying to run the ball but that not being enough. Memphis was up 18-0 at halftime.
Thursday
Hawaii 28, Houston 14
Chevan Cordeiro threw three touchdown passes and Hawaii cruised in the first half and held on to send Houston to a 3-5 season. Remember when Houston and Dana Holgorsen were manipulating the redshirt rules to buy some extra seasons of eligibility? If the results of that are still to come, maybe some other coach will reap the rewards. Merry Christmas. At least you got to play in the New Mexico Bowl in Texas.
Friday
Buffalo 17, Marshall 10
Buffalo was without Jaret Patterson, who was injured in the MAC Championship. Enter Kevin Marks Jr., who had 138 yards and a score on 35 carries. That touchdown was important, because it capped a scoring drive that lasted six minutes and gave the Bulls the lead with just a minute left in the game. Knowledge McDaniel had a touchdown run for Marshall, who started the year undefeated for a while but finish at 7-3.
Saturday
Liberty 37, Coastal Carolina 34
Liberty won a big game on a last second field goal, lost a big game on a blocked last second field goal, and, on Saturday, won one on a last second block. Liberty got into that position thanks largely to the legs of Malik Willis, who had 137 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground to go with 220 and two picks through the air. For Coastal, Grayson McCall threw for 318 yards and three touchdowns with a pick. That included 13 catches for 178 yards for Jaivon Heiligh. The end of this game was when it really got wild. Coastal tied it with a touchdown at about three minutes left. Liberty then drove to the goal line before fumbling at the one with 41 seconds left. That sent it to overtime, where Liberty kicked a field goal after going backwards a yard and Coastal, needing a touchdown to seal it, missed on three straight passes. You could maybe have argued that there was pass interference on some of those. I don’t know. Anyway then Liberty blocked the kick.
It makes you wonder: If Liberty hadn’t had that kick blocked by NC State, what would this year have been like?
Louisiana 31, UTSA 24
Trey Ragas scored a touchdown with seven minutes left to give the Cajuns a win and secure another 10-win season. Elijah Mitchell had 127 yards and a score on the ground for Louisiana, and Levi Lewis passed for two scores. Meanwhile UTSA got three total touchdowns from quarterback Frank Harris and 122 yards on the ground from Sincere McCormick. The Roadrunners finish the year at a solid 7-5.
Georgia State 39, Western Kentucky 21
I told y’all to keep an eye on Quad Brown. The freshman quarterback had three touchdown passes for the Panthers, who also got 117 yards and a touchdown from Destin Coates.
Games That Might Happen
Thursday
Armed Forces Bowl: Tulsa and Mississippi State, noon ET, ESPN
Tulsa has a great defense. The good news for the Golden Hurricane is that Mike Leach’s offense has been fairly easy to stop in the SEC. This is definitely a clash of styles, but one of these teams has a lot of experience playing well against tough teams and the other one has a lot of experience losing badly to better teams. I’m just saying. Mississippi State is no Cincinnati.
Arizona Bowl: San Jose State and Ball State, 2 p.m. ET, CBS Sports
Undefeated Mountain West champs SJSU versus one-loss MAC champs Ball State? Yeah I’ll take that. The Cardinals have won a lot of close games this year, and they’ll have to contain Spartans quarterback Nick Starkel if they want to win their first-ever bowl game. Imagine that, a MAC team winning its first bowl game. That hasn’t happened since, what, last year?
Liberty Bowl: Army and West Virginia, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN
They found a place for Army in bowl season. They’ll face the Mountaineers, who are coming off a bad loss to Iowa State. Army knows how to beat a second-tier Sun Belt team.
Friday
Peach Bowl: Cincinnati and Georgia, noon ET, ESPN
This isn’t the game the Bearcats should be playing in. We all know that. But they’re playing in it. The Bulldogs have lost only to Florida and Alabama. The Bearcats have not lost since 2019. Desmond Ridder will have his hands full with a good Georgia defense. Georgia’s offense has come a long way since its struggles in the beginning of the year. This should be a good matchup between two good all-around teams with two smart defensive coaches. It would be nice, though, if at some point Georgia was asked to play a big game outside of its home state.