LU-BYU matchup set to become ‘biggest home game’ in Flames Football history

The Liberty University Flames will take the field against the Brigham Young University Cougars on Saturday at Williams Stadium in what some are calling the biggest home game in school history.

Liberty Head Coach Hugh Freeze told players in a team meeting earlier this week: “It is, without a doubt, the biggest home football game this program has ever had. I came to this school for moments like this. You came to this school for moments like this. Every hotel in this town is sold out. The stadium is sold out. You’ll be on national TV. It is a big game.”

The game will air at 3:30 EST on ESPNU and is the first official sellout in the 25,000-seat Williams Stadium. Several thousand BYU fans are expected to attend the game, one of the largest showings ever for a visiting team to Liberty.

Multiple media outlets are already taking notice of the big matchup and what it means to Liberty as it will help fulfill founder Jerry Falwell Sr.’s vision that Liberty would become to evangelicals what BYU is to Mormons and what Notre Dame is to Catholics.

“When BYU takes the field against Liberty on Saturday afternoon, it will complete a vision that is more than four decades in the making,” Cougar Sports Insider reported this week. “When Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell announced that he would be opening Liberty University, he dreamt of the university one day playing high-level college sports against the likes of Notre Dame and BYU. More than four decades later, Falwell’s Liberty University will play host to BYU on their home football field.”

“We are walking in the fulfillment of a vision that started from nothing, really, other than belief,” Freeze said at Monday’s press conference. “And to be able to walk in that, I feel that Dr. Falwell would be just ecstatic to see the crowd, the atmosphere and everything that is going to be on Saturday afternoon here playing a team that he has such regard for, as do I, in BYU. Hopefully we embrace that part of it also.”

Earlier this week, Ed Gomes, the Flames Football Director of Spiritual Development since 2000, joined BYU Radio to discuss his role with Liberty and his love for his players.

Liberty has called this year’s home schedule its best ever, with Virginia Tech (Nov. 19) also headlining the lineup.

The Flames (6-1) ride into Saturday’s matchup with last month’s 37-36 loss at Wake Forest — currently ranked No. 13 in the AP Top-25 — as their only blemish on the season. Meanwhile, the Cougars (4-3) will travel cross country, hungry for a victory after dropping their last two games to Notre Dame and Arkansas respectively.

“We’re at 6-1 and that means we’ve got grit and toughness and fight,” Freeze said at Monday’s press conference, while acknowledging how proud he is of his players for becoming one of only 16 teams in the nation to earn bowl eligibility after the first seven weeks of the season.

But after celebrating that good news, he quickly turned his attention to this weekend’s historic matchup.

“This opportunity should be exciting; it should be one that’s welcomed,” he said. “It is a great, great challenge but yet one that we should be excited (about) and embrace with faith and belief.”

Freeze said BYU’s 4-3 record is not a fair indication of its talent.

“I know if you lose, polls beat you up (but) I think they’re a Top 25 team in the country,” he said, mentioning that on top of BYU’s most recent losses against Notre Dame and Arkansas, the Cougars have also fallen to Oregon, which is currently ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll. “They have to have one of the toughest strength of schedules in the nation.”

This weekend is Family Weekend at Liberty, and Freeze indicated that the game is building up to be everything Liberty could have asked for in this matchup.

“It’s going to be an exciting night on the mountain, and we’ve got ESPN covering the game. What an opportunity and let’s go embrace it. … I hope our fans and students and everyone is as excited as we will be.”

Before the two faith-based schools collide on the gridiron Saturday afternoon, they will come together to collect children’s books. Liberty University’s School of Education has partnered with the BYU Education Society and BYU Alumni Association in a book drive at the game. Fans for both teams can bring new or lightly used children’s books to donate. Drop-off bins will be located outside the Liberty University Barnes & Noble Bookstore and DeMoss Hall as well as at the BYU alumni tailgate at the Liberty Mountain Conference Center in Candlers Station. The United Way of Central Virginia will distribute the books to children in need.

The schools with shared interests in faith and football will follow similar paths after this season. Both will leave the independent ranks when the Flames join Conference USA and BYU enters the Big 12, ending its 12-year independent run.

Follow Flames Football at LibertyFlames.com.