The 2018 Liberty Flames football team represented

Liberty University Liberty University (LU) is a private Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns, Liberty i ...

in the

2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2018. The regular season began on August 25, 2018, and ended ...

. They were led by seventh-year head coach

Turner Gill Turner Hillery Gill (born August 13, 1962) is an American college athletic administrator and former gridiron football player and coach. He is the Executive Director of Student-Athlete and Staff Development at the University of Arkansas, a positi ...

and played their home games at

Williams Stadium Arthur L. Williams Stadium is a 25,000-seat football stadium located on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA. The stadium was built in 1989 and plays host to Liberty Flames football, which is a part of the NCAA Division I - ...

. This was the Flames first year as a member of the FBS. Playing as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, 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 Bowl eligibility in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible". ...

had there not been enough teams with non-losing records to fill the available

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

s, but there were already four more teams than could be accommodated. On December 3, head coach Turner Gill retired. He finished at Liberty with a seven-year record of 47–35. On December 7, Liberty hired former Ole Miss head coach

Hugh Freeze Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

for the job.

Previous season

In their final season in the FCS as a member of the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

, the Flames finished the 2017 season 6–5, 2–3 in Big South play to finish in fourth place.

Schedule

*Sources:

Game summaries

Old Dominion

at Army

North Texas

at New Mexico

at New Mexico State

Troy

Idaho State

at UMass

at Virginia

at Auburn

New Mexico State

Norfolk State

This game was originally scheduled for September 15, but it was rescheduled due to

Hurricane Florence Hurricane Florence was a powerful and long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that caused catastrophic damage in the Carolinas in September 2018, primarily as a result of freshwater flooding due to torrential rain. The sixth named storm, third hu ...

. On December 4, 2018, Turner Gill announced that he would retire immediately. On December 7, Hugh Freeze was tabbed to be the next head coach of the Liberty Flames football team.

References

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

Liberty Flames football seasons

Liberty Flames football The Liberty Flames football program represents Liberty University, a private Christian university located in Lynchburg, Virginia, in college football. The Flames compete in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as an independent. The p ...

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