Inside the mindset of Liberty trying to knock off NC State. Dave Doeren has been there
Dave Doeren has been there before.
Inside a locker room full of players who have all the confidence in the world, despite outsiders doubting if they belong.
This weekend, Doeren’s N.C. State team will host No. 21 Liberty. When this game was scheduled in 2017, it was almost laughable to think the Flames would be undefeated in late November and ranked in the Top 25.
But since then, the Flames hired former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, who took over last season and led them to a 8-5 record and the school’s first bowl game.
Freeze did a good job in Year 1, he’s exceeded expectations in Year 2. His quick work earned him a contract extension last week, keeping Freeze in Lynchburg through 2026. (His name was already linked to the opening at South Carolina on Monday morning.)
Each year, there is a team outside the Power 5 conferences that jumps on the national radar and becomes the darlings of college football. Liberty is one of those teams this year. Seven years ago, that team was Northern Illinois, coached by Doeren.
In 2012, Doeren’s Huskies ripped off 12 wins in a row after losing by one point to Iowa in the opener. In two seasons at NIU, Doeren was 23-4.
Like Freeze, he took a smaller school, a roster without many of the four and five-star recruits the Power 5 schools get, and had them on the national radar. Doeren’s roster at NIU was made up of a bunch of players, and coaches, who had something to prove. He can’t speak for Freeze and the way he runs his program, but Doeren knows what it’s like to have David thinking he’s really Goliath.
“That locker is full of guys that felt like they could have played at a higher level,” Doeren said. “Those kids will have a chip on their shoulder when they play a power five team.”
In that 2012 season, Doeren led the Huskies to the Orange Bowl, where they faced Florida State, a Power 5 ACC opponent that was two years away from winning a national championship.
This situation isn’t entirely new to Freeze. He took over as the head coach at Arkansas State in 2011 and led the Red Wolves to a 10-2 record. In his first year at Liberty, the program wasn’t able to get the marquee win to gain national recognition, despite competitive games with BYU and a promising first half against Virginia.
This season, though, the Flames have knocked off two ACC teams. They beat Syracuse by 17 in October and edged Virginia Tech by a field goal Nov. 7.
“They want to be noticed,” Doeren said. “They know that this is a chance to showcase, not just their individual abilities but how they can play as a football team against teams that have power five behind their name.”
The contest between the Wolfpack (5-3, 5-3 ACC) and the Flames (8-0), will be in prime time, under the lights at Carter-Finley Stadium. N.C. State is the last team standing in the way of Liberty pulling off a perfect 3-0 sweep of the ACC, and one of two major hurdles remaining (Coastal Carolina) for a shot at a New Years Six bowl.
Finishing strong for NC State
At this point of the season, that small school-versus-big school stuff isn’t going to fly. Liberty’s offense is one of the best in the nation, averaging 40.5 points per game (17th in the country), including 254.5 (12th in the country) on the ground.
Quarterback Malik Willis is the guy who makes the offense go. The Auburn transfer leads the team in rushing and has only thrown one interception this season. In his two previous games against ACC opponents, Wilson has carried the ball 31 times for 198 yards and two scores and passed for 399 yards and four touchdowns.
“He’s a really special player,” Doeren said. “You have to get multiple people to him. We’re going to have to be really good at getting people off of blocks, getting people back to him and then tackling him.”
Willis spearheads the team and while he won’t back down from anyone, having played at a Power 5 school, that mentality has spread throughout the locker room this late in the season.
“And I’m sure that’s what we’re gonna get, we’re gonna get a team that believes, for one, because they haven’t lost this year,” Doeren said. “And they’re playing for a coach that knows how to win games and so it’s going to be a very confident group, it’s going to be a group that wants to prove themselves and an opportunity for them to do it, you know on a bigger stage.”
The last time Liberty came to Raleigh (2011), the Flames out-gained the Wolfpack 406-318, but had seven turnovers in a 47-21 N.C. State victory. This Liberty team does a better job of taking care of the football. The Wolfpack forced its first turnover in the last two games against Florida State (interception by Tyler Baker-Williams).
As much as they would live to play spoiler against the Flames and ruin their perfect season, Doeren said this week is about his team and taking care of their business.
“For us we’re trying to finish,” Doeren said. “We’re in the fourth quarter of our season coming off of a win and, obviously, we’d like to finish, winning all three of our games that are on our schedule and this is just the next one. How it impacts their season really isn’t the motivating piece of that for me, it’s more about us being better and I think that’s the one thing you can see with our team.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 1:34 PM.
