Liberty Seeks Power Five Win Against Arkansas

Saturday, the No. 23 Liberty Flames travel to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. Historically, Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze has been unsuccessful in Reynolds Razorback Stadium. In his four years at Ole Miss, Freeze and the Rebels played at Arkansas twice, and lost both matchups.

Liberty is also 0-2 all time against SEC teams, but they’ll look to change that this weekend.

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Where They Stand…

Coming out of their bye week, Liberty is 7-1 and their only loss has come against No.19 Wake Forest in week three. Arkansas is the Flames’ last major test of the season, defeating BYU in their last outing. If Liberty is able to win out, they would be in the running for the Group of Five invitation to a New Year’s Six bowl.

Arkansas is 5-3 on the season, with all three of their loses coming in three straight weeks to ranked SEC West teams. Moreover, if Arkansas picks up the win, they would be bowl-eligible for the third straight season. The program hasn’t accomplished this since 2014-16.

Liberty Defense vs. Arkansas Offense

The Flames’ strength is their run defense which gives up just 123.2 yards per game. Opponents have only scored nine rushing touchdowns against the Flames, this season. However, they will be going up against the nation’s No. 6 ranked rushing offense. Arkansas is led by running back Raheim Sanders, the SEC’s leading rusher with 1,041 yards. Arkansas has been efficient when they are able to control the line of scrimmage and have scored 18 rushing touchdowns so far this season.

Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jefferson has also made an important impact. In their last two games, Jefferson threw for a combined six touchdowns and scored two more on the ground. He has recorded just one interception this season and has the SEC’s second best quarterback ranking.

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