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Hugh Freeze will be facing a familiar foe in the season opener. It will be none other than UMass’ Don Brown, who played against Liberty plenty when Freeze was there.
Liberty and UMass both used to FBS Independents so Freeze and Brown played one another every year. Liberty is now in the C-USA.
Freeze knows that going up against Brown is going to be a dog fight. Freeze respects Brown and called the UMass head coach one of the best play callers in the country.
“I’ve played him every year, the last four years. I saw drastic improvement last year under Coach Brown, I have great respect for him, and I think he’s one of the best defensive play-callers in the country. Last year, their record was atrocious, and they had a top 10 defense in the country. Defensively they play as hard as any team in the country. They create a lot of negative plays. That was the problem for us up at UMass. We managed to score enough points to win the game, but it was a challenge.”
The Tigers are favored by 36.2 points in the season opener. Kickoff will be Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Grant Bricker was a former freelancer for The News TN in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. He now freelances for Saturday Football. Follow on Twitter @GrantBricker.
