Liberty Names Freeze Head Football Coach

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hi everyone welcome to Williams stadium for today's football announcement my name is Alan York we wish in a request everybody feed silence your phones and turn them off so we have no interruptions here this afternoon we're gonna hear for my athletics director Ian McCall coming up in just a minute but first let's bring up president Falwell this is an exciting day for Liberty University we you know we just had Turner Gill retires it was a big surprise to us and and we you know I hate to admit it but our campus pastor I might have to start calling him a prophet because he invited Hugh Freeze to speak here almost a year ago now and he had no idea that Turner was thinking about retiring and and so I gotta give David a little more credit than I normally do but we're proud to welcome Hugh Freeze and his family to Liberty University we're looking forward to learning from one of the best coaches in the country he has a lead sir Liberty in our second years an FBS team he used an asset to our University in so many ways and we're so excited for the future of flames football Liberty as you know has experienced tremendous growth and countless blessings over the last 10 years our campus has been entirely transformed with many new athletic facilities that put us into position to become to compete at the highest level which was the vision from the beginning the vision was to build a university with world-class facilities where students excelled in academics and athletics fully supported by an institution that would never abandon its Christian values as it gained national prominence Liberty of course had humble beginnings many of you remember those but with perseverance and a mighty vision and dedication we overcame the the hurdles and the struggles and for yelled were relatively young school we're hitting milestones at rapid rapid speed one of them was made during the 2018 football season we played our first game as an FBS as an FBS team and a newly expanded Williams Stadium and finished with a 66 record only the ninth team ever to win six or more games during its first FBS season we invited people to rise with us and they responded we continued to see God's blessings on this university with the original as the original vision is fulfilled and today we're proud to introduce Liberty's ninth head football coach Hugh Freeze we're looking forward to learning from one of the best coaches in the country as he leads Liberty in her second year as an FBS team she fries as an asset to our University as I said in so many ways and and we're so excited this is actually the second time he's turned down offers to be assistant coaches at big colleges to go to Lu last time it was Lambeth University this time it's Liberty University I thought about that this morning but we without further ado I want to introduce our athletic director Ian McCall played such a key role and recruiting coach phrase so quickly and welcomed me in Macomb good well thank you for all all for being here today this is an incredible blessing that in a matter of just four days God has led us to our next head football coach so we're incredibly excited about that I wouldn't be possible without the just amazing support and commitment of president Falwell his leadership at the University and his support of the football program have have allowed this the state become a reality I also want to thank some of our staff top ATOL ski Mickey Gritty along with many others were incredibly helpful as we move through this process in in very rapid fashion but this is exciting day for I for Liberty and in hiring coach Frese where we're bringing in someone who's experienced success everywhere he's been at the high school level at the NAIA level at Arkansas State and then of course at the highest level at Ole Miss and that success certainly has been on the football field but we're really has impressed us the most with him is he's a man of great faith his great family man and he's somebody who really pours into his student athletes and that's what really stood out is we had a chance to visit with him on on Wednesday he's going to bring a dynamic brand of football to Liberty and it's going to be very fan friendly and I know that everybody among the flames nations can enjoy getting to meet him he's a very warm and genuine person he has great sense of humor and it's really going to be a thrilling time as our football program is elevated and under his leadership will go to bowl games and will gain national prominence and we're we're certainly eager to begin that so with that please join me in welcoming Liberty's head football coach Hugh Freeze all right thank you thank you very much thank you I don't deserve that yet well we need to win a few games and then and then maybe that but I it's an unbelievable day for me and my family and I'm just thrilled that Jill Reagan Jordan and Madison and my father Danny are all here along to my great friend Sean and Matt somewhere from the blindside shown to II and they're just dear friends of mine they flew over today to see us so it's just an unbelievable day I've set out a football for the last better part of two years and it's giving me time to reflect on the core values to which when I adhere to them followed great blessing and it's also giving me time to when I did not adhere to them learn about what discipline looks like and to learn from that through grace and love of people and also to really refocus on exactly what you want to be as you finish well and so our program I met with our kids earlier I loved it and we just had a great visit and I felt a connection to them I've loved this University from the last time I was here had no idea how God's plan would would would develop like this I actually a year knows this but I was on this whirlwind tour to other colleges looking at becoming an offensive coordinator at different places and I had three straight days of just travel travel travel and I mean I'm landing and getting ready to I'm thinking I know where what I'm gonna do next and and I turned my phone back on from the flight and and there's a text and it just says hey coach give me a call when you can and I thought hmm that's interesting I assumed it was just about someone else that you may be looking at hiring for a position or something that I knew but then I got the news and I have great respect I don't know him personally but I have followed and know the people that know coach Gill and have great respect for him and the job he did and sure hate that that he's going through a difficult time in his family but I know that he's a man of great faith and we'll go through it also so our program is gonna be about certain core values number one is faith faith for me is is believing in the Son of God Jesus Christ and then he is the only one I've ever met that can handle my junk if you know somebody else that can do that I'd love to meet him but I haven't met that person yet and he's the only one that can and and I told our team regardless of whether you choose to believe exactly as I believe about faith faith to me also is there's gonna come a point in people's lives where you need something bigger than yourself and yourself can't do it and an ultimate test of that is a football team because there's no possible way no matter how good of a coach a play caller he is or how good the quarterback is man you've got to have faith in other people and I'll tell you in the last two years I've learned that firsthand and real quickly just to have people like David Nasser and Ken Smith and Michael cat and and Mike glazier and chip Henderson in my life that just pour into me and and and helped me through a difficult time and an agent like Jimmie Sexton who just speaks truth to you and you don't always like it but he just speaks it in love because he's more than just an agent he's a great friend and WG walking is the same so had great friends to do that and man the people at the Alliance of American football from the top down Charlie ever saw and Bill Polian and Jacob McKay and Rick Newhouse on Phil Savage they were the first to believe in me and and and give me the Ossie job for that new pro league and they've been so understanding and while they're disappointed that we didn't get to work together and that they were so thrilled that I was going to work at a place like this so the faith that that we have is not only just upward but it's also it's got to be the people around us that we have faith in and I'm in blessed and my former players have been so encouraging they've been the most encouraging group through the whole last two years just to remind me of the lessons that I taught them that they're now pouring back into me so attitude is the second thing that we'll have is the way we talk to ourselves so what we believe about us not what other people say not what other people right now what other people think it really matters what we believe about Liberty University and what we can become here with the support of a great ministration that we have so attitude is how we will talk to ourselves and you know we're going to brand ourselves some way I told her football team today look you are one of the biggest windows that people will view this great University and we're a reflection of each other and so man we want to use that opportunity in that window to represent this university in a way that draws attention positive attention to it and you've done so well with this one under president Falwell and Ian and the rest of the administration there's a lot of things that I can learn from watching what you've done here to get the brand of Liberty nationally and even worldwide so we want to do that it may be a great player in Australia and they probably have seen your face and now we can go recruit him and I like one of those punters that can do all those different things from there so mental toughness is the third core value and it's the secret sauce and it's the way we get up every day and we go about our business and there's very few people that this comes naturally to to where you get up in the morning and you do the right thing with great passion and enthusiasm and then you do it again and then you do it again you might get hit in the gut that day and then you do it again and then you it again then you get up the next morning you do it again and again and again and that doesn't just come naturally to most people and we've got to develop that in stressing our kids we want to stress them the entire spring as hard as we can stress them to make sure that when we get to next fall that game day is the easiest thing that they have experienced so mental toughness is true I got this from my dad who's here today and in my ups and downs he's been the most consistent factor in my life and he's been incredible to just teach me those lessons and when you hit the highs he keeps you calm and when you hit the lows just keep standing son you just keep standing and have mental toughness and the next core values integrity I had this all wrong used to define integrity is doing the right thing well if if that's the sole definition of it then probably none of us meet that standard and so I believe and I told our team that integrity is when you don't get it exactly right you own it you make the necessary changes and you move forward and you can't look back and you can't let people define you from that moment because as Rogers once said and never let the moment define the man and so it's about finishing well with great integrity and the last core values love love is the ability to handle inconveniences that come with relationships my wife of 27 years would tell you that I've inconvenienced her several times in our marriage and when you bring a football team together from different cultures different backgrounds different beliefs they'll be inconveniences in there but the teams that truly love one another and love the people that touch their program they will be successful and the last letter that I like to use in our core values is Y and Su and it takes every one it takes the fans it takes the administration it takes the coaches it takes the players it takes everyone that touches our program even the media can be a part of us and help send the message out of what Liberty football is going to be about and and we can't wait for all of them to be in and I asked our team a simple question earlier and this this excites me maybe as much as anything I mean obviously to be back in the game it's tremendous excitement and passion but this really caught my attention flying over here and I asked one of our our guys there and Shawn and I were talking about this Ian who is the second person that stepped foot on America yeah I don't know either so but I do know who the first one was everybody remembers the name Christopher Columbus and man you know what I asked our players is how many have been to a bowl game and not a single one raised their hand and I said right then we want to be the Christopher Columbus's of Liberty University and that's our goal that's our bowl game next year and that's our focus and our drive will be on letting those young men experience that I've been to some good ones the Sugar Bowl and the Peach Bowl and I'll tell you I love it I love the light up in our kids eyes when they get that card it has $700 on it and they get that well you can pick a recliner over here or a TV over here and you know what that nothing will give me greater joy but then to see our young men get to experience that and I will spend the better part of my time until that moment occurs and it will occur and it's going to occur fast and so I can't wait to get started it's been a long time coming for me I'm more determined than ever more dedicated than ever and I have a passion to to make this place everything that the administration seeks to make it through its football department I'm gonna bring some great guys in here with me they're they're great at their craft that love to capture the hearts and minds of our players that will be our it as coaches that is our goal I believe in teaching young men on our team all the lessons of when I got it right and when I got it wrong and what the consequences are in hopes that they can become the best student athlete the best player that they can be and also the best husband father citizen that can believe I've been on both ends of it one sugar Bowl's and been praised didn't handled it exactly right and I've made decisions that hurt a lot of people I don't ever want to experience that again and I'm thankful for grace of a family the last thing I'd say is these three girls and my wife they're my heroes they would say that I'm their hero that blows me away my wife would send the godliest men she's ever met I don't get that but they've been with me a lot of times and they've just been rock-solid from the good times and the bad times and we can't wait to enjoy this journey again we're all about finishing there's one thing that I know we give an award back at Ole Miss and that award is uh after Chucky Mullins who fought a valiant fight for his life ended up losing it to a football injury and I was the last award I gave before I left there was the Chucky Mullins award and there was a former recipient that was on the on the screen that said you know what this is the greatest award I've ever really received and I wonder if Chucky would say that they got the right guy now you and I could debate what makes up the right guy I could ask master what's the quality that makes up the right kind of guy and we may agree on some and all of my good qualities but I think there's one quality that I don't think you could ever argue with that makes up the right kind of guy and that is he has the ability to finish and that's what we will work on doing as a football team as a coaching staff everyone involved in our program is we want to finish well we want finish games well we want to finish academic as well our academic pursuits our degrees well and we want to finish well as husbands fathers and followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I can't wait to get started I'm so thankful to be the head football coach at Liberty University thank you so much [Applause] [Applause] Thank You coach and welcome to Liberty University before we adjourned for the media that are here we're gonna have Jerry a Hugh and Ian to the backdrop Jerry's gonna go first for post press conference interviews and before we do say goodbye like bring up David Nasser to end us and prayer I've got to say days like this I'm so proud to be a part of Liberty's family what a great day for us to just celebrate the grace and truth of God this family is an amazingly godly Christ centered family and they're not just going to lead the football team they're gonna lead a lot of us in worship and we can't wait to sit under Jill's teaching she's a great exposure to God's Word and it's gonna be an amazing amazing ride for us let's pray together father we thank you for your grace your truth we thank you for the gospel that's really our greatest bond father in moments like this we're just reminded to be less religious and more spiritual more dependent on you we thank you Lord for the Gil family God the the legacy that they've left here the investment that they've made here and God their season here as a family member doesn't come to an end you might not be our football coach tomorrow but he'll always be a part of this family we pray for provision for them for for healing for them God we thank you that they have the stamina because they have you to finish well even as our brother you just reminded us we thank you Lord for the Falwell family their leadership here the legacy that they've left since 1971 God training champions for Christ we thank you that they understand the value of athletics doing that I thank you for in his commitment first and foremost to you to develop God champions through athletics and we pray favor on him and Lord we pray for the Hugh family we would have freeze family right now I pray for these three young ladies for Jill for my brother Lord that you would give them a supernatural instant bond that they would find this place to be a family for them not a university not an institute of higher learn in God but a place God where you allow them to call home and God that they would always know that we're with them that got ultimately that at the end of the day this won't be about how many football games we win but how faithful we are to you Lord we love you we thank you for what you're doing we pray for our students our football players all of our students that in this moment they would just stop and celebrate what you've been up to we just give you all the glory for what you're doing we pray this in your name Amen man thank you thank you David who's excited for football season yeah season ticket information is being developed as we speak be sure to log on Liberty flames calm and our sub-site Lu football.com for information on that when it becomes available thank y'all for coming out have a great rest of your day and weekend and go flames [Music] you

Channel: Liberty University Flames

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Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 07 2018