Liberty (8-5 SU, 8-3 ATS) opens up the Charlie Brewer era after Malik Willis graduated and was drafted by the Tennesee Titans. The former Baylor quarterback will face Southern Miss (3-9 SU, 4-8 ATS) from Hattiesburg on Saturday night at 7pmET.
Southern Miss will head to the Sun Belt after years playing in Conference USA. They will look to freshman Ty Keyes, who played sparingly last season, to help usher in a successful first season in a new conference.
Malik Willis transferred from Auburn to Liberty and eventually became a third-round pick in the NFL thanks to his production with the Flames in two seasons. Charlie Brewer hopes that he can have similar success though Willis was more of a dual-threat talent. Brewers had a ton of success at Baylor from 2017-20, amassing 9,700 passing yards with 65 TDs. He wound up transferring to Utah and threw for 484 yards with three TDs last season.
“Right now, compared to the spring, I just feel a lot more comfortable,” Brewer said recently to the local media. “Obviously, I had all summer to keep studying it and learning it so I feel like I’m operating at a way higher level than I did in the Spring.”
So Liberty's offense is in good hands with an experienced quarterback. Now the question will be at wide receiver with a bunch of new players in the mix led by Caleb Snead, a transfer from FCS Campbell, where he was an All-American in 2021. Sophomore Demario Douglas is also back after grabbing 52 receptions for 701 yards and six TDs. They have two returning starters on the offensive line, but they upgraded at center with senior Cam Reddy coming in from Colorado State and the left tackle is expected to be senior Nassir Watkins from Kentucky.
Defensively, Liberty was great against the pass last season, allowing just 180.3 yards per game and they ranked 45th against the run. Some of that had to do with their schedule, which featured a lot of Conference USA and Sun Belt teams. That will have a tough time duplicating those numbers with several key starters gone from the front seven. They will look to juco and FBS transfers to help fill the void.