Spring cleaning

Head Coach Turner Gill gives spring season update

Liberty University football wrapped up the spring practice phase of its offseason program Thursday, April 20. Spring is a time used by college football coaches around the country to get a better feel for their rosters, evaluate players and make necessary systematic changes.

For Liberty, the culmination of spring practice comes in the annual spring game, Saturday, April 15, which, under Head Coach Turner Gill, involves the offense taking on the defense in a special scoring type of affair.

This year, the offense handily beat the defense by a score of 59-24 in a game where both units were rewarded for how they executed a variety of different situations.

Oftentimes in spring practice players are able to put themselves on the coach’s radar in a bid for more playing time the following season, thus heightening the importance of working hard and performing at a high level.

For Gill, though, passion was what he wanted to see above all else.

“We graded them on their passion, meaning that when they walked in the room, did they show that they were alert? Were they paying attention?” Gill said.

“They got a grade on them every single day from their (position) coaches. Every guy just about improved.”

A couple of the guys that Gill touched on in particular were sophomore safeties Rion Davis and Brandon Tillmon, the latter of which, Gill said, was “probably the player who stood out the most” on the defensive side of the ball.

Gill also had praise for two former offensive walk-ons, freshman offensive lineman Thomas Sargeant and junior wide receiver Cephas Reddick, who was one of three winners of the Samkon Gado Award for most improved player during spring practice.

The big focus for Gill and his coaching staff this spring was to improve upon an already high-paced offense and to test out a few different defensive schemes.

“Offensively, we tried to get higher tempo, be faster, try to snap the ball with 10 seconds,” Gill said.

“Defensively, we’re trying to make sure we get things going in different schemes. Our quarters coverage, we’re trying to see that in different alignments and see if there’s some things that need to be adjusted. We got that all on tape. We’re now going to re-evaluate it, dissect it and decide what adjustments we agree to and what adjustments we don’t agree to, to help us be successful on the field.”

This upcoming season will be the last for the Flames in the Big South, a conference they have played in since 2002.

Due to Liberty’s impending transition into the FBS, they will not be eligible to win the conference championship in 2017, but Gill said that the transition will in no way have an effect on the team’s mentality.

“We’re going to go out there and try to win every single football game and still have the title in our own mindset,” Gill said.

“We’re just trying to win every single football game, and give our fans great entertainment.”

Although winning the Big South is not a possibility this upcoming season, what really matters to Gill is that his team competes to the best of its ability, regardless of the circumstances.

“It’s just about us being competitors as coaches — competitors as players,” Gill said.

“When you go out and try to do something, you try to be the best at it and try to win and be successful. But more importantly, we want to be great for our fans to show that we’ve got some great things going on. We have some good talent, and we’re looking forward for it to continue on.”

Liberty kicks off the 2017 season September 2 in Waco, Texas against the Baylor University Bears.

Their first game at Williams Stadium is Saturday September 9 against the Morehead State Golden Eagles.

Brienza  is a guest writer.