Turner Gill’s vision for scheduling Liberty’s spring football practice session in February included several key elements. He wanted to give players more time to recover from injuries before the summer workouts began, allow the strength staff significant time to get the players into game shape, and also have academics be at the forefront after spring break.
But there was one underlying theme in practicing during the winter months: Recruiting.
Gill and his staff utilized the early practices to bring in players when other programs weren’t in session. And they also got a head start on the summer recruiting by targeting the players they felt would help the program heading into the program’s formative years at the Football Bowl Subdivision.
“We were better prepared,” Gill said in a recent sitdown interview. “That did help out our recruiting.”
The Flames coaching staff utilized the month between the end of the spring practices and April 15 to map out a detailed, methodical and purposeful plan of which prospects it wanted to evaluate. The evaluation period began April 15 and lasted through May 31, and the staff was proactive in its ability to sell Liberty to those recruits.
Gill said he and his staff have received warmer welcomes than in years past, when the Flames were members of the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision and most prospects would not entertain Liberty coaches during the early recruiting periods.
“This year has been good because there’s been a lot of exposure for a lot of different reasons about Liberty — sometimes good, sometimes not so good — but you’ve heard of it,” Gill said. “The first year I was here, you didn’t know about Liberty.”
Gill said 20 to 25 prospects came on campus during the 15-practice session between February and March, and two of those players gave their verbal commitments.
Kicker Jason Stricker, who is rated a 4.5-star prospect by Chris Sailer Kicking, committed February 17, and wide receiver C.J. Yarbrough followed suit March 14 after two campus visits.
Yarbrough is a 3-star prospect according to 247Sports.com’s composite rankings, and the Alabama native chose Liberty over offers from Virginia, South Alabama and Troy.
“Being able to play at the highest level, that’s kind of a huge thing for a lot of people, and the other part of it is the Christian environment that we have,” Gill said. “A lot of people are saying playing at the highest level and being in a Christian environment, that’s something that I’ve always wanted and dreamed about and Liberty’s going to be able to give that to me, so I want to check it out.”
Another player, Maine running back Josh Mack, announced in early February he was transferring to Liberty. Mack, who was granted his release from Maine, led the FCS in rushing yards per game in 2017.
His addition gave the Flames a 30-member recruiting class for 2018, which includes high school seniors, junior college transfers and other Division I transfers.
And it allowed Gill to reach the maximum 85 scholarship players.
“I think we got some needs. We wanted depth and we wanted competition,” Gill said. “We went the junior college route because we wanted people who are physically more mature, mentally more mature, they were more competitive and competed for the jobs, so we wanted to have our first and second teams hopefully be not much different.
“I was very, very pleased in being able to accommodate that as far as our balance of getting junior college guys and high school guys. It’s the most that I ever have done in my career [recruiting], but there was a reason because of the transition from FCS to FBS and we had those many scholarships available to get us to 85. It looks like we’re going to be able to get to those things when we start in the fall.”
Most of the JUCO transfers are incoming juniors, which loads up the 2019 senior class. The most was by design for Gill, who will have 22 or 23 seniors in the class in what will be Liberty’s first season of bowl eligibility.
“I can say a high percentage of the teams that have been very, very good — and I’m going to say conference champions, bowl champions or whatever — they’ve had a big senior class and a good senior class and good leadership from the senior class,” Gill said.
ROSTER UPDATE
Wide receiver Cephas Reddick, who was expected to play a significant role as a slot receiver in the upcoming season, has exhausted his eligibility and is no longer a member of the football team.
Reddick attended a junior college for one year and then transferred to Liberty where he spent the past four years. Under NCAA guidelines, Reddick had five years to play four, which included the one year at the junior college.
“We didn’t catch that,” Gill said. “It’s something we caught up to late.”