Zander Manning's Liberty at UMass preview

By Zander Manning 

Going into Saturday’s matchup with Liberty (4-3), UMass is looking to make it two wins in as many weeks after defeating UConn in “The U Game” in East Hartford last weekend.  

UMass (3-6) defeated the Huskies last Saturday, 22-17, thanks to a late touchdown by senior Marquis Young. Young finished with 26 rushes for 148 yards and a touchdown.

The Minutemen are looking to make it two wins in a row for the first time all season, and are also looking to push one win closer to qualifying, but not necessarily making, a bowl game for the first time since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The Flames, on the other hand, are coming off of two consecutive wins, one over Football Championship Subdivision foe Idaho State, and the other over Sun Belt foe Troy, by scores of 48-41 and 22-16, respectively. 

Here are the keys to victory for both squads. 

Liberty wins if . . . 

The Flames shut down Young and wide receiver Andy Isabella 

Young is bound to play a big role in Saturday’s game no matter which side you talk to. Young can hurt you in more ways than one, and that’s definitely something that Liberty coach Turner Gill has educated his team on ahead of its first trip to Amherst. 

Young has 670 all-purpose yards coming into Saturday’s matchup, with 555 on the ground, which leads the team. 

Isabella ranks first in the nation for receptions and receiving yards per game.

Its offense can avoid Bryton Barr 

There aren’t enough words to describe just how good Barr has been for UMass these past two seasons. The Towson transfer is ranked third in the nation for tackles (111) and tackles per game (12.3).  

Barr has at least 10 tackles in his last seven games, with a season-high 21 vs. Charlotte Sept. 22.  

Barr is a force to be reckoned with on defense and in order to win, the Flames may need to match Barr alone. 

Its defense brings its intensity 

One thing UMass coach Mark Whipple talked about at length was the intensity of Liberty’s defense. Over its first seven games, Liberty has intercepted the ball just seven times.  

This could pose a problem to the Flames defense, seeing as UMass quarterbacks have only been picked off eight times between three quarterbacks.  

“Defensively they’re really aggressive, a couple of really good defensive ends, linebackers and cornerbacks,” Whipple said. “They’re a really good team, they’re 4-3 and they beat Troy. We know how good Troy is, and they've scored points. They beat Troy with good defense.”  

UMass wins if . . . 

It plays complementary football

According to Young, a big key for UMass is if complementary football. By that, he means both offense and defense playing an equal role. 

“When the defense makes a stop, offense has to score. When offense scores, defense has to make a stop,” Young said. “We just have to focus on us and make sure that we limit mistakes.” 

When Young was asked about the key to beating Liberty, he said it was as simple as the Minutemen focusing on themselves and not worrying about the other team. 

“We respect them. (They’re) a tough team,” Young said. "At this point, we’re trying to focus on us and make sure we don’t make any mistakes. It's not about them, it’s about us, too, and we just have to limit the mistakes, and make the big plays when we have the opportunity to."

The Minutemen play well in the red zone 

In their win over UConn, the Minutemen made some key stops, but not all of them were in the red zone. In fact, opponents hold a 90 percent scoring rate there. In comparison, UMass sits at 88 percent in that statistic. Not much of a difference, but still a difference, nonetheless. 

“(We have to) play good red-zone defense, play good offense in the red zone, and I think we’ll be in good shape,” Whipple said. “What happens is at the end of the drives, we can’t drop touchdown passes which we did last week and expect to win and have the defense step it up in the red zone.”  

Prediction: UMass 38, Liberty 31

Twitter: @ZMSportsReport