2021 Lending Tree Bowl Preview: Eastern Michigan vs. Liberty

The Liberty Flames lost just one game last season. They finished the 2020 campaign as a nationally-ranked program. They had quarterback Malik Willis coming back this season. There was a lot of optimism that the Flames could continue to be a major factor in college football. Yet, it didn’t quite work out that way. Liberty gets a chance to salvage its season in the Lending Tree Bowl against an Eastern Michigan team which has to be thrilled to get this opportunity in the postseason.

Eastern Michigan Eagles vs. Liberty Flames
Date: Saturday, December 18th, 5:45 PM ET

Location: Hancock Whitney Stadium, Mobile, AL

CFB Odds: Liberty -8

Eastern Michigan Eagles

The Eagles’ goal every season is to make a bowl game. By this standard, the 2021 season was a clear success. Eastern Michigan operates in the shadow of the more powerful and successful programs in the Mid-American Conference, such as Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan, Ohio, and Kent State. The Eagles do not have an especially high ceiling, which means that any year in which they can get to a bowl, they have fulfilled their potential or at least come very close to that standard.

This season, Eastern Michigan showed it could win games in different ways: It unleashed the full fury of its offense in a 59-21 win over Texas State and a 55-24 win over Bowling Green. It also won a pure shootout, 52-49 over Toledo. Yet, EMU was also able to win uglier games when its offense did not have much of a rhythm. The Eagles prevailed 13-12 over Miami of Ohio and 22-21 over Western Michigan. This team won enough of its close games in 2021 to reach the bowl threshold. The Eagles have to be happy that they endured a relatively fragile season and came out of it on the right side of the ledger, with a 7-5 record which easily could have been 5-7 or even 4-8. This team clearly did well, all things considered.

Liberty Flames

The Flames had very high hopes for 2021 after losing only one game in 2020, but this team continued to step in potholes this season. The Flames suffered a shocking upset loss to Syracuse in their fourth game of the season. Syracuse has been a bottom-rung program in the last three seasons, dating back to 2019. Liberty then lost to Louisiana-Monroe as a 33-point favorite, the biggest point-spread betting upset of the entire 2021 college football season. Weird things happened to this team, and they kept happening. Ending the season with three straight losses wasn’t a huge surprise; Ole Miss is a good team, as is Louisiana. However, Liberty wasn’t even competitive with Louisiana, losing 42-14. It got hammered by Army, 31-16. Army just lost to a 4-8 Navy team over the past weekend. Something was missing with Liberty football this season. It’s hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong.

Outlook

Liberty has had a few weeks in which to regroup and refocus after a disappointing regular season. Expect the Flames to take out their anger on Eastern Michigan.

Eagles vs. Flames Prediction:

Flames 42, Eagles 27