Who are the Liberty Flames? What to know about Oregon football’s Fiesta Bowl opponent

With a little more than a week to go, No. 8 Oregon football is preparing to face No. 23 Liberty in the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on New Year's Day.

Here are a few things to know about the Ducks’ next opponent.

Liberty Flames have undefeated season

The Flames (13-0, 8-0 CUSA) are one of just a few FBS programs to still be unbeaten after running through one of the weakest schedules of any ranked team in the country. For their undefeated season, Liberty was deemed the best non-Power Five program by the College Football Playoff committee and earned a date with Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.

Liberty’s strength of schedule, as ranked by ESPN, ranks No. 133 in the nation, easily the worst among ranked teams. The Flames haven’t taken on a single Power Five foe all season, and escaped scraps with Sam Houston (21-16) and Middle Tennessee (42-35) unscathed.

Quarterback Kaidon Salter has been steady at the helm of the offense, with 2,750 passing yards, 31 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He’s also one of just two FBS quarterbacks, along with LSU’s Jayden Daniels, to rush for 1,000 yards. His backfield mate, Quinton Cooley, has 1,322 yards with 16 touchdowns, and averages over six yards per touch.

A Christian university in Virginia

Liberty is a private, nonprofit college located in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded by conservative and religious leader Jerry Falwell and Elmer Towns in 1971. Most of its enrollment is in online courses. In 2020, the university enrolled 15,000 in its residential program and 80,000 online.

The school’s honor code, called “The Liberty Way,” prohibits premarital sex, cohabitation, and any kind of romantic relationship between members of the same sex, along with alcohol use.

In 2021, ProPublica published a report describing how Liberty mishandled claims of sex abuse and harassment on campus and used “The Liberty Way” against the victims. In October, the federal Department of Education reported the university created a culture in which members of its campus were fearful of reporting sexual violence.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Who are the Liberty Flames? Meet Oregon football's Fiesta Bowl rival