PISCATAWAY - Things can still get worse for Rutgers, and Liberty would personally like to see it.

The Flames, one of six FBS independents, will travel to SHI Stadium to take on the Scarlet Knights Saturday afternoon (Noon, Big Ten Network), and it will do as a touchdown favorite.

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Despite its FBS youth, Liberty has a legit head coach, and is two wins away from bowl eligibility. Saturday would be far and away the program's biggest win since the FBS move ahead of the 2018 season. The Flames won at least a peace of the Big South title at the FCS level eight times, and went to the FCS playoffs in 2014, but there is an argument to be made that Saturday is the biggest game in program history.

Here are a few things to know about the Flames.

Hugh Freeze is the head coach

You know who Hugh Freeze after he brought Ole Miss to national prominence earlier this decade.

The Rebels went to a Peach Bowl, won a Sugar Bowl, beat Nick Saban's Alabama in consecutive years. On the flip side, Freeze was at the center of a firestorm of academic and recruiting violations. In the end, 33 wins were expunged from official records, and Freeze resigned after it was found he had used a university cellphone to call escort services multiple times over the course of five years.

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Still, Liberty hiring Freeze brought along some level of legitimacy after it transitioned to the FBS level in 2018. Freeze is 5-2 against an independent schedule, and given a couple of years to recruit to a school that dumps money into athletics, don't rule out Freeze turning the Flames into a force before getting a second chance at a bigger school.

Despite whatever warts and baggage Freeze may have, he was a smart, shrewd hire by Liberty, which has never been afraid to make a controversial move.

Liberty is getting $1 million to play Rutgers

Last season, Buffalo was paid $900,000 to come to Rutgers. The Bulls opened as 3-point favorites, closed as 6-point favorites, led 35-6 at the half, then took their foot off the gas in a 42-13 win. Afterwards, those fans just becoming associated with the concept of guarantee games seemed quite mad at Rutgers paying $900,000 for that beating.

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Well, settle in. Liberty is being paid $1,000,000. The Flames opened as 4-point favorites, a figure that immediately jumped to 7. That indicates the early money came in on the Flames, which speaks to how bad Rutgers has been. As of Wednesday morning, the line was sitting at 7 or 7.5.

Bottom line: Rutgers is going to be a home underdog to a non-Power Five program two years in a row, and it's going to pay handsomely in the process This time around, though, is so much worse given Liberty was an FCS program, and a non-contender at that, just two years ago.

As a point of reference, Rutgers paid UMass $1.3 million for this season's opener, and $1.2 million to Texas State for the 2018 opener.

Liberty fans will presumably travel

It will be interesting to see how well Liberty fans travel to this game. To be clear, Liberty fans are going to travel. Relative to the size of the program and the school, that fan base is big and very passionate. Passionate means good, bad, or otherwise.

As a member of the Big South since 2014, Monmouth University played Liberty twice in West Long Branch, in 2015 and again in 2017. On the morning of the 2015 meeting, I was floored to see Liberty had set up a pretty big tailgating area a stone's throw from Kessler Field. You really don't see that much from an opponent at the FCS level, but in fairness, Liberty always painted itself as more than just an FCS team.

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The point here is, if Liberty fans were willing to travel from Lynchburg to West Long Branch, I have to believe there will be a significant contingent of people wearing Flames gear at SHI Stadium on Saturday.

Liberty is nearing bowl eligibility

Liberty stepped up to FBS last season, but is fully eligible for a bowl game this season. The school has an agreement with the Cure Bowl. If a team from the Sun Belt or the AAC cannot fill the spot, it goes to Liberty.

The Flames are 5-2, but two of those wins are over FCS programs. For bowl eligibility, teams must have six wins, and are allowed to count only one FCS wins. For bowl purposes, Liberty must finish 7-5.

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In need of two wins, Liberty plays at Rutgers, at UMass, at BYU, at Virginia, and vs. New Mexico State. The Flames already defeated the Aggies once this season, 20-13, on Oct. 5 in Las Cruces.

In late August, Liberty and ESPN Events announced a secondary-bowl agreement. FOr the next bowl cycle from 2020-25, the pact allows the network giant to place a six-win, eligible Liberty into one of the bowl games it operates.

For the next cycle, the options are the Boca Raton Bowl, Camellia Bowl, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Myrtle Beach Bowl and New Mexico Bowl. Like the Cure Bowl, this season, Liberty would only get in if one of the conference's tied to those bowl games cannot fill a slot.

Josh Newman is currently the beat reporter for Rutgers University sports. He's a native of Commack, New York, on the north shore of Long Island, and is almost entirely free of his New York accent. Contact him at jnewman4@gannettnj.com