The Liberty Eagles enter the 2026 football season with a new head coach, a young roster and a recent postseason run to build on.
Braden Gastineau begins his first season as head coach, marking his fourth year in coaching overall.
Liberty went 10-3 last season, finished third in the South Central Association (SCA) Conference, and captured a Class 2 District 3 championship before earning a sectional victory over Lamar for the first time in school history.
The Eagles' three losses came against two teams Gastineau considers among the conference's best.
"We lost to two very good opponents in the SCA: a very good Thayer team and a very well-coached and disciplined Mtn. Grove team," Gastineau said.
Liberty returns six seniors and four players with varsity experience on both sides of the ball. That is a significant change from last year's team, which Gastineau said had considerably more experience.
"We were real mature last year, so we got a lot of young guys that are going to be playing this year," he said.
One of those young players will be quarterback Graham Tune.
"He started late last year for us and he ended up doing really well, Gastineau said of Tune. "Led us to a district championship."
Now a sophomore, Tune will take over the offense with varsity experience already behind him.
Defensively, Reed Tune returns at linebacker after earning all-state honors each of the past two seasons, and Gastineau expects the senior to pursue a third consecutive nod.
"He's one of those guys that just makes plays for us all the time," he said.
While the Eagles will have plenty of younger players stepping into larger roles, Gastineau emphasized that the expectations for the program have not changed. After finishing third in the conference last season, Liberty wants to be in the middle of the SCA race when the championship is decided.
"What I want for these guys is to be in conference championship contention," Gastineau said. "Every year we're right there, we're close, and this year I want them to be right there in the mix of it."
