Over the past few years, Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell has been one of the most successful coaches, not just at the Group of Five level but in all of college football.
At Coastal Carolina, Chadwell put together a record of 31-6 over the past three years and a 20-4 mark in the Sun Belt. Following the 2020 season, he was named the winner of the AP College Coach of the Year Award, marking the first time a coach from the Sun Belt Conference has won the award. He was also just the third coach from outside the Power Five conferences to do so.
With all of that success, Chadwell’s name has been frequently rumored to be connected to several jobs including at the P5 level the past few years. Even as the 2022 coaching carousel was getting started, he was linked with several open positions including South Florida and Georgia Tech.
So, when Chadwell opted to come to Liberty in December 2022, it caught many off guard. The highly successful coach had many P5 options but elected to come to Liberty as the Flames prepare to move into Conference USA to begin with the 2023 season.
“I chose to come here not for a, ‘Hey, we will use this to jump here,'” Chadwell said. “I could have gone a lot of places, but I believe in the mission of this University and want to be part of building this at a conference level and, ultimately, trying to get to that CFP.”
Being in CUSA, the Flames have a seat at the table and have the opportunity to make the College Football Playoff in coming years. Beginning with the 2024 season, the top six ranked conference champions will receive an automatic bid to the CFP, and with the way conference realignment is changing the landscape of conferences at the FBS level, that path could become even clearer for a program like the Flames. Perhaps the PAC-12 dissolves and that opens up another spot for CUSA and other G5 conferences to grab an auto bid.
For Chadwell and his coaching staff, he is focused on building the Flames for the long-term and not a quick flash in the pan and then bolt to another job.
“As a coach, what you try to do is, every thought that I have is about building a program,” said Chadwell. “It’s not necessarily what’s best for this team this year, it’s about what’s best for this program to make a solid foundation so it can build and be a consistent winner over the long term.”
While Chadwell can focus on building the Flames into a consistent winner over the next couple of years, the team should also be able to find some success this fall.
Liberty has had about 50% roster turnover from 2022 to the 2023 campaign. Couple that with the new coaching staff and moving into a new conference, and the expectations for this coming year could vary. The Flames have been picked to finish 2nd in the CUSA preseason media poll behind preseason favorite Western Kentucky.
“Thankful for being here and excited about what we can build here.”
