Liberty head football coach Jamey Chadwell held a press conference with the media to discuss the 2023 signing class. For more signing day coverage, check out our Signing Day Live Blog. Here’s everything Chadwell had to say about his signing class:
OPENING STATEMENT
“Let me say that the last couple weeks were hectic trying to, one, build relationships with the current commitments we had and then trying to add to the class. Really thankful, I thought our previous coaching staff did a really good job of having guys in place that committed that we were able to keep the majority of those. We lost a couple during the transition, but we were able to add some as well. The thing that is recognized with all the players that decided to join us here is they really feel great about this university, about the direction of our program, and excited about going into Conference USA.”
“It was good to be out and to represent this university and go in the homes and see the young men that are hopefully going to be the future of our program. In a short amount of time get to know them, but we are excited about them and who they are and their commitment here.”
“We’re not done. We’ve got some work to do, obviously, in the February signing period as well. We’ve got some work to do. Also, we will be looking to the portal to fill some needs that we might not meet in December, but this is a good class. We were able to get a good offensive line, some running backs, a tight end, I thought we fit a good need there. Quarterback, I’m really excited about the quarterback we got. Defensively, probably a good group from the defensive line standpoint. We’ve got some work to do in the secondary, but I thought we got a good corner coming in out of Alabama.”
“7 mid-year enrollees that will be joining us which is important. We are looking forward to adding to the class.”
THIS IS THE HIGHEST RATED CLASS IN SCHOOL HISTORY, IS THAT DUE TO THE SCHOOL SELLING ITSELF?
“A majority of that is credit to the previous staff and the success they’ve had. They were able to get on some guys that they really felt good about. We were able to hold on to them. You don’t get a lot into those rankings, I think, just because you don’t know. Sometimes they are justified based off how many are signed. Any time you can be recognized like that and have the highest class up to date is big. That’s good, that gives us the barometer, we can’t go below that. You want to continue to climb. Researching the players that we brought in, they’re all good fits here. That’s important. It’s about getting the right fits for our university and who we are and what we’re about. That’s going to be our best recruits, those fits that love being here and want to help us achieve the things we want to achieve and being a championship program. That’s good, it’s a big deal. That will help us continue to hopefully raise the standard.”
COASTAL AND LIBERTY CROSSED PATHS IN RECRUITING, DOES THAT HELP IN YOUR TRANSITION?
“I think so. Running the program the way we’re going to run it, you do have some crossover. There’s an understanding of knowing we recruited this young man before, would we get him at the other place, he chose here for reasons, that did help the transition with some of the players that were already committed. We had a previous relationship with them. That helped us tremendously to be able to hold onto him.”
ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE
“Offensive line is a big need, that’s going to continue to be one there. We’ve got a lot of players coming back there but a lot of super seniors coming back. So, there’s a big need over the next year or so. It was important to try and bring in some young guys now, especially guys that could come in mid-year. Two of the linemen coming in in January which is going to be big.”
ON CORNERS
“You can never have enough. We need more. We need some older guys to push some of our younger guys that are already in our program. We will be active trying to bring in a couple older guys to help with our depth at some of those needs we have. I think you are going to hopefully see us get after a couple, maybe two more corners if I had to guess.”
LIBERTY HAS TRADITIONALLY RECRUITED NATIONALLY, DO YOU EXPECT THAT TO CONTINUE?
“I think you always have to be willing to branch because you want to make sure if there’s a young man that wants to be at Liberty, you’ve got to go find them wherever they’re at. Obviously, we had prior relationships there in the Southeast, so it would be unwise not to take advantage of those, but where we’re at here and the location we have to a lot of the states that are around that have good football playing, we will definitely broaden that. We’re going to be smart about what we do. We’re going to make sure where we reach that people want to be a part of our program. If they’re in Hawaii, then we’re going to Hawaii to find them. If they are in our backyard, then we are going to stay in our backyard for the best fits for us. We will have us a nice radius on what we really want to focus on, the states we really want to focus on. We will plug certain other needs where we have needs, like we got a quarterback out of Louisiana. Louisiana is not typically a place you’re going to recruit quite a bit.”
ON OL AARON FENIMORE
“Aaron’s a heck of a player out of Georgia. Great offensive lineman, plays the game the right way. Comes from a very heavy sports family, dad played college football, was a good college football player, he’s been eat up with it for a long time. Obviously, I had a long term relationship with him. He believes in our program and what we’re doing. It will be good to get him going early because he does provide some immediate depth for our offensive line.”
ON RB VAUGHN BLUE
“He was somebody we were actually heavy on for a long time previously. Ended up getting a couple commitments before we got to him there, but he was somebody I always kept in mind. He was the next guy up if something happened. As soon as we had the opportunity here and seeing our depth at running back and some needs and some of those things, he was one of the first calls we made and got him up here. I think he’s a tremendous player. Led his team to the state championship there down in South Carolina. Unbelievably talented young man but better off the field, does things the right way. He’s another young man that will be here in January which is big. That’s a big need for us. We don’t have a lot of depth there, Dae Dae coming off the injury, we’ve got to get him back. We’re working hard to fill that room up.”
ON QB REESE MOONEY
“He’s an unbelievable fit here. He was committed this summer and stayed committed. He had a lot of opportunities to drop and some other people that tried to get him to not sign and he stuck with it because he loves Liberty. That’s the type of young men we’re going to be looking for.”
ON DL TJ BUSH
“Coming in early is big. He was somebody that we’ve known about for a long time, really since the summer of his junior year. I had him at 3-4 different camps. I saw him. He really played well, he’s a great leader, loves football. Is somebody that we know fits here really well. Anytime you can come in early to a program, whether you’re ready to play or not, it allows those guys to grow and provides an opportunity for those guys to get better quickly. In the sport of football, as you know, injuries happen, portals happen, you need as many people here in the spring to learn. He’s somebody we’re high on. If he continues to develop the way he did through his high school days, we’re looking for him to be a good player.”
ON TYSHEIK GALLOWAY
“That’s the play (to play immediately). He was somebody that we were on for a while. The first weekend I got here, he was on an official visit. The defensive staff have been on him for a while for an immediate need. He jumped on board. He’s somebody that has to be able to play right away. He’s somebody that really improved in his time at Junior College. Really had a really tremendous year this year, really improved, changed his body, did the things he needs to. He’s coming in hungry, he knows the opportunity he has. If you’re bringing in players like that, you know there’s an immediate need to fill where there’s an opportunity to play. He’s excited about that. He’s somebody that we need to hopefully when he comes in here and learns the system and puts himself in a position to help us next fall.”
ON CB JAMAL MILES
“Really excited about him, good young man, played in the all-star game down there in Alabama which is a great football state. Good fit for us, obviously I got to know him here over the last week or so. Him and his family are fabulous. His mom is an unbelievable dresser, by the way, she looks sharp when you see her at games, she’s awesome.”
ON TE BO BURKLOW
“The thing that I love about him is he’s a dual-threat type of guy. He can definitely go out, split him out and do the things you need him to do to catch the football, but he loves to block. If you ask him, he’d rather pancake somebody that score a touchdown, that’s his mentality. That’s hard to find these days. He’s a guy that will have a tremendous opportunity to come in right away and push for playing time because he has that mentality.”
ON TIGHT ENDS
“I don’t know what our mentality of our current guys are right now, I’ll learn that in the spring, but we will evaluate. We definitely need at least one more there, most likely, from that standpoint. We will look to figure out what that is, whether that is someone in the portal, whether that is a Junior College guy, whether that’s eventually a high school kid, we’ll figure that out, but after we evaluate our guys through spring a little bit and see that. We know we need at least one more there, preferably a little older guy that can mix with the guys we have coming back.”
YOU GOT A LOT OF GUYS ON THE LINE, WAS THAT A PRIORITY?
“If you’re going to win at any level, you’ve got to be good up front on both sides of the ball. Obviously, the previous staff made a commitment towards those, I did add more to the offensive line. We will keep looking for more of those, I think we don’t have enough there. We will be going after more offensive linemen here, as soon as we get off this call. We’re going to go after some more there. At defensive line, you can never have enough. We will work hard on going forward on continuing to build the depth there. If you’re good on both sides of the ball you got a chance. Our defense was really good this year here and it’s because we were really good up front. We had some good players at all levels, but those defensive linemen up front could really get after the quarterback. We’ve got to continue to build that there.”
“From an offensive line standpoint, I mention we have so many super seniors, I think there’s six or seven right now. That’s seven we’re going to lose in one recruiting class, that’s not really good. So, right now I’ve got to plan for that and try to help us not have such a drop off when those guys do finish their playing time. That’s why we’re putting a big emphasis to get enough guys, especially mid year guys that can help push up for some playing time and build some depth for us.”
WHAT ARE SOME POSITION OF NEEDS YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED?
“Quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, and then linebackers, corners, and probably a safety. We’ve got a lot of work to do there to try to get some people in.”
NO RECEIVERS SIGNED YESTERDAY, HOW MANY DO YOU HOPE TO TRY TO GET THERE?
“We probably need a couple, two, maybe three. Two for sure. We will look into the high school ranks, try to sign somebody in February. There are still some good high school guys out there, I’d like to get a young guy. I do think we need, whether it’s a junior college transfer or if we can find a portal guy who is able to come in in January, I think that would be tremendous. We were on some kids and during the transition we had some kids committed that decided to go some other places which is fine, but we do need to bring somebody in if we can in January, at least one. Then, we will recruit a couple of high school kids for the February signing class if we can get one of them to jump on board. If there’s a junior college guy as well, we need a couple older players I think to help fill that. Then, I’d like to get a young one as well.”
DO YOU LIKE TO GET MORE HIGH SCHOOL KIDS OR FROM THE PORTAL?
“I think you’ve got to build your foundation through the high school ranks. That’s always the path we tried to take. Obviously, if you have needs, if there’s an immediate need then you fill it with a junior college kid or if there’s a portal guy. You always try to be aware of what’s in the portal in case you lose a guy. We lost a starting linebacker here decided to go somewhere else. We got a defensive linemen that decided to go somewhere else that maybe you didn’t know about. Now, you’ve got to try to fill those needs. That’s the challenge with it. Our foundation will always come from high school, and then we will have to plug and play some immediate needs if the high school player that is already here that is not ready, then we need somebody that is ready to go. We will have to figure that out.”
DO YOU ANTICIPATE FEBRUARY SIGNING DAY BEING AS BIG AS THIS ONE?
“I hope we have a few join us here in January. I hope that you will see here in January we will have two more running backs that will be joining us in January is the hope. I hope we will add a receiver too, at least one more offensive lineman, and then, if things continue to trend the way that they need to, if you will see a safety, a corner, come in in January and hopefully one or two linebackers. Hopefully we will have that there by January. If we have to sign 14 guys in February, I don’t know that there’s 14 players left. We are working on that now. Then, seeing if we don’t get the right ones we will figure it out. I’m not going to panic. We are building for the long term. I’m not just going to rush and take players just to have guys. If we don’t have the right ones then we will hold them and we’ll figure it out. There will be more opportunities. If we don’t find the right guys then we won’t rush, I don’t want to take the wrong ones. There are great needs that we have to have and I’ve just got to figure out who the right fits are. Hopefully the right fits are going to come in January and get us through spring, and then we will plug and play after that.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY IMPRESSIONS FROM THE GAME THE OTHER NIGHT?
“I thought we played hard. Somebody asked me that the other day, it’s hard to evaluate when you don’t know, I mean you know football, but what were they supposed to do here and what were they supposed to do there. More for me, I look for body language. Did guys play hard? Were they playing for each other? They were, that’s good. That tells you there is a good culture, a good foundation there. My job is to enhance it and make it stronger and hopefully continue to build a strong program.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO MEET WITH KAIDON SALTER?
“I met with him. We’ve met a couple times with the groups and watched him, observed him there. Now that I have some more time, I was gone a lot, obviously, for two weeks. Now that I have some time over the Christmas break, I want to branch out to all the players, quarterback specifically because that is such a key deal and get a chance to try to get those a little bit. I know he’s an extremely talented young man, has had some success here, has had some downs here. My job is to get him to where he’s consistent and that starts with building relationships with him and all the quarterbacks. Looking forward to working with him this spring.”
HOW IS YOUR STAFF COMING ALONG?
“Working through all that. Finalizing the different things, finalizing recruiting, the departments and all the different things. We’re in a pretty good place with that, hoping we will figure out when the announcement needs to be, but everything is trending well from that standpoint. Just got to finalize maybe a couple more things need to do, I think everything else is in place. Keeping some of the current people here, the things that they’ve done. Looking forward to having that crew on campus so we can start moving forward.”
THOSE THAT ARE HERE, IS THAT MOSTLY OFF THE FIELD?
“Mostly. Obviously some went with Coach and there’s others that have opportunities elsewhere. Tried to get some to stay but they had better perceived opportunities. We will have a good staff in place.”
WHAT IMPACT DID THE COACHING TRANSITION HAVE ON KEEPING SOME OF THE RECRUITS?
“I told them all up front. I’m sure we lost a couple because of those things, but I told them all up front that you have to assume that the coach that’s been recruiting is not going to be here. If you’re coming to Liberty, you’re coming because you believe in Liberty. If you’re coming because the coach is not going to be here then it’s not going to be the best place for you. We had a lot stay after I told them that, we had a couple say I want to go other places. That was part of it, but I was up front and honest with them. I want you to know what you’re getting into and what it’s about. If you’re choosing us, you don’t have the greatest relationship with me right now, I will work on that once you’re here and building that relationship, but if you’re choosing it, you’re choosing it because you believe what Liberty’s about and the direction we’re heading. I think we were able to hold on to the majority of them with that approach. A couple decided to go other places, you wish them well. It’s not like I had a great relationship with them, I just said give us an opportunity. Not that I didn’t try, I tried, but if they weren’t sold on us in general, I say us, our program and where we’re headed, if it was more about the person it wasn’t going to work out anyway.”
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO MOVE YOUR FAMILY HERE YET?
“I’ve not had a chance. We will figure that out some. I’ll head back to South Carolina at some point and have a chance to spend a little bit there. I told my wife the other day, I’ll be just as surprised Christmas morning at what Santa brings as the kids will. I’ll be looking forward to that one. It will be good to be with them and then get back up here and be ready to go.”
