Liberty picked up a season opening win on Saturday, defeating Bowling Green, 34-24, to open the year at 1-0. Following the win, head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media. Here is everything he had to say following the game, beginning with his opening statement:
“I was very proud of our response in the second half. We came out and were up 24-0, and things were going well. We had some special teams miscues, let them get back in the game. They drive the field there in the third quarter. We were able to hold them out to a field goal. It goes back and forth. The biggest question mark I think our staff had is how we would respond to some adversity when it got tight. I’m very proud of that.”
“Our defense did a lot of good things, interceptions, turnovers today, getting five turnovers there is outstanding. We gave the ball back too much unfortunately and made the game closer than it should be. There are a lot of things to clean up. The effort, the attitude, and their resiliency we showed, I’m proud of that. We can build off of that. There are obviously a lot of things we can improve on, but I was proud of that effort and coming out and fighting for four quarters. That’s what we challenged them to do and to believe in each other – don’t waiver, don’t doubt, keep striking that stone – that’s our mindset and they did a great job.”
“Our fans that came, y’all were awesome. Our student body was awesome. It was loud, you stayed involved, and it lifted us up. Looking forward to hopefully this is the start of a beautiful relationship.”
YOUR FIRST WIN AT LIBERTY AND 100TH IN CAREER
“Honestly, I didn’t really know it was 100 until our Chief of Staff told me about it. I hadn’t really thought about that. That’s a credit to all the players that I’ve been fortunate enough to coach. I’ve lost a lot of games, to be honest with you, very fortunate to be at some good places with some great young men and that’s a credit to them.”
“The first one is always the hardest one. Especially at a new place, you have high expectations for yourself and your program, and we have obviously high expectations here. This felt like my first game ever, to be honest with you, I hadn’t felt that in a long time. It was good to get that out of the way just because it was a place here that you’ve dreamed about for a while and then you’re actually here and want to do well for the people that believe in you. I’m glad to get that out of the way and now we can get back to normal.”
KAIDON SALTER IS YOUR QB, HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS HIS PERFORMANCE?
“I thought that was the key – he didn’t turn it over, he took care of the football, he carried it a little loose sometimes, we gotta fix that. I thought he managed pretty well. There are some things that we can do better, he can do better, that we missed that probably would have helped us in some situations there. For the first time, at least in our offense and the things we’re asking him to do, very proud of the way he competed. He took care of the ball, he handled his business, he didn’t get down on himself when he didn’t make the plays that he needed to. I thought he made pretty smart decisions. We can build off that. Obviously, we don’t want him running the ball as much as he did, that was sort of some of what they tried to do a little bit. He had some quarterback scrambles and he did a nice job. Proud of how he managed our game, that he did a nice job of that and will continue to build with him.”
2 CLUTCH FIELD GOALS FOR TEAGEN LENDERINK, HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THAT GIVE YOU IN HIM NOW?
“It was good, obviously I haven’t slept well and that was one of the reasons. We got the first extra point got tipped and it went in. He knocked that first one in and you feel good. I think even the third one that got blocked, obviously, just a terrible call by me, should have probably went for it. It looked like he kicked that one pretty well. To knock that one in, you’re nervous because if that block it again and return it, they are right back in the game. It was a lot trying to decide what I wanted to do there at the end. We said let’s send him and he knocked it right in, that was nice. That’s huge for his confidence. That’s huge for our team’s confidence, as well, because they see that as well. They see the challenges we have in practice and some of those things. For him to come out and kick the ball really well, I’m proud of him. He can build off of that. Now that doubt that he might have had, he went out there and accomplished it. I’m thankful for him and his steadfastness to believe in himself. He got the call today and did a nice job.”
HOW CRITICAL WAS JEROME JOLLY’S PLAY TODAY?
“He was tremendous. Jerome Jolly, he loves to play. He’s got a motor that is all the time, sometimes that gets him in trouble and he gets down on himself. We had some specific packages we had him in. Y’all probably saw him at deep safety, you were probably scratching your head, why is the linebacker at deep safety, but we had that planned the whole time, we knew he was going to get a pick. I thought he played with confidence. I thought he stayed within himself. He’s an emotional young man, he didn’t let his emotions get the best of him when he wasn’t playing the way he’s capable of. Very pleased with him, really just that overall effort, I thought we played well. We’ve got to clean some stuff up, no doubt, over there, but when you get 5 turnovers, you should win the game by a lot. If we wouldn’t have turned it over and had our special teams blunders, I’m not sweating as much. Right now, I’m panicking and I’m nervous, but it’s an easier win. I liked how he played and how he competed for us.”
HOW MUCH DID THAT BLOCKED FIELD GOAL CHANGE THE MOMENTUM?
“It changed it completely. We ran a play there on third down and it was a no play, the guy jumped offsides, we were supposed to snap the ball and it would have been an automatic first down. That was the plan, we didn’t do it, so we didn’t execute that. Then, I’m thinking alright, 30 something seconds left, let’s get some points, we will go up by 20 going into the locker room, you feel good. Then, obviously that happens. That was the biggest question mark, honestly, I felt with our team here. When things aren’t going our way, will we keep fighting or will we tuck our tail. They drove the whole field there, we were fortunate to get a penalty on the one yard line, it blocked them back, held them to a field goal, then we were able to score to give us some separation we needed. We answered it, then it was back and forth. I’m pleased that they stayed together. It’s easy to point fingers, it’s easy to do that. We challenged them a long time. We’ve been challenging them since fall camp started. We’ve been through a lot together. We’ve been through a lot together here, just challenges we’ve faced on and off the field. I told them last night that you’ve shown that you’re resilient. It’s going to have to show up today. When we were up 24-0, I was like I hope it doesn’t show up until next week, but it showed up and our guys, it wasn’t pretty, but it’s always your baby.”
THE DECISION TO BE KAIDON IN, WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT HE WAS GOING TO BE THE ONE, WHAT PUT HIM OVER THE TOP?
“Probably two weeks ago. We knew then. We made the decision on a Tuesday after a practice. We had Monday off, went through everything. We had a Tuesday practice before we got into Bowling Green prep. We made that decision Tuesday night. He was the starter starting that Wednesday. He got all those practices in. What it came down to, obviously we kept statistics and all those different things. He did a nice job there, but at the end of the day we are trying to win a conference championship. We thought if we could continue to develop him and he continues to build that confidence that he gives us that chance to do that. That was our mindset with that. We knew he was going to make some mistakes and some things, but what we want to do is to build confidence in. He has a habit of looking over his shoulder and oh man, bad play, world’s ending, whatever. We told him up front. You’re the guy. I’m not looking to yank you out, we’re going to fight through it with you. He’s took a hold of that. There’s going to be still a learning curve with him, but really liked how he stayed composed today.”
HE SEEMS TO BE A DIFFERENT PLAYER THIS YEAR, WHAT IMPROVEMENT HAS HE MADE?
“I’ve obviously not known him long, but since we got here and I really started spending some time with him in January, the December time I didn’t get a lot of time with him. I don’t know how much he prepared to be the best. He has a lot of talent, but I don’t know how much he put in to really wanting to be the best quarterback. Through the spring, he started learning that hey it takes a lot of preparation to be the guy. From the end of spring practice through fall camp, he was our number one guy as far as watching video. That’s where it turned at. He really started preparing and getting better there. He’s still, obviously, he’s got some things we’ve got to clean up, but I was very pleased. That’s where he made the biggest impact. If he will continue to do that, now the challenge right now is he’s feeling good about himself. He can’t go back to being oh ok…he’s got to continue to be hungry, continue to lock in. I know he will, I’ve got confidence in him. That to me is where he made a 180, is that he started caring, I’m not saying he didn’t care about football, but what it takes to be a high level quarterback. He has the talent to be that, but it’s got to be more than that. You’ve got to have the guys in the locker room saying that’s our guy. Now, I don’t know if that was the case, but he’s been really tremendous.”
“I will use an example, before class started, we said hey guys you’ve got to go to class. He was one that stood up and said go to class on time. In the spring if he would have said that I probably would have passed out. He’s made some good strides on that. He’s got to continue to do that.”
WHAT’S KENDY CHARLES’ STATUS?
“He’s week to week. Got an injury Monday game week, lower body. We weren’t tackling or anything he was sort of just standing, doing something, got clipped a little bit. He’s got a lower body injury. It’s a week to week thing. We’re hoping that it heals properly. He will be back. Hopefully sooner rather than later but we’re going to take the cautious road. I”m not anticipating next week but we will see how his recovery comes. He will be back sooner rather than later.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL THE REST OF THE DEFENSIVE LINE FARED WITH HIM OUT, A LOT OF YOUNG FACES?
“I thought some of those guys did a good job. The biggest concern I have right now is, we obviously got pressure at the quarterback but they ran the ball for way too many yards. Some of it was on some option stuff. You see option every day. I was a little upset about that. We just didn’t do some detail things there. I thought they played hard. We had a good rotation. Obviously we missed Kendy there because he’s a presence there, he’s really good, but those other guys stepped up.”
“We had a lot of young guys play. Larry Jones who we think is going to play for us, he didn’t play this game either. He was in concussion protocol and also missed. We think we will get him back. TJ Bush played as a freshman. We will get better there. When Kendy comes back, these guys will have some good experience and this will make us deeper.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT TODAY’S ATMOSPHERE?
“What do we seat? 25? We want 25. But, the ones that were here, the ones that were here, were phenomenal. The home crowd behind us, they were into it. Our student body was outstanding. I was excited about it. When you run out, you got a huge roar. The band was tremendous, they did a fantastic job, the cheerleaders, all the stuff we had going on. I thought they were all awesome. It was loud. They stayed loud, they stayed through the game. We were probably making them stay through the game because we were so bad going back and forth, they didn’t want to miss what was going to happen. I was really pleased with our fans and our student body. Now the challenge is as we go into next week, another home game, first Conference USA game. It’s a big deal. It’s a history setter right, first time ever. We need a chance to do that. I hope we pack it out, but the ones that were here were awesome, they were loud. I’m sure we made them a little nervous, but we are used to that. We will get better.”
THERE WAS A MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR TAJH, COULD YOU TALK ABOUT THAT TRIBUTE?
“We were inside during that timeframe, but he’s a big part of our program. He made an impact while he was here. That was a way to just honor him and the impact that he made. Our players, a lot of them were close to him, just wanting to remember him by doing that. We’ve had other teammates’ families make some wristbands and different things. That was a nice gesture by our administration.”
COULD YOU TALK ABOUT THAT FINAL TRIBUTE MADE FOR HIM, LETTING HIM KNOW HE WAS LOVED HERE?
“It was a challenge but they did a tremendous job of staying in contact with the family and trying to honor him by the way they play. That’s something they want to do and they talk about that, especially the offensive line because that’s a tight knit group. I thought that was a motivational, not that they are thinking about that out there, but they want to do well. They want to know and their family that we are praying for him.”
