Liberty picked up a season opening win on Saturday, defeating Campbell, 41-24, 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:
“One, we’re thankful for the victory and awesome crowd, and especially after the delay, the students coming back and everybody come back. I apologize to them that we didn’t play a game that’s worthy of our University. We had 11 penalties and just foolish ones, and that’s on me. Obviously if it’s happening, I’m allowing it, and so I’m very frustrated by that. But anytime we got in some type of rhythm, something would happen Something foolish, and it would give them an opportunity and give them credit. They came in and played hard, and they’ve got a solid program they’re building there. And so it was a good test for us.”
“We talk all the time about who we’re playing against. We play against ourselves. And tonight, it might not end up on the scoreboard, but we beat ourselves a lot, and if we play like that the rest of the year, we won’t win another game. We got to do a better job of coaching expectations, but we are thankful for the win.”
WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT STOOD OUT TO YOU TONIGHT IN A GOOD OR BAD WAY?
“Well, you know, the there was a lot of new guys, especially, at receiver, that were getting some opportunities. You know about the Cooley’s and the Lucas’, the Hanshaw’s, obviously, KSalt, Sibley stepped up. But there’s a lot of new guys, a lot of new guys up front. We lost one of our starting linemen early in the game, which is, as you guys know, depth there’s a big deal. We lost him, and so we had a lot of new guys playing. I think we made some mistakes, which I knew we would, but I was pleased overall, with at least the mindset that the guys approached the game with as far as it didn’t seem like it was too big of a moment for them. We made tons of mistakes, but I was pleased with at least their focus on being prepared.”
COACH YOU HAD A THREE DRIVE STRETCH IN THE FIRST HALF, WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THOSE DRIVES?
“You get the great stop early, get a great punt return. You’re up 7-0. You get the ball back. Got a chance to go up 10-0. And then you miss a chip shot field goal. You look at the first half, and you move the ball the whole time, and you got nothing to show for it – the missed field goal and the fumble that was on us, they didn’t do anything to cause it. I thought we could have maybe took control of the game a little earlier and been able to really lean on them some. We missed a pass on third down, and six, had a chance to have a first down. We missed the field goal. And then obviously, the other thing there, so it just wasn’t a clean series right there. I thought if things went your way a little bit, you felt good then. But we scored right there, at the end of half, get the ball back, we’re up 24-10, and go up 27-10. We’ve got a chance to squeeze them out. We give up a big play on defense. It allows them to hang in there. We’ve got to learn how not to beat ourselves. Then, when we’ve got somebody down, we gotta be able to squeeze it and finish it. They’re questioning themselves when it’s 27-10 and then it’s 27-17 in like four plays. We’re not going to win a lot of games doing that.”
5 EXPLOSIVE PLAYS GIVEN UP ON DEFENSE, WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO?
“Well, I think one, you know, we missed the tackles. That’s always the challenge in the first game, I think, is with our team, we have a lot of guys returning, we’re thin at certain areas. And so how you practice, how much tackle you do, right? You need to tackle, but if you lose some guys at certain positions, you’re not going to have a team. So that was the balance as a coach I think you battle all the time, right? And so, you know, earlier they were missing tackles. They gave up some big plays, and then a couple of other ones, you know, we’re just, we’re in a Cover three and we jump a hitch, and he runs right behind, you know, and gets a big play. So there’s a lot of things that they executed, but there’s things that we’re trying to do too much. Everybody’s trying to win the game. I thought tonight, we’re trying to win a game on every play. You know, everybody’s trying to make a huge play. Just play the game the way it should be, and trust. And that’s the thing I think I noticed. A lot of those guys weren’t new guys that made that, they were the guys that have been here. They were trying to do too much. I think that’s part of the expectations and the burdens of having all this outside noise. I think that’s something we will learn from.”
WHAT IS THE STATUS OF FLORES AND X GRAY MOVING FORWARD AND HOW DID SOME OF THE OTHER GUYS FARE?
“JP will probably be out for a while. He’s not out for the year, but maybe we can get him back by the open date is the plan. Xavior, I’ve not heard all the details there, but the anticipation there is he’s probably going to be out a while. That’s a position we cannot afford to lose anybody.”
“Some of those guys came in and did well and made some mistakes, and that’s probably going to happen because they’re playing football for the first time at a high level, and that’s part of it. And so it was good for them to get out there and do some things, though, and not a practice, you know, they can see it. Hopefully we’ll learn from it and get better. Usually, you make the most improvement from (game) one to two. Let’s pray that we do. Let’s pray that we do. I know everybody here is prayerful. Go to church tomorrow and pray that we make improvement.
SIBLEY HAD A CAREER NIGHT, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM AND THE RECEIVERS BEHIND HIM?
“Obviously Treon knows what to do. He’s done it for a lot of years, done it at a high level. There’s obviously a trust factor there with him and Kaidon. They’ve been here together the longest, and so I don’t know if it was planned that way, but that’s just the way it went tonight. But I thought Elijah (Canion) made some plays. We got Darius (Copeland) involved. Juju got hurt a little bit. So we had to hold him. He had a little injury that he probably could have went back, but we tried to be smart on some of the stuff there. Tyson (Mobley) got involved some. Those guys have done solid during practice. Our expectations are they are going to continue to get better. There’s a trust factor that you gotta continue to build, and guys gotta make the plays when they’re there to make, run the routes necessary. We had some miscues of that that wasn’t clean, but now that we’ve done it under the lights and they see it, that first one’s always challenging, from a playing as clean as possible, and we got through it, thankfully. I expect us to get better there, and the trust factor to improve.”
BILLY LUCAS HAD ONE MORE CARRY THAN COOLEY TONIGHT, WAS THAT KIND OF THE PLAN COMING IN TONIGHT?
“I think both of those are good backs. If we can keep those guys fresh, that gives them an opportunity to wear down some people. We can let Cooley carry it probably 30 times, but I don’t know if that’s wise for us in a season that we’re playing as many games as we are. We’ve got to develop a third guy there as well. Jointer came in and had a couple of nice runs, he had 24 yards, had a couple nice ones. We’ve got to continue to develop some depth there. Those two are great parts. If we can keep them fresh and and keep them healthy, that’s a good way for us to hopefully lay on some defenses a little bit because those guys are fresh running through tackles.”
HOW DO YOU THINK KAIDON PLAYED TONIGHT?
“I thought he did some good stuff. He made some nice plays. I thought sometimes maybe trying to do a little too much, some of the RPOs that you have tagged, maybe it’s better to hand it off, some of those things. There’s some things improvement-wise, but he was in control. Didn’t let anything get too big. We got called for the penalty over there, but I thought they drug him down out of bounds. Now they hit him in bounds, which was fine, but they drug him down almost looked like a horse collar. Then the next play after that, the guy went after his ankles. He handled that in a good way. I’m glad we’re able to get some things on video for him to see, and some improvement, because I know he wants to improve. A lot of new guys, he managed that well, kept them going. We’ll have to continue with that mindset there, as we continue to get into conference play.”
DOES THIS KIND OF GAME GO A LONG WAY IN HELPING THE TEAM TO PURSUE YOUR GOALS?
“The only one that matters if they’re happy or not is me and I’m not happy. What I mean by that is as a coach, you look at the big picture of the things. You know what you need to do to get where you want to go. Maybe it’s a wake up call. I don’t need it to be a wake kup call. I want to see us play the game the way we coach them to play and what we pursue. We’re pursuing playing for each other and doing it the right way. I think anytime you get in the game and the other team’s doing whatever, you lose why you’re doing it. We need our guys to continue to focus on doing that because we can’t win any games by just having the foolish things we had. Some penalties are going to happen, PI’s, some of the things, ok you figure those out. But these foolish ones frustrate me, because we lose why we’re doing it. If we’re playing for each other. Then when something happens and somebody says something to you, you want to respond in a way that we shouldn’t, and that’s something we work hard on all the time, and obviously I’m not doing a good job at it. I’ve got to do better there, but I hope after the game, they know, we can be a good football team. I believe that, if we can get better, we can be a great football team. I believe that, but doing the things that we’re doing, we won’t win another game. That’s true. You mark it down, put it on A Sea of Red, put it on TV. If we do what we did tonight, we will not win another game, and then you’ll be looking for a new coach in another year. That’s what’s going to happen. We’ve gotta do a better job of why we play and not doing foolish stuff. Again, it’s on me and that’s the big picture of it. I’m thankful for the win, but I’m frustrated because that’s not who we are. We will get better.”
