Liberty improved to 4-0 on the season following the team’s win over East Carolina in the early morning hours of Sunday. Following the win, head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media. Here is the video from his press conference with the transcript to follow later:
“We’re going to have to come up with something to get started better, obviously. But you know, the thing I’m most proud of, I told the team, they don’t doubt themselves. I’ve got to figure out how for us to get off to a better start, because we’re not doing that, mostly offensively. But they never think they’re out, and they keep fighting for each other. They keep believing. They keep fighting to make plays and for us to be down to a group like that that’s talented, that’s got big aspirations, for us to be able to be down like that and come out and outscore them 35-7 over the last 2+ quarters at 2am in the morning – I guess that New Mexico State trip helped us win this one too.”
“The whole key, I shared in there, I think the biggest the point of the game to change is, we were not doing anything offensively, through an interception, they get the ball down there inside the 10. We held them to a field goal. They could have went up 24-0, that would have really tested our will, and they missed it, and then we went down and scored after that. Completely changed the game.”
“Proud of our team and how they fought, and just how we stuck together through that. It’s pretty special.”
Do you think Salter did a better job of letting things come to him after the interception?
“He didn’t play very well thefirst quarter, first half. We had two, two just fumbled meshes that he’s responsible for and then obviously the interception wasn’t a good decision. I don’t know if he’s trying to do too much and make every play, but he really settled down and maybe we call it a little bit different for him, just to make sure we can settle him down. H played really well from that interception on, played really well. Made some really big throws in key situations. I thought some guys made some great plays for him.”
“Really proud of Reese Smith and what he’s overcame, and what a game he played. Daonte Lee, a guy that stepped up. Treon Sibley got hurt this week, so he didn’t play as much. Donte really stepped up and made some plays, proud of that.”
“I thought Kaidon really flipped the switch there and played really well. We got to get him to play that way consistently for four (quarters, but after that, he settled down and played the type of game he’s capable of.”
The defense got a couple of takeaways, seems they have started to find that mojo they had last year.
“Yeah, they did well. That’s two games in a row with 2+ turnovers. Our goal was three. We had one in the end zone, and we went up like I would instead of going up a high pointing it. Besides that, I thought our defense played really well. I mean, we put them in some challenging situations, and we gave them the ball at the one yard line. We had them stopped for a field goal, and we make a stupid decision. I thought they played good, though, they got that one drive there in the fourth quarter to take back the lead, but besides that, our defense kept us in it. I’m really pleased with how they’re playing and and the things that they’re doing consistently, I think we’re being more aggressive and we’re tackling better, the things that you need to do, but they kept us in it.”
“You look at this year, third down, they were 7 of 15, that’s good for them, but we were 13 of 17 on third down. Then we went one for one there at the end, went for it, (on 4th down), so that’s 14 of 18. We kept the ball 36 minutes, when you’re playing a tempo team like they are, that’s a huge key. We were able to rest our defense some too there, especially in the second half. That’s the best we’ve played from a third down standpoint and controlling the clock and be able to do that. Ended up being a great team effort.”
How big was Cooley’s effort coming back from an injury?
“His injury that he had, the way it happened, it was a nerve, and it shut him down for a couple days. That really wasn’t the issue he had also on that tackle, ended up having like a turf toe, and that was the biggest issue. He practiced a little bit this week. We didn’t know how much he was going to (play). He ended up getting 19 carries, so he did well. He’s a tough young man, and for us to be able to rush for that, I thought they were pretty good there up front. I thought if we could get 150 (rushing), then that would be beneficial because I thought we’d throw the ball a little bit more. We were able to really there in the second half, wear them down a little bit. To get 190 (rushing) I thought was huge, I don’t know if we had any lost yardage from sacks or not, but to be able to do that and control that clock and be productive in the pass game…KSalt had four touchdowns. Really proud of the way we’re running, everybody, but Cooley, when we needed tough yards, he made it happen.”
For Reese Smith to fight through that injury and to have that kind of night, how big was his performance?
“It was huge. I think (all three touchdowns) were on third down. If we don’t catch those, you’re kicking a field goal and maybe you make it, maybe you don’t. The thing I’ve shared a lot about this team is we’re a work in progress offensively, as far as trust and all the things that you need to have. For Reese to have the game he did, Elijah Canion, got a touchdown, that can continue to help us grow, help us trust, help our quarterback trust that anybody can make a play. Tyson last week a little bit, and then obviously, what happened this week. With Treon being hurt a little bit, we needed some guys to step up. I’m happy for him because if you’ve ever had an injury and then redo it, it gets in your head and you start questioning whether, hey can I do this. If you’d have seen the, just the joy, I’m going to cry a little bit, the joy in his eyes when he made that, it was pretty special, pretty special.”
13 of 17 on third downs and 1 of 1 on fourth downs, how much does that help you control the clock?
“36:43 time of possession. It’s big. When you’re going against a tempo team, and they’ve got some skill guys that are pretty good, the more we can control it, the more they stay off of it. Then, they get a little antsy too because they want to go fast and do all those things. Honestly, we’ve struggled on third down this year, that’s been our Achilles heel. Truthfully, we’ve not been good on third down. We’ve not been good on first down, and it ends up not being great, a lot of third and longs. We’ve been in some tough situations. I don’t know how many third and longs we had out of that 17, but to end up, overall, 14 of 18, is huge. To be able to keep that ball, keep that clock running, wear them down a little bit, if you noticed, they were playing a lot of guys, they kept running them in and out. They were getting tired and our guys were getting stronger. A lot of credit to our strength and nutrition staff and our athletic training, our guys were ready to go. It’s late, we feel like we were fresh. That time of possession, going in, I didn’t think it was going to be as big of a deal as it was, but it ended up being huge.”
How about the crowd tonight sticking around after four and half hours, the student section was still pretty deep?
“It was awesome. I hope I didn’t give them a curfew violation. Our band’s tremendous, our cheerleaders, our dance team. They stay. When you’ve never experienced stuff like that before, it’s special to me every time. I’m amazed by it every time, just how much they care, no matter what. It’s 2 a.m., I told somebody, that’s probably the most exciting 2:30 in Lynchburg in a long time. Just how awesome is it? I mean, that’s a special deal. That’s what makes our place so special. That’s why our guys want to play so hard here at home, because they know how good and how special our crowd is.”
“The first minute and 10 seconds was special. I mean, looking up there and seeing all that, it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I hate that we couldn’t get everybody back, and they missed a heck of a game. I’m sure they saw 17-0 and turned it off, and probably happy they left. Never count us out. Might not win them all, but never count us out.”
Almost a 5 hour weather delay, what was that time like?
“When you’re in one that long, you just let them do what they do. They’re in there dancing, listening to music, talking on the phone, doing whatever because there’s no use when you’re in a situation where you don’t know when it’s going to stop, you just never know. We’re in here. We’re talking about what they did the first three plays. Then you talk about some things, well, they’re going to do this or this. Then after 45 minutes to an hour, there’s nothing else to talk about, so you start watching football games. We watched football games. Go up and eat. Go see family and talk with them a little bit. See how chaotic it is. Praying the game will start soon. Then you get to a certain point, is this game going to play or not? I think we’re going to have to figure out how to start earlier, we’ve had two of these rain delays. Our guys handled it well. They obviously came out and did well. We figured out the things we needed to do.”
“They were dancing and doing all this stuff in there. They said this is the last strike, it’s 30 minutes. Once we got to 20, we said we’re on 20. We brought the team up at about five, said here’s what we’re doing. We basically did our pregame again, pregame speech, and went out and then went down 17-0. So, I’ve got to figure out my pregame speech.”
