Liberty picked up a win on Saturday, defeating FIU, 38-6, to open the year at 4-0. 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 thought special teams and defense were tremendous for the whole four quarters. I think offensively we left some plays out there. We turned the ball over, had some penalties. Sometimes we are shooting ourselves in the foot offensively. I was pleased overall with unbelievable effort. We came out with a great mindset really took the crowd away from them early. I was proud of that.”
“We are getting better each week. If our defense will play like that and we clean up what we’re doing offensively, we will continue to get better and continue to mark towards a Conference USA Championship.”
A WHOLE LOT OF RUSHING YARDS TONIGHT, WHAT WERE YOU ABLE TO DO THERE?
“I thought we really controlled the line of scrimmage. They were trying not to let us run, I think that was sort of their game plan there. We really decided let’s go after them some. We broke some tackles and ran the ball physically. I thought our O-Line was physical.”
“Our pass game was off. We had some chances to make some big plays, we just weren’t clicking for whatever reason. It’s nice to know when that’s not there 100%, you can run. We thought we could go at ’em and that showed tonight.”
KENDY CHARLES RETURNED TO THE GAME, HOW MUCH DID HE IMPACT THE OUTCOME?
“It was big because Chris Boti, who had been taking his place, didn’t play tonight. He wasn’t on the trip due to illness. We needed Kendy to play well. I think once he got out there and the adrenaline got going, he didn’t know how much he was going to play and he felt great. Obviously, he almost made that guy miss on the fumble recovery. He looked good. I think we need to do more offensively drills. Really pleased with him. He’s a captain, a good player, obviously as well, just having his presence out there with our defense, those guys played with a lot of juice all game. I think he’s a big reason, having him back, everybody is feeling good about it. Happy for him to get back in his home state.”
DEFENSE FORCED 3 & OUTS ON 4 OF THE FIRST 5 DRIVES, SET THE TONE, HOW PLEASED ARE YOU WITH THEM?
“It was the most complete one we’ve had. Typically we’ve started off well and we hit a lull, or we’ve not done as well and then we figure out. With the exception of that one drive after we threw the turnover and gave them some momentum, our defense was lights out. They really didn’t threaten down there. With the energy, with the effort, with the game plan, I thought our guys had a great plan. We made that quarterback have to beat us from the pocket, he couldn’t do it. That was good to see. Hopefully going into this open date, gives us some confidence on that side of the ball.”
DEFENSIVE LINE WITH A LOT OF TFLS, DO YOU FEEL LIKE THEY TOOK A BIG STRIDE FORWARD?
“I think anytime, with the system that team uses, they put stress on your corners and safeties because they are spreading you out. You have to do well up front. If you can protect, I thought our front seven, especially that defensive line, we rotated a lot of guys, we might have gotten to the quarterback all the time, but, man, they were pressuring him. There were tackles for loss, TFLs, tipped passes. They were very active. Probably their most active and complete game that they’ve done in the four games.”
YOU WERE VERY SUCCESSFUL ON 3RD DOWN, HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU KEPT THE CHAINS MOVING?
“I think if you look at our turnovers, we had the turnovers that stopped drives and we had three foolish penalties that stopped drives. Just selfish drives. If you take any of those away, we probably have a really great night. Third down was an emphasis. I thought our guys had a good plan there. You want to continue to build confidence in what you’re doing. Third down, we’ve been struggling. You come out and you have a good plan, you execute on third down, that gives, one, the defense more rest time, and it helps wear out the opponent. That was a big emphasis. I don’t k now what the final stats were, but that was good.”
OFFENSE SCORED ON FIRST TWO DRIVES, HOW BIG IS IT FOR THEM TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START?
“It’s huge. Homecoming, when we come out for the first game, the crowd wasn’t quite here. It looked like it was a little flat. Our guys coming out and taking it right to them. Realistically we should have scored again. We had a guy wide open and we throw something else and it sort of changed momentum. I think our offense came out with good juice, good energy, good focus. Right down the field twice, and really should have been the third one there. I was pleased with their focus. We hit a lull there, with some consistency, up and down, penalties hurt us. I think if you looked at it, there was nothing they did to stop us, we just hurt ourselves. We gotta clean that up as we continue to play more teams in the conference. As you get into October, November, man, every game is so important. We’ve got to tighten some of those things up.”
4-0 THROUGH A THIRD OF THE SEASON AND STILL CHASING YOUR BEST GAME, HOW SATISFYING IS THAT?
“It is, it’s great. You are happy for your team. You are happy for our university and everybody that supports you because you are one of the few that are out there with that. We took one more step to earning an opportunity to play for the conference championship, that’s what we’re shooting for. We are still, have not performed to what we’re capable of consistently. That excites me but also as a coach, our staff has to get us there. We’ve got to clean some things up. Some of the things we did tonight would beat us later on if we do that. As a coach, you’re happy, but also you think about hey what didn’t we do well. My job is to try and get that fixed. This open time is coming at a good date for us. You are a quarter of the way through, we’ve got a hard stretch coming up. We will get our bodies right and hopefully work on some fundamental things that we can shore up.”
HOW WILL YOU MANAGE THE BYE WEEK KNOWING IT’S A SHORT TURNAROUND THE FOLLOWING WEEK?
“Yeah, it’s like a mini-open date, right. We’ve got a Thursday and a Tuesday, so we are going to have two games in five days there. Three games in 12 days, right. Our number one goal is we’ve got to make sure our guys are healthy, and the ones that are banged up, get back healthy. We’ve got to do a lot of fundamental work but we’ve also got to get ready for Sam Houston because it is a Thursday game. It’s not a typical one where you’ve got a whole week and then you’ve got another one to prepare. We’ve got two less days, really three if you think about it. We’re going to mix and match a little bit, some light days, some fundamental, and then give them some time away to get your mind and body right. Then, come back for the gauntlet we are going on.”
