Liberty picked up a win on Saturday, defeating Old Dominion, 38-10, to move to 10-0 on the season. 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’m a child of a Veteran, he was a child of a Veteran, my mom’s side was a Veteran, we love America. I’m thankful we could bring some fireworks today on Veteran’s Day and our military that is past and present. We are very thankful that we get to play a game and they allow us to do that because of the sacrifices them and their families have made so we can enjoy the freedom we do in this country. We never take this for granted. I want to make sure we honor our military and what they do for us. I’m very appreciative of that.”
“Huge win. I thought the first half was about as good as we good play. Second half, defensively was outstanding for four quarters, I knew they would be. They had the best week. They clamped them down for four quarters, it was tremendous.”
“Offensively, I thought we sort of came and go there in the second half. To be able to play the way we did and compete the way we did against a team from a good conference. We talked to our team this week about earning respect. We, at Liberty, and our conference doesn’t get the respect we deserve. This team played six games in the Sun Belt – three up, three down and every game was within a touchdown, and we completely dominated them. I don’t want to hear that ‘oh you don’t play nobody.’ Our conference got us prepared for this game and you saw what happened. We will take on anybody anywhere and I believe in our team and our conference.”
“When you talk about us and you talk about this conference, I do believe we deserve more respect than we are getting. Hopefully that was shown today against an opponent who has been within one touchdown of every opponent they have played. Thankful for the win and what an awesome crowd and an awesome experience. We are excited to be 10-0.”
WAS THAT REALLY THE MESSAGE TO YOUR TEAM THIS WEEK FOR SOME MOTIVATION TO MAKE A STATEMENT?
“It was a little bit. Obviously you are always trying to win. We focus on the next one. Being in-state, being from another conference that is well respected, and making sure that we’ve got to earn our respect. How you do that is you go play and you go dominate. We were able to do that. We talked a lot about earning respect, that we don’t get it. The only way you are going to get it is if you go earn that. I think we showed that today.”
WHAT STOOD OUT TO YOU FOR THE OFFENSE EARLY IN THE GAME?
“We were really balanced, overall. If we would have done some stuff in the third and fourth quarter we would have had another whatever, but we were able to do some things throwing and running, anything we wanted really. First half I think we punted once because of a dang penalty. We were able to do inside-outside and into our play action some. They actually came out and played a different defense than they have all year. Our guys did a nice job of adjusting to it. We didn’t skip a beat. I thought our guys made some really nice plays. We have confidence that we can score. I know sometimes that might not happen all the time, but we believe we can score. I know right now we are going to be upset we didn’t get another 300 or score there in the third and fourth quarter the way we are capable of. Those guys are hungry to go out, but I can’t complain too much right now. I will find something.”
TALKING ABOUT PROVING YOURSELF, HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T DISTRACT FROM THE PROCESS OF GETTING READY FOR A GAME?
“The winning is a by-product of why we play. We talk a lot about why we do what we do. There is a purpose for playing for our brotherhood and what we’re trying to accomplish. If you always keep that at the forefront, you can talk about earning respect and those things, but we really always bring it back to Liberty and what we’re about. We drown out any noise and those things. We have our own things that we do within but we always try to bring it back to that main thing. We are playing for each other. We are playing for the guy beside you and you want to lay it on the line for him and you are going to do it for four quarters. That helps us stay locked in on what is important and not looking ahead or worrying about what is behind.”
“Our guys know the narrative right now. Instead of me trying to squash it, I say we are going to feed into it. We came out intense and focused, really pleased. Now, our challenge is can you keep doing it? Is that a one time thing or can we play that way consistently? That to me, is our biggest challenge moving forward.”
TIED A SCHOOL RECORD WITH 10 WINS, DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE THAT MUCH SUCCESS SO QUICKLY?
“You always believe you can win, probably winning too much in the first year. I need to have a little bit of leeway, right Ian? You know what, you felt like do we have enough talent at certain positions and all those different things, will they buy in to what you are asking them to do? It’s always a challenge when you have that much roster turnover and a new staff, that’s hard. All the credit, all the credit goes to those players because they made a choice. They had a choice to either go one way or the other. They decided to trust each other, to buy into each other. This is the result of that. They are playing hard. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I thought this or that. Each week we just tried to build our program that is honoring to Jesus and that we use football, not allow football to use us. Those guys have done a tremendous job. Now that you are at 10, you don’t want to stop?
HOW ABOUT THE DEFENSE THIS WEEK AFTER STRUGGLING RECENTLY?
“100%. A lot of that stuff is you go back the last couple of weeks a lot of the points we gave up were some busted assignments on our own. We did some things that we just shouldn’t do and that allowed some things to snowball on us. Our guys have a lot of pride about how we play and what we do. I think they were a little like, hey, we are better than what we’ve shown. We had some good practices. We had some guys really step up and say that’s not who we are. I think we showed that today in the way we played. They scored there in garbage time at the end. We gave up the three points off, I think they got a penalty to get down there. Our defense played tremendous. That is probably the best overall game, four quarters, that we have played, maybe all year. We are capable of doing that if we will handle the things that we can. We might not shut people out, but we didn’t beat ourselves, we didn’t do any foolish things. We made people try to beat us.”
“If someone beats us and we don’t beat ourselves, I will live with that all day, but if we are beating ourselves and Liberty is beating Liberty, you just can’t live with that as a coach. This was our cleanest game from a defensive standpoint we have played to date.”
ANY INITIAL WORD ON KENDY AND BENTLEY AND THEIR INJURIES?
“Bentley is going to be out a little while. I don’t know the exact extent of it, hopefully we will get him back for the championship game. The diagnosis on Kendy, he is probably done, most likely. We will see what happens after the x-rays and stuff but he is probably finished for the season.”
DID YOU ENVISION THIS WOULD BE WHAT KAIDON SALTER WOULD BE ABLE TO DO?
“I knew the talent level that he has. This spring when we were here, he did not show, except in little flashes, what he’s been able to do up to this point. You know there is a lot of talent there, but is he willing to do the things necessary to be a good quarterback and be a leader in what you should do. Put away the ego and all those certain things. I’ve stated from the end of spring ball through the summer, his 180 as far as mindset and preparation. Now, he goes out and he is having fun, he’s competing, those guys believe he can make any play out there. He does. He makes tremendous plays. We knew there was talent there. Would he maximize it? To his credit he is. It’s pretty special and it’s fun. He will make you pull his hair out some too, but we will take that when he does some of the other things.”
HOW DID YOU ADDRESS THE CHANGE FOR THE DEFENSE MOVING INTO THIS WEEK?
“The last three weeks, it was the overall effort and it was the overall mentality. We would mess up and we got down on ourselves. We didn’t have somebody step up. I didn’t have to do tons because they knew. What I think your job as a head coach is to remind that’s not who we are and to find out why. They lost their belief a little bit. We had to get that back. Our team needed to get that back. Coach, I can say that. Our coaches can say that, but we needed that to happen within that group. We had our leaders step up and talk to each other, talk with that side of the ball, and say this is not what we are about.”
COULD YOU TALK ABOUT CJ DANIELS AND HIS PERFORMANCE TODAY?
“Every week this is what he does. He makes tough catches. He makes catches over the middle. He runs great routes. He gives you that guy. Because of our run game, we get certain looks. People have to make decisions on him, are you going to go one on one? They did, which we were surprised by it. Or they have to double him up and it would open other things. He is good enough, if he gets those one on ones, he is a good route runner, he is going to make the catch more times than not, and he is good with the ball in his hands. Each week he has gotten better and better in making plays. Him and Kaidon have a connection now where he knows if I get the ball close to him he is going to make a play.”
“I don’t know all of his history when he has been here, but he started out pretty well and then had some injuries. Here and there, but he’s obviously making the most of this year. I give a shoutout to him. This November is Epilepsy Awareness Month. His mom and also James Jointer’s mom, battles that. We had a sticker on our helmet that his mom, she got a foundation, sent us to wear. We wore that today to bring awareness to that because we do have two young men on our team who’s family is suffering from that. If you saw a purple sticker there, our players had some wristbands to bring awareness to that. His mom has fought that for a long time. Excited for him to be able to play well but also bring awareness to that and what he and his family have to live with.”
WHAT SPECIFICALLY DID YOU SEE FROM THE DEFENSE IN CHANGING THAT SIDE OF THE BALL?
“Your captains, Tyren Dupree, Quinton Reese. Hey, that’s not our standard as far as how we play. They weren’t demonstrative or in people’s face, just getting together and saying we are better than this consistently. You saw throughout the week there was a hunger to prove that’s not what we’re about. You saw how they prepared, how they came out. Little things they said to each other. It wasn’t like they had a defensive team meeting or anything, they handled their business. Coaches as well. Coaches were a little embarrassed by the way they performed as well. They wanted to group together. I thought today we played well. I don’t know what statistically Old Dominion came in playing, but we did a great job against it.”
