Liberty concluded its non-conference slate with a perfect record following a 35-34 overtime win against UMass on Saturday afternoon. The Flames improve to 7-2 on the season. Following the game, head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media. Here is the full transcript and from his press conference:
“It looked bleak. I knew the field goal would be challenging, because it was against the wind. The wind was pretty good there. I’m mad prior to that, we had the ball and a chance to go down put ourselves in chance for a field goal offensively. We’ve got to finish that. Then, defense, we’ve got to get them off the field. They had a chance, they missed it. Then they went right down the field. For him, it hit that upright, in 2020, we went into overtime and we hit the upright. I was thinking here goes Deja Vu for a good thing. Once we got out there offensively, we got the ball to Cooley and we knew he would get us a touchdown. It was much needed. I’m still ticked off about the first half.”
In the third quarter, your defense had two three and outs, what adjustments did you make defensively?
“It wasn’t schematically. Our defense has to learn. We didn’t tackle well. They’ve got to learn how to play with the same consistent intensity. We can’t play, ‘Oh, their starting quarterback is out, they’re not going to be as good.’ There’s good football players all across the country. It wasn’t a schematic change, it was more of a heart change, a mindset change. I thought they played really well. We got wore down there a little bit in the fourth quarter, gave up a couple things we shouldn’t have. I think that was the key. We scored offensively to get back in it. Really had a chance to score on the second drive out of halftime, I think we had a penalty or something that set us back. We hadn’t got called on that penalty all year long, we got called on it twice. They jumped. It’s one of those things. I think that was the key. They got some stops, allowed us to get back in the game and get the momentum going in the Flames Quarter. We took the lead. I’m excited about the win, but one of those that it reminded me of the first six games. I told the group, ‘If that’s who you want to be, we might as well pack it up the rest of the season and not play another game.’ We can’t play to the level of competition. We’ve got to play to the standard. I thought we practiced well, but you’ve got to come out and mentally be ready to go. I have to do a better job that falls back on me getting them ready to play. We came out with better intensity in the second half. I’ve got to get us to come out in the first half with that same intensity.”
Do you think you got enough in the passing game to open up the running game?
“Yeah. The way they played us, they were playing deep, their safeties were playing deep and trying not to give up any explosive plays. Then, when we’re throwing, we had some dropped passes. Sometimes you get to the point where, crap, if we’re going to drop it we might as well just run it up in there. I thought Kaidon did a great job scrambling and doing some good things, making some plays. We had some plays to make, we missed some, some one on ones, or we had some shots. We had them beat on two plays and missed some opportunities. I thought Kaidon did a really nice job. When he needed to make a play, he made one. Even that last drive, on third down when it’s tipped, he’s’ open. We’ve got a chance to catch that, catch and run, and put ourselves in a good position. Those things went against us. Thankfully we were able to get it going in the second half and score when we needed to score and not have to punt.”
You get that pass interference on 4th down, what did you see on that play?
“I really thought it was pass interference on third down. Maybe it was a makeup call. It could have gone either way. We’ve had so many go against us, so thankfully we got one. I really thought the third down one was worse. It was a bang-bang. That’s what happens. You throw the ball up, sometimes t hey call it, sometimes they don’t. Fortunately that went our way. Obviously, we were able to score there and win this game. At the end of the day, you try to find a way to win. That’s the most important thing we did. That kick that Colin made, that’s not easy. A missed extra points. Ryan Manis, our snapper, Max Morgan our holder, it’s an extra point. We do it all the time. When you know if you make it, you’re going to win the game and the other guy just doinked it off the upright, it’s a little pressure. The operation was great. The execution was great. Colin got more nervous signing the victory song than he did kicking that out there. He has ice in his veins.”
What can you share about Bentley Hanshaw and Alex Oliver who left the game with injury?
“I don’t know all the details of it. My assumption will be they are probably out for a while, that’s what it looked like. Anytime you’re on crutches or it’s an ankle, especially if it’s a high ankle or something of that nature, I don’t know all the details, but my assumption is that is probably a couple week thing, probably the rest of the season. You never know, sometimes the bodies heal up differently. Both of those guys are very valuable to us. Bentley is obviously a captain and plays really well. Losing him will be a challenge for us, Austin Henderson is already out. That’s taking s ome hits there. Hopefully we get back and we will see where we’re at. Hopefully we can put ourselves in position to have a couple guys back.”
Take us through the final drive in overtime.
“First play, we were trying to take a shot, they stopped how they were playing. We had a guy, they got underneath it. Kaidon did a good job not forcing it, scrambling out. I thought we got positive yards there which is big. You don’t want to take a sack. 2nd and 10, we ended up getting a 2nd and 2 and can get back to some things we do. Obviously had a great run, got down in there. That last play, he stopped at about the 2 yard line, from my observation point. Our O-Line pushed him in. Just seeing everybody celebrating and excited to get the victory, they know it was dire straights. They know what we looked like in the first half. They were embarrassed and I was too and I told them that. To be able to come out and play better, again we didn’t play perfect, but we played the way we are capable of from an intensity stand point. I’m glad we got the win.”
*photo courtesy Liberty University Athletics
