Liberty picked up a win on Saturday, defeating UTEP, 42-28, to conclude the regular season at 12-0. 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:
“We knew they would come out and try to play well on Senior Day. Our guys were focused on finishing, that was our word this week, finishing. We played pretty well. There are some things we want back, obviously. I thought our defense played well. Really, the only disappointment I have is we turned the ball over, you can’t do that, and then when we had twos in there in the fourth quarter, they’ve got to perform a little bit too.”
“We are 12-0. I got here in December and the turnover again in the spring, if you would have said we were 12-0, I would have said you’re crazy. But this team bought into each other, what a tremendous season.”
441 YARDS ON THE GROUND, VERY BALANCED, WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THE BALANCE ON WHO DID CARRY THE BALL?
“We tried to get a lot of different people in there. This late in the year, you are trying to keep the guys as fresh as you can. It was good to see everybody get involved. Vaughn Blue got back. it was good to have him out there. James Jointer, what a great run there to get in the end zone. It’s big. Normally we have a 100+ rusher here and there. Our guys did a nice job of being balanced.”
HOW MUCH WAS IT GROUND AND POUND TO NOT REALLY HAVING TO PASS THE BALL?
“It was windy. When you are going against that wind it was challenging. I thought they did a nice job. They weren’t going to let us beat them deep. They were staying deep on the play action. When that happens you can bang your head up against the board and keep trying it or just do what is working. That is what happened. You would like to have some more, make some passes and connect on some of them, but some of our passes we drop back and he ended up running. That happens. They were really trying to not get beat deep and wanted to see if we were patient enough to run the ball. We will have to be better next week, obviously, but we will take it.”
HOLD THE DEFENSE TO 271 YARDS, SHUT DOWN THEIR RUSHING ATTACK.
“We did a great job there. I was surprised they came out and tried a little more. I don’t know what their game plan was but when they did try to run we did well. We know that was a big emphasis on what they have been doing all year. That was big for us to be able to hold them like that. I was really pleased with that.”
WHAT DID YOU TELL YOUR TEAM BEFORE THE GAME?
“One, I told them before the season started, you have an opportunity to make history at FBS. Certain things haven’t been done here. For us to be 12-0 at the University it never happened, but also there is not an FBS program that has won 12 games in a season in the state of Virginia, that’s since 1888. To be the first to accomplish that, being in FBS 5 years now, making history like that is just something you didn’t start out to do, but because of the success the team has had and what they have been able to do, you’ve been able to make some of those. We will look back on it, as coaches you always think about what’s next, what’s next week, we will look back on it, just how special it was, especially being new. Everybody not knowing how Coach is going to handle taking over a legendary coach and this and that, and all the losses we had, our team just stayed together. We will look back on it in a few months, but right now is not the time.”
CUSA CHAMPIONSHIP ON FRIDAY IN LYNCHBURG, YOU CAN NOW LOOK AHEAD TO NEW MEXICO STATE.
“Most important game we have played. We are thankful to be home in Williams. They are playing well, I don’t know if they won today or not, they probably did. They are a 10 win team. It’s going to be a battle. They are a way better team than they were in the beginning of the season, but I think we are too. We will have to play well to win. Thankful to be 12-0.”
