Jamey Chadwell has been known for his innovative triple-option based offense throughout his coaching career, and that has carried over to the start of his tenure at Liberty this season. However, on Thursday night in front of a national television audience and 17,100 fans in attendance at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia, it was the Flames’ defense that stood strong and lifted the team to a 21-16 victory over the visiting Sam Houston Bearkats.
“I told the team, ‘There’s no ugly babies. You get a baby, no matter what it looks like, you love it.’ We will take the win,” Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell said following the game. “It was a hard fought win. Credit to Sam Houston, they played a great game, they competed, I knew they would. We found a way to hold on. We didn’t play great, part of that was because of them, part of that was because of coaching. We didn’t do a great job of getting our guys ready.”
Liberty punter Max Morgan pinned SHSU at their own 1 following a 42-yard punt. With the Bearkats trailing by 5 and just 3:36 remaining in the game, they would need to drive 99 yards to secure their first win of their brand new FBS venture.
The 2020-21 FCS Champions quickly moved into Liberty territory, shredding the Flames’ secondary for chunk plays and doing so quickly to make it where the clock was no factor. The Bearkats moved 69 yards on 7 plays to get to the Liberty 30-yard line.
Facing a 3rd and 4, Sam Houston quarterback Keegan Shoemaker aimed for receiver Jay Rockwell on a pass down the left sideline. Both Rockwell and Liberty corner Kobe Singleton made contact with the other before the pass fell incomplete. A late flag was thrown on the play as Singleton was whistled for the questionable pass interference call to move the chains and keep Sam Houston’s hopes alive.
“Yeah, that was a tough PI call,” said Chadwell. “I thought we had some penalties go against us that hurt us. Some that could have been called that weren’t.”
The Bearkats would then have 8 offensive plays in the Liberty red zone, including six from inside the 7 yard line.
The first play from the 7 came on 3rd down, and Singleton got his hands on the Shoemaker pass in the end zone and nearly came away with a game clinching interception. The ball would however fall to the Williams Stadium turf incomplete. On the next play, a 4th and 2, Shoemaker found his favorite target on the night, Noah Smith, for a four yard gain to set up a first and goal at the 3.
After Shoemaker clocked the ball to stop the clock on first down, the Flames were able to withstand three passes towards the end zone to preserve the win. Two of those three plays were broken up by Singleton, including the final stand on 4th and goal with just 7 seconds remaining. Singleton made three pass breakups on the final five offensive plays the Bearkats made.
“Almost picked the one off. Then, he had that one (on 4th down), that was big,” Chadwell said of Singleton. “We knew they were probably going to go to that guy. We put him over there for that reason. When he needed to step up, he made a huge play. He’s probably the most competitive corner I’ve been around as far as everything is a competition and he rises to the top. It was good to see him mature. Normally if he gets a PI like that, that would have wrecked him. He would have been so upset, and he wasn’t. He just got back there and played.”
Singleton finished the game with four tackles and three pass breakups. He’s been Liberty’s top corner all season, and when his number was called, with the game on the line, he stood strong for the home-standing Flames.
“It was great to be able to stay down and be faithful,” said Singleton. “God put me in crazy positions like this. Roller-coaster ride, I’m just grateful I’m able to make the plays.”
Following the third and goal play, Liberty called a timeout to make sure they had the personnel on the field and they wanted and had the correct play call ready for fourth down. During that timeout and the final offensive play for the Bearkats, it felt like an eternity for all of the Flames faithful.
“I was nervous, I’m not going to lie,” Singleton said of the final sequence. “The ball was in the air so long. I was just trying to hit the ball away. When it happened, I was just thankful.”
Liberty is now 3-3 all-time when playing on Thursday night, picking up the win on CBS Sports Network. Prior to the win over Sam Houston, Liberty’s last Thursday night win came on Nov. 19, 2015 against Coastal Carolina, a 24-21 victory at Williams Stadium.
The Flames took the opening kickoff and scored a touchdown, a 10-yard Kaidon Salter dash into the end zone to gain the early 7-0 lead. The Flames have received the opening kickoff on four of five games so far this season, converting three opening drive touchdowns and one opening drive field goal in those four games.
Sam Houston followed with a 12-play, 85-yard drive to knot the score at 7. After Salter’s second interception on the season, the Bearkats gained the lead, 10-7, thanks to a 33-yard field goal. Liberty answered right back as Quinton Cooley’s first touchdown in a Liberty uniform, coming from one yard out, pushed the Flames back ahead at 14-10, a lead that Liberty would not relinquish.
The two teams combined to score on four of the first five offensive possessions, and it looked like we were headed for a shootout. That would not be the case though as it became a punting fest throughout much of the rest of the game.
Salter would connect with CJ Daniels on a 51-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to two scores at 21-10 going into the halftime break. Daniels had a carer night, finishing with a career-high 157 receiving yards, marking his fifth career 100-yard receiving game and third on the season.
His 157 receiving yards are the most by a Flame since Antonio Gandy-Golden recorded 162 receiving yards on Nov. 9, 2019. Only Gandy-Golden (five times) and Damian King (Sept. 8, 2018) have posted more than 157 receiving yards in a game during Liberty’s FBS era.
“When he made them, they were huge,” Chadwell said of Daniels’ big night catching the ball. “They were obviously big moments whether they were third down or got us down in the red zone. He made some big plays. Even the ones that he missed, they were unbelievable, almost great catches. He made the misses look phenomenal. Anytime you’ve got a guy that you know if you put it in his vicinity, he’s got a chance to make a play, that’s a comfort level for the quarterback. We target him, and we had chances to make some big plays. We made a lot of them. We missed some too. Any time you have somebody you know, this guy is going to win, you feel good about him.”
Liberty had opportunities in the second half to extend the lead and put the game away. On three consecutive possessions, the Flames reached Sam Houston’s territory but were unable to come away with punts. This included missed field goals by Nick Brown from 34 and 39 yards.
On the Flames’ final offensive drive, Liberty moved the ball to the Sam Houston 28 yard line and had the chance to put the game away as the clock ticked under four minutes. The Flames then had two negative plays that sandwiched a delay of game penalty, pushing the team back to the 43 and forcing the Morgan punt that was downed at the 1.
“We are still growing,” Chadwell said of the team’s struggles at times during the game. “I think we all think we should be here, and we’re still learning. Everybody new that we’re playing, they do things different with the way they are playing us than on film. So, we adjust. When you have younger players, maybe it takes them a little longer to make those adjustments, and then you wish they were here longer in the process.”
Liberty outgained Sam Houston, 448-327. The Flames rushed for 191 yards, the first time this season in which Liberty has not run for over 200 yards. 96 of Sam Houston’s 327 total yards came on its final drive. They rushed for 72 yards, marking the third straight opponent Liberty has held to fewer than 100 yards on the ground.
Quinton Cooley led all rushers with 106 yards on the ground on 17 attempts. He returned to the game after leaving with an injury late in the first half. The Flames are certainly banged up at running back now as Billy Lucas and Vaughn Blue missed the Sam Houston game. Blue will be sidelined for most of the 2023 season after an injury he suffered at Buffalo. Lucas was in uniform in the first half of the game Thursday night but did not see the field.
Salter finished the night completing 11 of 19 passes for 257 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. He rushed for 38 yards and a score. Sam Houston did a good job pressuring the Liberty quarterback and containing his runs to limited gains.
“We found a way,” Chadwell said. “I think when you try to be a championship program, you go through challenging games. Is there doubt? Did they waiver? Our guys didn’t waiver. We had a belief that somebody was going to make a play. We made it close. I told them, they had to go 99, we let them go 96.”
Now at 5-0 on the season and 3-0 in Conference USA play, the Flames will have a quick turnaround before heading to Alabama to take on Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks are currently tied with Liberty atop the league standings as both have 3-0 conference records. JSU is 5-1 overall and coming off a 45-30 win at Middle Tennessee on Wednesday night.
“That’s our goal, I want us to play our best and I will live with what happens,” said Chadwell. “We didn’t play our best, but we found away. We will move forward and hopefully get better next week. We will need to be better next week.”
