Year two of Conference USA Media Day was much different for Liberty than a year ago.
Liberty is no longer the new kid on the block. The Flames are the talk of the conference. Everyone is referencing the success the Flames had last year under first year head coach Jamey Chadwell.
It happened throughout the day at PGA America Tuesday for CUSA Media Day where Liberty’s name was mentioned repeatedly.
Look no further than the preseason media poll which had the Flames receive 18 of the 20 first place votes. Kaidon Salter and CJ Bazile were named CUSA Preseason Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively.
The Flames are now the hunted.
“We have a great nucleus that is returning that has been a part of some big games and won a lot of games, but we are 0-1 in 2024 and that’s our mindset,” Coach Chadwell said Tuesday at CUSA Media Day in Frisco, Texas. “We have a lot to learn and a lot to go out and attack and grow with this team that we have.”
In 2023, the Flames were 13-0, won the CUSA Championship, were the top ranked Group of Five Conference Champion, and advanced to the program’s first ever New Year’s Six Bowl where Liberty fell to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“We are thankful for the season we had, but as I’ve shared with these guys and our team, that was last year’s team,” said Chadwell. “This year’s team has not earned one thing. Everything we are getting right now is all based off of last year.”
Several notable names return led by Kaidon Salter and Quinton Cooley. The Flames return starters at each position on the field throughout the roster. Still, in this day and age of NIL and the transfer portal, there is always some level of turnover each and every season. The Flames have welcomed 40 new players into the program since the end of the 2023 season.
These newcomers will have to be brought up to speed on the Liberty culture that Coach Chadwell has brought to the Mountain. The chemistry of this year’s team will be new as the Flames attempt to approach the same level of success it experienced last year.
One new thing all teams around the country have in the back of their mind is the newly expanded College Football Playoff to 12 teams. The top five ranked conference champions, which will include at least one from the Group of Five level, will receive an automatic bid into the playoffs. This mean that every team at the FBS level, has access to a seat at the table to compete for a national championship.
“I know our team believes if they can handle their business that’s out there,” Chadwell said of the playoffs. “It’s not something we’re going to talk a lot about because we know it is something that is out of our control, but knowing you have an opportunity to play for a national championship, they want that opportunity to play against the best. All of us have that opportunity now, which is good.”
For Coach Chadwell, his staff, and players, the focus will be on aggressively pursuing success this season and not resting on the laurels from last year’s success.
“The main thing for us, our mindset of our program is we are about attacking and not defending,” Chadwell explained. “I think any time if you are defending or maintaining, you are losing. We’ve talked a lot about we are going after something. It’s not necessarily a championship, yes, we are playing for that, but the focus is playing for each other. If you are playing for somebody you care about, you will do whatever you can to go out and play for them. Our whole program is built on that value system. ”
That system proved beneficial last year. When the Flames take the field to open the 2024 campaign on August 31 against Campbell, Coach Chadwell hopes to have this year’s version of the Flames connected at a similar level.
“This team that we have this year has a great opportunity to continue to build their legacy and what they want to be about.”
