Liberty HC Jamey Chadwell press conference quotes Buffalo week

Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Tuesday morning as he recapped the Flames win over New Mexico State and looked ahead to this week’s game at Buffalo. You can also watch the press conference on our YouTube channel, the video is also below. We will plan on live streaming each of Coach Chadwell’s press conferences this season.

Here is everything Coach Chadwell had to say, beginning with his opening statement.

“I thought our team handled the second half, extremely well. We came out of the locker room and dominated the second half. Obviously, we didn’t like how we started from a defensive standpoint, but we were pleased with the victory. After watching it, there were some really good things we did. We struggled with some penalties hurt us, kept us, I think, from probably making the game a little bit wider margin. Pleased with the effort, pleased with the focus.”

“We’ve had the luxury to stay at home, but now go on the road for the first time. First time for us, first time for us knowing how our guys are on the road. So, there are a lot of new things there that have to go with it. It’s good to be 1-0 in the conference and now we have to try to go be 1-0 again.”

YOU COMMITTED TO THE RUN IN THE 2ND HALF, WHAT WERE THOSE CONVERSATIONS LIKE AT HALFTIME?

“We thought in the first half we had a good mix, some good balance. We thought not that we had to make any adjustments, but how they were trying to play us, they were trying to limit certain things. Once we identified that, we made the plan there in the second half, alright, this is how we are going to attack this. See if they would adjust and they didn’t. That allowed us to, I think, run it consistently and we stuck to it. It wasn’t like we were going to run it down their throat, but we felt like if they were going to keep doing this then let’s do this and see if there’s an adjustment. Our guys handled it well. I think we overcame on that drive, some penalties as well. That really set the tone. I think that allowed our defense to settle in as well because we were sort of up and down there on defense. We got the turnover right before halftime and got some points. The next time our defense came on the field, we were up 13 points, I think, and most of the 3rd quarter was gone. That drive was a huge deal. It wasn’t like we were yelling at them in the locker room. We were just like, hey, these are things let’s change it up, let’s fix this, and our guys went out and executed that which was good to see.”

LIBERTY IS CURRENTLY T-6TH IN THE COUNTRY IN RUSHING OFFENSE, HAS THAT SUCCESS, ESPECIALLY THIS EARLY, SURPRISED YOU AT ALL?

“Not a surprise because we are trying to commit a lot to that. We want to try and be as balanced as we can as well. Now, balanced doesn’t always mean 50-50, but you want to be able to do both. I didn’t know that statistic which is great, but I think what you saw us do in the second game was more like what we want to be. I think in the first game it was me probably playing a little cautious and wanting to feel out who we have and how they respond. Then there in the second game, we started opening it up more so we could be more balanced. If we can run the ball consistently when everybody knows you need to run it and we can still run it, then that opens up so much more in our passing game and our guys will get a lot of 1 on 1 opportunities. We know for us to be successful we have to be able to do that. Our guys know that. I think our offensive line has taken some pride knowing we want to rush the ball for a certain amount of yards. That makes it harder each week because everybody tries to stop us, that’s why our passing game is so important. I’m more pleased with it was good to have, I don’t know the exact statistics, but it felt way more balanced, obviously, because in the first game we were very unaggressive, I would say, in the first game.”

FEWER CARRIES FOR KAIDON, PLEASED WITH THE PROGRESS THERE?

“Yeah, I thought he did a nice job. We had there on the first drive we had a bad call. We thought we were going to get something. They did something else, and then he made a mistake on top of our mistake which is what we told him, we’re going to make some just don’t make another one. I think he responded to that tremendously well. We obviously didn’t want him to run as much as he did the first game, so we were trying to limit that. The thing where he is really good, in the short amount of time, if he can get out of that pocket he can make something happens when the pocket breaks down. But he stood in there and made some nice throws as well. I thought he was in command. He never looked like he was out of control or anything of that nature. I was really pleased with that. Now the challenge is as people try to do different things to him, he’s got to continue to learn and grow and get better there. Pleased with how he played and how productive that he was. He spread the ball around really well.”

HAS AARON BEDGOOD BEEN A BIT OF A SECURITY BLANKET FOR YOU AND YOUR STAFF?

“It’s been huge, you know. We picked him up obviously after the two injuries we had there in the summer. To be able to get somebody that exactly knows your offense and knows what to do and we know what he’s capable of. He’s played well the first two weeks. It’s not something that’s new for him, he’s been in the games. The thing that makes it work is he’s very humble. He’s very unassuming, but he is a really good player. You’re seeing that in special teams, he is doing a great job from a return standpoint. Then, obviously he is making some plays in the pass game. He probably would have had a huge play in the run game but he dropped it. I’m going to tell him that too. He dropped the pitch, could have had a touchdown. He’s played well. He’s capable of that. He’s played well for us at previous places. We’re thankful we have him here. He’s been a great addition because he doesn’t bring an attitude. He just brought a humble work ethic, which was a good mix for what we needed.”

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS GAMES AGAINST BUFFALO?

“Well, one, they are very tough-minded. They are a physical team on both sides of the ball, they are coached that way. They do a lot of different things to try to confuse you. They’re not going to be intimidated. No matter what their record is they are going to play hard. Last year, they started 0-3 and then won 6 out of 7 or 7 out of 8, whatever it was. I think they won a bowl game. He knows how to get the ship right. We’ve shared with our team that, one, it’s hard to go on the road, and, two, they are the most talented team we have played regardless of their record. They have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. They are bowl champions. They understand what it takes to be in a conference. This is a big challenge for us. If we’re not ready to go, they will smack us in the face and beat us. We have learned that first hand. We have to do a good job of preparing and playing there because they have good players on both sides of the ball. If you look at the Wisconsin game they played them really well for three whole quarters and it got away in the fourth. Then last week, they just had some unfortunate penalties at some bad times that really allowed the other team to win or they would have won that game. We’ve got to be ready to go.”

BUFFALO SEEMS TO BE MORE OF A PASSING ATTACK THAN YOU’VE SEEN SO FAR THIS YEAR, DOES THAT PRESENT SOME CHALLENGES TO YOUR DEFENSE THAT MAYBE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS?

“I think because we’ve not handled the rush as well as we’d like, we’re probably going to see more rushing attempts. Right now when you have 7 interceptions, from a pass standpoint, when the ball is in the air, if we get a chance to get our hands on it, we are doing pretty well with that. But we’ve struggled consistently to, I don’t want to say they are rushing up and down the field, but to consistently stop it when we need to. I think what we anticipate more is maybe they will be a little more balanced because they do have big players up front that can do that. Now the quarterback can do things and they have a good system, so we obviously have to be ready for that. Until we can prove that we can consistently stop the run, we are going to see more of that.”

THEIR QB HAS COMPLETED 70% COMING IN, WHAT KIND OF CONCERNS YOU ABOUT THEIR OFFENSE AND WHAT MAKES IT GO?

“He is really good at executing. What I mean by that is they get it out quick. He makes good decisions. They have a really good scheme of what they do. He knows what to do with it. He’s an experienced guy. They show you a bunch of different things, different formations to try to make you think and motions and stuff. He knows how to use those motions and knows where to go with the ball. What we’re going to have to do a great job of is, like last week, we had some coverage mistakes and it cost us. Versus a guy like him, who is arguably the best quarterback we have seen, we can’t make those or he will really hurt us. We are going to have to do a really good job of recognizing formations and making sure we put ourselves in positions not to have missed assignments and some of those because they have players that can beat you when you do that.”

NICK BROWN GOT SOME OPPORTUNITIES AT PAT SATURDAY, DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT TO CONTINUE GOING FORWARD?

“I think, you know, it’s really probably an open competition. Teagen has done a nice job, but we will see what happens through this week and stuff. The biggest thing that we’ve had is we’ve had three kicks blocked. One went in and then two of them was blocked. We probably lead the country in that, that’s a statistic you don’t want to lead the country in. We’ve got to do a better job blocking, we’ve got to do a better job getting the ball up in the air so that doesn’t happen. We will sort of see how it goes there.”

ARE YOU A FAN OF FLASHY QUARTERBACKS? DO YOU LIKE THAT EXTRA SWAG THAT HE BRINGS?

“I like swag. It isn’t my personal style, y’all have seen how I dress. I want a guy to be confident. More importantly, I just want him to be himself, but also you want to make sure you always respect the game and respect your opponents. That’s the thing that you want your team to do is always respect the game and always respect your opponents. You can be yourself but I don’t want anyone to try and show up anybody or something of that nature. I don’t want to do those things, but yeah I want him to be who he is, his personality, and I want him to project the confidence he has in himself.”

BUFFALO JUST LOST AT HOME TO AN FCS SCHOOL, DO YOU HAVE A WAY TO GET YOUR TEAM’S ATTENTION ABOUT GOING ON THE ROAD AND WHAT THEY DO WELL?

“I don’t know. It’s my first time with them. I don’t know what the history was of certain things, but each week what we talk about with our guys is we’re not playing Buffalo, we’re playing Liberty. We are playing our mindset. We are playing what our preparation is. Last week we didn’t have the best week in practice on certain days and it showed up in the game. We point back to that saying, we practiced like that on Tuesday and Wednesday was like this and this is why we came out of the gate like this. For us, yes, we know they are really good. We know they can beat us, but our focus more has been on what do we have to do to play our best on Saturday regardless of who we are playing. FCS schools are just as good as FBS schools, that shows around the country. I don’t take them getting beat by them as them not being good. They are a good team, it just went that way. Our guys have to be more about what we need to do player to player no matter who we’re playing. Hopefully, being on the road, I enjoy being on the road because it’s only you and you. There’s maybe not as many fans, etc. You’ve got everybody against you. Hopefully it can bring us even closer together and you know you are going in to do something that nobody expects you can do on the road in a tough environment. Hopefully that does allow us to lock in more, but this will be the first time on the road with our staff and all of that. Some of the players will be learning that new, we’ve had a lot of new ones. So, this will be hopefully the last of them knowing how we handle road games and all those things.”