No. 23 Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Sunday as he discussed his initial thoughts on the Flames receiving an invitation to the VRBO Fiesta Bowl as Liberty will take on No. 8 Oregon. Check out the full transcript from him below.
“Today, was surreal for our program, for our players. To see our name, our logo up there in the Fiesta Bowl was something that really was beyond our dreams. On top of that, to play one of the premier college football programs in the country with Oregon is something that doesn’t typically happen to programs like us. If I could put in words just the emotion that our players felt to see that today, the excitement, the joy, the tears, it was a special, special moment.”
“We are thankful to be in it, we are thankful to be representing Conference USA, and we are excited about playing Oregon. We know how good they are. Disappointed Bo Nix is going to play, I was hoping he was going to hold out and wasn’t going to play any against us. I have a relationship with Bo’s father going back from a FCA football camp, we actually coached at the same place together. Bo is a tremendous player, we are looking forward to going against what could be a Heisman winner.”
“Unbelievable opportunity for our team and our fans and our community and our university.”
HOW IS YOUR OFFENSE DIFFERENT THAN WHAT YOU WERE RUNNING AT COASTAL?
“There are a lot of similarities. The quarterback is a different player here than what Grayson was, you gear it more towards what his skillset is. We’ve added maybe some more wrinkles here because of his running style and what he’s able to do than what we were able to do at Coastal. There are a lot of similarities. You always have some nuances, and we do, but if you look at the base, the foundation of it, it is very similar.”
AFTER THE RESULTS OF THE AAC TITLE GAME, WERE YOU MORE CONFIDENT AND HOW WAS THE WAIT TODAY?
“I wouldn’t call it confidence, probably more anxious and ready for more disappointment, to be honest. You start seeing people pick apart your season and all these different things going back and forth. We told our team, we had a little watch party, and we told them up front it is going to be 50-50. It’s either going to be us or it’s going to be a disappointment. Until we saw that logo, to be honest with you I thought it was probably going the other way. Especially once I started doing some more, I was nervous. They held it and held it and held it at the end, ESPN did. I was a little nervous about it.”
HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE YOUR TEAM?
“I think from a standpoint of just watching our team, we play a lot for each other. You are going to see us try to be a spread on offense. Defensively, we are very multiple. More importantly, from an offensive standpoint we try to run some triple option type principles to try to help play complimentary football with our offense and defense. We led rushing and then our time of possession was really high. We try to play a lot of complimentary football. We were also top 10 in explosive plays, so we can make some big plays, as well. Our quarterback makes us go. Defensively, we lead the country in interceptions, so we are very opportunistic on defense. Every week the guys have rose to the challenge. The target got bigger and bigger every week and they rose to the challenge. This is the biggest challenge, obviously, that we have faced, maybe ever in the history of our program. We know that we will have to play extremely well to try and get a victory.”
DO YOU KNOW DAN OR ANYBODY ON THE OREGON COACHING STAFF PARTICULARLY WELL?
“No. Obviously, I have read a lot about Coach Lanning and know people that know him, but I’ve never had the opportunity to meet him or know anybody else on that staff. I know of those people, but I have never met any of them. Obviously, they have done a fantastic job. I knew some people that knew him at UGA and the job he did there. I look forward to seeing him when we get out to Arizona.”
WHAT DOES THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT MEAN FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM?
“For our coaches, myself, we get knocked all the time – we are not Power Five, you’ve never had experience at the Power Five. You can only dream of playing in an opportunity of playing in the Fiesta Bowl. To be able to have that happen, we all started at Division II, that’s how we view ourselves. To be able to have that happen. To be able to play and compete in one of the premier bowls in this country, that’s special for us and where we came from.”
“More importantly, just our team and the season they had and getting knocked along the way, knocked along the away, knocked along the way, to be able to finish it out, finish it strong, to play the way they did, and then to get rewarded to be in the Fiesta Bowl, I’m happy for them. It was tremendous seeing, today in our watch party, just the emotion they had knowing they had a tremendous season and they got rewarded for it. That doesn’t happen a lot and it did for them.”
WHAT DOES THIS OPPORTUNITY MEAN TO YOU AND THIS TEAM?
“One, you grow up watching these bowl games and you dream of playing on January 1. I grew up right outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, and January 1 was a big deal. Grew up, my father was a high school coach, football was everything. For our team to have this opportunity, for us as coaches to have this opportunity, that is surreal.”
“For our program’s standpoint, as you take over a program, you are trying to get your brand national, so people recognize you for something. To be able to go 13-0, win our conference the first year, this is our 5th year of FBS football. To be able in our first year but the 5th year of FBS here to be able to have the opportunity to be in the Fiesta Bowl, I mean that’s huge from a brand recognition, that’s huge to get our message out what we’re about, and also from a recruiting stand point. Everybody on January 1 will be watching the Fiesta Bowl and we’ve got more eyes on us. Regardless of what happens in the game, that’s a big deal.”
WHERE HAS KAIDON SALTER IMPROVED THROUGHOUT THE SEASON?
“We got here in January and went through spring ball and had really three or four quarterbacks competing for the opportunity. You knew Kaidon had talent, he transferred here from Tennessee. He had high level talent from a physical gift stand point. Our job was we had to get him to learn and to fall in love with playing quarterback. From spring ball, we got done close to the end of April, from May through August, when he won the job, he made a 180 as far as his preparation and his mindset to really want to be the quarterback and be a leader of men. He always had belief in himself, but a lot of that belief was within those tools and not necessarily in that preparation. Now, his tools and preparation match and that’s why you’ve seen him have an unbelievable season. He’s over 1,000 yards rushing and 2,800 yards passing, and he didn’t play a lot of the fourth quarters in some of the games. Just a tremendous season.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU AND YOUR SECONDARY HAVE TO DO TO CONTEND WITH SOME OF BO NIX’S STRENGTHS?
“He’s tremendous. During the season you don’t get to watch a lot of different people. This year we had four midweek games, so on Saturday during the month of October, we were practicing so you could watch some games on Saturday night. I was able to catch them versus a couple of people here and there, a quarter or something of that nature. That’s going to be the biggest challenge we’ve obviously faced.”
“What makes him so good is, one, his accuracy. Two, if something breaks down he can beat you running but he keeps his eyes downfield and can still hurt you from the pocket or out of the pocket. I’ve obviously not watched all the film, I know our coaches will start getting all of that. You’re not going to stop him, can we hopefully minimize some of the damage that he does, that’s what we’ve got to try to figure out how to do that.”
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME A CUSA TEAM HAS GOT A NY6 BOWL, WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS ABOUT THE LEAGUE’S REPUTATION MOVING FORWARD?
“For the season we had and some of our other teams, New Mexico State who went down to SEC country and totally dominated, 10-win team, Jacksonville State won 8 games. I think what it did was there was the knock on the new Conference USA, you’re not going to have as good of teams. I think what it showed with who we played and who we beat, we were just as good as some of the other ones. My whole point that I was pushing with the AAC is they have been really tremendous but they lost a lot of people. UTSA was in Conference USA, was a quarter away from playing in the conference championship game. I don’t think the difference in the leagues were that much. That was our whole push. We were hoping the Committee wasn’t going to live off last year’s AAC but judge it based off the games this year. Thankfully they did. Hopefully what this does is it gives our other teams in this conference hope that if they have a tremendous season then they have the chance to have the fortune to be able to play in a bowl game like this.”
COULD YOU COMPARE THIS MOMENT TO ANYTHING IN YOUR COACHING CAREER?
“You know what, I don’t know. This is the biggest moment, I think, from a personal standpoint as far as what your team earned. What I mean by that is, seeing that logo and the Fiesta Bowl versus who we are playing, because you didn’t know if it was going to happen or not. There was just exhilaration. There was joy. There was emotions, tears, because of where you come from. When you come from smaller levels and you don’t think you necessarily have the opportunity to do something like this, it opens up and you get that opportunity. Just a special moment for us and our staff because of where we came from and what we’ve done together. That’s what I’m thankful for more than anything, we’ve been together a long time. The only people who would have believed this would have happened would be the people in that circle. I’m ecstatic for them because they all get knocked for not being at certain levels and they get the opportunity to play at the highest level on January 1. Special, special day. One that that feeling and seeing that released on TV there, I will never forget it.”
OREGON HAS A PRETTY GOOD RUN DEFENSE WITH SOME POTENTIAL NFL BOUND GUYS, HOW FAMILIAR ARE YOU WITH THEIR RUN DEFENSE AND TEZ JOHNSON AT RECEIVER?
“I’ve not watched tons of them, but you can look at statistics when you find out who you are playing and say what are they doing. The thing you know about Coach Lanning is they play great defense wherever he’s been. He obviously funnels the Georgia model from that stand point. They are going to be stout, they are going to be tough. It is going to be a challenge for us because that will be the fastest, biggest, strongest group of D-Line and Linebackers that we’re going against.”
“You mentioned Johnson, he’s tremendous. We did play against him and he torched us a few times. We will have our hands full. We know that, but the exciting thing for us is we get the same number of opportunities to get ready and put our best forward. Our guys, we talk about it all the time, we want one opportunity to be our best and go out and put our best against some of the best in the country. Oregon is and we look forward to it. We will get a good plan together on all three phases. Know they have great players and we will have to try to minimize some of the things they do to try to give ourselves a chance but I’m excited about looking to see how we can try to do that.”
A LOT OF PEOPLE WANT TO SPEAK FOR LIBERTY NATIONALLY, BUT FROM THE INSIDE OUT YOU KNOW THE FLAMES BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE, WHAT SHOULD WE KNOW ABOUT THIS UNDEFEATED LIBERTY TEAM?
“I would share this with you, we are arguably the tightest group of players I’ve been around. We went through a challenging time in fall camp where we lost one of our young men, an offensive lineman, the fourth day of practice. Going through his death really brought this group together. I think they realized how special it is to be with a group of people and all pushing towards a common goal. When we lost Tajh, I don’t say it woke everybody up but I think they realized we are in this together. 100% when you watch us play, we play for each other. They play hard. They don’t waiver. They’re going to believe they can find a way to get it done, no matter what the scoreboard, no matter what the issue says. That’s been pretty special with me, especially taking over. When you take over a winning program it’s challenging. That brought us together more than anything else could have because it was such a strong adversity. You will see us play that way. They will never waiver, they will never quit. They will keep fighting.”
HAS IT CROSSED YOUR MIND THAT IF THIS WERE 2024, YOU WOULD BE PREPARING TO GO FACE FLORIDA STATE FOR THE FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS?
“No, I haven’t thought of it that way. I do know this, because of the opportunity the Fiesta Bowl gave us, I do know that gives us a great opportunity going forward if we can have another great season, since we’ve done it before, we could be in that. That’s exciting because you want that opportunity to play for that championship. I hadn’t thought about that, but it’s pretty surreal. That’s what I think I’m more excited about than anything, because of the success, now your name is out. If you have another great season, maybe we can be a part of that 12. That would be awesome.”
