Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Thursday as he discusses the open date as well as look ahead to the upcoming contest against Kennesaw State. Check out the full video and transcript from his press conference below.
“It’s been unique, obviously, having the one game here in 32 days. But you know, after our last game there, we were able to have a couple days there for our guys. Gave them off Saturday. Sunday, we had cleaned up the game, had a good practice on a Thursday, and then Friday, they had a good lift and conditioning session. Then, we got back Monday, Tuesday, and really worked heavily on us. Did a lot of fundamental things whether that was special teams, side of ball, individual things, and then did a little bit of some scrimmage situations, controlled scrimmage situations, no tackling. Just did some things there to help, hopefully sharpen each other. Today is our Monday, so to speak. Today’s Thursday, so it’s a Monday for us as we prepare for next Wednesday.”
“I think the time away was probably good, a little bit just to give us a chance as coaches to self-scout, see what you are, what you’re doing well, what you’re struggling with. Give your players a chance to do the same, and hopefully for this stretch right here, these next six, be ready from a physical standpoint, more importantly, a mental standpoint, We’ve got a conference opponent that’s finding their way in our conference this year. I have a lot of respect for Brian, and what he does in his program, he’s won a lot of football games, built that program from the ground up. The thing you know about their teams, they’re gonna be tough, they’ll be always ready to play. Our guys are excited about being able to play, because we’ve not played a game in a long time. They’re excited about that, and also another opportunity on TV and showcase Liberty.”
Have you been able to get more healthy during the open date?
“We have, I think, you hope. It’s not finalized, but Jay Hardy, who’s been out a while, we feel good that he has an opportunity to come back. Juju Gray, we feel that there’s a good chance that he’ll be back. Getting more time for Reese Smith that’s got banged up. I’m not saying he’s going to be back, but get a chance to come in and work a little bit. So, we’re hoping Donte Lee, Brylan Green, guys who have been missing, we’re hoping those guys are back. Billy Lucas has been banged up from that game, hopefully we get him back healthy. That piece has been really good for a chance to hopefully get some guys back where they’re as close to 100%. I’m not saying they are gonna be 100, but if they’re close to that, our athletic trainers and doctors feel like they can play, they’re gonna have the opportunity to play, which is good, because we’ve not, if you look back, we’ve probably not been full strength in a long time, from game one on. So hopefully we can get the full compliment back and everybody’s healthy.
Reese, was it not as bad as you initially feared?
“Originally I thought it’s the same knee, and so my thought was, well, if it’s the same knee maybe it’s scar tissue, but it was the other knee. He did avoid a major injury. Now it’s more of what can he do on that injured knee that he has, that he that he injured in the game. It’s something that, depending on rehab, depending on recovery and how he feels, could he potentially play this week? Maybe. If the rehab and all that continues to go well, that’s his mindset. He wants to play. I think we’re still on probably the 2-4 week type deal. Two weeks would be not till the week after, basically, or close to it. So, we’ll see where he’s at on that. We have to be smart with him, but we did avoid a major one which is big, and I know for him as well, because it’s been one of those seasons every time, you go down, you feel like, Oh, another, another injury. So that was a blessing from the Lord there that it wasn’t significant.”
Are these the games you try to avoid, playing a team that is 0-6 and playing with nothing to lose but all the pressure, externally, is on your side?
“Well, that’s, I think, been since game one. So all the pressure’s been on the Flames since game one. So, I don’t know if that changes. Obviously, when you struggle to find a win, like the game last night versus FIU, right? That team (UTEP) was trying to win. They’re going to continue to play hard all season long because they don’t want to be the team that maybe didn’t win a game, right? So we know we’re going to get Kennesaw’s best shot. We understand that, we’re getting everybody’s best shot. I think for us, more importantly, is we have not played in a while, and so I expect our team to be more hungry than theirs, because we haven’t played. When we have played, we’ve been up and down a little bit. I expect us consistently now, going forward, after having a chance to, as I mentioned, do some of the things, look internally, I expect us to play our best football going forward. I really believe that.”
“This is an opportunity to get another win in conference. As all these conference games are going through October, the path’s started laying out, right? Teams are playing each other, so you can see where you fit. We’ve got to go play well. We can’t just assume that we’re better than somebody because the record doesn’t say that. As soon as you do that, you get beat. There’s too many good coaches, too many good players, and they have a lot of pride in their program. If we go down there with a bad attitude like we’re just going to show up, then we can come off with a loss. I expect our team to be hungry and ready to play against a quality opponent.”
Do you look at this next six game stretch as a reset for your team since you had all the time off?
“I think anytime you get a break like that, there’s a reset. You get chances to look internally. As a coach, what have I not done a good job of, as far as getting the team ready to play their best? And then as players, you look at that. As offense, defense, special teams you look at all those things. So, from a reset standpoint, I don’t think it’s like a video game. You know, when things aren’t going well, you turn it off, right? I’ve done that numerous times. But it does give you a chance to pause and reflect a little bit and say alright, are we doing too much? Are we doing these two things? Also, it gives a chance for our players to look internally because there’s a lot of challenges that they are going through as well. I do think it came at a good time. You’re disappointed on all the things that have happened, missing the game and all the different things, but I think it came at a good time for what our team needed. We needed a mental opportunity to get away and
review some things. I’m excited about us going forward.”
Is one of those challenges going from understanding that you’re going to get each team’s best shot to experiencing what that’s like?
“We talk about it a lot. It’s not about who we’re playing. It’s about us and us playing our best. We’ve had some great moments where we played our best, but we’ve also had some that, whether it’s relaxing, whether it’s not approaching games or teams with a proper mindset… it’s like my y oung daughter, we’ve got a stove and it’s hot. You say don’t touch it and don’t get close to it. Well, we’re getting close to it, or we’re wanting to touch it to really feel it. Okay, now, yeah, it is hot. Let’s turn it on. Instead of understanding, trust what the coaches are saying, trust that we gotta go and play better, because I think what everybody’s learned throughout college football, not only in our league, but there are good teams, there’s good coaches, and if you don’t show up and play your best you got a chance to get beat. Fortunately, maybe we’ve not played our best at certain time frames, but we still found our way to win. I don’t want to be that team that finally has to touch the stove and learn the hard way. I think our team’s understanding that a little bit. We’ve talked a lot about this, don’t focus on who we’re playing, it’s all about Liberty and what our standard is, and how we want to play and how we want to be in this building.”
“It’s been more challenging this year to get the best out of them, that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job. I gotta be hungrier, from that mindset. So that all reflects on me, but that’s the focus that our team needs to have, is it’s Liberty. What is our standard, not anybody else’s? And what we’re capable of, we’ve shown we could be pretty good, but we haven’t shown that consistently enough. That’s where I’ve got to do a better job. As I said, I expect us to do that going forward.”
One more win and you’re bowl eligible, is that something you’ve addressed?
“We’ve got a checkpoint coming up. I didn’t mention it in our meeting today. I think our guys understand that. We’ll talk a little bit more about it, probably later on the week. But I know they understand those things. But again, that’s not necessarily something that we’ll highlight, so to speak, we can talk about it. That’s a checkpoint. A checkpoint just means it’s a stopping point of something bigger. So, we’ll talk a little bit about that. But mostly, more important is just focus on the now and having the opportunity. One thing that we’ve talked a lot about is having the opportunity to earn a game back. Earn a game back. We missed a game. So how do we earn a game back? You win this one, yeah, you get a bowl game, but how do you earn that opportunity to play for that game back, that conference championship? Every game is important moving forward with that. That’s really been our mindset.”
