Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Friday as he recapped the Flames win over Jacksonville State and looked ahead to Tuesday’s game against Middle Tennessee.
Here is everything Coach Chadwell had to say, beginning with his opening statement.
“I was very proud of our team on Tuesday from the standpoint of a quick turnaround, a lot of circumstances that we could have used as excuses to not go play well. Obviously, the first quarter we started a little slow. I think after about the third drive we played pretty well in all three phases. One, to get the victory, but two to do it in the way that we did.”
“Defense played really well. Getting a big kick from Nick Brown, special teams wise after the week he had, I was pleased with that. To be 4-0 in our conference and at the midway point of your season to be undefeated is nice. Obviously, we’ve still got more steps that we want to take.”
“This is a big week for us from a mindset and a preparation standpoint because I think anytime you come off a big game it’s easy to feel like you’ve arrived. We’re nowhere close to being the team we are capable of doing. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a team coming in that is very talented. They’ve had a tough schedule. We’ve got to be ready to go.”
LOOKING AT THEIR SCHEDULE, IS IT AN EASY SELL TO YOUR TEAM TO TELL THEM TO NOT LOOK AT THEIR RECORD?
“I think you can tell them that but if you turn the video on you can see how talented they are on both sides of the ball. They’ve got some good playmakers on offense and then defensively, their defensive line is good. They’ve got some good secondary players, linebackers are very active. It’s not hard when you turn the video on, you can see how hard they play and things of that nature. Then, when you see them playing Alabama, Missouri, Colorado State, those are pretty good teams. With the exception of Alabama, all those games they played, whether won or lost, they had a chance to be in them. We will have to be ready to go and play well to have a chance to win.”
KAIDON SALTER HAS THE 2ND MOST TOUCHDOWNS IN THE COUNTRY OF 20 OR MORE YARDS, WHAT HAS HE AND THE STAFF DONE TO PUT HIM IN POSITION TO HAVE SUCCESS?
“I think as a coach you have your systems, you have schemes but you also want somebody to do well and try to maximize what they do well. I think our offensive guys do a nice job of doing that and allowing him to be who he is. Also, I think we’ve got some good guys that can make plays down the field whether that is tight ends or wide receivers and when the ball is in the air they have a chance to go get it. Then, he’s done a nice job of being aggressive and taking some of those shots. More importantly, hitting them.”
WHAT HAS YOUR DEFENSE DONE TO BE SO SUCCESSFUL DESPITE ALL THE TURNOVER IN PERSONNEL?
“I think the coaches have done a nice job of taking the pieces that we have, putting them in positions where they can make the plays. I think they’ve done a really nice job of creating an identity over there. To the players credit, they’ve bought into that identity. They’ve bought into having that mindset on defense to when the ball is in the air if we tip it or whatever it is ours. Wanting to play with turnovers, wanting to play with relentless effort, I’ve been pleased. We’ve had some ups and downs throughout this season on that side of the ball, but the last three weeks, obviously Sam Houston and really if you start it at FIU, Sam Houston, we’ve played really good defense consistently for four quarters and played against some good offenses to do that. It goes all the way around, the players buying into each other and believing in the system, the coaches putting in the system and the way we want to play and the mindset we want to play with, and I think everybody is feeding off of each other. It’s good to see. Our team speed is a plus. I think it shows up over there on the defensive side of the ball.”
AMARIAN WILLIAMS AND JEROME JOLLY DIDN’T PLAY OR WERE LIMITED AT JAX STATE, WAS THAT INJURY RELATED?
“Mo Williams he got hurt in pregame and so he wasn’t able to go. Then, Jolly came in injured from the previous game. So, he was limited with some of that. He did play but he was limited, decided to roll with Joe the majority of that game. Some of it was package based but obviously with Jolly being limited didn’t want to put him out there in positions where he could hurt himself worse.”
HOW BIG IS THE COMMITMENT TO THE RUNNING GAME BEEN, ESPECIALLY WEARING TEAMS DOWN IN THE 2ND HALF?
“Well, that’s part of our identity. We want to be able to run the ball. Also want to play complimentary football. What I mean by that is a team like Jax State that goes fast, if you looked at all their wins, they wore people down in the second half. Our plan was to try and play keep away and not let allow our defense to get tired. So, we want to be able to have a balance. I don’t believe a balance is 50-50, I think a balance is based off what the defense is giving you. We felt like we could find a way to run the football, and we need to be able to do that in every game because it sets up our play action, keeps our defense off the field, does a lot of things for us. For the most part we’ve been able to run it pretty good, for the most of games. There have been some we’ve struggled. That has to be who our identity is. We have to find ways to do that so we can set up the rest of our offense and things we want to do from an explosive standpoint.”
GIVEN THE INJURIES, TO BE 6-0, COULD YOU HAVE PREDICTED THAT?
“No. I wouldn’t have predicted that. I think anytime you change and all the different moving parts that came and went. Then, the challenges you went through in the preseason. One of the things that we want our program to be a hallmark of is we always have to have a next man up mentality. We can’t base everything off of one player. If we lose one player it’s over. Whoever’s turn is called, you’ve got to step up. That is part of the identity we want to have. So, the injuries I think what they’ve been allowed to do is other people to step up and they know they have to which is good to see. We want everyone healthy but we can’t sit there with the mindset of oh we’re done with a player being hurt. The credit goes to the players buying in to each other and believing in each other, believing in the strength coaches, believing in the coaches, the plans they are putting together and going out and working that. That is the hardest thing to do with a new coaching staff is getting them to buy in and believe and trust. Our coaches have done a really nice job of working every day to earn the trust of the team. I think that is showing up in the way we are playing. The players have to be the ones that believe in that, buy into that, buy into each other and the plan we have.”
WINNING DOESN’T HURT WITH THAT.
“It doesn’t hurt. When you win, obviously it helps you want to buy in. Not losing, we’ve not lost yet, so how do we respond to that? You hope that as a coach that they are buying in and winning is just a by-product of it. Winning covers up a lot, but we don’t want to cover up anything. We want the winning to be a by product of what we believe in and results to come of what we do.”
A LOT OF TAPE ON SALTER NOW, WHAT TYPE OF TOOLS DOES HE HAVE OR IS IT YOUR SYSTEM THAT YOU CAN OVERCOME SOME OF THESE DEFENSES STARTING TO FIGURE HIM OUT?
“Well, he is a talented guy. He can run, he can beat you throwing, he can beat you doing a lot of things. People are going to try to take away what you do well whatever that may be. They are going to try and make any quarterback beat you at whatever he is not great at. Our job as coaches is to continue to put our team, our quarterback specifically, in positions where he can do what he’s best at. Each week the opposing team is going to try and take that away. We have to do a good job of figuring out how we can do those things despite them trying to take it away and still hit the big plays and allow him to play the game the way he can. That’s the cat and mouse game all year long. Because we can do some different things, it’s hard to just say hey we’ve got to do this because there are other things we may be able to go to. We have to do a good job of making sure we are staying ahead of the curve so to speak and making sure he is comfortable with what we’re asking him to do because if he’s not comfortable with it it won’t matter if we think it will work or not. We have to do a good job of making sure he’s comfortable with this.”
“Like I told our staff the other day on a short week, we’re going to do what we do and if it’s good enough to win, great. If they’re good enough to beat us when we do it, then alright we’re just not good enough right now. We can’t try to do this that and the other because of the short week it’s not going to help. I think that helped us narrow down. You saw that from the second quarter on. Kaidon played a lot better second quarter on.”
VATTIATO WITH 6 STRAIGHT GAMES OF 200 YARDS OR MORE, SEEMS HE IS GETTING IN SYNC WITH HIS RECEIVERS, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN FROM HIM?
“They are dangerous because they have skill guys that if you miss a tackle they can take it the distance. He does a really good job of finding them and distributing the ball to different people. We have to be able to pressure him. If you look at the video, he sits back there and he has time to throw, he can do a nice job of picking you apart. We’re going to have to do some different things to try and pressure and try to get him off his spots and not allow him to sit back there and pick us apart because they do have really good skill guys. We’ve got to try and make it a one dimensional game if we can. That’s got to be our goal. Try and pressure him in different ways to get him uncomfortable. We’ve not been great at pressuring the quarterback, that’s one of the areas we need to be better at from an overall sack standpoint and some of those. We’ve got to find a way to do some of that.”
DO YOU THINK THAT IS JUST BEING YOUNG ON THE D-LINE?
“Could be. I do think we’ve got some guys that have the ability to rush but they’re still learning how to play. They are still figuring it out. Some of them it’s their game 6 of their college career. So, everything is new. Then, even our other guys that have played, most of them are interior guys, they are not the edge guys. There is a lot of newness there. I don’t want to say inexperience, they are getting experience. Just learning every week. I trust we will get better there as we go, but that’s still something you know we’ve got to find a way to get more pressure.”
THEY’VE GOT A D-END WITH 6 PBU’S IN THE LAST 3 GAMES, HOW MUCH DOES THAT IMPACT THE GAME?
“He gets his hands up all the time. He is good at what he does. The last couple of games, especially last week and the week before, he gets such a push, if you are trying to get that ball off relatively quick, they do a good job of getting after the passer. They do a really nice job. They are good in the box as far as what they do and the strengths they have. He gets a really good push and then he gets the hand up. He takes a way a lot of the plays. There were several the last couple weeks, Jax State specifically, where third downs and fourth downs, he knocked the ball down quite a bit when guys were open. He’s somebody we’re going to have to do a good job to block.”
