Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Tuesday as he recapped the Flames win over Louisiana Tech and looked ahead to Saturday’s game against Old Dominion. Check out the full video from his press conference below.
“We are excited about being 9-0 and, most importantly, hosting the championship game. That was a big deal for us being able to play for the championship here at Williams. Pleased with that. I thought offensively, played almost a complete game. We did have a hiccup on a turnover. Besides that, we controlled the line of scrimmage and were able to really be balanced. Really pleased with that.”
“Going back and look at the video, we can play better special teams wise. Maybe didn’t live up to the standard of the way that we have been playing the first 8 games.”
“Then, defensively, we have just hit a rut there between the beginning of that third quarter and some of that fourth quarter where we weren’t executing and playing and competing the way we are used to. Overall, thankful for the win and know we’ve got a huge challenge coming in. Obviously got an in-state rival. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Rahne and their program and how physical and how tough their players are. We know it is going to be a huge game. It’s against a great opponent coming from a great conference, a respected conference. This will be a great barometer for us and see where our program really is. Our guys will look forward to being back here Saturday.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU LEAN INTO THIS BEING AN IN-STATE RIVAL AND FOR FAN BRAGGING RIGHTS AND THINGS LIKE THAT?
“I’m sure for fan bragging rights it’s a big deal. When your players are from all different parts of the country I don’t know. What’s really unusual about this is you are playing an out of conference game so late in the year. I think that’s very unique. I’ve not really been a part of that where you play two like this from there. Obviously, we talk about it. When you have an in-state rival, I think that’s a big deal. Our players are definitely aware of that. We are definitely aware of the conference, who’s conference is better, all those things. Then, you mentioned, fans love to beat somebody in state because they are always comparing themselves. We try not to compare ourselves to anybody else. We are trying to be the program we want to be, but we know it’s a big deal for fans, alumni, and we know it’s a big deal for our conference. If we can go and beat somebody from another conference that is respected nationally, then that helps our conference, that helps our program and what we’re trying to accomplish this year.”
HOW MUCH DOES GETTING RANKED IN THE AP TOP 25, HELP BUILD THE PROGRAM FROM A NATIONAL RESPECT ANGLE?
“I do think anytime you get ranked, that’s a great honor. I mean, there’s 120 or so that play and you are one of 25 right now that is ranked in the country. That’s a special deal no matter how it happens, when it happens. I think that’s great for recognition, it’s great for your university, it’s great for your program. We talked about for about two seconds and then we moved on. Here’s the thing that I know, if you don’t keep winning they will forget about you real quick. No matter what it is. You don’t play for the rankings, so to speak, you want to continue to play well and hope people recognize that, but it is a great honor. But not something we dwell on. It is a cool thing. I’ve been part of that before. There’s not many that get ranked and when you do I think it’s a special deal.”
YOUR OFFENSE WAS VERY BALANCED LAST WEEK, WAS THAT AS COMPLETE A GAME OFFENSIVELY AS YOU HAVE PLAYED THIS YEAR?
“I think so. We’ve had games where we’ve rushed the ball quite a bit, but maybe the passing yardage hadn’t been up. I think you go back to Buffalo, where we ran pretty well, threw pretty well, but I think that game was a little up and down. This is the one that I think was most consistent. We had the one hiccup where we hurt ourselves on a mesh, but besides that we only punted one time and we were really controlling and doing some things that we wanted to do. It was the most complete one. Hopefully, that is the type of balance, I’m not saying we’re going to throw for 300 and rush for 300 every game, but hopefully that is the type of balance that we can have and produce. We are going to need to do that as you get into November. You’ve got be able to rely on a run game that can get you through if there’s bad weather and all those different things. Very pleased with how we played Saturday, offensively.”
THE PLAYERS EMPHASIZED PLAYING FOR ONE ANOTHER, HOW HARD DO YOU HAVE TO WORK TO BUILD THAT?
“Every day. Every day you’ve got to talk about it. One of our values is purpose, that’s our fourth core value of our program. I think your purpose has to be bigger than winning because everybody wants to win and everybody wants the result on the scoreboard, but you have to have a strong why. We talk a lot about that and work hard to build that mindset. That’s not easy to do. We are appreciative of those guys (Noah Frith and Quinton Cooley). We are in an it’s about me society. It’s hard to get 117 players to come together for something common like that, a common purpose. That is something we don’t take lightly. We talk about it all the time and remind why we play. That just shows you some examples, like a Noah, I said Noah leads the country in passes that have been called back. He could have complained about those but he just keeps going. Obviously Cooley and what you did for James knowing that James has been working hard. That says a lot about them and you hope that’s the mindset we get with everybody, but coaching wise we work hard to try to make that happen.”
WHAT TYPE OF CHALLENGES DOES ODU PRESENT ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL?
“They are very physical and they are tough and they are resilient. That shows up. They never think they are out of the game, they are in it close, they find a way, and they just keep believing. From a defensive standpoint, they play a unique defense that you don’t see all the time. They are very aggressive with that. It really makes you have to, I’m not saying change your rules, but do some different things to try and account for everybody. They do a nice job of that and create turnovers. Then offensively, they a spread, line up as fast as you can, they try to spread you out. They use every last yard of the field, and they do a really nice job of running the ball and mixing in going as fast as possible, maybe faster than Jax State, potentially. Also, using the clock to try and get in the best situation. It’s going to be very unique for us, not that we’ve not seen it, but we’ve not seen it with the type of athletes that they have. Coach has been there four years, three years coaching and then with the COVID year. They’ve recruited to what they want to be. He’s got an established thing that he’s trying to do. This will be the best overall group of athletes and talent that we’ve seen from a team standpoint. We will have to be ready for that. There is a lot of challenge there. I think arguably probably the best special teams overall unit. They do a nice job there.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOUR DEFENSE IN THE LATE QUARTERS TO PLAY THEIR BEST FOOTBALL?
“We have to. The last couple of weeks we haven’t been ourselves, resilient in doing that. You are anticipating, because of what they have been able to do, it’s going to be a close game. They are not going to fold in any type of circumstances, but I believe we are the same way. We do need to play our best. We can’t play one of these games where one side of the ball plays pretty solid and the other side is just ok. We’ve got to play 4 quarters when you play a good opponent in-state. They are playing for a lot. They are trying to get bowl eligible. They’ve got 3 games left and got to win 2 out of 3. They’ve got a lot they are playing for, not only the state bragging rights, not that they care about us that much probably. We know they are bringing everything. That shows every week. They don’t doubt themselves. They keep going, but I believe in our guys as well. Our guys have to be ready to rock and roll too.”
YOU ARE ONE OF THE TOP TEAMS IN THE COUNTRY IN TERMS OF EXPLOSIVE PLAYS, WHERE DOES THAT ELEMENT COME FROM IN YOUR OFFENSE?
“For us, we’ve been able to run the ball. When you are able to run it, then people take chances, whether that is one on one or trying to do some different blitzes to try and stop your run and that’s allowed us to have some explosive plays in our play action. That’s what’s helped us have a lot of big plays like that. We’ve not had a lot of big runs, had some, but more of it has been explosive pass plays off of play action stuff.”
KAIDON SALTER DOESN’T FORCE THE ISSUE, HAS THAT BEEN THE MENTALITY IS YOU TAKE THE SHOTS AND TRUST HIM TO MAKE PLAYS?
“The thing that he does so well is when you have an opportunity if it’s not there he can get out of a pocket or get out of a mess and make a big play with his legs. He’s had 2 or 3 games where he’s rushed for over 100 yards. That typically doesn’t happen and we’re not calling a lot of quarterback runs, it’s just more of some of what he does, that’s some of his ability. He is patient. He knows he’s going to get chances to make some big plays. From week 1 to week 10 we are going into, he’s made tons, tons of improvement in just trusting and believing and knowing he’s going to get those chances. He’s been really consistent the last few weeks. Where he is dangerous is people try to blitz and do some things, he gets away from it and he can hurt you with his legs.”
IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR OFFENSE IS A BLEND OF WHAT YOU DID AT COASTAL AND MAYBE SOME THINGS OF WHAT LIBERTY HAD DONE LAST YEAR, WHAT’S BEEN THE PROCESS OF CREATING THIS YEAR’S OFFENSE?
“You always have your identity in what you believe in, which we have that. That’s been the same since 2009, our first stop, but also you have to adjust it to what your current players are and what they can handle. Some of the things that we’re doing here, maybe they were doing them before, we try to add that in because they were confident in it, and you use your personnel that you have. We’ve not gotten away from who we are, but also, we’ve probably expanded it more than maybe most people thought we would, at least the first year. Just because some of the things we were capable of doing with this current crew. Sometimes I’ve had it where you can’t do any of it. They kicked our tail last year at our previous place, I don’t know how much we’re doing that would help them from last year to this because it’s a little bit different.”
IS THIS A GAME THAT PROVIDES AN OPPORTUNITY TO HELP LEGITIMIZE SOME OF WHAT YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED?
“In-house, we know what we’ve accomplished. We know how hard it is to win. It’s hard. Outside, from a national perspective, obviously the Sun Belt gets more recognition than what we do currently our conference-wise because of all the different changing and what’s happened, landscape-wise. Any time a conference opponent, we’ve beat two MAC teams this year. Any time that our conference can go beat any other conference, I think it’s bigger, I think it helps you represent your conference and help legitimize what you’re doing. A Bowling Green, who we beat earlier, they went and beat a Georgia Tech, nobody talks about that. From a national recognition, from a respect standpoint, anytime you can beat somebody from another conference, Sun Belt Conference, since we are so close to some of those schools. I think that’s a big deal. Our fans probably want it more than anything, I’m sure they bicker back and forth on X and all those different things. For them, it’s a huge deal. It’s a huge deal for us. We want to continue to win and climb. Any time you can do that against a great opponent from a great conference, I think that helps legitimize your conference. I don’t think we have to legitimize what we are doing on the field, but I think from a conference stand point, as we’ve had these new additions, I think that’s an important deal for us to go represent our conference.”
WHAT IS YOUR SCHEDULING PHILOSOPHY IN THE NON-CONFERENCE TO TRY AND HELP THAT PERCEPTION?
“I know our AD and our administration, you play one P5, you play a couple G5s and then whether it’s a third G5 or a FCS school, that’s usually your out of conference. We had a bunch of those lined up, and then once you went into a conference, you had to change some and then also some dropped us because we were winning some of those games. Like next year, we have a Sun Belt school, we have an AAC school, out of conference, an FCS and then an FBS Independent. You are always working toward those things. At the end of the day, no matter who you are playing, no matter what the strength of record is, strength of schedule, you’ve got to go win them. As long as you are winning, I think that speaks a lot.”
DO YOU EVER REFLECT BACK ON HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME AS A COACH?
“Lord’s been unbelievable. I never would have thought that I would be at this position and point in my life. Those North Greenville days, those were hard and challenging, but occasionally, because there are so many guys with us that were with us, we will talk about that. We will do that meme where that guy goes look at us. We will say, hey, look at us. Sometimes, you do. It’s been amazing. You think you have all these plans and He makes them the way He wants to, His will, and it’s been pretty cool.”
