Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Tuesday as he recaps the game against Middle Tennessee as well as look ahead to the upcoming contest against UMass. Check out the full video and transcript from his press conference below.
“Thankful to get a win. That was truly a miracle from God. He wanted us to win that one because it looked like there was no way, but pushed that field goal to the right, and then hit the upright, and we were able to finish it out. We responded after halftime to come out and play way better. We didn’t do a good job as coaches getting us ready to play the first half. Obviously, that showed up, but we did finish strong, so I’m pleased with that. And you know, it’s hard to win. I’ve said that a lot. It’s hard to win, and we’ll take the victory, but there’s a lot of learning that we got to get from it, and I think our guys will.”
“There’s a lot of good things that happened in that game. I thought some guys played really well, but also there’s some things there that put us in some bad situations that we’ll have to fix as we prepare for a great opponent coming in and back in conference play. The beauty of where we’re at right now is everything’s out in front of you. No matter what’s happened in the past, you have an opportunity if you can play well to put yourself in position to play for your conference championship. This late in the season, that should excite us, and we should be excited about that. But also, I know we’ll have to play really well versus Western Kentucky because they’re really good in all three phases, and it’s gonna be a big challenge for us. We’re gonna be an underdog. They’re better than us in all three phases right now, and so we’re going to have to play really well if we’re going to have a chance to beat them.”
Slow starts have plagued the team, how important is it to get off to a good start this week against a good team like WKU?
“I thought the previous two weeks we got off to good start, I thought Middle we got off a good start, maybe some of those games, and then, for whatever reason, we reverted back to maybe how we were at the beginning of the season a little bit. Trying to feel it out. It’s been perplexing from a coaching standpoint, to figure out what I and our coaching staff need to do better to get us, whether it’s more excited, more focused to play, to come out, ready to go, we’ve struggled to do that. At certain times, we have showed up. We’ve looked at how we practice. Do we start differently in practice? We’ve looked at different things, from pregame warmups and things to change some things out. We spent a lot of time after last week, yesterday and Sunday, just talking about what are some things that we can do to make sure that we’re locked and loaded from the opening kick and not waiting to get behind and feel it out and get going. So hopefully, the things that we decide that we’re going to do, hopefully that will help us because, if we don’t, I think I might have stated this after the game, if we don’t, we got no shot to win the next two games, no shot, because the two teams that we’re playing are really, really good the next two weeks. So, if we start out that way, we’re not going to be able to climb out of the hole versus an opponent like Western Kentucky and the type of players and the way they do things. So hopefully our players understand that, and hopefully the things that we do change, hopefully that’ll get us where we need to be.”
Starting quicker, for the players, do you have an understanding of where they are in terms of grasping that and being able to execute that so you can start the way you need to?
“If I did, I don’t know if we’d be having these questions. I think our players understand it. I think they know they want to get off to a good start. But also, what a player has to do, what they have to realize is that you’ve got to own your job, own your role. You got to get yourself ready, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the situation, no matter what’s going on at home, when we’re out there on the field, that’s got to be a sanctuary for three, three and a half hours. No matter what you have, no matter what you’re thinking about, what your future is, or what happened in the past, you got to be locked in on that. I think we struggle with that at times, completely being locked in on the things that we need to get locked in on in that moment. They understand that, but understanding and actually applying it is two different things, and I have to, as the head coach, I have to do a better job of getting us more consistent coming out and playing. If you go back, the first drive, defense, they run right down the field. It looked like we weren’t even in the game. I actually thought our offense did some good things, but we had some penalties that set us up. I thought our offense came ready and was ready to go, but we beat ourselves on some things. We’ve got to learn how, they have to learn how to play together better early. We can’t have one side playing well, the other side not, vice versa. It’s been one of those all year long we’ve been working on so hopefully it will get fixed.”
You got some big game experience last year, the next two games are like play-ins, do you hope to lean on some of those key players with that big game experience? Do you hope your team is going to rise to these big moments?
“Yeah, I definitely have hope. I think we’re definitely capable of it. There’s no doubt. I shared it with them, if we play the way that as a team, if we play as a team the way our team’s capable of, we have 100% confidence we can go out and have the season we want to have. I believe that. But we have to do that consistently. I think that’s one thing that’s typically been a hallmark, is that every week we play to a certain level. That’s not happened this year, for whatever reason, but we have confidence in the players in that group, in that room, and in our leadership, in that room, and in the coaches that will put together a good plan our players can execute. We’re at home, there’s an excitement about that. There’s senior day. There’s something about that. But also when we went through those two losses, we lost all control. We had to hope something good would happen for us to give us a chance to get back. And that’s happened. I said, ‘Hey guys, I told you, we’re out of control. And look, somebody gave you a chance. We got an opportunity, and now you have the opportunity to go take it.’ We’re back to controlling our own destiny now, which three weeks ago, it was completely out of the question, and so now we have that opportunity. If that doesn’t excite you, if that doesn’t motivate you to have the opportunity to go play for a championship, then you’re playing the wrong sport.”
Do you have any update on Alex Oliver, and your tight end room, and who’s next up behind Jacob Jenkins?
“Alex, will be a game time decision. Lower body injury there, and it wasn’t as bad as we first thought, but also there’s a lot of work for him to be able to play in the position he plays. When you’re a corner, you can’t be gimpy. So he’ll definitely be a game time decision, but we did get better news than what we anticipated there. I think there’s a shot. Bentley will be out for a little while with a lower body injury. Hoping maybe he can get back in the next two or three weeks, but that’s still to be determined, how he responds from that standpoint. Caleb Ryan played a lot of football for us in the last game. Jacob Jenkins did. Austin Henderson’s out as well. So, two guys that played a lot of football out at tight end. One of our freshmen, Deuce Hewitt, will have to expand his role. He’s played a little bit the last couple weeks. He was a guy that’s red shirting, so he’s in his four games. So, he’s played a little bit. His role will expand there. Then, if we have to use another one, Eli Sisson, who’s another tight end that we redshirted. He’s still got his four games, as well. That group took a hit from a depth standpoint, but Jacob’s played a lot of football. Caleb’s gotten better and better each week, been in our program a couple years. Then, Deuce has to be able to have a role for us to if we’re going to be able to use those guys the way we’ve been.”
How’s WKU similar or different than the team that you saw last year?
“Way better. Defensively, they’re tremendous. They don’t give up any points, hardly, in the red zone. If you look at the majority, all their games, with the exception of Alabama, and they’ve played tremendous defense. They’ve put their team in a place to win games all the time, even this last week, to give up 12 points. La Tech got down there five, six times and could only come away with 12 points. So, they’re really good defensively. They’ve got senior laden offensive line, quarterback’s playing well. They’ve got really good skill players, and then, as I mentioned, special teams. In my two years, they’re phenomenal. They’re really good. They’re playing with a lot of confidence. Obviously, they had a hiccup last week, but that’s college football. It’s hard to win every week. La Tech, if you check them out, they’re pretty good defensively and all these things. They’ve lost some games where their defense is giving up nine points and stuff. This league is pretty good from top to bottom, but they’re very talented. Tyson, his whole time of being here, but I would argue it’s probably his most talented team that he’s had from top to bottom. He’d probably tell you that. Got a lot of experience, some key transfers, and they’ve all been in that system now for a few years.”
How difficult is it to try and game plan against their QB Veltkamp?
“He’s playing with tons of confidence. He obviously won the bowl game, and then they brought somebody in, and he just kept doing his thing. Now, that’s his team, you can tell that. I think what makes him challenging is he throws a lot of timing, his rhythm. He gets it out quick. He doesn’t give up a lot of sacks, and he’s not going to put the ball in some situations where there’s just dangerous passes. Then he can move around the pocket and hurt you in some of the run stuff. He’s obviously the key to their ignition there, and does a great job of it. He knows how to get it out, get it in the right positions, to the people to go have some success. They are very talented. He’s done a really nice job.”
How do you watch the Alabama tape against Western Kentucky?
“You see what, scheme wise, or how somebody’s trying to do some things against them, or vice versa. But also, you know, they might have a five star kid, or a guy that’s a NFL first round draft pick, and he just makes a play, for some of those. So, you watch it. But also, sometimes, hey, that guy’s really, really good going up against that guy. So, you don’t judge it too much. We’ll watch it. We watch all of it and find out. Did Alabama use a scheme that we like? Now, Jaylen Milroe might be 245 pounds running through somebody. KSalt’s 205 soaking wet or whatever he is. You try to find schemes and some of those things, but you don’t put too much into it.”
Military Appreciation Day on Saturday, I know you have some military connections with your family?
“My grandfather on my mother’s side was in the Navy. My grandfather on my dad’s side, was in the Army for 33 years. He was 82nd airborne, and 101, jumped out of planes. My father was in the Army. My mom didn’t want me to go the military. She said we’re cutting it off at that. Was raised to respect this country, love this country, and respect the people that died for our freedoms. Anytime we can honor the military, past and present, the people that protect us every single day, we’ll always take advantage of that, because I do believe we live in the greatest country in the world, and the military allows us to have the greatest country in the world and all the freedoms we have to be able to come here, talk about football and enjoy sport. And look at Ed’s nice hair, it’s an awesome thing.”
