Liberty (2-0, 1-0 CUSA) defeated New Mexico State (1-2, 0-1 CUSA), 33-17, to pick up the program’s first ever win in conference play at the FBS level.
“Anytime that you’re the first ever to do something, no matter what happens with this group, hopefully we will continue to get better, but they will always be remembered as the first one,” Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell said following the game.” That’s something great to get accomplished and we talked a lot about that.”
The Flames were also able to get some revenge from last year’s regular season finale when this same New Mexico State team came into Lynchburg and embarrassed Liberty with a 49-14 win. That game kicked off just hours after reports of Hugh Freeze likely headed to Auburn broke and the team approached the former Liberty head coach in the locker room prior to kickoff.
Many of the players and nearly the entire coaching staff that were part of that game last year are no longer on the Liberty sideline, but those that remain, the Liberty fans, and the school’s administration certainly remember the feeling from that game post-Thanksgiving just over 9 months ago.
“I know there are a lot of people happy and they can look back because of what the game was last year, and I’m excited for those guys,” said Chadwell. “I didn’t want to make it about revenge because when it’s about revenge you are fueled with hatred, that’s opposite of what we talk about with this program. I told them it’s not about revenge, it’s about us playing for something bigger.”
“For everybody that was upset last year, well there you go.”
Liberty got off to a slow start to begin the game on Saturday evening against the Aggies. New Mexico State received the opening kickoff and quickly marched down the field. They went 75 yards in six plays, rushing for 60 of those yards, to score the opening touchdown and take an early 7-0 lead.
Led by quarterback Kaidon Salter, the Flames moved the ball deep into NMSU territory on the ensuing possession. The drive was thwarted though as Salter lost a fumble as he rolled to his right looking to make a play in the option game. The Aggies jumped on the ball and seized all of the early momentum.
New Mexico State were unable to capitalize on the turnover, as the Liberty defense forced them into a quick three and out, forcing a punt.
Salter and the Flames would get things going from there, as the redshirt-sophomore connected with CJ Daniels, who made a couple people miss as he went 40 yards for the game tying touchdown. That was the beginning of the Liberty offense having six consecutive scoring drives to seize control of the game.
The two teams traded scores through much of the first half, but Liberty would overcome a 17-13 second quarter deficit, scoring 20 unanswered points to take control for the victory.
The Aggies scored on three of their first four drives to keep things interesting. That streak would come to an end with less than 2 minutes remaining in the first half when Brylan Green stepped in front of a Diego Pavia pass for an interceptions, Liberty’s sixth of the early season.
The Flames would take that interception and put points on the board, as Teagen Lenderink’s 22-yard field goal gave the home team a 23-17 advantage heading into the locker room.
Green, who recorded six tackles and his second interception in as many weeks, and his interception was the swinging point in the game, turning the momentum into Liberty’s favor. Green is the first Liberty player with interceptions in consecutive games since Robert Rahimi picked off passes in three straight games during the early part of the 2022 season.
“It was a 10-point swing, if you think about it,” Chadwell said of Green’s interception. “We were up 20-17 at that time frame and they are driving. We hadn’t stopped them at all. We get points out of that and then we come out and get points out of halftime. That middle-8, that’s what everyone calls it, for us to close the half with a field goal, I wish we would have had a touchdown there, and then to score again to give you that separation, maybe take some of their confidence away. I thought that was a huge turning point in the game.”
After intermission, Liberty took any remaining momentum New Mexico State had away and grabbed a two-score lead it would not relinquish the rest of the way.
The Flames’ offense engineered a 17 play, 75 yard, 9:03 scoring drive to start the second half. The drive concluded with a Salter two-yard touchdown run on the quarterback keeper, pushing the lead to 30-17. It was the longest scoring drive for Liberty since an 18 play, 78 yard, 9:40 drive at Georgia State on Oct. 3, 2015.
“To be able to do that out of the gate, to go up 30-17 there right out of the gate, it was big to give us a two score lead,” said Chadwell. “It shortened the game. I think they managed a little bit from that stand point. We have to learn how to finish. We had some penalties. You look back and you look at the statistics and you feel like you dominated and there was a chance to make that a one score game the whole time. We’ve got to learn to continue to finish offensively and not shoot ourselves in the foot.”
After allowing the 60 rushing yards on the first drive of the game, Liberty’s defense stiffened, holding the Aggies to just 112 rushing yards the rest of the game. In their first ever Conference USA game, NMSU had 226 yards of total offense in the first half. The Flames limited the Aggies to just 115 yards in the second half.
“I thought our defense stepped up in the second half, I didn’t think they played overly well in the first half,” Chadwell said. “That drive, really I think, one for offensively, it was awesome, but two I think it gave our defense a lot of confidence to hey if we just go out and do what we’re capable of, they can’t come back.”
That was the case as New Mexico State did not score in the second half. Liberty had two takeaways after intermission, a fumble recovered by Tyren Dupree that was forced by Jerome Jolly’s sack of Pavia and a Brandon Bishop interception.
“We didn’t make that many adjustments to change what we were doing,” Chadwell said of the defense, “I think we just started executing a little bit better. We have to. We didn’t play overly well there at the first half, but it’s not a scheme thing. It’s our guys locking in on doing their job and doing it consistently and not letting emotion get the most of them.”
Kaidon Salter improved to 2-0 on the season as Liberty’s starting quarterback. He completed 15 of 25 passes for a career high 276 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added 43 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 8 carries. In the performance, Salter became the first Liberty player since Malik Willis in the 2021 LendingTree Bowl with multiple touchdowns both rushing and passing in the same game.
“I thought he played extremely well,” said Chadwell of his quarterback. “He stood in the pocket, made some nice throws. We had the one turnover but never felt like he put the ball in danger and threw it up for certain things. He made some nice runs when we needed him to, on some third down situations.”
“This is the most, in my short time with him, the most confidence I have seen him play with. Which is good, you want your quarterback to have some confidence, feel like he can make some plays. I think he seemed mature. At the end of the game, he scrambled out of there, oh I should have fell down and he falls out of bounds. He knew it immediately. So that shows me he’s maturing, he’s understanding the game. He knows what he needs to do. I think he’s making some good strides.”
CJ Daniels led the Liberty receivers with 129 yards on his 4 catches and one score. He also had a career long 60 yard catch he hauled in from Salter.
Bentley Hanshaw’s 24-yard touchdown catch late in the second quarter put Liberty ahead for good at 20-17. It was one of two catches in the game for the tight end, as he finished with 45 yards. It was his third career touchdown catch and he has had one in each of Liberty’s last three games.
Quinton Cooley recorded his first career 100-yard rushing game, rushing 20 times for a game and career high of 106 yards. This comes one week after rushing for what was then a career high with 78 yards on 16 carries last week against Bowling Green. Billy Lucas added 90 yards on the ground on his 15 carries. Those two backs led a Liberty rushing attack that gained 250 yards.
“This team decided they didn’t want us to get the ball outside at all,” Chadwell said of New Mexico State. “They weren’t going to let us do that. They didn’t want Kaidon to get out there, they didn’t want to get the pitch. So, we didn’t change the game plan, we had it built in, but we said alright, we’re going to go at ’em.”
Linebacker Tyren Dupree led Liberty in tackles for a second straight game. His 11 tackles are a career high and comes just one week after setting a career high with 10 tackles against Bowling Green.
For Liberty, it is one win, but an important one. The Flames have been talking about wanting to compete for a conference championship, you can’t get there without getting win number one in conference play.
“You can’t get to that championship game without taking that first step,” stated Chadwell. “We talk about we’re climbing a ladder. There are rungs on that ladder and you can’t get to that one without taking the first one. To be able to start out 1-0 is a big deal. More importantly than that to continue to build confidence in our team and the team in us because they’re still learning how we respond to different things because it’s brand new to a lot of people.”
