Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell, safety Quinton Reese, and offensive lineman X’Zauvea Gadlin are in Arlington, Texas for CUSA Media Day ahead of the 2023 football season.

It’s the first time the Flames have participated in the annual event as new members in the FBS league. Coach Chadwell, Reese, and Gadlin met with the local assembled media in Arlington as well as some online on Tuesday. Here’s everything they had to say during this media session, beginning with an opening statement from Coach Chadwell:

“On behalf of our new President Dondi Costin, our new Chancellor Jonathan Falwell, our Athletic Director Ian McCaw, we are very excited to be a part of today and be a part of Conference USA. Being an Independent for four years, having this chance to be a part of something and be a part of a competitive conference and being able to leave a legacy for our program in Conference USA is exciting for our team, it’s exciting for our staff.”

“We are thankful for Liberty and them making the decision for wanting to be a part of this conference. We hope through our time that we can be a very productive team in this conference. Our goal and expectations are to compete for the championship every year and have a chance to be in the College Football Playoff. I do believe this conference, the teams, the coaches, the players in this league, I think this conference is on the cusp of something extraordinary. We have added some really, really good teams with some good coaches. We are excited about being a part of that and helping to build the legacy of Conference USA going forward.”

“Excited about these young men beside us. When you take over a program there are a lot of challenges but these two young men here have really bought in to what we’re doing, I’m thankful they are here representing Liberty University.”

Coach, you had a lot of success at your previous stops including in another G5 conference in the Sun Belt, how does that success help prepare and navigate Liberty through an FBS conference schedule for the first time in school history?

Chadwell: “It gives you some experience, obviously, to know what conference play is like and the grind of that. I’ve shared with our team, multiple times, that being in a conference, everybody is playing for that opportunity there at the end. Every game is important and there’s no off-weeks. What I mean by that, is you can’t just roll the ball out and think you’re going to show up and think, ‘Hey, we’re going to get excited for this one and not worry about this opponent. Every week is important.’ Being a part of that, a lot of our staff has been a part of that, that will help our team understand the importance of playing every week. We still got to go out and do it and continue to educate our team on that.”

Coach, what’s your quarterback situation?

Chadwell: “How much time do we have? We have some good players that are competing for the starting job. We play (NMSU) week two, I’ll let you know week two, I think. Whoever will take care of the football, be the best teammate in the locker room, take ownership and accountability for their role on the team, is going to be our guy. I hope that we can have that established by going into our first week, that’s our plan. I don’t want to play multiple quarterbacks, if I don’t have to. I want one guy to be the guy, they have to earn that. They’ve been competing since spring. We’ve had 4 or 5 guys competing for that, we will have to obviously narrow that down to 2 once we get a few practices into camp and hopefully make a decision. I like the guys in the room. They’ve got to continue to believe in themselves, continue to take ownership of that role. We will play who gives us the best chance to take care of the ball and not put us in bad situations and who the locker room believes in and will fight for.”

Did you have to fill a lot of roster spots when you came in or was the roster fairly well-stocked?

Chadwell: “It was stocked until after I signed the contract, then the portal hit and all those things. Between now and where we’re at today, we’ve had close to about 50% of roster turnover, not necessarily by my choice. So, we’ve had to work on that. The guys that remain, we’ve got some really good players there that have remained, that have bought into what we’re doing, and we’ve brought some new guys in. The guys that we’ve brought in might not have the experience that the guys we lost had, but they are believing in the culture that we’re laying and the expectations that we have. That’s part of the challenge of being a new coach in today’s age. We handled it the best we could and continue to look moving forward.”

For the players, a lot of new experiences with being able to represent the university, could you speak about the season?

Reese: “It’s been a blessing to be here, it’s an awesome baseball field, and to meet other players that are like-minded and trying to go in the same direction you’re going. It’s a blessing to be in Conference USA, for real.”

Gadlin: “Big blessing just to have this platform to represent our team well. I was in the American conference when I was at Tulsa so I always got to see our older guys go to Media Day and hoping that would be me some day. I’m glad I get to it and also glad I get to do it here because I’m a home town kid right now. My house is 20 minutes away from the stadium, so I got to see my family last night too. It couldn’t have worked out better for me.”

Chadwell: “I will add, I beat Quinton in basketball and golf, and then I beat both of them in bowling, if anybody wants to put that on.”

Reese: “We didn’t even play a full game of bowling.”

Chadwell: “But I did win.”

Coach, what are your thoughts on the October schedule?

Chadwell: “We are routine-based, but I think you have to look at this way, we get the opportunity, our program, our conference to be on national television. That is huge. That is huge for our branding of our conference, especially for Liberty University and our football, what we’re about. Whatever hiccups may occur, I think those are things that you take in stride.”

“Previously, been able to play on some of those midweek games and to have the national television audience to have a chance to see what you’re about is priceless. Whatever we get thrown off routine wise, the players want to be on national television. They get that opportunity. If you tell them they have to play at 6 a.m., they will do it just to be on national television, they want that opportunity. We get that opportunity to do that. We go Thursday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. Our Friday is like a Monday, we have already changed our dates, at least coaches wise, they don’t know that yet, we’ve already changed our dates on how that works.”

“I’m excited about it because we get a chance to showcase who we are to a better audience. The better we do, the better that helps our conference and the better it helps our university.”

For the players, how excited are you to be able to compete for a conference championship after being Independent the last few years?

Gadlin: “It’s very exciting. It’s one of those things we get to talk about all the time. It was one of Coach Chadwell’s first points when he got here, was just the opportunity to play for a conference championship and what that means. Before it was like let’s get 6 wins and go to a bowl game so that can be our championship. Now, it just means a little bit more when you are fighting for a conference championship, especially in the position we are in – first year being in an FBS conference. That is big for school history, that is big for our legacy as a team, as a players. The understanding of that opportunity makes it that much more valuable and makes it mean that much more.”

X’Zauvea, you played every offensive snap for Liberty last year at three different positions on the line, talk to me about that versatility and your willingness to do whatever it takes?

Gadlin: “I’ve been blessed to have been able to do that since high school. I played every position except for center in my high school career. That kinda helped me transition that to get to college and do that, but it’s also just understanding that my ability to do that makes me that much more available for my team because you can kind of get stuck in playing one position. As an offensive lineman, if you can play multiple then if someone goes down over there, X, you can go play over there. Someone goes down at center, X, you can go over at center right now to help us get through a game.”

“Not only that but when you look at the next level, they only travel 7, maybe 8, offensive line. So, three of them need to know how to snap. That also helps in that aspect too. Even just for right now where we’re at, it helps me being more willing to help the team in any way possible. I’ll go play DB if I need to, it doesn’t really matter.”

Coach, you infused the running back room from the portal, what are some strengths there?

Chadwell: “We lost a few guys there through the portal and had to refill it. I like the group. I think we have a good mix of some inside-outside guys. We needed to have some guys that we could count on in short yardage situations and also have some players that if they got the ball out in space they could take it the distance and not have to snap the ball again.”

“From a talent standpoint, that was probably one of the areas that we really wanted to improve. I felt like we’ve done that throughout signing day and the portal dates, now we have to see what it looks like once we get the pads on in a week or so, but that group has a chance to be a good group. They need to be because we’ve got some newer guys that are going to be playing at some other positions. If we can rely on some of these running backs that have played at other places and some of that experience early on until some of our other guys grow up that will help us tremendously.”

For the players, knowing that you were going to be in the conference, did you start looking at CUSA ahead of time, watching the teams?

Reese: “I took a peak coming in. It’s a very competitive conference. I feel like we’re going to have to compete every week, like Coach Chadwell said. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who you play, it is based on how we are doing as a team and focusing on what we can do to get better every single week.”

Gadlin: “I’ve had some guys that I played high school with that played in Conference USA before, and of course you watch college football all the time. One thing that I always heard from one of my old coaches when I was at Tulsa was that everybody has 85 guys on scholarship. It doesn’t matter where you are, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you have to bring it every single day. That’s every more important in a conference because everyone’s competing for a conference championship.”

Quenton, you are one of three returning starters on the defense, with a lot of new faces do you anticipate that being a hiccup?

Reese: “I think there’s always growing pains with anything new in life. I feel like the team as a unit, we’re going to keep striking the stone and keep taking it day by day, focusing on the little things which is going to set us up later on in the season when it really counts.”

Gadlin: “Strike the stone, baby.”

Chadwell: “Love it.”

X’Zauvea, off the field you have been heavily involved in community service, talk to me how important that has been for you?

Gadlin: “Very important. I’m a product of the community pouring into me when I was a kid and especially when I got the opportunity to do it at Tulsa and also here. The platform that you have as a college athlete, though it’s small in time, it’s big in impact. You have the chance to impact kids who may have never seen a college athlete before, has no idea what you go through in a day, what your life looks like outside of that, they just know that you play football and you’re on TV and that makes you important. Being able to use that as a positive and get out to the community and make an impact wherever I’m at is something that’s always been important to me.”

Quenton, you were 1 of 12 athletes to receive a deal with Reese’s and got the opportunity to go to the NIL Summit, talk me through that experience, what did you learn at the NIL Summit?

Reese: “It’s a blessing. The NIL place is real interesting. You’ve got to market yourself. It’s not about what school you may go to, but it’s how you brand yourself on social media daily. There are some guys, it may be a walk-on at a school, they are paying their tuition through NIL. It’s just how you market yourself and the value you find in yourself and how you can use it to help others.”