Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell is in Frisco, Texas for CUSA Media Day ahead of the 2025 football season.
Coach Chadwell met with the local assembled media in Frisco as well as some online on Tuesday. Here’s everything he had to say during this media session, beginning with an opening statement from Coach Chadwell:
“I’m really looking forward to coaching this team. It’s been since January with the guys returning and the guys that we have brought in, it’s been a fun team to be around, a connected team. Hungry to go out and have an opportunity to compete for a championship this year. I look forward to coaching them. I think that we have the opportunity to compete in the conference and compete for a conference championship. This team is excited about going out there. We have a great schedule, especially early on, it’s going to get us ready for conference. I’m looking forward to seeing how we improve throughout the season.”
Aaron Fenimore is on some national media watch lists, what are your thoughts about him?
“Aaron is a great leader for us. He is a leader of the offensive line. He embraces what we are about as far as our program and university. He cares about his teammates. He is a great player. He wants to make sure that the team is together. He does a lot to help bring them together. He cares about each and everyone of his teammates. As a person, he’s very selfless. He’s worth of that honor. I think he’s arguably one of the best linemen in our conference, and I think he’s one of the best linemen in the country as a center. He did a great job for us as a redshirt-freshman and he will do better for us this year.”
You guys are going to be favored to win the league and potentially get a shot at the CFP, how are you gauging the strength of the league right now with the two new members coming in”
“I think there are some good coaches. I think there are some really good players. I always think the challenge in our league is knowing who’s good because every year, us included, you get plucked quite a bit. I think that’s what makes our league unique and challenging in determining who is going to be good and not is because you really don’t know who’s coming back, who returns, who did they have waiting to come up because there is so much change. I like our team even though we lost a bunch of guys just like everybody else. I think we have a good nucleus. I think we have a good chance to have a really good year if we can stay together, stay connected, and keep the main thing the main thing and not worry about outside stuff. This team is the closest I’ve been around in a long time. They have a bad taste in their mouth about how we finished. They are focused on making sure that we don’t beat ourselves. I like the direction we are headed.”
“I think the league is challenging. The new teams, I think if you’ve had success as you are bumping up in conference, as showed with Sam Houston, if you’ve had success at your previous place, no matter what level it is, you have a chance of continuing your success because you know what it takes to win and you’ve got your team together. I was telling the guys today, ‘You better enjoy it because in a year or two they’re going to know you have good players and they’re going to be gone, so you better enjoy it while you have them.’ The hardest part I think about a G5 coach is you don’t get to build a program hardly. You are building a team, a team that is just coming in. I think they have some inherited advantages early on because they haven’t been plucked like the rest of us.”
Which playoff model do you think helps Liberty the most?
“I’ve not paid attention to it enough to know exactly who’s pushing who. The one that maintains, that gives us the best opportunity to have a chance to compete for the National Championship is the best across the board. I value football at all levels. The people that are voting to decide will choose what it is either way.”
What does it mean for Virginia for Liberty and James Madison to play this year?
“We also play Old Dominion, so we’ve got two in-state games that are huge rivals for us. One, I think it’s great for the fan base. James Madison is about an hour and a half away. We’re right down the road and we don’t play often. It’s a shame. I think we need to play more, especially in today’s world with all the money that you need to save. I think it makes sense to travel and play as many games that can be bus rides as possible. They are a great program, obviously, from FCS up to FBS. We think we are a great program. I think it will be great for both fan bases, great for our league, playing against another G6 league that we get bunched in with as far as comparisons. I hope that we can continue to play that game for a long time. I think it can be a great rivalry.”
Do you think the transfer portal is a negative or can it be a positive?
“I think it’s been a positive. I think the only negative about the portal is, in the sport of football specifically, you value a culture. It’s so hard to build a culture when you are constantly turning over. We don’t have 15 players, we have 105. That’s the only negative to me, it’s hard to build that. I think there’s positives beyond that.”
“Competing for your job every year, you’re worried about someone coming in and taking it, I would hope that you have players that don’t worry about that as much and it doesn’t put added pressure on. For the positive of it is, sometimes things don’t work out, whether it’s because of injury, whether it’s because it just didn’t work out, maybe some guys were better. I think that’s where the positive is. It gives you the opportunity to continue to grow and find your way. Sometimes guys aren’t ready in a year. Most coaches, if you’re not ready, you gotta bring somebody in. That’s been a positive. It lets people continue to grow in the sport. It’s been a positive for us, it’s been a negative. We’ve lost some good guys, that’s what life is. I see the question as far as competition, with guys feeling they have to compete for their position every day, but I would hope that’s the type of person they are and competing for their job every day.”
Your team has mentioned a fresh mentality around your team since last year, do you think that change is more important than any one player acquisition?
“No matter how talented you are, no matter how good you are, if you are not together, if you are not all going in the same direction, it doesn’t matter. You are battling against each other. At points in the season, I felt like maybe we did that. As the head coach, that was my job to either correct it or fix it or not let it happen. I didn’t do a very good job of doing that. I do think our staff and our players have had a reinvigorated focus on making sure we don’t allow, I’ll use the old quote, ‘the enemies within the tent’ to hurt our program. I think that we’re together. Anybody that we have added, senses that and knows that we’re together. I think that’s going to be a difference for us this year. In closer games, if talent is equal, the teams that are closer together have a chance to do that. Last year, we weren’t as connected. I’m hoping and I believe this year that will go in our favor and we will be a total team.”
Elijah Auguste was the Liberty nomination for the All State Good Works Team, how important is it to have players like him?
“Eli is a special young man. He was a walk-on at Liberty from Massachusetts, ended up earning a scholarship last year. If you ask anybody on our team who is selfless, who cares about his teammates, who doesn’t do anything to bring attention to himself but wants to serve others, it’s Eli Auguste. He does that with our team. He does that in our community. He helped raise his sister. It was his mom, him and his sister. He does a lot for his mom. He does a lot to help her. He’s a tremendous human being. Beyond the football field, he is going to do some special things. He is well deserving of that honor. He has been great. In today’s world, when you have people like him who truly value the opportunity football has given him and not what he’s been able to take from it. I’m really proud of Eli.”
