As part of the Conference USA Media Days festivities, Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell spoke at length with Alan York and Jamie Hall live from Arlington, Texas. A couple of the highlights from Chadwell’s conversation centered around the breakout newcomers to watch out for on the Flames and Liberty’s season opener at JMU. Here’s what he had to say:
Who could be a breakout newbie on the team?
Jamey Chadwell – “Defensively, I really like a couple of the defensive linemen that we’ve added. Michael Floyde, who’s a rush end, I think will do well for us, who’s done a nice job. We’ve got a lot of new guys in the secondary and there’s so many of them that I think can do well. I will mention Izaiah Guy, Ashton McShane, Jeremiah Vessel. These are all new guys who have played a lot of football at some other places that we need to play well.”
“From an offensive standpoint, we’ve got a whole new backfield, obviously, with the running backs. There’s a battle there to see who’s going to be the guys that play quite a bit. One thing that excites me is I do think we have some guys that were here last year that I think will contribute. Maybe you don’t know as much about them because they’ve been redshirted or whatever, whether that’s at receiver or at running back, I do think we’ve got some guys that will have a special year if things continue to go that way. I do not want to mention any of their names because honestly I don’t know who’s going to win the job. We’ve got a lot of battling going on, especially at the running back position. At the receiver position, I think there are some redshirt-freshmen that didn’t play last year that have a chance to do some good things.”
On the season opener at James Madison:
Jamey Chadwell – “I think anytime you are playing a team of their caliber, obviously coming off what they did last year. They’ve had some success for a long time, national championships at FCS, they’ve been a high level program, playoff team last year, preseason number one in the Sun Belt, and they are right up the road. It’s a big rival for our fan bases. Any time you can play an opening game of that level, I think it makes your fall camp (have) more urgency. Whether you want that to be or not, people think that way. I think it’s a great start. It’s going to give us a chance to see where we’re at as a group prior to our non-conference and into Conference USA. Are our players as good as we think we are, is our depth as good as we think it is because you’re going to play a really good team right out of the gate.”
“The challenge, I always think, of playing any team first is harder when they have a new coach because now you’re trying to watch them from where they came from but none of those players are there. You can’t really watch the players from last year because they are all gone. A team that plays a staff that has their coaching staff in tact has a little bit better of an advantage because at least they know. I think there’s the challenge of the new players, new staff. Coach Napier has done a fantastic job anywhere he’s been. He’s had a lot of success in the Sun Belt before, so he will have them playing at a high level. It’s a tough place to play, but it’s what you want to do. We want to see where we’re at right away. I’d like for our team to hold the trophy too. It’s for a trophy. Let’s go out and play hard and go win one.”
