OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES

In the past three games, Liberty hasn’t surpassed the 13-point mark with losses to Bowling Green (23-13), JMU (31-13), and ODU (21-7). That’s obviously not good enough to win games. Head coach Jamey Chadwell says there a few places where the offense needs to make improvements.

“The turnovers are correctable,” said Chadwell. “We’ve got to look at what we’re doing from a schematic standpoint. Are we putting our players in the best positions that suits their skill sets. We looked at that (this past week) to see what we need to do to maximize the talent that we have. Thirdly, we’ve had some injuries up front where people are playing different positions. We’ve evaluated all of that.”

“Our best players on offense have to play better,” Chadwell continued. “Whether they are putting too much pressure on themselves, whether they have lost some confidence, you’ve got to let that go. We have to play to the level we are capable of. We are not as bad as what we’ve put out there, but that’s what we are. I think we have capable people in all phases, coaching and our offensive players, we just have to play to a better level.”

Chadwell also discussed the offensive play calling through the first few weeks of the season.

“I’ve got complete trust in what we’re doing from a play calling standpoint,” he said. “Can we be more aggressive? Yes. If you’ve called plays before, when you’re struggling and you mess certain things up, you start thinking – what can we call that we’re not going to mess up. You start becoming timid as a play caller because you are trying not to put your guys in bad position to screw something up instead of saying, hey, we’re going to call what I feel confident in. When you are struggling and you are not executing the way you want, you start going what can we run where we can’t get a holding penalty. You can’t call games that way.”

CONFERENCE PLAY BEGINS IN EARNEST

There’s no secret the Flames have seen their fair share of struggles to begin the season. Liberty is 1-4 for the first time since 2012 and have a significant hole to dig out of before entertaining the potential of playing in a bowl game or even competing for a conference championship.

“The blame of everything is on me, ultimately,” Chadwell said. “If anybody needs to be criticized, I’m the head coach. I’m the one responsible for the 1-4 record, all that is more on me.”

Despite the 1-4 record, Liberty still has a lot to play for with seven games remaining. The Flames can keep their six-year bowl streak alive and even have a chance to make a run in conference play as the schedule shifts to midweek games in conference play throughout the month of October and Liberty concludes the regular season with seven straight league games. The Flames are 5-2 so far during October midweek CUSA games, including 4-0 on Tuesday, 1-0 on Thursday, and 0-2 on Wednesday. Liberty won each of its first CUSA midweek contests before falling at Kennesaw State and at home to Jacksonville State in a pair of Wednesday matchups in 2024.

“What’s happened in the past is in the past. You learn from it, but  you let it go. Now, you move forward,” Chadwell said. “I think there is a confidence that if we can fix these things, we can make a great run here in the conference. I think there’s a lot of confidence in that.”

INJURY REPORT

Liberty quarterback Ethan Vasko injured his right shoulder just ahead of halftime a couple weeks ago against James Madison and did not return. The injury also forced him to miss in the game at Old Dominion just over a week ago. The Flames are hopeful Vasko can see the field Wednesday night in El Paso.

“It will be 17 days from the injury,” said Chadwell of Vasko. “If there’s anyway for him to play, he will play. We’ve got to make sure we can get him as healthy as possible. I don’t know if he will ever be, throughout the season, get back to where he’s 100%. He will have to play through some pain, but our plan is, hopefully, if everything continues to go well, he will get to play.”

It also sounds like the Flames escaped what looked to be a very serious injury from defensive back and team leader Brylan Green. In the game at Old Dominion, he was injured in the end zone and the medical cart came out immediately. Green had an air cast put on his leg as he left the field on a stretcher. Chadwell says Green could come back this season, perhaps after only missing two games.

“We got some good news on him as far as there is no serious injury there,” said Chadwell. “He will be out for a little while, but depending on his recovery and his rehab and how everything goes, we expect to get him back at some point during the season. I don’t anticipate it he next two games, but you have this whole month there. Hopefully, if things go well for him, we have a good chance of getting him back by November.”

Here’s an update on the rest of Liberty’s current injury situation:

  • RB Evan Dickens was injured and left the ODU game with “concussion-like” symptoms. He was spotted at practice in a no-contact jersey late last week.
  • RB Vaughn Blue has been dealing with a nagging lower body injury. He had a setback and did not play against JMU or ODU the past two weeks. It sounds like it is a nagging injury for him that might last for some time.
  • LT Trey Bedosky exited the Jax State game in Week 2 and has not returned since then.
  • DL Markus Clark has missed the last three games.
  • Backup QB Ryan Burger is done for the season as he is medically retiring due to repeated concussions.
  • Backup C Cal Grubbs suffered an injury late during training camp and is out for the season.