Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell met with the media on Friday morning as he recapped the Flames win over Sam Houston and looked ahead to Tuesday’s game at Jacksonville State. You can also watch the press conference on our YouTube channel, the video is also below. We will plan on live streaming each of Coach Chadwell’s press conferences this season.
Here is everything Coach Chadwell had to say, beginning with his opening statement.
“It was a tremendous night, tremendous environment. Our fans and our student body especially just make it an unbelievable place to play, what all we do there, especially going into the Flames Quarter. For us to find a way to win even though we didn’t play our best, I was very pleased with that. As we watched the game, there are a lot of things we did well and some things we felt like we left out there. I think any time you find a way to win a challenging game, whether that’s a drive by the offense or a kick or what the defense got five stops inside the four yard line there teh last how many seconds.”
“Huge for our confidence but also huge for our belief that even when you don’t play as good as you hope you should or you can, we can still find a way. Now, you have to go forward, quick turnaround, traveling, and play a really good opponent and team. It’s going to be an extremely physical football team. We’ve got to turn the page quickly and get ready to go.”
INJURIES HAVE BEEN A BIG STORYLINE, HOW ARE SOME OF THOSE GUYS LOOKING?
“Elijah (Hopkins), it was friendly fire. He will be out. We are hoping maybe by the open week he will come back. It’s a serious injury but it’s not a season ending, which is positive for him. Hopefully he will get back sooner rather than later, but he won’t be playing.”
“We did get banged up in some other areas but he is the one right now that I would say is definitely out. Quinton Cooley came back in the game, we will see how looks. Hopefully Billy Lucas comes back this week, he was a guy that missed. Chris Boti will still be out. He won’t be back this week, hopefully maybe by the following week, we will see what happens with him.”
“Today is our first practice, we had a walk through yesterday. We will see how guys move around today and see if they will have a chance to be cleared.”
NOAH WAS DRESSED, HE PROBABLY COULD HAVE GONE IF NEEDED?
“Noah was banged up and we made the decision. If he needed to go in, we probably could have used him. I don’t know if he would have felt 100% comfortable in where he was out. We are hoping by today, tomorrow, that he feels really, really good. He goes through a practice today, hopefully by tomorrow, if everything feels good he will feel good to go.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL THE TEAM HAS RESPONDED SO FAR WITH THE QUICK TURN AROUND?
“That game was the closest game we have played, throughout the 4th quarter. We exerted a lot there. Physically, they are not used to that flip. Then, mentally, obviously as well. We just need to be able flip that switch and really lock in. We had about an hour or so, I thought they did a nice job of being locked in. Today is the biggest challenge I think. It’s two days afterwards, but we have to do more than we would normally do. They have to be ready for that. It’s a Saturday. We are used to lying around waiting for a game and watching college football. They will be ready for it. I was pleased with last night. Today, we will see mentality-wise what they bring to the table.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK TO UTILIZE THE MOMENTUM YOU HAVE BUILT THE FIRST FEW WEEKS?
“I think what you do is you look and see, obviously, we are 5-0 and in every game we have had some really good things and some things you definitely want to improve. We found a way to win through some challenging circumstances whether we created those or whether it was by the other team. I think what it does is it gives you confidence that no matter what the circumstances are, we can figure out a way to get it done. That is good for your momentum because you believe. I think that’s one thing our team right now they believe. That was great for our belief because it went down to the wire and I don’t think anybody on that sideline was doubting we aren’t going to make a play from last week. On the road we’ve been able to win and we’ve been in some challenging circumstances and we’ve been able to do that. I do think it is a positive for us. We are going to need that going into a national television game, going into a really, really good opponent that is playing well and playing confident, and going into where an environment is going to be challenging and difficult than what we have experienced.”
RUNNING THE BALL DIDN’T COME EASY FOR YOU THE OTHER NIGHT, WAS IT SOMETHING THEY WERE DOING?
“What did we end up rushing for? 191. Here’s where I look at this. 190 is pretty good, but could we have been better yes. I think they were good up front. I think they did a nice job up front, but also I think we had some plays that could have gone out. We had some opportunities and we miss blocked something or we didn’t block it right or this or that. We probably left out there 2-3 plays where we would have had some big plays that would have made 220-230. We weren’t as clean. Credit goes to them because they were good in the box, but also I think we did some things, just not blocking the right guy at times, and we didn’t play, offensively, we just didn’t play as crisp as we had. I always worry about that sometimes. When you have an open date, sometimes I think you lose some momentum, but I give Sam Houston credit because I think they were really good at what they did. Also, I think there were some things if we would have handled our business then you’re probably looking at 200 plus something and you don’t feel as bad or you are trying to make me feel bad about it.”
JAX ST HAS BEEN REALLY GOOD AGAINST THE RUN ON DEFENSE, WHAT DO THEY DO THAT MAKES IT SO DIFFICULT TO RUN THE BALL?
“They’ve got really good players. They do a great job scheme wise. They are physical and they run and they chase the ball. They are very relentless in what they do. They pride themselves on being a physical group and they are just going to come after you. They use schemes that confuse you and some of those things. They are really good at tackles for loss and some of those things. We will have to be very sharp in the things that we do as far as executing. They try to cause havoc in all the different things. If you are not handling your business then it makes it worse. They swarm the football and they play with a lot of confidence. It will be our biggest challenge.”
THEY HAVE BEEN DOWN DOUBLE DIGITS TWO STRAIGHT WEEKS AND STILL WON AND THEIR TEMPO, HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE ARE THOSE THINGS?
“They have gotten down but their defense has caused a lot of turnovers. Special teams have caused turnovers and it allows the offense to get back out there and continue that tempo. When you run that type of offense, you might slow it down. If they are constantly out there, then they are just going to wear you down. The last two weeks they have worn their opponents down there in the second half. They played well. They play good complimentary football. We are going to have to line up fast and do a great job there. We are going to have to do our part offensively as far as not going three and out and giving the ball right back. Teams have sometimes tried to match their speed, they went three and out and put their defense right back out there. We will have to do a good job of holding onto the ball on offense and keeping it and sustaining some drives.”
IS THIS WEEK MORE SO ABOUT CLEANING UP THE LITTLE THINGS?
“I think you have to do that. Details are going to be vitally important because of the things that they do. We don’t want to beat ourselves. If we go down there and we play well and they beat us, ok. I have no problem with those things because I know what we are trying to build program wise. Where you get frustrated as a coach is you might find a way to win, which we have, but there are some things we need to be better at. That’s been our push the past two or three weeks is just playing our best over that consistently. We haven’t got there yet. We need to get there.”
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROS AND CONS YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED?
“I think anytime you win it covers up everything. Everybody thinks you are great and they are telling you all these things and players start believing that. Then you watch video and go hey this wasn’t that great. I think we are playing hard. We are playing with outstanding effort and our belief is very strong which is what you need to have to have a successful program. If you want to consistently be a championship program, then you have to, from a detailed stand point, not beat yourself. We had delay of game penalties and all those little things there. Making sure we have 11 on the field and some of those things. Those are things that we’ve been harping on, those things that beat Liberty. Our whole push is about Liberty doesn’t beat Liberty. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. That’s the things I’m talking about.”
THEY PLAY 2 QBs, DO THEY DO SIMILAR THINGS WITH BOTH OF THEM?
“They’re not going to change much as far as what they believe in from their tempo and all those things. They will go with the hot hand. They both can run. They both bring challenges. Webb played a lot of the game last week and played pretty well and did a good job. Obviously, you expect to see him. Maybe if you struggle you put the other guy in there. I could see them put both of them out there at the same time trying to do this or that. The thing you have to do a good job of is we have to try to make sure when they are throwing the ball beat us from inside that pocket. When they get outside of it, they are really good. That’s going to be a big challenge for us. I don’t see them changing what they call based off who is in there. Maybe one guy is a little better here but they are fast, they are going to try to hit you with some big plays and keep you off balance. That is what we have to be ready to do.”
2-0 ON THE ROAD, WHAT HAVE YOU LIKED ABOUT YOUR TEAM’S PREPARATION ON THE ROAD?
“When you are at home, you have a great atmosphere and a great environment. Sometimes when you go on the road you don’t have what we have here. On the road, I’ve been impressed with our people on our team. They’re not worried about their circumstances. They’ve locked in on what they can control and they are focusing on that. We’ve been able to get those two victories and done well in a couple of places because we have locked in. I like going on the road because it is you and your team and the majority of the people in there is going to be against you. I think it builds bonds when you are in the hotel and traveling like that. I’ve been impressed with how we have been able to control what we can and not worry about outside circumstances.”
RICH ROD WAS SPEAKING ABOUT HOW SMALL THE VISITOR TEAM LOCKER ROOM IS THERE, HOW FAMILIAR ARE YOU WITH THEIR VISITING TEAM FACILITIES?
“I was there in 2015 for a playoff game. So, I’ve been in it. It’s small. It’s tiny. You get different locker rooms at different places. Obviously here our visitor’s locker room is the best around. So, you can’t worry about that. If you worry about those things as a team, you are focused on the wrong stuff. Our people that handle our travel they will get us in the best situation possible every where we go. That’s the good thing about it, Coach Queen and Alex Jackson handle our travel. From a facilities stand point and any of those things, we don’t focus on that. You show up and let’s be ready to go.”
