Earlier this week, Mississippi State head football coach Zach Arnett was relieved of his duties as the coaching cycle has officially begun for this year.

With Liberty football at 10-0 under first year head coach Jamey Chadwell, one of the most successful coaches from the Group of Five level in recent years, he has been mentioned as a possibility to replace at Arnett at Mississippi State.

The rumors intensified with a doctored image circulating on social media claiming that the Liberty head coach was in Mississippi just hours after the job officially came open. Coach Chadwell addressed those rumors on his weekly coaches’ show on Wednesday night.

The show, which typically airs on Thursday night was moved to Wednesday due to Liberty’s men’s basketball game on Thursday against Furman in the Myrtle Beach Invitational. Coach Chadwell mentioned that his daughter has a piano recital on Thursday night and would have been unavailable this week if the show was on Thursday.

“Can you imagine with all the rumors swirling if I didn’t show up tomorrow what would have happened,” Chadwell joked at the beginning of his show. “They would have had me in College Station, Texas.”

Of course, College Station, Texas is the home of Texas A&M which job also came open this week.

Later in the show, Chadwell was asked about the circulating rumors.

“First of all, I wasn’t in Starkville when I tweeted that,” he stated. “Whoever photo-shopped that, nice job.”

“I think anytime you’ve had success, you go through these things,” Chadwell continued. “Anytime there are rumors, they are just rumors. When you have that and your name pops up, it’s because your team is playing well and all those things. Our staff, our families, we chose to come here because we believe in the mission of Liberty. We believe in what it stands for. We believe in that because that’s what we stand for. We chose to come here when there were opportunities to go other places. We wanted to be here because of what that mission is and what we believe in.”

“We are thankful to be here. We came here to build a program, not to just have a team to try and go take another job, that’s not what we’re about. We’re excited to be here, our family is. A bunch of guys have bought houses and they’re building things. Rumors are rumors. Unless you hear it from me, it ain’t true. We are excited about being here and what we’re building here, and we’re not done with that.”

Coach Chadwell and the Flames are 10-0 this season and 7-0 in the program’s first year in the Conference USA. Liberty has already clinched a spot in the CUSA Championship Game to be played on Friday, Dec. 1 at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia against New Mexico State.

The Flames are currently ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, and will put that ranking and unbeaten record on the line Saturday against UMass. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.