Liberty got the result it needed Friday night. The Flames opened Conference USA play with a road victory over Delaware, 30-14, improving to 4-1 on the season and matching last year’s win total in just five games.
It wasn’t the cleanest performance Liberty has put together this season, but conference wins are what matter most at this point of the year — and the Flames are now 1-0 in league play.
“I’m thankful for the win,” Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “In this league, it’s tough to come on the road and win. We took control of the game in the second quarter. There, in the third quarter, had an opportunity to blow it out. We didn’t do it. There’s a lot of positives we can take, but this group knows we could have done some better stuff. We didn’t take advantage.”
Liberty controlled the game for much of the night, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. The Flames’ defense shut out Delaware through the first three quarters, continuing what has been one of the team’s biggest strengths during the first month of the season. Delaware played without starting quarterback Nick Minicucci, but Liberty’s defense still deserves credit for consistently keeping the Blue Hens off the scoreboard.
The shutout finally ended in the fourth quarter when Delaware scored two late touchdowns. Those were the first points Liberty has allowed in the fourth quarter all season, snapping a streak of four games in which the Flames had kept opponents off the scoreboard in the final period.
Chadwell wasn’t pleased with how his team finished defensively.
“They were lights out through three quarters,” Chadwell said. “We didn’t do enough on our part to separate the game. It could have been easily 34-0 or something. We had the ball with opportunities to do that. They are playing really well. They have a good standard they compete to. They’re not satisfied with what they do.”
The biggest issue was that Liberty had opportunities to put the game away and didn’t capitalize.
The Flames continued to make progress running the football, increasing their team rushing total for the fifth consecutive game. That progression has been an important development for an offense that struggled to consistently establish the run early in the season.
“We’ve got to be able to run the ball and we’ve been doing that lately,” Chadwell said.
But the Flames weren’t as effective running the football after halftime, something Chadwell pointed to as an area that needs to improve.
“If we want to be what we’re capable of being, we’ve got to be able to run the ball, we’ve got to be able to control the line of scrimmage,” Chadwell said. “I was disappointed we didn’t do that better in the second half. I thought we were controlling it in the first half.”
The red zone remained another concern. Liberty moved the ball well enough to create opportunities but too often failed to turn those possessions into touchdowns. That kept Delaware within striking distance and prevented the Flames from turning a dominant defensive performance into a comfortable victory. For Chadwell, that was perhaps the most frustrating part of the night.
“I’m ticked off right now. We’re better than what we showed,” he said. “We could have had well over 500 yards of offense. As a play caller, you’re ticked off. As a head coach you’re happy you won, but as a play caller I’m ticked off.”
That frustration comes from the understanding that Liberty has shown enough over the first five games to be a legitimate factor in the Conference USA race, but the Flames still have plenty to clean up.
The defense has established a high standard. The rushing attack is trending in the right direction. And Liberty now has a conference victory on the road.
The next step is turning those positives into more complete performances.
“I thought we lost our intensity when we got up,” Chadwell said. “You’ve got to play to the standard no matter what the circumstances are going on.”
That will be particularly important with a short week ahead. Liberty doesn’t have much time to dwell on what went wrong against Delaware. The Flames will have to quickly correct those issues while carrying the momentum of a 1-0 conference record into the next matchup, Thursday back at Williams Stadium against Sam Houston.
“On a short week coming up, it’s a lot of things we can improve,” Chadwell said. “It’s great to correct them off a win.”
And that’s ultimately what made Friday night important. Liberty avoided the mistake of starting conference play 0-1, something that can create an uphill climb in a league race where every game carries added weight.
“We will take any win at this point, no matter how it looks,” Chadwell said. “When you go 1-0 in conference, we started 0-1 before and it’s hard to dig out. When you start 1-0, that’s a big deal. You’re sitting at the top of other people. Now you don’t have to worry about Delaware losing because you got beat by them. It’s good to start 1-0.”
The Flames still have work to do. But at 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Conference USA, Liberty accomplished the most important objective Friday night. It left Delaware with a conference victory — and now has the rest of the league chasing a team that has already matched its 2025 win total.
