Head coach Jamey Chadwell prepares for the regular season opener on Saturday in Harrisonburg at Bridgeforth Stadium. In his first official press conference with the media on Tuesday, Chadwell brought intriguing information that fans should keep an eye on as Liberty begins its regular-season campaign at James Madison on Saturday. Here are three key takeaways:
No Announcement on QB1 Yet
Chadwell and the Flames have failed to reduce the quarterback competition from the four remaining in the room, at least officially. Ethan Vasko, Deshawn Purdie, Jaylen Henderson, and Jachin Davis have neither been ruled out or named starter. Though Chadwell did hint that he could announce a starter prior to game day on Saturday.
“Hopefully we will have announcement on our quarterback by Thursday or Friday,” Chadwell said as part of his opening statement.
“I don’t think it’s been difficult,” Chadwell said when asked what has made the QB battle so difficult to announce a starter. “We want to make sure, as coaches, that you’re giving the best opportunities for the people competing for it, their best opportunity to put their best foot forward. Also, you want to see how they handle certain situations and put them under as much pressure because there will be pressure on Saturday. I don’t think it’s been difficult, we just want to make sure we are thorough with our decisions and giving our best chance for us to go out and play really well this first game.”
Offensive Line Fighting Through Injuries
Injuries on the offensive line have been a theme throughout camp. While we haven’t gotten official word on injuries from Coach Chadwell, we have heard from OL Coach Bill Durkin that Erwil Anthony, Jr. was injured on the first day of camp and it is likely he misses extensive time, perhaps even the entire season. Earlier in camp, during open practice periods for the media, Austin Anderson was very limited in practice, not wearing pads and only doing conditioning drills. Anthony was working at first string right tackle prior to his injury and Anderson is one that would be fighting for a starting position if and when he is healthy.
“The injuries have hurt us because the guys that are banged up were good players and projected to play a lot,” Chadwell said of his offensive line. “It has really challenged our depth. We’ve got a five that have been playing quite a bit up there. Then, it’s finding who’s the 6th and 7th when there’s some injuries. That’s where our depth has taken a hit. Going into it, we felt like we had like 7 we felt really good about. Now, with the injuries we had there are five and then there’s 2-3 that really need to step up. We’ve got to have some new guys in our program develop, hopefully sooner than later.”
Preparing for Big Test at JMU
The Flames are nearly a touchdown underdog against the Dukes who made it to the CFP last year and are under first year head coach Billy Napier.
“It’s a great opportunity,” said Chadwell. “One, because you are playing a non-conference game and that can help you nationally. It’s in-state. It’s a rival. There’s a lot of reasons why it’s important to a lot of different people. For our team, just because so many new guys and the guys returning, the ones that returning have a bad taste in their mouths from last year and want to get that taste out of their mouth as quick as possible. Anytime you can open the season against a quality opponent, especially one that is right up the road, it puts a little bit more urgency on that first game than their already is.
