Liberty Flames College Football Pregame Quote, 12/03/2023

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: We’re pleased to bring in Coach Jamey Chadwell from Liberty University. The team had a 13-0 record, and one of only four teams to be undefeated in FBS right now. The Flames have the nation’s leading rushing offense, 303 yards per game.

Coach, congratulations on a great season, and welcome to the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.

COACH CHADWELL: Thank you, Scott. Today was surreal for our program, for our players. To see our name, our logo up there in the Fiesta Bowl was something beyond our dreams. And on top of that, to play one of the premier college football programs in the country with Oregon is something that typically doesn’t happen to programs like us.

And if I could put in words just the emotion that our players felt to see that today, and just the excitement, the joy, the tears, it was a special, special moment. And we’re thankful to be in it. Thankful to be representing Conference USA.

And we’re excited about playing Oregon. We know how good they are. Disappointed Bo Nix is going to play. I was kind of hoping he wasn’t going to play against us. But I have a relationship with Bo’s father going back from FCA football camp. We actually coached at the same place together. Bo is a tremendous player. We’re looking forward to going against — could be a Heisman winner.

Just an unbelievable opportunity for our team. And our fans and our community and our university.

Q. I’ve been following your offense dating back to your Coastal Carolina days. I caught some Liberty football this year. Your kind of spread-out triple-option attack is a really interesting one. How is this offense different from what you were running with Grayson McCall at Coastal?

COACH CHADWELL: There’s a lot of similarities. The quarterback is a different player here than what Grayson was. You gear more towards what his skill set is. We’ve added maybe some more wrinkles here because of his running style and what he’s able to do than maybe what we did at Coastal.

So there’s a lot of similarities. You always have little nuances. And we do. But if you look at just the base and the foundation of it, it’s very similar.

Q. You were very confident or forceful in advocating for your team after Friday night’s win. After you saw the results of the AAC title game yesterday, were you even more confident? And how was just that wait today to see that last spot come up on the ESPN show?

COACH CHADWELL: I wouldn’t call it confidence. Probably more anxious and ready for maybe disappointment, to be honest. You start seeing people pick apart your season, and all these different things going back and forth.

And so I knew — we told our team — we had a watch party and we told them up front: This is going to be 50/50. It’s either going to be us, or there could be a disappointment. Until we saw that logo, to be honest with you, I probably thought it was going the other way.

Especially once we started doing some more, I was nervous. They held it and held it and held it there at the end, ESPN did. I was a little nervous about it.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: Can you give us a brief description of how you characterize your team and what we should be looking for on January 1st?

COACH CHADWELL: I think from a standpoint of just watching our team, we play a lot for each other. You’re going to see us try to be a spread-on offense. Defensively, we’re very multiple. But more importantly, from an offensive standpoint, we try to run some triple-option type principles to help play complementary football with our offense and defense. And that’s why if you look at our rushing, we led in rushing and our time of possession is really high. We try to play complementary football.

But we’re also top 10 in explosive plays. We can make big plays as well. Our quarterback makes us go. Defensively, we lead the country (with 21) interceptions. So we’re very opportunistic on the interception standpoint.

Every week, the guys have rose to the challenge. The target got bigger and bigger this year, and every week they rose to the challenge. This is the biggest challenge, obviously, we’ve faced maybe ever in the history of our program. We’ll have to play extremely well to get a victory.

Q. Just curious, do you happen to know either Dan [Lanning] or Tosh [Lupoi] or anybody on the Oregon coaching staff particularly well? Or even going back to last year with Kenny Dillingham, because I believe, they ran something like one of your plays from Coastal [Carolina] during the season last season. I didn’t know if there was any personal connections or clinics or anything like that between you guys.

COACH CHADWELL: No, obviously I’ve read a lot about Coach Lanning and know people that know him. But I’ve never had the opportunity to meet him or know anybody else on that staff. I know of those people, but I’ve never met any of them. But obviously they’ve done a fantastic job. I knew some people that knew him. I was at UGA and the job that he did there. But I look forward to seeing him when we get out to Arizona.

Q. First off, congratulations on the accomplishment and the great season. I wanted to ask you, what does this accomplishment kind of mean for you and this team? Does it kind of help validate the work that you guys had done throughout the season? After being 13-0, and you talked a lot about maybe not getting the respect you thought this team deserved a few weeks ago?

COACH CHADWELL: Well, I think for our coaches and myself, we get knocked all the time. We’re not Power Five, we’re not Power Five. You never had experience in Power Five. So you can only dream of an opportunity to play in a Fiesta Bowl. And to be able to have that happen — we all started in Division II and that’s how we view ourselves — to be able to have that happen, to be able to play and compete in one of the premier bowls in this country, that’s special for us and where we came from.

But more importantly, just our team and the season they had and getting knocked along the way, knocked along the way, knocked along the way — to be able to finish it out, finish it strong, play the way they did and get rewarded to be in the Fiesta Bowl, I’m happy for them. It was a tremendous scene today in our watch party, and just the emotion they had knowing that they had a tremendous season and they got rewarded for it. It doesn’t happen a lot, and it did for them.

Q. Just someone that’s come through the lower levels of college football, just what does this opportunity mean to you and this team? Not just this season, but as you build this program for years to come? What does this opportunity present for you guys?

COACH CHADWELL: Well, one, you grow up watching these bowl games, right? And you dream of playing on January 1. I grew up right outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. January 1 was a big deal. And I grew up with my father as a high school coach. So football was everything. And so for our team, to have this opportunity for us, the coach to have this opportunity, it’s surreal.

From a program standpoint, as you take over a program, you’re trying to get your brand national so people recognize you for something, right? And to be able to go 13-0, win our conference the first year — this is our fifth year of FBS football. And to be able, in our first year, the fifth year of FBS, to be able to have the opportunity to be in the Fiesta Bowl, I mean, that’s huge from a brand recognition. That’s huge to get our message out, what we’re about, and also from a recruiting standpoint.

Everybody on those January 1s are going to be watching the Fiesta Bowl. We got more eyes on us, which regardless of what happens in the game, that’s a big deal.

Q. Congratulations again on making it here. Kaidon [Salter] has had a fantastic year, obviously, going into the season. Wasn’t sure if he was going to get the starting job or not. Can you talk about his overall improvement and what he’s done to get himself in the offense to this point?

COACH CHADWELL: We got here in January and went through spring ball and had really three quarterbacks competing — three or four competing for the opportunity. And you knew that Kaidon had talent, obviously. He transferred here from Tennessee. So he had high-level talent from a physical gift standpoint.

Our job was we had to get him to learn and follow playing quarterback. From spring ball, we got done close to the end of April, from May through August when he won the job, he made a 180 as far as his preparation and his mindset to really wanting to be the quarterback and be a leader of men.

He always had belief in himself, but a lot of that belief was in those tools, not necessarily in that preparation. And now his tools and preparation have matched, and that’s why you’ve seen him have just an unbelievable season. I think he’s over 1,000 yards rushing and 2,800 yards passing. And he didn’t play a lot of the fourth quarters in some of the games. So just a tremendous season.

Q. On the subject of Bo Nix, what do you think you and your secondary specifically have to do to contend with some of his stronger traits?

COACH CHADWELL: He’s tremendous. During the season, you don’t get to watch a lot of different people. Maybe you’re waiting on your game. This year, we had four midweek games. And so on Saturday during the month of October, we were actually practicing. So you could watch some games on a Saturday night. And so I was able to catch them versus a couple of people here and there, a quarter or something of that nature. It’s going to be the biggest challenge we’ve obviously faced.

What makes him so good, one is accuracy. And two, if something breaks down, he obviously can beat you running, but he keeps his eyes downfield and can still hurt you from the pocket or out of the pocket.

We’re going to have to do a great job — I’ve obviously not watched all the film. I know our coaches will start to get all of that. But you’re not going to stop him. Can we hopefully minimize some of the damage that he does? That’s what we’ve got to try to figure out how to do that.

Q. The American Athletic Conference has the last couple of New Year’s Six bids. You’re the first Conference USA to do it, what does that say about CUSA’s larger reputation going forward?

COACH CHADWELL: For the season we’ve had and some of our other teams, New Mexico State who went down to SEC country and totally dominated, with a 10-win team, and Jacksonville State won eight games. I think what it did was, there was the knock on the new Conference USA: Hey, you’re not going to have that good of teams, blah, blah, blah, I think what it showed with who we played and who we beat, that we were just as good as some of the other ones.

My whole point that I was pushing with the AAC was, they’ve been really tremendous, but they lost a lot of people. And UTSA who was in Conference USA was a quarter away from playing in the conference championship game. I don’t think the difference in the leagues were that much. And that was our whole push. We were hoping they weren’t going to — the committee wasn’t going to live off last year’s AAC but judge it based off the games this year. And thankfully for us they did.

And hopefully what this does is it gives our other teams in this conference, gives them hope to say, hey, if they have a tremendous season, then they got a chance to have the fortune to be able to play in a bowl game like this.

Q. Congratulations on making it to the Fiesta Bowl. Well deserved, sir. I want to ask you, the biggest thing is, and it might be hard to do, could you compare this moment to anything in your coaching career or anything you’ve done in football?

COACH CHADWELL: You know what, I don’t know. Obviously this is the biggest moment I think from a personal standpoint as far as what your team earned. And what I mean by that is seeing your logo in the Fiesta Bowl versus who we’re playing. Just because you didn’t know if it was going to happen or not. I mean, there was just exhilaration. There was joy. There was emotions, tears, because of where you come from, right?

I think when you come from smaller levels and you don’t necessarily even think you have the opportunity to do something like this. And it opens up and you get that opportunity, it’s a special moment for us and our staff, just because of where we came from and what we’ve done together. I think that’s what I’m more thankful for than anything. We’ve been together for a long time.

And the only people that believed this would ever happen would be those people in that circle. I’m ecstatic for them because they all get knocked for not being at certain levels, and they get this opportunity to play at the highest level on January 1. So special, special, special day, that feeling and seeing that released on TV there. I’ll never forget it.

Q. I wanted to ask you about certain familiarity, but you mentioned watching them a couple of times. You’ve got the top running offense in the country. They’ve got a pretty good run defense with some potential NFL-bound guys in Brandon Dorlus and Jordan Burch in particular. Just how familiar are you with their run defense? And a guy I know you’re familiar with in Tez Johnson at receiver because you played him when you were at Coastal. What do you remember of him?

COACH CHADWELL: Again, I’ve not watched tons of them, but you can look at the statistics. When you find out who you’re playing, you can sort of pull up statistics and say hey, what are they doing? You the thing you know about Coach [Dan] Lanning, they play great defense wherever he’s been. He obviously follows the Georgia model from that standpoint.

They’re going to be stout. They’re going to be tough. It’s going to be obviously a challenge for us because that will be the fastest, biggest, strongest group of D-line linebackers that we’re going against.

And then you mentioned Johnson. He’s tremendous. And we did play against him and he torched us a few times. We’ll have our hands full, we know that. But the exciting thing for us is we get the same number of opportunities to get our team ready and put our best forward. And our guys, we talk about it all the time. We want one opportunity to be our best and go out and put our best against some of the best in this country. And obviously Oregon is.

We’ll look forward to it. We’ll get a good plan together on all three phases and know they’ve got great players. And we’ll have to do a good job of trying to minimize some of the things they do to give ourselves a chance. But I’m excited about looking in and seeing how we can do that.

Q. There’s a lot of people that want to speak for Liberty nationally. But from the inside out, obviously you know your team and your student-athletes know the Flames better than anybody else. What should we know about Liberty this undefeated run and this team that we will be seeing very soon in a New Year’s Six?

COACH CHADWELL: I would share this with you. We are arguably the tightest group of players I’ve been around. We went through a challenging time in fall camp where we lost one of our young men, an offensive linemen, the fourth day of practice. And that, going through his death, really brought this group together, because I think they realized how special it is to be with a group of people and all pushing towards a common goal.

And when we lost Tajh [Boyd] there, I won’t say it woke everybody up, but I think they realized they were in this together. And 100%, when you watch us play, we play for each other. They play hard. And they don’t waver. They’re going to believe that they can find a way to get it done, no matter what the scoreboard, no matter what the issue says.

That’s been pretty special with me, especially taking over. When you take over a winning program, it’s challenging. And that brought us together more than anything else could have. Because we went through such strong adversity. You’ll see us play that way. They will never waver and they will never quit. They’ll keep fighting.

Q. Has it crossed your mind that if this were 2024 you would be preparing to go to Tallahassee for the first round of the College Football Playoff?

COACH CHADWELL: I haven’t thought of it like that way, David. But I do know this, because of the opportunity that the Fiesta Bowl gave us, I do know that gives us a great opportunity going forward if we can have another great season. We’ve done it already. That give us a chance to be in that. And that’s exciting because you want that opportunity to play for that championship.

And so I hadn’t thought about that, but it’s pretty surreal. But that’s what I think I’m excited about more than anything is because of the success, now your name is out. And now if you have another great season, maybe you can be a part of that 12. And that would be awesome.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: Fantastic, Coach Chadwell. Thank you very much for your time. We greatly appreciate it. Good luck in your preparations. We’ll see you here out in sunny Arizona. I can tell you, it’s probably a little warmer than it is back there in Lynchburg. But we’ll see you here and get ready for that January 1st kickoff.

Next up, I would like to introduce to you the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl Executive Director and CEO, Mr. Erik Moses, finishing his first year onboard as our Executive Director on CEO.

ERIK MOSES: So excited to greet all of you and thank you for being here and covering this. We have been waiting with bated breath to figure out who the teams are going to be to participate in our game this year. And we couldn’t be more excited to see such a strong Liberty team, one of the four undefeated teams in the FBS this year, going up against one of the blue bloods in Oregon who many would think was very close to competing for a national championship. And so we are more than thrilled to be able to host them here at the Valley of the Sun for another fantastic Vrbo Fiesta Bowl game.

Q. Thanks for taking my question. Erik, appreciate it. Just want to ask you, for Flames fans that are planning on making the trip, what are some of the activities really that center around the Fiesta Bowl and just everything leading up to it for fans, for players? What are some of the staples of this event?

ERIK MOSES: Thanks for the question. Being a fellow East Coast guy for most of my life, the first thing that I want to highlight for all the Flames fans coming out here is that we’re going to have much better weather than they’re likely to have back on the East Coast. That along with our 300-plus golf courses, our fantastic resorts here, there’s so much to do here. And we will make certain that in working with Liberty folks over the next couple of weeks that we highlight all that there is to do, see and experience in the Valley of the Sun. There’s just too much to name specifically. But lots of great stuff going on here for visitors, for fans to take advantage of.

Q. I was just curious, and forgive me because I really don’t know the answer to this question. How much input do you have in the selection process? I know the committee chooses all of the sticks. But do you have any input at all as far as the matchups when it comes to selection?

ERIK MOSES: Thanks for the question. We do not have any input as it relates to formally deciding the teams that go to any of the New Year’s Six bowl games. The CFP selection committee determines through their rankings and their selection that teams that play in each of our games.

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: From our standpoint on the communications side, we drafted 15 press releases with possible matchups for today’s game as we learned right when y’all learned on ESPN exactly what that matchup was going to be.

Well, with that, thank you everybody for your time today. We greatly appreciate you joining us on our head coaches and executive director press conference. We will see you on January 1st. Once again, that’s at 11:00 A.M. Mountain time, 10:00 A.M. Oregon time. And 1:00 P.M. Eastern time kickoff. The game will be telecast live on ESPN. And we will see you then.