flames football team prepares for season opener

The new regime is finally set to hit the field. After a fall camp that Flames Head Coach Jamey Chadwell said “felt like forever”, the first-year Liberty coach is nearly prepared for his group to welcome its first opponent to Lynchburg. 

With the anticipation of the college football season, however, comes the storylines surrounding a program nearly unrecognizable from last year’s. The team has pinpointed both areas of excitement and areas of concern entering the 2023 football season, but all signs now point toward the impending arrival of game day.  

The quarterback under center come Saturday may yet be unknown to the public, but the program is now internally aware of who its signal caller will be against Bowling Green. 

“We have (made a decision at quarterback). Internally, we know what it is,” Chadwell said. “Our quarterbacks know what the order is right now. That’s something we’re probably not going to announce publicly for a while.” 

The three front-runners in the contest for starting quarterback are senior Johnathan Bennett, sophomore Kaidon Salter and senior Trey Lowe. 

Bennett took the bulk of the snaps last season after former Liberty quarterback Charlie Brewer suffered a hand injury in the season-opener. The progression of Salter and the added competition of Southern Miss transfer Lowe, however, has made for an interesting fall camp of competition. 

Chadwell and his staff will wait as long as they possibly can on gameday to make their decision known to the public.

If there’s one position group that sticks out as most intriguing on the team, it’s the Flames running backs. This year’s bunch is a dynamic one, filled with players of different ages and skill sets. 

“(This group is) probably one of the deepest groups I’ve had in my years of coaching,” running backs coach, Newland Isaac, said. “We’ve got guys that can catch it on the perimeter. We’ve got guys with speed. We’ve got three really good guys in between the tackles. It’s a really, really good group.”

Headlining the room is Quinton Cooley, a junior who joined the program after two years spent with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. While he may be a newcomer, Cooley has stepped right into a leadership position in a relatively young position group. 

“The competition level has been high,” Cooley said. “The way we push each other is really great because we’ve got a lot of young running backs in the room.”

The competition, however, has been anything but negative for the running backs. In fact, the energy found in fall camp has even helped rekindle Cooley’s love for the game. 

“Just being around the guys makes me happy,” Cooley said. “I did lose a little faith in my old school for football, but when I got here, it made me happy again. It made me fall in love with the game again because of the people I was surrounded with.” 

Another leader in the room is Duquesne transfer Billy Lucas, who rushed for 1,788 yards and 13 touchdowns in three seasons with the Dukes. Both Cooley and Lucas have been vital in helping true freshman Vaughn Blue, who has impressed highly since his arrival, learn the ropes of college football.

Despite Chadwell’s expressed desire to redshirt Blue, the young athlete has proven that he’s too talented to be sidelined for a season. 

“He can do a lot of stuff we haven’t seen freshmen do in this offense before,” Isaac said. “He’s going to definitely play and he’s going to be a good player for us. Vaughn can line up as a receiver, you can put him in motion (and) you can do stuff out of the backfield with him. He’s super explosive, super twitchy.” 

Aside from Blue, the team has also found lightning in a bottle when it comes to the development of defensive end TJ Bush. While the talent that left the team in the departures of Durrell Johnson and TreShaun Clark is difficult to replicate, Bush has turned heads in fall camp, making coaches confident they have notable young talent on their team. 

 “The thing that makes (Bush) unique is one, he’s a talented individual, but he also has great strength for a young person (and he) understands the game of football,” Chadwell said. “Typically, a young person, they hit a wall and they don’t know how to push through that wall. He has a great maturity about him to push through. It has been impressive. He’s been running with the 1’s basically ever since spring … He’s going to be really, really, really good for us.” 

The rest of the defensive line is relatively young as well, with the only senior projected to start being DT Kendy Charles. While Charles is expected to have another stellar season with the Flames, there is still a degree of concern that comes with having a true freshman on your front four. 

“When you have a freshman that’s in the rotation and playing a lot, you have to cover everything, because there’s things that they haven’t seen,” defensive line coach, Skyler Magee, said. “I do feel good coming out of camp, but there’s still those unknown(s) with (Bush). How is he gonna be when this placed is packed and it’s loud and he looks up? We’ll see.” 

A serious injury to veteran tackle Brendan Schlittler early on in fall camp heavily affected a position group that already consisted of many new faces. 

But Schlittler, who has been a primary leader of the Flames for multiple seasons, has stepped up, making light of the dismal situation any way he can. For the Missouri native, that has meant taking his talents to the sideline in an assistant coaching role.   

“(Schlittler) is awesome,” offensive line coach Bill Durkin said. “I feel so terrible for him … But, since the injury, he’s been nothing but positive. He’s been ready to go every day, and he’s taken it personally that he’s gonna be my assistant with Coach Carter and just be as helpful as he can to be engaged and to stay around. I’ve already got a good plan for him.”

The injury has required some shuffling to be done around the offensive line. Junior Xavior Gray has appeared to solidify himself at right tackle in place of Schlittler, with junior Chase Mitchell now projected to take the spot at left tackle. Reliable senior X’Zauvea Gadlin has also shifted to right guard after spending the first portion of fall camp working at left tackle. 

“At the end of the day, what I’m trying to do is get the best five out there,” Durkin said. “Sometimes that means moving guys out of a natural position for them to be (to) where it’s best for us (as a) team.”

Wide receiver appears to be the biggest unknown for the Flames in 2023. Newly acquired talent in West Virginia transfer Reese Smith and Nebraska transfer Victor Jones both suffered season-ending knee injuries over the offseason, leaving the receiver room looking vastly different from what Chadwell envisioned. 

Other nagging injuries to the remaining players in that group have also set the room slightly behind others on the team. 

“It’s been a challenge,” Chadwell said. “We’ve had a group of receivers starting in the summer and then through camp. I don’t know if we’ve had maybe 17 practices, we’ve had maybe four practices where we’ve had everybody out there … But I do think (that) once we get some guys back that have been injured, hopefully, they have played a decent amount of football here that they can get accomplished what we need for that room.” 

The team will rely on names such as junior CJ Daniels and senior Noah Frith to create production for the new-look offense. And in the mind of Chadwell, the injuries may have been a setback, but his team has its sights fully set on putting a winning product on the field. 

“Nobody is going to feel sorry for you, nobody is going to make excuses for you, we’re not going to make excuses,” Chadwell said. “We are out looking for an opportunity to win games and be our best every time we kick it off. Everything that we’re doing now is to try and help us win that first game.”

Chadwell and his Liberty Flames will take the field for the first time in Williams Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 2 against MAC member Bowling Green. Kickoff is set for noon, and the broadcast will air on CBS. 

Cory is the sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on X