Liberty coach Jamey Chadwell says he feels the best he has since the 2023 season while still dealing with some limitations for what has been called a “serious but treatable medical condition” that required surgery at the beginning of this year.
Chadwell still has not revealed the exact issue, but said during Conference USA’s football media day Tuesday that determining what it was and the treatment since has made a difference in how the 49-year-old coach feels going into his fourth season with the Flames.
“I feel physically probably the best I’ve felt since ’23,” he said. “Now there’s still some body, physical limitations I’m going through that I’m still working through, but as far as my mind and the way I was feeling compared to the last couple years, night and day.”
Chadwell said because of that, he is looking forward “more probably to this season than a long time, because I feel like I’m back, at least health-wise, to what I was prior to.”
Last January, about six weeks after the end of the 2025 season, Liberty announced in a statement that Chadwell was recovering from a successful procedure to address the medical issue. He was able to return in time to lead the Flames through spring practice.
“This is probably the best as far as physically, as far as inside, probably in the last two years that I’ve felt,” he said. “I had a lot going on the last two years and we couldn’t figure out what it was.”
After his 13-1 debut with the Flames in 2023 that included the Conference USA championship before their only loss was to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl, Chadwell said he spent the entire 2024 season going through blood work and other tests trying to figure out what was going on. The answer finally came right before the start of last season.
“Not ideal, but it was a blessing to figure out what was going on,” he said.
Liberty went 8-4 in 2024, but finished 4-8 last season after losing its last four games by a combined 23 points.
“When you don’t know what’s going on when you’re trying to figure it out, you’re thinking about everything,” he said. “I’m disappointed that I allowed it to interfere with us last year. But it won’t happen again.”
Liberty senior tight end Caleb Ryan said the way Chadwell has handled adversity, with players going alongside him during it, has brought the team closer together.
“I think that fire in him is burning a little hotter this year, just wanting to go out there, put our best out there,” Ryan said.
Before replacing Hugh Freeze at Liberty, Chadwell was 39-22 in five years at Coastal Carolina with consecutive 11-win seasons.
“He’s a guy that his players respect. He’s a true professional,” said Western Kentucky’s Tyson Helton, the longest-tenured C-USA coach going into his eighth season. “He seems great and he’s excited, and got a lot of energy. … I have tremendous respect for him.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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