Coaching Era · LibertyUndefeated 2023 regular season
Liberty runs the table and wins Conference USA in its first year in the league
Liberty
1-1Latest
Conference USA · Jamey Chadwell, year 4 (26-14) · Williams Stadium (VA) · 25,000 · 15,708 avg in 2026
The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#94 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #93 (-7.2) · FPI #108
The marketLiberty by 14vs Ball State · our model 72% Liberty · a number, not a pick
LastW 24–23 vs Gardner-Webb · Sat Sep 12 · Brenton Williams 1 sacks, 1 TFL, 5 tackles
Nextvs Ball State · Sat Sep 19 · 4 pm ET · Williams Stadium (VA) · Liberty by 14 · series 1-0 · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
The CFP Era
12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality
AP Rank (inverted)
CFP Appearance
Liberty's 2014–2025 record is 90-55. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.
Program outlook
Liberty went 13-1, won Conference USA in its first year in the league, and played in the Fiesta Bowl in 2023. Two years later: 4-8, the program's first losing season in two decades. The Flames are trying to remember which one was real.
Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs
The 2023 season was the proof of concept for everything Liberty built after joining the FBS in 2018. An undefeated regular season. A Conference USA title in year one of membership. The first Group-of-Five program from that league ever to reach a New Year's Six bowl. Kaidon Salter at quarterback, Jamey Chadwell running the offense, and a No. 18 final AP ranking that certified Liberty as a genuine program, not a well-resourced novelty. Hugh Freeze had built the foundation; Chadwell had taken it to the Fiesta Bowl.
Then the 2025 collapse: 4-8, 3-5 in Conference USA, the program's first losing record in twenty years. For a young FBS program, two seasons between the Fiesta Bowl and four wins is an unusually violent oscillation. The oldest doubt about Liberty — that the rise was an anomaly, that a private Christian university in the Blue Ridge foothills can't sustain what it briefly became — has a data point again. Chadwell enters 2026 as the answer to a question fans are not sure how to ask: rebuild, or slide?
The 2026 season is the clearest verdict Liberty will have had on its own trajectory. The Fiesta Bowl happened. The 4-8 year also happened. What 2026 determines is which of those two years was the exception and which was the program's actual altitude. Lynchburg believes the Fiesta Bowl was the floor. The schedule will say.
On the field
Up-tempo, dual-threat-QB offense — the score-fast identity that powered the undefeated 2023 regular season and made Liberty's rise legible to the national audience. Salter-era football was built around quick decisions, designed runs, and the kind of tempo that small-roster programs use to even out physical mismatches. The 2025 collapse suggests the depth behind that scheme broke faster than expected. Chadwell's 2026 task is rebuilding the personnel without abandoning the identity that got Liberty to the Fiesta Bowl in the first place.
All-time record · Liberty
Liberty has won 58% of its games since 1981 — 76% at home, 41% on the road.
157-113 all-time · 32 seasons · 1981–2026
Home
100-32
Away
51-73
Neutral
6-8
2 g
1980s
3 g
1990s
51%
2000s
58%
2010s
68%
2020s
Coaching Era · Liberty
Jamey Chadwell
Jamey Chadwell has held the program for 4 seasons — the era is established.
Era Jamey Chadwell · 2023–presentPrev: Hugh Freeze (2019–2022)OC: Newland IsaacPrev OC: co-Willy Korn / co-Newland Isaac (2023–2025)DC: Shawn QuinnPrev DC: co-Kyle Krantz / co-Skylor Magee (2023–2025)
4
years · era
Program memory
What this program never forgets
Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.
2023 Fiesta Bowl berth
The first Conference USA team ever to reach a New Year's Six bowl, falling to No. 8 Oregon
2025 losing season
A 4-8 finish — the program's first losing record in 20 years, two years removed from the Fiesta Bowl
Wound
NFL Draft Pipeline
2022–2023
NFL Draft PipelineLiberty has sent 2 players to the NFL Draft since 2022 — none in the first round.
Thin. Roster development still maturing.
2
picks · 0 in round 1
#86
Malik Willis
Quarterback · 2022 · Tennessee · #34/126 final season
#210
Demario Douglas
Wide Receiver · 2023 · New England · #20/488 final season
#147 all-time · 1 first-round picksthe talent factory →
More in this tab
Ladder finish
Season standing · 2026 · 1-1
Season standing · 2026 · 1-1Liberty is 1-1 and unranked in the season's first weeks.
Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.
FBS competitive
Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
Coaching history
Coaching history
- Hired Jamey Chadwell
- Hired Josh Aldridge (interim)
- Hugh Freeze departs
- Josh Aldridge departs (interim)
- Hired Hugh Freeze
- Turner Gill departs
- Hired Turner Gill
Coordinator lineage
Unit lineage
Liberty’s offense and defense, by coordinator
FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.
Offense2018–2026
2018 · Joe Dailey2019–2022 · co-Kent Austin / co-Maurice Harris2023–2025 · co-Willy Korn / co-Newland Isaac2026 · Newland Isaac
Defense2018–2026
2018 · co-Vantz Singletary / co-Robert Wimberly2019–2020 · Scott Symons2021 · co-Josh Aldridge / Scott Symons / co-Jack Curtis2022 · co-Josh Aldridge / co-Jack Curtis2023–2025 · co-Kyle Krantz / co-Skylor Magee2026 · Shawn Quinn
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customs
Rituals
Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.
FBS Independent → C-USA Entry (2018-2023)
since 2018
more
Liberty's 2018 FBS reclassification (from FCS) → 2018-2022 independent FBS schedule → 2023 Conference USA entry — the most-recent program to make the full FCS-to-FBS-conference ascent. The four-year independent schedule period (2018-2022) included Hugh Freeze's program-rebuild era + multiple bowl appearances. The C-USA entry completed the tier transition.
Hugh Freeze Rebuild (2019-2022)
since 2019
more
Hugh Freeze's tenure (2019-2022) — coming off the 2017 Ole Miss firing and a multi-year hiatus — rebuilt Liberty into a top-25-quality FBS independent. Four straight bowl appearances + 30+ wins + 2020 #17 AP rank produced national legitimacy. Freeze's 2022 departure to Auburn opened Jamey Chadwell's 2023 13-1 + Fiesta Bowl ascent.
2023 Fiesta Bowl Run
since 2023
more
Jamey Chadwell's 2023 13-1 + Conference USA championship + Fiesta Bowl appearance + #18 final AP rank — the program's first year in C-USA. The Fiesta Bowl loss to Oregon (45-6) didn't dim the achievement; Liberty became the first ever C-USA team to make a New Year's Six bowl. The 2023 run is permanent program identity.
Cultural identity
Canon appearances
Bowls
Bowl / Postseason Ledger
Bowl / Postseason LedgerRecent postseason (2019-2024): 3-3
Most recent: 2024 — loss 7-26 (home). Last 5 postseason: 2-3.
20242023202220212020
Reddit blowups
r/cfb moments
3.4k
[Postgame Thread] Connecticut Defeats Liberty 36-33
1.2k
[Postgame Thread] Liberty Defeats BYU 41-14
621
[Postgame Thread] ULM Defeats Liberty 31-28
403
[Postgame Thread] Army Defeats Liberty 31-16
224
[Postgame Thread] FIU Defeats Liberty 34-27 (OT)
All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes
This page may include content derived from public news sources, social media, and fan communities. We relay these sources as-is — we are not reporting them. Sources may be summarized or quoted imperfectly; for anything that matters, go look at the original source directly. The original source may also be wrong. AI-generated content is labeled and may contain factual errors. All analysis is editorial opinion, not professional reporting. Data sources · About this site