Jamey Chadwell was considered one of the top offensive coaches in college football when he left Coastal Carolina for Liberty. The Flames drew an abysmal crowd for the first home game of his fourth season at the helm on Saturday.
Fans are very quickly losing interest.
Not only did Liberty fail to put butts in the seats, they put themselves at risk of the worst loss in college football this weekend. Anybody who did show up to the game might’ve preferred not to watch the product on the field.
Jamey Chadwell is on the hot seat.
There are very few coaches who were as successful as Jamey Chadwell during the beginning of their careers. He went 21-14 at North Greenville and 35-14 at Charleston Southern before he took over at Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers became relevant for the first time, ever, under his guidance with back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2020 and 2021. Chadwell went 36-13 in four seasons.
And then he left for Liberty. Most people considered it to be a lateral move, especially because he was getting serious looks from Power Four programs. Chadwell saw it as a chance to capitalize on the new era. He has a much larger financial in Lynchburg than in Myrtle Beach.
It looked like it was going to be a great hire. The Flames went 13-1 in Chadwell’s first season as head coach, won the Conference USA and made the College Football playoff. It has been all downhill ever since.
Liberty went 8-3 in 2024 and 4-8 in 2025. That is not the expectation for a coach making $5.93 million per year. Chadwell needed to bounce back in a big way in year four. His seat was already pretty toasty entering the new season.
Unfortunately, 2026 is off to an equally as bad start. Maybe worse?
The Flames lost their first game of the season to James Madison, which all-but took them out of the Playoff conversation. They also trailed Gardner-Webb — which is playing with an interim head coach after a misconduct scandal — at halftime in Week 2.
Liberty drew an awful crowd for college football.
Now, before we go any further here, it should be noted that kickoff was moved from 6:00 p.m. to noon on Saturday. That doesn’t change the optics. A home game is a home game. Fans would be there if they wanted to be there.
They didn’t want to be there.
It was an extremely poor showing for the home opener.
So far, this is the sparsest crowd at the FBS level I can remember for a home opener at Williams Stadium pic.twitter.com/2hXcQ4yypm
— A Sea of Red (@ASeaofRed) September 12, 2026
The quickest way to get fired as a head coach is to lose the fanbase. If Saturday was any indication, Chadwell lost the fanbase.