ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — 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.”
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Liberty's Jamey Chadwell greets players after an NCAA college football game against Old Dominion, Nov. 11, 2023, in Lynchburg, Va. (AP Photo/Robert Simmons, File)
Kaylee Hottle, a deaf actor best known for her starring role in two “Godzilla” films, died in a car crash in Maryland early Tuesday morning, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office said. She was 18.
Hottle was one of two passengers in the car when it went off the road and hit a culvert in Ijamsville before 3 a.m. The driver was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the other passenger declined medical treatment, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. Excessive speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, which is under investigation, the sheriff's office said.
Hottle was a native signer of American Sign Language, and her family members are also deaf. Her parents, Joshua and Ketsi Hottle, shared emotional video statements about her death on social media sites.
“Kaylee’s mom and four siblings are crushed,” her father said in ASL in a post from an airport. “They are together at home, grieving. I am on my way to Maryland to bring Kaylee’s body back home.”
Hottle’s heart stopped before she arrived at a hospital, transported by air from the scene of the accident, her father said. “Very grateful for the 18 years we had together — and wish we had more,” he said.
Joshua Hottle also reached out to the driver, described by the sheriff's office as a 19-year-old Frederick man.
“I have forgiven you,” her father said. “Don’t let this incident ruin the rest of your life.”
“I still feel Kaylee is with us,” her mother said in ASL in a post.
In “Godzilla vs. Kong” and the sequel, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” Hottle played an orphaned girl named Jia who sees beyond Kong's threatening appearance and forms a special bond with the monster, communicating with him using sign language.
“I’m so devastated to hear this. You will be deeply missed Kaylee,” her “Godzilla” co-star Millie Bobby Brown posted on Instagram.
Co-star Alexander Skarsgård, who learned ASL to communicate with Hottle, told the pop culture website Junkee in 2021 that he and others were impressed by the young ingenue's professionalism and her ability to quickly incorporate the director's notes into her acting.
In a 2024 interview with The Associated Press, Hottle said through an interpreter that she hadn't watched monster movies before she was cast in “Godzilla,” so her father helped her understand the genre.
“I look up to a lot of people, but the one person I look up to, the few people I look up to mostly, are my parents and my sisters,” Hottle said.
Hottle said that when she was working on the first film, she was a bit concerned about whether she would be able to return to her “normal life," afterward.
“People do recognize me at school, yes, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be,” Hottle said.
Hottle previously appeared in a 2021 television episode of “Magnum P.I.” She was listed as appearing in the upcoming film “What Doesn’t Kill Us.”
“I’m so heartbroken. My heart goes out to her family during this unimaginable time,” Alaqua Cox, her co-star in that film and fellow deaf actor, wrote on Instagram.
Other prominent deaf actors also shared messages of grief online.
“I am absolutely gutted about the passing of sweet Kaylee Hottle. May her beauty and talent be a memory for eternity,” Oscar winner Marlee Matlin wrote on Instagram.
Fellow Oscar winner Troy Kotsur, who starred in the film “Coda,” wrote that Hottle's death made him think of his own daughter, and reminded him not to take time for granted.
“I have no words to express on what happened this morning,” Kotsur wrote, offering his “deepest condolences” to the Hottle family.
Officials with Texas School for the Deaf in Austin also announced Hottle's death on Facebook, writing that counseling and support services would be available to her classmates and friends.
FILE - Kaylee Hottle appears at the premiere of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire," in Los Angeles on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Kaylee Hottle appears at the premiere of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire," in Los Angeles on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
