Liberty Beats Kennesaw State 34-6 for Sixth Straight Win, Clinches Bowl Eligibility

Last November, Kennesaw State walked into Williams Stadium, beat Liberty 48-42 in double overtime and punched its ticket to the Conference USA title game. It was the Owls' third straight win over the Flames, and it was the kind of loss that sticks to a program.

Eleven months later, Liberty finally got to return the favor, and it did not need overtime. It barely needed a second half.

Liberty beat Kennesaw State 34-6 on Thursday night at Walens Family Field at Fifth Third Stadium, running its winning streak to six games and locking up bowl eligibility in late October. The Flames are 6-1 and 3-0 in Conference USA, tied with Jacksonville State for first place. The Owls fell to 1-6 and 0-3 and have now lost six in a row.

It was Liberty's first win over Kennesaw State in a decade, and it evened the all-time series at 3-3.

Fast start, then a long squeeze

Liberty has made a habit of punching first, and it did it again. The opening drive went 11 plays and 85 yards and took 6:34 off the clock before Kam Davis plunged in from a yard out at the 7:11 mark of the first quarter. That made it six straight games with points on the opening possession.

The second score took three plays. With 56 seconds left in the quarter, Deshawn Purdie found Jaylon Coleman in stride, and Coleman ran away from the secondary for a 56-yard touchdown, the first receiving score of his career. After 15 minutes, it was 14-0, and the 8,159 in attendance had a pretty good idea where this was headed.

To Kennesaw State's credit, the Owls did not go quietly in the second quarter. They outgained Liberty 100-66 in the period and drove to the Liberty 20 late in the half. Then the Flames got a third-down stop, and Daniel Kinney settled for a 37-yard field goal with 31 seconds left. It was 14-3 at the break, and that was as close as it got.

The turning point: two picks, two first-timers

If the Owls had any hope of a second-half push, it lasted one drive. Linebacker Derrell Farrar intercepted Rickie Collins to open the third quarter, the first pick of his career, and Chase Reeves turned it into a 30-yard field goal at 10:20 for a 17-3 lead.

Later in the quarter, cornerback Ashton McShane got his first career interception, too. Seven plays later, Coleman took a pitch around the left side and scored from 9 yards out, and Liberty led 24-3 with 1:37 left in the third.

That was the game. Two defensive players who had never picked off a pass in college both did it in the same half, and both turnovers turned into points. Kennesaw State's quarterbacks threw 41 passes on the night and did not complete one for a touchdown.

Jaylon Coleman's career night

Coleman was the best player on the field, and it was not close. The sophomore running back finished with five carries for 22 yards and a touchdown, plus four catches for 64 yards and a touchdown, and he did most of his damage in the moments that mattered.

"Jaylon's been great," Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell said. "He's obviously well-rounded."

That versatility is what makes the Liberty offense hard to plan for. A back who can take a pitch for a score and also outrun a secondary on a deep ball forces a defense to account for him everywhere. Jamari Person matched him with four catches and led all receivers with 72 yards.

Purdie was not asked to win the game, and he did not try to. He went 10-of-19 for 176 yards and a touchdown, and he has now gone seven straight games without an interception. That kind of ball security pairs nicely with a defense like this one.

The defense keeps doing defense things

Liberty came into the night ranked No. 19 nationally in total defense and No. 15 in scoring defense, and nothing on Thursday is going to hurt those numbers. The Flames held Kennesaw State to 297 total yards and 62 rushing yards on 27 carries, and for the second time this season, they did not allow a touchdown.

Jayden Davis led the way with a season-high nine tackles, and the Flames added two sacks. Collins went 15-of-26 for 124 yards with both interceptions, and the Owls' second quarterback went 9-of-15 for 111 yards.

The time of possession tells the rest of the story. Liberty held the ball for 37:05, leaving Kennesaw State just 22:55, and outgained the Owls 402-297. Reeves added a season-long 49-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, and fifth-year back Terron Kellman capped an 11-play, 70-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run at 5:26. Kinney's 28-yarder with 1:11 left kept the Owls off the zero.

Liberty also won the first-down battle 21-15 and ran for 215 yards, with Davis leading the way at 59 yards on nine carries. This was not a team scheming its way to points. It was a team leaning on an opponent until the opponent stopped leaning back.

The one thing Chadwell did not like

If there was a blemish, it was the flags. Liberty was penalized 12 times for 85 yards, and Chadwell was not hiding his frustration afterward.

"I lost my cool tonight on the fourth and short," Chadwell said. "They were jumping offsides … and those are the things that will get us beat."

He is right, even if it did not matter on Thursday. Against a team that cannot score, penalties are an annoyance. Against Jacksonville State in a race for a conference title, they are a problem.

What it means

The bowl part is settled. Liberty is bowl eligible for the seventh time in program history, and the Flames were the 18th team in the country, and the fourth Group of 6 program, to reach six wins in 2026. This is also the seventh time Liberty has started a season 6-1 or better, and the six-game streak is the program's longest since the 2023 team opened 13-0.

The bigger prize is still out there. At 3-0 in league play, Liberty is right in the thick of the Conference USA race, and Chadwell, now 13-1 in Thursday games as a Division I head coach, finally gets back to a normal weekend schedule after four straight midweek games. The Flames went 3-0 on Thursdays this season and are 10-2 in October weekday games under Chadwell, which is a very specific niche to dominate, but here we are. This is also the third time in four seasons as a CUSA member that Liberty has opened league play 3-0. Next on the schedule was a homecoming game against FIU on Saturday, Oct. 31, at Williams Stadium, where the Flames had won seven straight homecoming games. Liberty's game recap (opens in a new tab) and official box score (opens in a new tab) have the full numbers.

For Kennesaw State, the frustrating part is how close the Owls have been. Before Thursday, three of their losses came by three points or fewer. This one was not close, and at 0-3 in league play, the conference race has slipped away from them. They headed to Middle Tennessee on Oct. 28 looking for answers.

The last word

Chadwell summed up the whole night, and maybe the whole season, in one line.

"We've talked all season long about earning extra games," he said.

Mission accomplished on that front. Now the Flames get to find out how many extra games they can earn, and whether one of them comes with a trophy.

Sources: Liberty Athletics recap and box score, The Liberty Champion, WDBJ7, FOX Sports and theScore. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Liberty Athletics/KJ Jugar.