"There’s no reason (he) should ever come off the field"
Liberty's 'A' Back Jaylon Coleman is a potential must have in CFF 2026.
Throw flames, Liu Kang, the coach ain't help out, so I call my own shots.
- J. Cole, musician
Pigs, it’s that time of the year again. A period when quotes start emerging out of spring camp and new names begin to permeate the sphere of CFF relevancy. One such name this offseason appears to be Liberty ‘A’ Back Jaylon Coleman, who was recently singled out in an interview by OC Newland Isaac (and no, he’s not talking about the rapper):
“J-Cole is a dude,” said Liberty offensive coordinator and running backs coach Newland Isaac.
“The only thing he needed to do was gain weight. He checked every box for us in the recruiting process. You knew what you were going to have in him. The one thing you didn’t know throughout the recruiting process is how tough and physical he was.
He walked in here 150 pounds, but he will go in there and throw his body on the line on an iso block, throw a defensive end on a split zone, and you’re just like, ‘Wow.’ He’s got the right makeup. He’s got the right mindset. He has the right skillset. He checks all of those boxes for you. The one challenge was gain weight, that’s all you got to do. You get him to the weight that you need him to be, there’s no reason (he) should ever come off the field.”
I don’t know exactly what Mr. Coleman weighs now, but the way Isaac is speaking about him suggests he’s no longer 150 pounds. He’s currently listed at 5 foot nine inches tall, so he has the frame to become a legitimate every down back if the listed specification is correct (admittedly, a dubious assumption).
Obviously, those of you who partook in the game of CFF last season will remember that Liberty’s former RB1 Evan Dickens had a very productive campaign. He moved on to Boston College, and many of the other names in the room behind him also cleared out, prompting the Flames (#LIUKANG) to bring in several transfers.
Among those names includes former south Georgia four star Kam Davis, who’s been at FSU the last few seasons, Justin Marshall from Colorado State, and a former CFF producer in Kanye Udoh from ASU/Army.
That’s a lot of beef, bruv. Initially, I was most interested in Udoh given his pedigree from when last he was in the G5 (ran for over 1000 yards with the Black Knights). But it’s hard to deny the quotes from the horse’s mouth.
Anyways, let’s take a quick look at the staff before diving deeper into Coleman’s background.
Coaching & System
RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 15.9 — OC: 16.71 (half ppr)
Head coach Jamey Chadwell has been with the program since 2023. Prior to that he was the head coach of Coastal Carolina between 2019 and 2022. In general, his system has been pretty solid for RB1 production (as can be seen in Table 1. below).
When asked about his Liberty RB room for 2026, Chadwell had this to say:
“Typically when you lose a decent amount of production, you have a freshman or redshirt freshman that’s been in your program that can bump up. Obviously, he left too. It is brand new. This will be a first for us when we’ve lost so many and not had anything left that has been there. There’s an exciting time for that, as well.
They have all spring to learn. They get to make their name for themselves. There’s a positive in that. You hope you don’t have to do that all the time, but that’s the world we’re in. If I’m a running back across this country though, this is a place I’d want to come because you get an opportunity to really showcase what you’re about. Our last couple ones have done really, really well.”
In addition to Davis, Marshall and Udoh, Liberty also brought in Duke’s Peyton Jones, and Terron Kellman, formerly of Wyoming and UNCC.
While that’s a lot of bodies in the mix, the reader may find some comfort in the fact that the Flames utilize a two RB system with something called an ‘A’ Back and a ‘B’ Back. The A-Backs are typically smaller players, such as the 5-9, 155 pound Coleman, and the B-Backs are a bit beefier.
A recent report from aseeofred.com listed out the players competing for each role:
A-BACK
0 JAYLON COLEMAN, 5’9″, 155 LB
29 JUSTIN MARSHALL, 5’10”, 190 LB (COLORADO STATE)
26 JAYLIN BELFORD, 5’8″, 175 LBB-BACK
4 KAM DAVIS, 5’10”, 224 LB (FLORIDA STATE)
6 KAYNE UDOH, 6’1″, 220 LB (ARIZONA STATE)
7 PEYTON JONES, 5’10”, 195 LB (DUKE)
11 TERRON KELLMAN, 5’8″, 210 LB (WYOMING)
23 CAM WOOD, 5’8″, 195 LB
Admittedly I’m not sure in hindsight which role Dickens occupied, he’s listed at 5’11, 195 pounds, which could go either way judging by the sizes of players included above.
Behind head coach Jamey Chadwell is OC Newland Isaac (I believe Willy Korn has moved on).
You’ll notice that Isaac has been with Chadwell at each of his last two stops, so effectively these are the same entities when it comes to play calling pedigree.
Charting back to 2019, Chadwell’s RB1 has seen 200 or more carries in a single season three times out of a possible five full seasons (excluding 2020), and four out of six if we include 2025.
Even some of the RB2s have had decently productive campaigns (Braydon Bennett in 2021, for example, who coincidently I just wrote about here).
Not captured in the tables is Evan Dickens’ 2025 season, where he handled 229 carries for 1339 yards and 16 scores, in addition to receiving five passes for 61 yards and another score (22 PPG).
As far as system characteristics, if it wasn’t obvious by the fact that they deploy a two-RB set, these guys are very run-heavy. Chadwell and Isaac have averaged ~63% run plays since 2018. They are on the slower-end in both seconds per play (~28) and plays per game (~68).
Jaylon Coleman (5’9, 155)
2025 STATS: 11-79-0 (4 PPG)
From what I can tell, Coleman appeared in seven games as a true freshman last year, so he will be officially listed as a sophomore this year. Formerly a four star rated prospect from Louisiana, his impact was minimal as a true frosh, rushing only 11 times for less than one hundred yards.
I’m not too pressed about year one numbers, given that most of these guys don’t do diddly as true freshmen. In fact, as any CFF wiseman knows, most of them end up redshirting the year anyways. So who fucking cares.
And I’ll be honest with you, I had no idea who this was until I saw the quotes from the OC, Newland Isaac. But they were quite alarming, and immediately put me on notice with Coleman.
The more prescient problem I have with diving headfirst into the hype train with a player like this is that—as an experienced CFFer—I’ve seen this story many times and it often doesn’t end well for the drafters. Every offseason it seems there are some unbelievable quotes coming out of somewhere random like Liberty about an equally random player, only for us to never hear about said player ever again.
I’m thinking about a player like erstwhile Utah State Aggie Robert Freeman, for example (remember him?). Yeah, I think we’ve all been trying to forget.
Nonetheless, we must pay attention when there are extremely positive quotes because sometimes it ends up portending a fruitful campaign. Even better when they’re about a seemingly unknown commodity that you can currently draft virtually for free in most (probably all) CFF drafts, right?
What is actually noteworthy is that despite only carrying the rock 11 times through seven appearances, Coleman saw 11 targets, of which he caught 10 for 100 yards—a pretty tidy average of about 10 yards per reception. A potential signal that a nascent PPR monster could be lying in the weeds right here.
That was one issue with his predecessor, Dickens, who did not catch a lot of passes. It ended up working out fine for him (22 PPG is not too shabby), but the more you can do the better. Especially when the player is undersized.
For the sake of completeness I’ll attach 247’s notes on Coleman coming out of high school:
Also plays basketball and runs track.
Averaged 10.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.6 steals on varsity basketball as a freshman in Winter 2021-22.
Recorded several sub-11.00 100-meter times as a freshman in Spring 2022, including a 10.40 PR and a 10.91 into a slight headwind that earned a top five finish at the Louisiana 4A state finals. Ran a 10.74 at district and a 10.55 at regionals to earn the state berth.
Also earned a top five finish in Louisiana 4A's 200-meter state finals (22.07) and ran a 21.75 at regionals. Member of Vandebilt Catholic's 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams, which both qualified for regionals.
I must admit that I was surprised to see Coleman rated as a four star by 247 Sports’ internal ranking. I don’t believe Liberty often receives commitments from players rated higher than three stars coming out of high school. Good for them.
To conclude, I think Coleman makes for an interesting spring season late-round dart throw in bestball drafts. Hopefully there’ll be more supporting evidence to make his case come the summer, at which point we will re-evaluate our sentiment here. ◾
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Sample from 2018-2024, excluding 2020.