Before Jamey Chadwell ever got to the details, the emotion was already there. Losing Willy Korn wasn’t about football. It was about a bond built over 15 years.
For the first time, Liberty’s head coach opened up about why his offensive coordinator, a former Clemson and Marshall quarterback who finished his playing career under Chadwell at North Greenville, is stepping away after more than a decade by his side.
Korn told ESPN: “I love coaching and I love college football. But there’s always been that piece of needing to be more available and intentional at home.”
Chadwell didn’t just understand it. He lived it with him.
“2010. 2010,” Chadwell said, repeating the year they first connected. “He’s a he’s a brother. He really is. And I love him. And when you’re with somebody that long, you hate to see him get out of it, you know.”
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He continued with the honesty that defined the entire moment.
“One thing about Willy, he puts everything into something. Everything. And these jobs are hard. You know, when you put everything into it and it don’t go as well as you want, you’re trying to be a father, you’re trying to be a husband, it’s just it’s hard.”
Chadwell revealed this wasn’t a sudden decision. It was a long internal battle.
“He’ll tell you this. He’s been thinking about this for six years,” he said. “In our best years, he’d always come to me and say, ‘I just don’t know.’”
Korn’s decision, Chadwell said, ultimately came from choosing his wife and children over the relentless grind of coaching.
“I’m happy for him. I think he’s got some peace now,” Chadwell said. “We’re going to miss him…but we’ll make a good decision and we’ll go forward.”
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