The Syracuse defense shined brightest during the inaugural game of the Tommy Devito era Saturday night in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dino Baber’s defense showed just why the Orange were a heavy double digit favorite, stymieing Liberty’s offense from the very first drive.
While Devito struggled to find his footing for much of the night, the Orange offense benefited from 3 rushing touchdowns from 3 different running backs. The back-breaker came from Moe Neal in the 3rd quarter who gashed the Flames for a 42 yard score, putting Syracuse up 24-0. Abdul Adams and Jarveon Howaed also punched in scores of 6 in the 2nd and 3rd quarter, respectively.
Kicker, Andre Szmyt, tacked on 3 points of his own, booting a 45 yard field goal.
On the other side of the ball, the Syracuse defense put on clinic. Liberty quarterback, Buckshot Calvert, was under siege all night, as the Orange sacked him 8 times. Cuse added to their defensive dominance with 14 tackles for loss. Lakiem Williams was responsible for 2.5 of those.
Preseason All American, Andre Cisco, filled his quota with a key interception in the 3rd quarter when the Flames still had a fighting chance.
Liberty’s first year head coach, Hugh Freeze, provided the highlight of the night as cameras captured the former SEC celebrity coaching the game from a hospital bed in the coach’s booth. Sidelined with a back injury, nothing was going to stop Freeze from coaching a college football game. Unfortunately for Freeze, his Liberty Flames were fighting above their weight class in their first tilt of the season.
Dino Babers provided his own excitement during the rock fight by doing push-ups on the sideline after dropping an errant pass. He also saluted Coach Freeze from field level at the end of the contest, showing his support for a fellow commander.
The Orange travel next Saturday to College Park to take on a Maryland team that pummeled Howard earlier today, 79-0.