*Note* I attended this game as credentialed media for r/CFB (Reddit College Football)
On a night where the biggest story was off the field, the Syracuse Orange defense pitched a shutout and held the Liberty Flames to -4 rushing yards en route to a 24-0 victory in Lynchburg, Va on Saturday night. Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze was the early headline when it was announced that he would be coaching from the booth. Closer to game time it was then announced that Freeze would not only be coaching from the booth, but that he would be in a hospital bed. Freeze is recovering from back surgery and also a staph infection that entered his blood stream that doctors said would have been life threatening had he not gone in for surgery when he did.
Entering Saturday’s game a lot of talk surrounded to debut of Syracuse redshirt sophomore quarterback, Tommy DeVito. DeVito is taking over the reigns after the departure of Eric Dungey, who was a dynamic quarterback as a runner and a thrower. DeVito had a less than stellar night where his final stat line was 17-35 176 yards 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. DeVito, along with Syracuse head coach Dino Babers, admitted that there would be growing pains and that they take the good and bad and get ready for next week.
The underwhelming performance by DeVito was the opportunity that the Syracuse running backs needed to come in and take over the game. Three Orange running backs scored touchdowns, and coach Dino Babers was able to spread the carries between the three. Mo Neal and Abdul Adams each had 14 carries, and Jarveon Howard had 6. In his post game press conference, Babers was asked if this was done by design. Babers said that it was not and that he had no idea how many carries each back had until it was brought up in the press conference. He said that several different factors were involved in who was on the field. Short yardage situations, who was tired are just two of those factors deciding who would be on the field.
The most impressive stat of the night was the Syracuse defense holding Liberty and 1,000 yard rusher Frankie Hickson to -4 rushing yards. Babers was very excited about this. “That is so impressive. To keep a team from having positive (rushing yards) doesn’t happen much.” The defense also added 8 sacks and 2 interceptions to their credit in what was an impressive performance. In an interview earlier this week on the ACC Network, Coach Babers said that there would be times this season that the offense would need to lean on the defense to get them through some close games. While this game wasn’t necessarily close, the defense was definitely the reason that the Orange were able to come away with a road victory in week 1. Babers also added that the last five to seven minutes of the game, they were playing the second and third string players, and for them to work hard and keep the shutout in tact was impressive.
Liberty wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden hauled in 6 receptions for 119 yards. Gandy-Golden had 115 of those yards by halftime. Stephen “Buckshot” Calvert threw for 234 yards 2 interceptions. The Liberty defense did have 2 interceptions along with 2 sacks.
Liberty had the first scoring chance of the night when they had a 43 yard field goal attempt on their second drive that started after a Syracuse fumbled a Liberty punt. The field goal was wide right and the score remained 0-0.
On Liberty’s next drive, Calvert hooked up with Gandy-Golden for a 56 yard gain down to the Syracuse 5 yard line. After a one yard rush to the 4, Liberty’s Joshua Mack fumbled and it was recovered by the Orange. The fumble was forced by Trill Williams and recovered by Josh Black for Syracuse. Two early scoring opportunities for the Flames with no points to show would set the tone for the rest of the game.
The next drive by each team would both result in interceptions. Tommy DeVito was intercepted on the Liberty 3 yard line by Ceneca Espinoza Jr. The interception stopped a 10 play 55 yard drive, which was the first sign of life shown by the offense to that point. On the ensuing drive Buckshot Calvert was picked off by Ifeatu Melifonwu on the Liberty 36 yard line. After failing to gain a first down, Andre Szmyt came on to make a 45 yard field goal to make it 3-0 Syracuse. That would be it for the scoring in the first quarter.
In Syracuse’s first drive of the second quarter they would put together 14 play 71 yard drive that resulted in a 2 yard run by Abdul Adams to put the Orange up 10-0. Liberty could never put together a drive that had any potential in the quarter. Syracuse put together another long drive in the quarter, a 11 play 70 yard drive late in the half, but it resulted in a Tommy DeVito interception by Bejour Wilson in the end zone. That would be the end of the half with Syracuse leading 10-0.
Liberty’s second drive of the second half resulted in a Calvert interception by Andre Cisco at the Liberty 47 and he would return it 10 yards to the 37. A Mo Neal 20 yard run and a DeVito pass to Abdul Adams for 15 yards would get the Orange down to the Liberty 2 yard line, where Jarveon Howard would punch it in for the score. The Orange held a 17-0 lead with 6 minutes remaining in the third. This would be the extent of the scoring in the third with Liberty once again failing to gain any momentum on the offensive side of the ball.
On the opening drive of the fourth quarter, Syracuse faced a 4th down and 2 from the Liberty 42. Dino Babers decided to go for it and they handed the ball off to senior running back Mo Neal, who ran right up the middle and took it all the way to the end zone for a touchdown. This would bring the score to 24-0.
Liberty put together a 13 play 65yard drive later in the quarter, but that would end when Kingsley Jonathan forced and recovered a Calvert fumble which would sum up the night for the Liberty offense.
After the game, Syracuse coach Dino Babers spoke about how difficult it was to prepare for a team that they had no game tape on. “These guys didn’t see this on tape, it’s not like we got to practice these looks. It was totally new to us so they had to make game time adjustments.” Babers said.
Baber spoke of his offensive lines ability to make adjustments throughout which paved the way for the success of the running backs.
Week one football games aren’t going to be well polished affairs, and there will be more mistakes made than usual, but for the number 22 Syracuse Orange, going on the road to play a team with a new coach, new staff, and having no game tape to study, I am sure they are plenty satisfied with leaving Lynchburg 1-0.
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