Hugh Freeze coached from hospital bed in Liberty’s loss to Syracuse

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Abdul Adams, Jarveon Howard and Moe Neal ran for touchdowns and No. 22 Syracuse spoiled a most unusual debut for Hugh Freeze as Liberty’s coach with a 24-0 victory on Saturday night.

Still recovering from back surgery for a herniated disk on Aug. 16 and a staph infection, Freeze coached from a hospital bed in the coaching box. The school said he was in communication with his coaches and players during the game and that the bed was used to support his healing back. Freeze addressed the team before the game via video hook-up, again at halftime and after the game as well.

He couldn’t have liked much of what he saw.

Stephen Calvert threw two interceptions, as many as Freeze had said the fourth-year starter had thrown in all of fall camp, and was sacked eight times by a defense that returned players responsible for 34 sacks last season, the most in the football subdivision.

The coach said the Orange front four “gave us fits. Once we were not effective running the football, they really were teeing off on us and made it very difficult on our offensive line. You always have to at least have the appearance of being balanced. … Once we became, in their mind, one-dimensional, you’re fighting a very hard uphill battle.”

With quarterback Tommy DeVito taking over the Syracuse offense, the Orange led just 10-0 at halftime thanks to Andre Szmyt’s 45-yard field goal and Adams’ 2-yard run. An interception by Andre Cisco in the third quarter set Syracuse up at the Flames’ 37 and Howard capped a five-play drive with a 1-yard run. Neal’s 42-yard burst capped the scoring in the final quarter.

Orange coach Dino Babers said he thought the slow start was 50 percent opening-game jitters and 50 percent unfamiliarity with what Liberty intended to do.

“You have to understand this group didn’t see this on tape,” he said. “We didn’t get to practice those looks.”

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