Orange Gearing Up For Opener at Liberty

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Game week is here.

No. 22 Syracuse (0-0) opens the 2019 season on Saturday, Aug. 31 with a road contest at Liberty (0-0). Kickoff against the Flames is set for 6 p.m. at Williams Stadium and the game will air on ESPN+.

The Orange enter the year coming off a 10-3 season that culminated with a 34-18 victory over No. 15 West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl. With 17 starters returning, Syracuse started preseason camp on Aug. 2 and the coaching staff has worked feverishly to get the team ready for the 130th gridiron campaign in program history. The Orange have won five straight season-opening contests.

"We just came off of a difficult camp," head coach Dino Babers said at his weekly news conference Monday morning. "Little frustrating on my part with some of the situations going on, nothing negative, but we had some injuries that we need to overcome. For the most part the team is fresh and getting ready for the first contest versus Liberty University. Coach Hugh Freeze does a fantastic job over there and I've already gone on record saying that I'm a little nervous about this one.

"We've been watching games from Ole Miss and Georgia Southern and games from Liberty to look at the personnel, and there's a lot to look at when you try to tie it all together and figure out what they'll try to do. So we're nervous about that, but our football team for the most part is healthy, our defense is in fantastic shape, and our kicking game will be very, very good," Babers said. "Offensively, we're still putting the pieces together."

Babers said this weekend's game reminds him of the 2013 season opener when he was in his second year at Eastern Illinois. The Panthers went west to play San Diego State and were 21-point underdogs. EIU trailed after the first quarter, but outscored the Aztecs 33-6 the rest of the way to win by 21. Babers said adjustments will be the key to the game and whichever team can make the correct ones most efficiently will have the advantage.

"We're playing a good football team that we don't know a lot about, and we're playing some fantastic coaches, so we're trying to anticipate what they're going to do, but we really won't know until we get out there."

Liberty is led by quarterback Stephen Calvert, who passed for more than 3,000 yards last season. Calvert has a plethora of weapons at his disposal, including receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden. Gandy-Golden had 71 catches in 2018 for 1,037 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Flames, which have now completed the NCAA reclassification process from the FCS to the FBS, also feature a 1,000-yard rusher in Frankie Hickson.

With a returning 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and 1,000-yard receiver, Liberty is in elite company. The only other FBS team that can make that claim: Clemson.

There's a lot of buzz around the Orange following last season's success and Babers made it clear that the 2019 team can't rest on the laurels of the 2018 squad. It needs to carve its own path.

"We need to be sure that we stay locked in and let the process happen. We have a very difficult non-conference schedule. We're away for [the first] two games on the road. That's not what you want to do with a football team that has the chance to do the things that people think we can do that the media has been talking about," Babers said. "We're on the road against two very dangerous opponents [Liberty and Maryland] and we need to make sure we do everything that we can to get the first win.

"So much of the expectations are based on people who are no longer in the room. I think that the team has to form its own identity and decide what kind of team they want to be. It's a work in progress and I think come Saturday night, maybe somewhere around 10 or 11 p.m., we'll have an idea."

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Syracuse University Athletics

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