Sunday Sidebar: Extinguishing the Flames

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Against a team featuring a new offensive-minded coach and without much film to go off of, defensive coordinator Brian Ward's unit was unfazed by the challenge. His crew turned in a dominant performance that No. 22 Syracuse rode to a 24-0 shutout of Liberty in last night's season opener at Williams Stadium.

With eight sacks, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries and 14 tackles for loss, the Orange defense made its presence known from the start. The effort led to Dino Babers' second shutout as a head coach and first since his 2015 Bowling Green squad kept Kent State off the scoreboard in a 48-0 triumph.

Perhaps most impressive is that when the final whistle sounded Liberty had a total of minus-4 rushing yards for the game. The Flames ran 34 times with little to no success. Their longest gain on the ground was 12 yards and Syracuse racked up 51 yards in losses courtesy of those eight quarterback takedowns. Remove the sacks from the equation and the Orange still limited the Flames to 47 yards on 26 attempts (1.8 avg.).

Prior to Saturday, the last time the Orange kept a team from reaching positive rushing yards was in 2012 when Syracuse swarmed Connecticut, keeping the Huskies to minus-6 yards.

Syracuse's success in stopping the run resulted in eight Liberty punts. Additionally, the Orange bottled up Liberty starting running back Frankie Hickson, who ran for more than 1,000 yards in 2018 and averaged 86.0 yards a game last season. Hickson had no such luck last night, finishing with 29 yards on 11 carries.

Partway through the third quarter, senior defensive end Kendall Coleman noticed the rushing statistics and used them as a rallying point for the defense.

"I saw it up there on the big board and started calling it out to my other teammates and said 'We got to stay after them, don't give them any room to breath' because that's not a number that a lot of teams can succeed with," Coleman said after the game.

For his part, Coleman contributed two sacks to pick up where he left off last season rushing the quarterback. Nose tackle Josh Black also tallied a pair of sacks. In his first start, middle linebacker Lakiem Williams racked up 11 tackles, including 2.5 for a loss, and 1.5 sacks.

Coleman chalked up the defense's efficiency to a shared confidence throughout the group.

"It's a mix of us being confident in ourselves and confident in each other, along with being able to trust and know where guys are going to be and when they're supposed to be there," Coleman said. "It allows everybody to play faster."

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Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Josh Black

Kendall Coleman

Lakiem Williams

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