Previewing Orange football Week 4 against Liberty

After a win against the Albany Great Danes last week, Syracuse football is looking to win back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Orange will face off against the Liberty Flames Friday night at the Dome in what could be their toughest game yet.

That is because of the Flames’ offense and quarterback Malik Willis. Willis, a 2021 Heisman contender, transferred to Liberty from Auburn in 2019.

In Liberty’s last game, a 45-17 win over Old Dominion, he tallied six total touchdowns and 319 all-purpose yards.

“We just gotta keep him in the pocket. He’s a really talented player obviously, he has a super strong arm,” Syracuse cornerback Garrett Williams said of Willis. “Just keep him in the pocket because he’s most dangerous when he’s running around.”

The Orange will focus on containing Willis and Liberty’s offense to make up for their performance in last year’s matchup, where the Orange lost to the Flames 38-21.

“They had a lot of rushing yards, and on our defense, that’s one of our biggest goals; to stop the run,” Syracuse linebacker Mikel Jones said. “We didn’t do that well that game, that’s partly my fault last year, so plan on fixing that this year.”

Looking to avenge last year’s loss to Liberty, Syracuse plans to come back and prove that they are a force to be reckoned with. Jones said the team did not like how last year’s game went down.

“Every game we focus on going 1-0, always keep trying to do the good things so we can get the dub out of the week,” Syracuse linebacker Marlowe Wax said. “We’re going to focus on staying together as a team and just focus on getting the win.”

The Orange will face the Flames on Friday night at 8 p.m. in the Dome. The game will be broadcast live on the ACC Network and will be streamed on FuboTV.