About an hour before her ESPN+ team’s production call for Saturday’s opener at Liberty, sideline reporter Melanie Newman received an unusual request from producer Matt Byrd: Will you be available to conduct the pregame interview with Hugh Freeze from upstairs in the coaches’ box … while he is in a hospital bed, no less?



Freeze, the first-year Flames coach, underwent back surgery Aug. 16 and missed nearly two weeks of practice in the lead-up to Liberty’s game against No. 22 Syracuse. And it turned out that he was not only going to coach from above the field — flipping spots with co-offensive coordinator Maurice Harris, who is usually upstairs — but that he was going to conduct his pregame television interview, his pregame locker room speech and his postgame press conference from his hospital bed, as well.



Add up all of those visuals — along with a postgame wave that replaced the traditional handshake with his opposing...