SYRACUSE, N.Y. — As the celebration in the Syracuse locker room reverberated through the walls of the Carrier Dome, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney winced a little bit, dreams of a perfect season lost in a sea of orange.
Eric Dungey threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns, Cole Murphy kicked a tiebreaking field goal in the fourth quarter, and Syracuse stunned No. 2 Clemson 27-24 on Friday night to put a damper on the Tigers’ chances to repeat as national champions.
Down maybe, but not completely out. The Tigers (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) won the national championship last year despite a loss during the season to Pittsburgh.
“Every goal is there for this team,” Swinney said. “We’ve got to get better from this, have the type of season we want to have.”
Clemson had won 12 consecutive games on the opponent’s home field, the longest streak in Clemson history and tied for the second longest active streak in the nation. Clemson also had won 11 consecutive games overall, the longest active winning streak in the nation, and 12 straight away from home against ACC teams.
“It wasn’t our night tonight. They were better than us,” Swinney said. “There’s nothing we’re going to fix now. We’re not going to be 12-0, that’s for sure. That’s not going to happen. This is going to hurt, but you move forward.”
The Orange (4-3, 2-1) are 3-6 against the previous year’s national champion, also beating Penn State in 1987 and Michigan in 1998. This was the program’s first win in 13 tries against the No. 2 team in the nation.
“This is truly one of the moments that you coach for. This is really special,” said Syracuse coach Dino Babers, in his second year with the Orange. “This is big.”
The Tigers took a big blow when quarterback Kelly Bryant suffered a concussion in the final minute of the first half. He was knocked down hard by defensive tackle Chris Slayton and lay on the turf for a couple of minutes before being helped to the locker room. Slowed after spraining his left ankle last week against Wake Forest, Bryant passed for 116 yards and ran for minus-8 yards.
Cal 37,
Washington St. 3
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Ross Bowers did an acrobatic flip into the end zone to cap a touchdown run for California and the Golden Bears used a dominant defensive performance to stun No. 8 Washington State 37-3 Friday night for their first win in 14 years against a top 10 team.
Camryn Bynum had two of California’s five interceptions against Luke Falk, and the Bears (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12) used seven turnovers and nine sacks to top the Cougars (6-1, 3-1) for a signature win under first-year coach Justin Wilcox.
Cal was just 1-52-1 against top 10 teams since 1978 with the only win coming over No. 3 Southern California in 2003 before breaking through against mistake-prone Washington State.