Syracuse lost a football game on November 7, and this week, the ACC told Fran Brown that the officials got the play wrong. Brown said the league sent him an email admitting Clemson’s only touchdowns in the 18-13 win should not have counted. The call stood after a review; it put Clemson up 18-6 in the third quarter, and Syracuse finished five points short. The Orange (4-5, 2-5 ACC) came into the JMA Wireless Dome off two straight ACC wins, including the upset of No. 19 SMU, with a bowl berth still in reach.
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Tim Leonard reported on X that Brown said on his live radio show on TK99 and the Cuse app that the ACC emailed him to say it got the call wrong on Steve Angeli’s backward pass and the Clemson scoop-and-score. According to the post, the play should have been ruled an incomplete pass because a defender hit Angeli.
Clemson led 12-6 with about seven minutes left in the third quarter. If the play is an incomplete pass, Syracuse keeps the ball down six. Instead, Clemson got six points and a 12-point lead. The final margin was five as Clemson’s offense never reached the end zone all afternoon, so that return was the only touchdown the Tigers scored. The rest was four Nolan Hauser field goals.
Clemson tackle Kourtney Kelly hit Angeli’s arm as he threw, and the ball went backward. Jahiem Lawson picked it up and ran 22 yards. Officials ruled a backward pass, which made it a live fumble.
The ACC’s command center in Charlotte reviewed it and upheld the call. The NCAA rulebook says that once a defender contacts the passer after forward motion starts and the ball leaves his hand, it’s a forward pass no matter where it lands.
Clemson missed the two-point try, so the swing was six. Syracuse didn’t score a touchdown until a 33-yard pass to Daunte Bacheyie made it 18-13 with 3:12 left. Syracuse was already playing on thin margins this season. According to Syracuse.com, the Orange has lost three other one-score games this season.
Against Clemson, Angeli went 18-of-40 for 263 yards with two turnovers and three sacks. Syracuse got three points out of three red-zone trips and wasted the end of the first half when they ran a play with two seconds left, and nobody was set. Clemson did not have to be great as a defense, and Hauser did enough, as Tate Reynolds’ third-and-8 run in the final minutes put the game away.
Brown’s description of the email on Thursday night was short: “It turned out [to]be a mistake and a sorry,” he said.
Though Brown mentioned that it was a backward pass after the game, he did not argue about it then. On the radio, he said it was the second apology he had gotten from the conference this year, after a Cal punt-return touchdown. Earlier in the week, Brown pointed at himself, saying he did not have his best coaching game against Clemson.
Syracuse plays at NC State on Saturday, another 4-5 team, and needs both of its remaining road games to get bowl-eligible before No. 5 Notre Dame (8-1), as the Irish will end their regular season on November 28.