SMU Syracuse Final: Mustangs Fall 30-27 on a Touchdown With 17 Seconds Left
No. 19 SMU led 27-20 with nine minutes to play in Syracuse. Steve Angeli's 11-play drive and a 2-yard strike to Noah Meyers flipped it at the death, and the Mustangs come home 6-2.
SMU's Saturday in Syracuse ended the way no ranked team wants a road game to end: watching the other quarterback drive the length of the moment. Syracuse beat the No. 19 Mustangs 30-27 at the JMA Wireless Dome, winning it on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Steve Angeli to tight end Noah Meyers with 17 seconds left — Meyers' first touchdown for Syracuse — at the end of an 11-play drive that started on Syracuse's own 32 with 3:36 remaining.
The fourth quarter had swung twice before that. Syracuse, which led 20-10 at halftime, gave SMU a safety on an intentional-grounding call, and the Mustangs turned the momentum into a 27-20 lead with 9:04 left on Kendrick Raphael's 13-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion. Tripp Woody's third field goal of the day, from 26 yards with 5:26 to play, pulled Syracuse within 27-23 and set up the final drive. After the go-ahead score, Syracuse sealed it by forcing a fumble from SMU's Randy Pittman Jr.
The numbers tell the near-miss plainly. Kevin Jennings completed 29 of 36 passes for 351 yards and two touchdowns for SMU, but Syracuse's defense sacked him four times for a combined loss of 52 yards. Angeli, in his second game back after missing three, went 21 of 34 for 200 yards and also opened the scoring with a 26-yard touchdown run. Syracuse improves to 4-4 overall and 2-4 in the ACC, with its first win over a ranked team since November 30, 2024. SMU falls to 6-2 and 4-2 in the ACC — a loss that narrows the Mustangs' margin in the conference race as November arrives.
