Syracuse nears bowl eligibility with 34-31 comeback win vs. NC State
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Fran Brown wants you to have your popcorn ready.
Well, in a perfect world, his Syracuse football team would be winning every game comfortably. But this is not a perfect world, and Syracuse is not a perfect football team. The Orange have looked excellent at times this year and completely lost at others. Two weeks ago, they beat a ranked team. One week ago, they lost to a team that didn’t score an offensive touchdown.
So what’s Brown’s message to the people tuning in each week?
“Don’t leave the television set,” he said. “You never know what’ll happen.”
Saturday was the latest reminder. Despite trailing by 11 points with five minutes remaining, Syracuse managed a pick-six, a three-and-out, a nine-play, 49-yard go-ahead drive and a game-sealing fumble recovery. It completed the Orange’s (5-5, 3-5 Atlantic Coast) remarkable 34-31 comeback win over NC State (4-6, 2-5 ACC) Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
The win was Syracuse’s first road victory after trailing by 15 or more points since 2012. And with two games remaining on its 2026 schedule — against Boston College and No. 3 Notre Dame — Syracuse needs one win to secure bowl eligibility after missing out last year.
“Our players just continue to fight,” Brown said. “I told them this would be a four- or five-quarter football game. And it went down to the last play of the game.”
It certainly took a village. Or somewhat of a miracle.
The Orange trailed by just one point at halftime, but they slipped into a 15-point hole four minutes into the third quarter. Syracuse looked dead in the water, down by 11 with five minutes left.
The only thing that could’ve possibly kept SU in the game would’ve been a one-off bit of defensive brilliance. Defensive lineman Tunmise Adeleye flipped the momentum, plucking a CJ Bailey checkdown out of the air and rumbling 18 yards to the end zone.
SU defensive end Tunmise Adeleye returns CJ Bailey’s pass for a pick-six. Adeleye’s touchdown cut the Orange’s deficit to five in the fourth quarter. Peter Hua Radosh | Asst. Digital Editor
Once Steve Angeli took a sack on the two-point conversion, though, that glimmer of hope seemed to flicker out.
But remember this is Syracuse football you’re watching. Of course, the Orange defense had more in store. After kicking away to the Wolfpack, Adeleye stuffed Jayden “Duke” Scott for a three-yard loss. Then Bailey tossed an incomplete pass. Then Davien Kerr got home for a sack to force a punt.
After allowing 220 yards and 21 points in the third quarter, the Orange locked down.
“We were playing soft,” Adeleye said of the adjustments. “We stopped playing soft.”
Suddenly, 51 yards stood between Syracuse and a victory. So the Orange kept doing what they did best. They fed Calvin Russell III. The freshman — who finished the game with a tied-for-ACC-single-game-record 17 receptions, along with 137 receiving yards — was in the Wolfpack’s chest all day.
On the final drive, Angeli hit him for 13 yards to get going. Then, on a fourth-and-3 with the game in the balance, Angeli went back to the freshman. The ball careened off his hands and floated into the air.
Again, Syracuse got a miracle. Justus Ross-Simmons went airborne, stretching toward the ground to haul the pass in and keep the drive alive.
Three plays later, Angeli checked down to Russell again for seven yards. The freshman could smell the end zone. But instead, a different receiver found it.
Angeli took a shotgun snap on a first-and-10. With 48 seconds remaining, he looked to his right and uncorked a fade ball to Ross-Simmons.
With his hands above his head, SU’s fifth-year receiver came down with a ferocious contested catch, landing his left arm and hip in the red paint to give the Orange the lead. On the ensuing two-point play, he did the same thing in the left corner of the end zone.
“That guy is like Spider-Man out there on the ball,” Angeli said of Ross-Simmons. “He just finds a way to get it.”
As it turns out, though, 48 seconds is plenty of time to make things interesting. NC State inched close to field goal range, getting all the way to Syracuse’s 30-yard line before a penalty pushed it back.
Tylik Hill reaches the end zone for a touchdown to cut Syracuse’s deficit to 21-13 in the third quarter. Hill had 60 rushing yards in SU’s comeback win Saturday. Peter Hua Radosh | Asst. Digital Editor
With 11 seconds to spare, SU’s pass rush got home again, forcing a Bailey fumble that sprang into the air. Linebacker Chris D’Appolonia locked his eyes on it, leapt up and vaulted over NC State’s Davion Gause to recover it.
D’Appolonia jumped to his feet, relieving Gause from the pancake, and sprinted down the sideline. He raised his left hand — covered in a white club due to injury — and waved goodbye to the crowd.
The scene was a ridiculous end to an utterly ridiculous game. For the third time in the past four weeks, the Orange found some magic to get over the line. D’Appolonia and his one functional hand signified it. And that’s all Brown really wants to remember.
“We’ve just erased the beginning part of the season,” Brown said. “We’re 3-1 right now.”
The Orange have trailed in all four of those games. They’ve given up 44 third-quarter points in those games, and all four of them have come down to the final possession. You could tell Brown all you want about just how inconsistent his team has been this year. How the Orange seem to take years off his life each time they suit up for a conference clash.
But at this point, none of that matters. The games will have their ebbs and flows. The season sure has.
As long as they’re ending with wins, though, Brown won’t care how they come.
