Syracuse football coach Dino Babers criticizes officiating after Clemson loss
Two days after Clemson football beat Syracuse to take control of the ACC’s Atlantic Division, the late-game officiating — or a lack thereof — remained a hot topic.
Syracuse coach Dino Babers, who admitted penalties are “something normally I do not speak about,” used the opening statement of his Monday news conference to offer a measured critique of two critical second-half moments in the No. 16 Orange’s 27-21 road loss to the No. 5 Tigers on Saturday.
Babers’ frustration centered around two plays: a third-quarter personal foul penalty on Syracuse defensive lineman Elijah Fuentes-Cundiff, who was flagged 15 yards for driving Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik out of bounds on third and long, and a similar fourth-quarter play when Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. drove Syracuse QB Garrett Shrader out of bounds on third and long but wasn’t flagged.
“Now, this is not me crying about calls,” Babers said. “I’ve turned them in (to the ACC for review). I have not gotten a response back from the league. I would like to just know what we can do to be able to do those things better so we don’t make those mistakes in the future.”
Clemson push led to Klubnik penalty
Syracuse led Clemson 21-10 midway through the third quarter before the Tigers benched starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who’d racked up a season-worst three turnovers, for freshman backup quarterback Klubnik.
A penalty and sack quickly backed Clemson up into a third and 25 on Klubnik’s first drive of the game. On that play, Klubnik scrambled to his right before turning upfield to gain more yardage, Babers said, presenting a tough situation for his defender, Fuentes-Cundiff.
Syracuse got burned on a similar play last year in a three-point loss at Florida State, pulling up on FSU quarterback Jordan Travis near the sideline only for him to turn upfield for another 25 to 30 yards, so Babers said he’s instituted a new technique for defenders in such situations.
Syracuse’s staff calls it “escorting a quarterback out of bounds,” and Fuentes-Cundiff was executing it correctly against Klubnik, Babers said, before Clemson right guard Walker Parks subtly pushed Fuentes-Cundiff from behind, causing him to lose his balance and collide with Klubnik.
“If you go back and you watch the tape, (Fuentes-Cundiff) did not lower his head,” Babers said. “If you go back and watch the tape, he did not bend his knees into what we call a ‘loaded position’ to deliver a blow. If you go back and watch the tape, he did not push that young man out of bounds, OK? What he was doing was escorting that young man out of bounds.”
Babers continued: “Now, if you also watched the tape, he also got pushed from behind, which made him — because he was not in a striking position — get out of balance and there was a flag thrown on this. I’m not sitting here saying that flag was wrong. The quarterback got hit. They threw the flag. That happens. But we’re not going to allow (Klubnik) to cut back inside of us and do the same thing that happened to us last year.”
Klubnik was well short of the first-down marker on his 10-yard scramble, but the ensuing 15-yard personal foul penalty on Fuentes-Cundiff triggered an automatic first down. Six plays later, Clemson running back Phil Mafah scored a touchdown to cut Syracuse’s lead to 21-16.
‘Their defender pushed our quarterback’
On the Orange’s next possession, early in the fourth quarter, Shrader found himself scrambling right on third-and-14 on a near-identical play. Trotter, Clemson’s starting middle linebacker, drove Shrader out of bounds with a push as the quarterback threw the ball away, Babers said.
“Now I understand that flag being thrown there (on the Klubnik play),” Babers said. “What I don’t understand is the situation that happened later where our quarterback got into a similar situation where nobody pushed their defender in the back and their defender pushed our quarterback in the back and we did not get a call.”
Both plays occurred in front of Syracuse’s bench, but only the first was called. The Orange punted the ball to Clemson after Shrader’s incomplete pass on the third down Babers noted. Two plays later, running back Will Shipley’s long touchdown run and Klubnik’s two-point pass put Clemson up 24-21.
Clemson later added a field goal to go up 27-21 and completed an 11-point fourth quarter comeback by picking off Shrader with 15 seconds remaining. The Orange had driven down to Tigers’ 30-yard line with zero timeouts and a chance to win before Clemson safety R.J. Mickens picked off Shrader at the 15-yard line.
With the win, Clemson moved to 8-0 and 6-0 in the ACC and preserved an ACC record 38-game home winning streak. The Tigers can clinch the ACC’s Atlantic Division title and a spot in the conference championship game with a home win over Louisville on Nov. 12.
“Super proud of our team,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Monday. “Just an incredible win. It’s one for the ages, for sure. I’m proud of our never-quit attitude. We’ve made enough mistakes to lose a couple of games. “
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Syracuse, meanwhile, dropped to 6-1 and 3-1 in the ACC with the loss and now has just a 0.2% chance of winning the Atlantic Division, per ESPN’s Football Power Index (Clemson is at 99.7%). The Orange were off to their first 6-0 start since 1987.
Babers told reporters in Syracuse on Monday that his program had submitted multiple plays from the Clemson game to the ACC for further review but “I felt like those were the main two you guys most likely wanted to know about.” The Orange host Notre Dame (4-3) on Saturday.
“Our motto is we want to be 1-0,” Babers said. “We’re disappointed that we were 0-1 last week, but our mind and our focus is on Notre Dame. We wish we could’ve gotten it done. We were so close. We get it, OK? But our focus is now on Notre Dame.”
Responding to the final question of his Monday presser, Babers circled back to the Clemson loss while describing the bounce-back mentality among his Syracuse players this week.
“I really think that they’re going to put their best foot forward,” Babers said. “They understand that we have an opportunity to do something special here. Seven games, (we’re) 6-1 … we were leading the No. 5 team in the country at the start of the fourth quarter, at their place, Death Valley.”
He paused and offered a half-smirk.
“OK, I’m going to get out here before I get in trouble,” Babers said with a laugh.
Then he left the podium.
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 12:39 PM.
