Cade Klubnik suggests Syracuse players faked injuries against Clemson
Clemson starting quarterback Cade Klubnik rarely expresses frustration when he talks with the media. On Saturday, he made an exception.
Speaking after Clemson’s 34-21 home loss to Syracuse, Klubnik was clearly irked about the number of times a Syracuse defender was injured when Clemson’s offense was trying to play with tempo. He inferred the Orange players might have been faking some of those injuries during their win at Memorial Stadium.
“That’s up to them if they want to be honest about that,” Klubnik said.
Although injury timeouts aren’t tracked in regular game stats, there were multiple instances in which a Syracuse defender went down with an injury after Clemson’s offense either made a big play or tried to hurry up to the line of scrimmage.
Klubnik said he gave credit to Syracuse for stopping Clemson on a number of third and fourth downs, but the “delays” caused by those injury timeouts made it tough for the Tigers’ offense to get into a good rhythm.
He brought it up unprompted in his postgame interview.
Clemson outgained Syracuse 503-433 in the game and had 29 first downs to Syracuse’s 24 first downs. Klubnik completed 37 of 60 passes for 363 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. His pass completions and pass attempts were both career highs.
But the Tigers only scored touchdowns on three of their 13 offensive possessions and one of eight possessions in the second half. Clemson lost for only the third time in program history when gaining at least 500 offensive yards.
With the loss, Clemson dropped to 1-3 for the first time ever under coach Dabo Swinney and first time overall since 2004. The Tigers are also 0-2 in the ACC and would need a ton of help to reach the 2025 conference championship game.
“We were playing with tempo and, props to them, they stopped us on some third downs at certain times,” Klubnik said. “And then they have an ‘injury’ or something like that when we really got going.”
When Klubnik said the word “injury,” he used air quotes to indicate he was using that term sarcastically.
“That was definitely tough for us to get in a rhythm when we’re playing fast and unfortunately they’d have a guy get hurt or something or an injury timeout or something like that,” Klubnik said.
Fake injuries an issue in college football
The NCAA attempted to crack down on teams faking injuries to stop the game clock (especially when a team is on defense) this offseason after there were multiple issues with it in 2024, including with Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss team.
Under new NCAA rules for 2025, a team will be charged with a timeout if a player “presents as injured” after the ball is spotted. A player who drops down with an injury must also leave the game for at least one play.
Clemson, ironically, was dinged for the same violation in the fourth quarter of its loss at Georgia Tech last week. The Tigers lost a timeout when cornerback Avieon Terrell hit the ground with the injury after the ball was spotted during a GT drive.
Most of Syracuse’s defensive injuries occurred after plays but before the ball was spotted for Clemson’s next play. Clemson’s home crowd began to notice the trend and shared Klubnik’s frustration, booing Syracuse multiple times.
Klubnik did say he hoped any injured Syracuse players were doing OK.
“I feel like we came out really healthy and hopefully they did, too,” Klubnik said. “I love playing with tempo, and I feel like we did it really well, especially in the fourth quarter but even in the first and the second. Just gotta continue to do that and find ways to overcome a delay or whatever it is.”
One person who didn’t want to discuss whether Syracuse coach Fran Brown’s team was faking injuries? Swinney.
Asked about Klubnik’s comments postgame, he essentially gave a no comment.
“I saw Cade get frustrated, but we can’t get frustrated with that,” Swinney said. “We’ve just gotta play.”
Next Clemson football game
Who: Clemson (1-3, 0-2 ACC) at UNC (2-2, 0-0 ACC)
When: Saturday, Oct. 4 (time TBA)
Where: Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, NC
Channel: TBA
This story was originally published September 20, 2025 at 7:40 PM.
