Syracuse football put the beat down on a struggling Clemson team on Saturday in Death Valley. The Tigers' quarterback, senior Cade Klubnik, who is an excellent signal-caller, said some lame stuff following his team's setback, which dropped Clemson, a preseason top-five team, to 1-3 overall in the young 2025 season.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Klubnik, in speaking to media members, said that the Orange defense did a good job of stopping the Clemson offense on some third downs. But unprompted, he also said, "They’d have an injury or something like that when we really got going. That’s up to them if they want to be honest about that."
Whoa. Talking about how Clemson played well in a tempo offense today, Clemson QB Cade Klubnik brings up — unprompted — that he felt like Syracuse seemed to have a guy getting injured after Clemson made a big play. “It’s up to them if they wanna be honest about that” pic.twitter.com/QANn10rBKt
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) September 20, 2025
Sorry, but that's lame, loser talk by Cade. Oh, and before anyone suggests that I'm being a homer, if a Syracuse football player said the same thing after a 'Cuse loss, I'd call out that Orange guy as well.
Also, it's entirely possible that Syracuse football players did this in the Clemson game, the season opener against Tennessee, or other 2025 contests. If that's, indeed, true, then head coach Fran Brown will deal with it. He's not having that. At the same time, plenty of other college squads have engaged in this.
Cade whining after losing big at home is just sour grapes. Grow up. Take the loss and move on.
Syracuse football had a statement win on Saturday afternoon.
In the Orange's dominating 34-21 victory over Clemson, Klubnik went 37-of-60 for 363 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Syracuse football's star quarterback, redshirt junior Steve Angeli, was 18-of-31 for 244 yards with two passing scores and no picks. He suffered an unfortunate injury and will likely be out for a few weeks, Brown said.
In Angeli's place, redshirt sophomore Rickie Collins went 3-of-8 for 34 yards with one touchdown. He will be QB1 for the 'Cuse (3-1, 1-0 in the ACC) when Syracuse football welcomes Duke to the JMA Wireless Dome this coming Saturday afternoon.
With this triumph, the Orange moved to 3-10 against Clemson and snapped a six-game setback streak to the Tigers, which won the Atlantic Coast Conference crown in 2024 and were the preseason favorites to repeat as conference champs in 2025.
On Saturday, Clemson outgained Syracuse football by 70 yards, but the Tigers committed way too many penalties. Plus, the Orange defense had many key stops of the Clemson offense on third and fourth downs.
I can certainly understand if Klubnik is frustrated with his team's performances to date in 2025. I would be, too. But it's not a good look to be complaining about your opponent when you just got crushed at home and are 1-3 overall this season.