Syracuse Stuns No. 19 SMU 30-27 on Steve Angeli's Touchdown Pass With 17 Seconds Left

Seventeen seconds. That is how much time was left when Steve Angeli flipped a 2-yard touchdown pass to Noah Meyers, and that is how close Syracuse came to leaving the JMA Wireless Dome with another near miss. Instead, the Orange left with the biggest win of their season.

Syracuse beat No. 19 SMU 30-27 on Halloween, capping an 11-play, 68-yard drive in the final 3:19 and then recovering a fumble on SMU's final play. The Orange improved to 4-4 and 2-4 in the ACC. SMU, which came in tied for second in the conference, fell to 6-2 and 4-2.

It was the second straight week Syracuse won a nail-biter. A week after it stunned North Carolina 31-30 in overtime, it took down a ranked team that had been rolling.

There was some history in the building, too. A year ago in Dallas, Jennings threw four touchdown passes in SMU's 31-18 win over Syracuse. The Mustangs came in as 10.5-point favorites with a 72 percent win probability on ESPN's matchup predictor, and nobody outside the Dome was expecting a fight to the final seconds.

A fast start for the Orange

Angeli was questionable on the week's injury report, according to Yahoo Sports, after returning from a three-week absence. He settled any doubts on the opening drive. Syracuse converted a fourth-and-1 at the SMU 31 with a short throw to Meyers, and moments later Angeli kept it himself and ran 26 yards for a touchdown at 10:04 of the first quarter.

SMU answered the way good teams do. Brendan Baird hit a 40-yard field goal, and then Kevin Jennings led a 12-play, 88-yard drive that ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Hale with 12 seconds left in the first quarter. The Mustangs led 10-7, and it felt like the script everyone expected.

Syracuse takes over the second quarter

Syracuse rewrote it. The Orange controlled the second quarter without giving up a point. Tripp Woody kicked field goals of 29 and 25 yards, the second set up when Demetres Samuel Jr. forced a Hale fumble that Syracuse recovered at the SMU 38. Late in the half the Orange marched again, converted a fourth-and-1 at the SMU 16 with a 7-yard run, and Ahmad Miller punched it in from a yard out on fourth-and-goal with 22 seconds left in the half.

Syracuse led 20-10 at the break. Fran Brown's team went for it on fourth down four times and converted all four, which tells you how this staff approached the afternoon. They were not playing for a respectable loss.

SMU storms back

The second half belonged to Jennings for a while. He opened up the passing game and finished a 10-play, 85-yard drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Yamir Knight at 8:52 of the third quarter, making it 20-17.

Then came a strange swing early in the fourth. Pinned at its own 8 after a fair catch, Syracuse went backward. A 6-yard loss and a holding penalty left the Orange at their own 6. Angeli's next throw was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone, and SMU got a safety at 12:07 to pull within 20-19. The Mustangs got the ball back and needed seven plays to go 68 yards, with Kendrick Raphael scoring on a 13-yard run at 9:04. Derrick McFall then threw for the two-point conversion, and SMU led 27-20.

At that point, the Mustangs had scored 17 straight points and seemed to have taken the game over.

The turning point: the field goal that kept it close

Syracuse did not panic. The Orange answered with a 10-play, 67-yard drive that stalled at the SMU 8, and Brown took the points. Woody's 26-yard field goal at 5:26 made it 27-23. That was the key decision. It meant a touchdown would win the game rather than tie it, and it put the pressure back on the SMU offense to close.

It could not. SMU went three-and-out, punting on fourth-and-16 from its own 19 after the drive went backward. Keyshawn Johnson finished with two sacks, and Tunmise Adeleye had a sack and a half. Syracuse took over at its own 32 with 3:36 left and needed 68 yards.

The drive

Angeli was surgical. He hit Daunte Bacheyie for 7, then Umari Hatcher for 13 to cross midfield. On fourth-and-1 at the SMU 39 with 1:11 left, he found David Clement for 7 yards and a first down, Syracuse's fourth fourth-down conversion of the day. Calvin Russell III caught a 15-yarder to the SMU 17. Then Bacheyie made the play of the drive, a 15-yard catch down to the 2 with 27 seconds left.

After a run went nowhere, Angeli found Meyers in the end zone with 17 seconds left. Woody's extra point made it 30-27. SMU's last chance ended when a Jennings completion to Randy Pittman Jr. turned into a fumble that Syracuse's C. Geter recovered.

The numbers

Jennings was outstanding in defeat. He completed 29 passes for 351 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, and Yannick Smith led SMU with five catches for 95 yards. Knight added six for 80. But SMU ran for only 70 yards on 31 carries, with Jennings losing yardage on sacks, and the Mustangs turned it over twice while Syracuse did not turn it over at all.

Angeli finished 21-of-34 for 200 yards and the game-winning touchdown, and he ran for a score. Miller ran for 56 yards and a touchdown and Tylik Hill added 54, giving Syracuse a 138-70 edge on the ground. Woody was 3-for-3 on field goals. Syracuse converted only 4 of 16 third downs, which would normally sink an offense. It did not matter, because the Orange treated fourth down as an extra chance and never blinked, going 4-for-4 when it counted. Samuel led the defense with 10 tackles and the forced fumble.

SMU outgained Syracuse 421-338 and had 25 first downs to Syracuse's 20. It also committed nine penalties for 90 yards.

What it means

For Syracuse, this is a statement. A team that sat last in the ACC standings coming into Saturday has now won two straight one-score games, and suddenly a 4-4 record looks like a team with a path to a bowl. Clemson comes to the Dome on Nov. 7, and the Orange will have confidence that seemed impossible a few weeks ago. Brown, in his third season, has built a team that refuses to go away late. The defense under first-year coordinator Vince Kehres bent all afternoon against one of the ACC's best passers, but it got the takeaways it needed, including the last one, and the offense did the rest.

For SMU, it is a costly loss. The Mustangs came in tied for second in the ACC behind Miami and had been riding a 59-20 rout of Cal. They now have two conference losses with Virginia Tech up next at home. Rhett Lashlee's team was also short-handed, with receiver Carterrious Brown and safety Tyren Polley Jr. among those out, and the lack of depth showed in a second half that turned into a scramble.

The last word

Syracuse has made a habit of living on the edge, and the Orange keep landing on their feet. They went 4-for-4 on fourth down, did not turn it over, and trusted their quarterback with the game on the line. Angeli delivered. SMU will spend the week wondering how a game it had seized slipped away in 3:19. Syracuse will spend it enjoying the best Halloween the Dome has had in a while.

All the numbers are in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, Yahoo Sports, FingerLakes1, CNY Central, SMU Athletics and Syracuse Athletics. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Syracuse Athletics (Oct. 24, 2026 file photo at North Carolina).