Upset Special: Clemson, Washington State Lose To Unranked Teams On Friday
It was a wild night in college football on Friday. Yes, that's right. Friday -- not Saturday -- may have been the most exciting night in college football this week with a pair of top 10 teams falling to unranked opponents.
The night began with No. 2 Clemson losing an ACC contest at Syracuse, 27-24. Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns, and Cole Murphy kicked a tiebreaking field goal in the fourth quarter to help lead the Orange past the Tigers.
The loss ended an 11-game winning streak for Clemson, but it doesn't put a complete damper on the Tigers chances to repeat as National Champions. Clemson (6-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) won the national championship last year despite a loss during the season to Pittsburgh.
"Every goal is there for this team," Swinney said. "We've got to get better from this, have the type of season we want to have."
The Tigers took a big blow when quarterback Kelly Bryant suffered a concussion in the final minute of the first half. He was knocked down hard by defensive tackle Chris Slayton and laid on the turf for a couple of minutes before being helped to the locker room.
The second marquee game on Friday night's slate featured a similar result out west with California (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12) topping No. 8 Washington State (6-1, 3-1). However, this game was no where near as close as Friday's first tilt.
California's opportunistic defense forced seven turnovers and had nine sacks to lead the Golden Bears to a 37-3 impressive victory over the Cougars. Cal was just 1-52-1 against top 10 teams since 1978 with the only win coming over No. 3 Southern California in 2003 before breaking through against mistake-prone Washington State.
The loss didn't sit well with Washington State head coach Mike Leach, who called his team "pathetic" following the loss.
"There's no bright spot. We were pathetic," Leach said. "We're a bunch of pathetic front-runners."
"Our guys just sauntered around out there on the field like we'd accomplished something, which is obviously false, and Cal certainly illustrated that," Leach also went on to say.
Cougars quarterback Luke Falk entered the game with two interceptions in 262 passes before throwing five against the Bears. Before Friday's matchup with the Golden Bears, Falk had been considered someone who was climbing Heisman boards with a 19-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Saturday's slate features plenty of other possible upset specials. Games begin to kickoff at 12 p.m.
© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
