At first it looked like any other punt for Riley Dixon. Standing at the 5-yard line, the punter shuffled his feet to the right and booted a high-arcing kick.

But this time, the ball kept bouncing. And bouncing. And bouncing. After initially hitting the ground near the 30-yard line, Dixon’s punt bounced past Adam Humphries and all the way to the Clemson 8 before Darius Kelly tracked it down with a host of Orange special teams players.

Dixon’s 75-yarder set the record for the longest punt in Syracuse history in SU’s (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) 49-14 loss to No. 3 Clemson (5-0, 3-0) on Saturday. Dixon was a busy man all afternoon, punting nine times and averaging 46.4 yards per punt.

“We expect Riley to make big plays,” special teamer Ritchy Desir said.

But 75 yards?

“Seventy-five yards,” Desir responded, nodding his head.

The punt, which broke the record of 73 previously shared by Sean Reali and Rob Long, came at the 8:01 mark of the first quarter on a fourth-and-18 for the Orange.

One fan, wearing a neon Dixon jersey, rose to his feet and cheered with the rest of the raucous crowd.

Dixon, who attended Syracuse’s Christian Brothers Academy, walked in to the Orange as a freshman. Now he’s earned the starting job and has pinned eight kicks inside the 20.

Without the 6-foot-5 Dixon’s consistency — and his one unprecedented gem — Clemson may have put up more than 49 points.

“You know what man, a team like that, you’ve got to make them go the distance,” Syracuse wide receivers coach Rob Moore said. “They have such great speed, you could see what they can do.”

Published on October 6, 2013 at 12:44 pm

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass