Well, golly gee and gosh darnit. Seems like this Mike Elko guy might have something going on, something good, something really good.
Sure, Clemson made some mistakes in their 28-7 loss to Duke Monday night. But so did Duke, two lost fumbles and a host of penalties at bad times and/or bad spots. But with the bright lights shining Duke made the big plays time after time and Clemson didn’t. The result was a stunning Duke win, 28-7 against the ACC’s long-running champs.
Quarterback Riley Leonard and running back Jordan Waters were huge in the second half. But the game ball should go to the entire Duke defense, which fought off brutal heat and a Clemson team that held the ball for 33:33 to hold Clemson scoreless in a second half, three times stopping Clemson inside the Duke 10-yard line.
“We work out in the summer and train too,” defensive tackle DeWayne Carter noted. “It’s about, at the end of the day, who wants it more. Nowadays, in modern college football, it’s no huddle, hurry-up tempo, shotgun, spread. You’ve got to be prepared for whoever runs it. At the end of the day it was another day of business for us.”
Elko added that Duke countered Clemson and the heat with some depth that many skeptics doubted Duke had.
“We got on our heels quite a bit in the second half but we kept battling. It’s why you train, why we do the things we do in the summer. I hope people noticed how much we rotated. Everybody keeps talking about our depth and how we don’t have enough of this or enough of that. But we rotated as many bodies as those guys did tonight. We were able to keep our guys fresh and not let them wear us down.”
Clemson got the ball first and picked up one first down before punting. Duke took over on their 39 after a 27-yard punt return by Jalon Calhoun. Aided by a correctly overturned fumble call on Sahmir Hagans, Duke marched to the Clemson 4. But the drive stalled and Todd Pelino put Duke up 3-0 with a 22-yard field goal.
Early points but an opportunity squandered.
The Tigers responded by moving to a first down at the Duke 22. But Brandon Johnson got Clemson behind the chains with a tackle for a 3-yard loss on first down and Wesley Williams blocked the 42-yard field goal.
The teams exchanged punts before Duke put together another drive, one that reached the Clemson 22 before another Pelino field goal, this one from 42 yards out.
Duke’s defense continued to hold stout, allowing one first down before a punt that Calhoun fumbled and lost at the Duke 18.
It took Clemson five plays to score, the final two a swing pass from Klubnik to Will Shipley.
I’m not sure how you lose track of Shipley at the two-yard line but that basically was the only mistake by the Duke defense in the first half.
Duke squandered another scoring opportunity right before halftime. After Duke converted a fourth down Jaquez Moore fumbled on third down at the Clemson 26 and Clemson recovered.
The half ended Clemson 7 Duke 6.
Duke got the ball back to begin the second half.
Or perhaps more accurate to say Riley Leonard got the ball back. He picked up 14 on a scramble and several plays scored from 44 yards out, breaking away from an apparent tackle so imminent that the Clemson fans were roaring.
It may have looked like a pass play but Leonard said it was a called run all the way.
“I was expecting to get tackled behind the line of scrimmage,” he said “but I just kind of broke lose. Shout-out to Jordan Moore for making a down-the-field-block. Without him I don’t break lose down the field. That was just a called QB run. Coach [Johns] said he was going to put the ball in my hands and that’s all I could ask for.”
Pelinio’s PAT made it 13-7, with 12:54 left.
Clemson reached the Duke 1 in about as much time as it took me to write this sentence. But a false start, a sack by Anthony Nelson, Jr., a PBU by Brandon Johnson, a run to the five and a shanked field goal and the visitors came away empty.
But a three-and-out put a tired Duke defense back on a brutally hot field. Clemson reached the Duke nine but botched a handoff, which Jeremiah Lewis recovered at the 10.
Another three and out, another tired Duke defense.
But Duke escaped again. Maybe they weren’t so tired after all. Clemson moved to the 1, first and goal at the beginning of the final quarter. Phil Mafah fumbled, Nelson with the hit. Jaylen Stinson recovered and ran to the Clemson 33. Leonard hit Jordan Waters for 12 and a first down, then Duke moved down field methodically, Jaquez Moore scoring from nine yards out on a sweep.
Leonard hit Calhoun for the two-point conversion and Duke led 21-7, with 10:33 left.
Clemson never again came close to making it a one-score game.
The Tigers gambled for it on 4th and 8 from their 48. Klubnik scrambled, just missed the first down but Duke’s Cam Dillon was tagged with a targeting call. But the penalty was ruled to have occurred after the play. Duke ball.
Duke burned some clock, punted and then Duke’s Dorian Mausi picked off a bobbled pass at the Clemson 49, with 5:01 left.
Waters wrapped it up with a 36-yard TD run.
The students-and there were lots of students, and they were supportive--rushed the field. No surprise there. But after 20 minutes or so the P.A. announcer had to ask the Duke football players to clear the field.
Never heard that one.
Elko and all concerned said they expected to win and it’s hard to argue with the result. A huge win for a program that still had doubters, even after last season’s nine-win season.
It’s getting late. I’ll be back with more later in the week.
Terrific as always Jim. My last thought before going to sleep last night was, "I can't wait to see what Jim has to write about this historic victory."
Joe, I appreciate your comment. What seems to be true is that our fitness/conditioning coach, Dave Feeley, is an All Star. He seems to know exactly what to do to build strength, size, ability and speed. That is not easy. And all the players buy in. I have seen Coach Feeley help hand out water/gator aid bottles during hot Summer practice. He doesn't have to do that, but that's the kind of leader he is. I starts nicely at the top, of course, with the culture Coach Elko has created right from the beginning.
Before Clemson, I was a total believer in what I wrote above, but I had no idea, really, how this apparent upgrade would play out against a #9 team. Now we know that the brilliance of the conditioning/fitness program and the total commitment of the players -- along with great coaches at ALL positions -- is translating into a winning team. Color me excited...and grateful! Go Duke!