#65 Duke

Durham, NC

Wallace Wade Stadium

September 4, 2023

Duke 28 - Clemson 7 (ESPN Recap)

Rushing the Field

If you go to enough random college football games attempting to see the best

product that a program has to offer, you will eventually get lucky and catch a

game like I did Monday night. My first rush of the field!

Duke’s first win against a top-10 opponent in 34 years.

Duke’s first win against Clemson in 19 years.

The first time in 109 games that Clemson lost while accumulating 200+ yard

rushing and 200+ yards passing.

The Game

Hitting Wallace Wade with Peter G on a standalone Labor Day Monday night game felt like the right move. I was high on Riley Leonard and Duke last year and have been low on Cade Klubnik his entire career. This one felt like a hype environment and single possession game. I took Duke +13.5.

Duke came out and scored an opening possession FG, which is the first time in Dabo’s coaching career he conceded points on the opening possession. Duke got out to a 6-0 lead and then blocked a short Clemson FG attempt. A muffed Duke punt gave Clemson a short field, which they cashed in for 7 and took us to halftime with Clemson leading 7-6. Convinced that Klubnik cannot throw the ball and that it would be difficult for Clemson to score 17+ points in the 2H, I took the 2H TTU Clemson 14.5 as well.

Clemson did not punt in the 2H, which means I should have lost my bet, but they also did not score a point, fumbling twice inside the 10, getting another FG blocked, throwing an interception, and turning the ball over on downs twice. Spectacular stuff.

I got to meet Rodger Sherman pregame, and then spend most of the tailgate and game getting to know one of the sports writers I admire. Great human. Then we stumbled upon Clark Humble, AKA CollegeFootballSuperFan who has already accomplished my mission and just putting up a casual 25-30 games this year for the fun of it. Nice getting to know him too.

I am now also best friends with NBA star Dereck Lively as you could see from the field rush photos.

Cameron Indoor / Gardens

I drove down from Harrisonburg, VA to Durham on Sunday and my only complaint on that 3:50 drive was that the first 1:40 were retracing my exact route I took to get there from Lynchburg. A lot of this view:

I arrived in Durham and hung out at the Duke Gardens where I took an outdoor nap, and then had dinner at the local Ethiopian spot where I learned about walling technique and free pokey boys. I watched the full LSU/FSU game at an amazing sports bar (Tobacco Road) that had 50 TVs and also overlooked the Durham Bulls MiLB stadium on the terrace. Monday, Sean W hooked me up with Eric S of the manager brotherhood. I got a very cool 30-min tour of Cameron Indoor which has to be top 3 college basketball venue and top 5 overall basketball venue in the country.

As Peter texted me after we had left the field, “I will remember that game forever.” Yup, me too.