Duke with a HUGE win against Clemson to start the season!

Alright, my man Dave Harding, Duke Radio Network, Blue Devil Network executive producer, my friend, did they ever storm the field when you were a star wearing number 64 for Duke? 74. Come on. 64?

Why did I say 64? You know, I screwed up Jay Williams number two. He got, I haven't spoken to him since. He also called me a superstar, which we all can debate as well.

No, not debatable. Did they storm the field for you? They did. 2012 North Carolina game. That was a big one with Jamison Crowder's last second catch.

And then my senior game actually played Miami at home and beat them. And they stormed. But it was not like the one we saw last night, Adam. I have not seen a field storm quite like that one ever, where the student body had ample time to prepare and to come up with a plan for what they were going to do.

Right. And to get them out of the stands and lining the field. I mean, it was quite the scene to see everybody packed in. It was like a Jimmy Buffett concert down in the pit. You know, you had everybody sandwiched in between the stands and the field. And credit to the students, because there wasn't much security down there holding them back, but they waited until the appropriate time and then flooded the field. What a great view that we had from the broadcast booth up in the top of Blue Devil Towers. Pretty neat to see. Dave Harding, Blue Devil Radio Network is joining us here in the Adam Gold show.

Here's the thing. Derek Lively, a lottery pick, I believe, in the NBA draft was also there. And he was one of the first people who stormed the field. He was all into it. The last time I had seen that many people on the field at Wallace Wade Stadium, Mick Jagger was on stage. I went to a Rolling Stones concert back in 2004.

All right. Let me, you and I talked about not necessarily beating Clemson, but I do believe when we talked about it, I mean, I thought it was possible. I know you did, too. When you watched them play, were they a little bit better than you thought they would be in terms of having multiple players to cycle in on the defensive line? The athletes and their physicality in the secondary. There were almost no missed tackles in the game. That's the thing that stuck out to me about their defense other than the defensive line was that their guys made plays in space that I don't think Clemson expected.

Absolutely. And today I've kind of been thinking back about the game and going through the different position groups. And this is the first win against a top 10 team that the Blue Devils had since 1989.

So in my lifetime. And they hadn't beaten a ranked opponent since 2016. Those have always been when you have those games, it's like, hey, Duke's got to play out of their mind in order to win a game like that.

And last night, neither team was perfect. Duke had their fair share of miscues, pre snap penalties, turnovers, not taking full advantage of opportunities of the first half, getting into the red zone or getting into scoring position and settling for field goals. I'm thinking, oh, you're going to wish you had that eight points, you know, and wish you had scored touchdowns because Clemson is going to make you pay and the Duke team as a whole, all three facets working together at certain times, were able to win the game and will themselves to victory.

And a big part of that is when you go position by position. I don't think there was a single group that was matched up with their opponents on Clemson that had a massive disadvantage. In fact, if you're if you're really looking at this, I think the Blue Devils had the advantage in numerous position groups, I think quarterback, they had the advantage wide receiver, I take Duke's wide receivers, defensive backs, you mean you mentioned the open field tackling, they looked very solid and had great coverage down the field, defensive line made some huge plays to block field goals. The offensive line not allowing any sacks made this this was a complete victory for Duke. And the fact that you're seeing that talent differential start to get a little bit smaller, I think, leads to an opportunity to get a top 10 victory when you don't play your best.

Dave Harding is here. That's the thing that people will overlook. Duke didn't play the perfect game. Did they get some help from Clemson in the second half?

Yeah. But the second the first fumble was a bad mesh point between Klubnick and Will Shipley, where Shipley thought he was keeping it and Klubnick was trying to pull it back and it was too late. And then so that ball was on the ground. But the other one was it?

What? It was knocked out, right? So Duke put a hat on the ball, the ball comes out and then you got Jalen Stinson running down the right sideline, by the way, a great recovery from Klubnick to just track him down. Otherwise, that's a touchdown. Although Duke scored a touchdown on that drive anyway. But Duke made some plays.

But there were just so many impressive things. And let's talk about Riley Leonard here. And it looked to me like Duke's passing game was purposely kind of conservative. Like they didn't think they'd have time to throw and they really didn't against Clemson's defensive front. But I think Riley kind of showed why he's one of the best players in the country.

I totally agree. I think it's important when he when you talk about not playing the cleanest game Clemson didn't the Blue Devils, I mean, essentially spotted Clemson the only points of their only points of the night off the muff punt. Yeah, they had stopped the Tigers and then give them life all over again. Down in Duke territory, five plays later, Clemson's on the board and that's the only time they see a score. Riley Leonard, I thought of all the players to talk about last night and the defense had several highlight moments. You talked about Jalen Stinson rumbling down the sideline trying to get away from Klubnick on the fumble recovery. It's Riley Leonard's play 44 yards for a touchdown in the second half that I think opened things up for for Duke. It was the first touchdown of the game for the Blue Devils. And up until that point, we had been talking about they hadn't played their best. And you hadn't really seen Riley make a big play. And he what we lost him. We lost Dave Harding.

By the way, Anthony Nelson was the player for Duke, the defensive lineman who got through and knocked the ball loose. But it was not a great offensive game from the Blue Devils. They were good. It just wasn't great. The biggest misnomer is that you have to play the perfect game.

You don't. There you are. Dave Harding is back.

So continue wherever you were. No, I'm just saying that that play by Riley Leonard to get the touchdown was absolutely a pivotal part of the game. And to do it with his athleticism shows just what he brings to this team.

And it's an ability to extend plays. He was completely stopped. That, I believe, was going to be a tackle for loss. The player gets out of it.

And, yeah, he's, you know, tightroping down down the sideline into the end zone. And from there, the game changed. It did it. I think it was probably the first time that doubt creeped into Clemson's mind. I really do. It's only one game.

Who knows what it's going to mean in the end? Let me just get one thought from you on Clemson. And then I want to go to Duke's remaining schedule before we have to let Dave Harding go from the Duke Radio Network. Did Clemson look to you like they have an offense that is good enough? Forget about winning the national championship, but to win the league, their defense might be good enough. But I'm not. Did their offense look good enough to you to challenge nationally?

I think so. And I'll give you a couple of reasons for that. Number one, a new offensive coordinator, Garrett Riley, we know what he's capable of doing from a play calling perspective. They've got a very good running back or two running backs.

I mean, Moffa is not bad either. But, you know, Will Shipley, you can use him as a bell cow and he's going to help erase some issues. And I think you're seeing a little bit of growing pains, perhaps, with Cade Klubnick. The big question mark is who's going to emerge as a threat down the field? You know, their wide receiver room was not as good as Duke's wide receiver room last night. And I do think Duke's secondary is improved. You've got to give them credit.

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Again, G-O-L-O.com. Typically, Clemson has a receiver that's going to scare you, and they didn't have that last night, and they've got to have somebody emerge in order to make an impact down the stretch, but I fully expect, I mean, look at the stats. It was a crazy game. Clemson had plenty of stats to win the game, rushed for over 200, passed for over 200.

I think David Hale released something on ESPN on Twitter. Teams that did that in the past or recent history were like 108-0 in games, and so the fact that they lost is wild. You've got enough productivity offensively to win games.

You just turn the ball over and had several errors that were incredibly costly, and again, it's not all unforced. Duke able to get in there and make the play, but in an opening game, always going to be a lot of improvement that you can point to. Clemson certainly has plenty.

All right, final thing for Dave Harding, Duke Radio Network, Blue Devil Network as well, and Man About Town. The Blue Devils have Lafayette on Saturday night. I'm not overlooking Lafayette, and then they got Northwestern, and they have UConn on the road, the last one.

Now, you're not the coach, so we can get a little bit ahead of ourselves here. This is an opportunity to kind of stack some wins before Notre Dame comes to Wallace Wade. Yeah, I mean, if you let yourself think about it, the Blue Devils have fared very well against Northwestern, the past several outings. UConn certainly improved. They gave NC State a little bit of a run for their money. They certainly beat Boston College last year, but first road trip, you never know how that's going to go. But there is a path to two undefeated teams playing in Wallace Wade Stadium. Notre Dame will have one loss. Notre Dame. Notre Dame might have one loss. It could come this Saturday, Dave. It could. Obviously, Ohio State is Ohio State, too. But you never know.

So is college game day coming to Durham? You've got to think about it. It's just funny.

It's funny how we're sitting here, Adam. I mean, a couple of weeks ago, I was on the show, and all we're talking about is how tough the schedule is. And to go back into the coach talk speak, you do have to take it one week at a time. But when you do that, you just checked off a massive piece of the concern that people had, and a top 10 Clemson team coming into town. So now there's belief externally. I don't think it really changes the belief of what the program has been feeling. They were very confident coming into this one.

But you just keep kind of stacking wins, like you said. Before you know it, you can have a pretty special season on your hands. Dave Harding, who's been a part of some pretty special Duke seasons. He joined us pretty special Duke seasons.

He joined us. I appreciate your time, sir. We'll talk to you after the next enormous victory, or before, or maybe both.

I appreciate your time, my friend. How about during? You got it. During? Well, you're busy during.

I don't know. I'll do anything for you. Oh, man. All right.

I'll talk to you later. Thanks, Dave. That's Dave Harding. Look, as people said, it's just Duke football. Somebody in my three words on Duke's win, no one cares. Yeah, they do. People care.

Silly. So it's a great win. In the grand scheme of things, we'll see what it means in the long run. But I think it is validation that the program, or forget about the program. Program has been fine.

It's been fine for a long time. Again, not to bring up the previous guy, but David Cutcliffe resurrected a program. He made a program and they stopped winning. So changes needed to be made. Mike Elko has come here with a renewed sense of purpose and a renewed energy and a new and a new way of looking at it and has in less than two years has completely transformed even a good program. So good for him and good for the whole everybody involved. We'll see what it means in the long run. But this is a good football team, as we have been saying for the last two months, a good football team with really good players and a star quarterback. Those are the that's the recipe for a good season.