Clemson has played Georgia and Auburn in the past decade to start the year, along with three conference games. Duke may not be Georgia, but Dabo Swinney sees them as an excellent season-opener challenge.
Ahead of Monday night’s opener against Duke, who won nine games last year. Swinney shared his thoughts on the upcoming game.
“Duke is an incredibly well-coached team and, you know, a tough opener,” he said.
“Those of you who’ve been around here y’all heard me say many times, I mean, openers are probably the hardest game. I don’t really care who you play. Because it’s again, there are just so many unknowns, especially in today’s world of college football, there are so many unknowns, whether it be coaching changes, personnel, or whatever. So, you have to spend time watching other people, maybe it’s a transfer that came in, so you got to try and figure this guy out.”
Swinney is 3-0 against Duke and 15-3 in season openers but with the new transfer rules, it leaves room for strange things to happen in the first few weeks of the season.
“You’d feel a lot better if you were coming off a couple of preseason games, right? Where you had a much better feel for your own team in a game situation. So definitely a tough opener and then you throw in the fact it’s on the road, and it’s a conference game.”