Duke appears to troll Dabo Swinney for mocking long walk to visitor locker room

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had some criticisms of Duke‘s Wallace Wade Stadium, specifically its walk to the locker room.

“The other unique thing about (the stadium) that I do not like, and nobody likes that plays at Duke, is you have to — I mean, it’s like a two- or three-minute walk,” Swinney said, according to The State. “It’s a long way to get to the locker room. A long way. And in college football, you barely have enough time to go to the bathroom and talk for 30 seconds in there and it’s time to go again.”

Well, it appears the Blue Devils trolled Swinney and the Tigers by putting bounce houses in their path when walking to the locker room before the game Monday.

After Dabo mocked the long walk from the visiting locker rooms to the field here at Wallace Wade, it appears that Duke put a bunch of children’s bounce houses in Clemson’s path pic.twitter.com/nEPUQqTacW

— Shawn Krest (@ShawnKrest) September 4, 2023

Clemson was down 3-0 at the end of the first quarter when Swinney gave an interview with the ESPN broadcast crew about the team’s performance in the first quarter.

“We’ve gotta just hang in there and settle in,” Swinney said. “Obviously missed the field goal, but really just fundamental stuff. We missed a couple of tackles, turned the back loose right there and the wheel route. So just some thing we can get corrected. But hey, got a long way to go. We’ve just gotta settle in and keep playing right now. We’ve gotta get a stop right here.”

The Tigers scored a touchdown in the second quarter and took a 7-6 lead into the half.

Dabo Swinney, Clemson hopes Duke game start of long walk to the College Football Playoff

Clemson has hopes of returning to the College Football Playoff this season with sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik leading the charge. Klubnik, in his first season as the team’s starting quarterback, is more than comfortable with those expectations.

“That’s our main goal at the end of the year,” Klubnik said. “We have real goals, but that’s where we want at the end of the year if we say it or not. To be honest with you, we aren’t going to get there if we don’t win Week 1. I’m just focused on our first opponent. We’re focused on that and that’s really it. If we focus one week at a time, it will eventually take care of itself.”

Klubnik finished the first half with 85 yards on 14 of 20 passing with one touchdown. Tigers running back Will Shipley also had 11 carries for 65 yards.