Duke coach comments on team’s video trolling Clemson, Swinney
By: Staff Report February 5, 2023

Duke posted a video that garnered plenty of attention last week when the 2023 ACC football schedule was released.

Clemson will open the 2023 campaign at Duke on Labor Day, so the Blue Devils decided to troll the Tigers and Dabo Swinney’s run down the hill.

Duke posted a video of defensive back Joshua Pickett touching a rock with the Duke logo and then sprinting out of their tunnel, impersonating Swinney sprinting down the hill after touching Howard’s Rock.

Appearing on ACC Network’s ACC PM show, Duke head coach Mike Elko spoke about that video that has made the rounds and amassed more than a million views.

“Obviously we’re not looking to disrespect anyone, and we’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Howard’s Rock and everything that Clemson does,” Elko said.

“But I think when we got here, we felt like we had to re-engage our fan base and we had to try to create a buzz around what we were doing with this program, and nowadays all of that stuff happens on social media. So we went out and hired a team and we try to let them get out and try to be creative and try to do some things that will catch people’s eye, and I think they’ve done a great job kind of growing that part of our program.”

After defeating Georgia Tech, 41-10, on Labor Day night in 2022, Clemson will open a season on Labor Day for the second straight year when the Tigers travel to Durham, N.C. to face Duke on Monday, Sept. 4.

Clemson (11-3, 9-0 ACC in 2022), coming off its seventh ACC title in the last eight years, will travel to Duke for the first time since 2012 to face a Blue Devils team that finished 9-4 (5-3 ACC) this past season and won the Military Bowl vs. UCF in its first season under Elko. It marked Duke’s first nine-win season since 2014.

–Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images 

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