{"id":101327,"date":"2025-10-29T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T10:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/clemson-duke-seek-to-keep-hopes-alive-in-late-season-matchup\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T10:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T10:00:22","slug":"clemson-duke-seek-to-keep-hopes-alive-in-late-season-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/clemson-duke-seek-to-keep-hopes-alive-in-late-season-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"Clemson, Duke seek to keep hopes alive in late-season matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\" w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/27306087.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/27306087.jpg\" alt=\"NCAA Football: Clemson at Boston College\" class=\"w-full\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Oct 11, 2025; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) throws a pass against the Boston College Eagles during the second half at Alumni Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>A November game for Clemson doesn&#8217;t have the heightened meaning in the national picture that might often have been the case, but the Tigers are going into Saturday afternoon&#8217;s game against visiting Duke determined to make something of the season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re ready to get back into the fight,&#8221; Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>Both teams were off last week after suffering losses in their previous games. Clemson (3-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) dropped a home game to SMU, while Duke (4-3, 3-1) fell at home to undefeated Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>The Blue Devils want to remain in the ACC title chase.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>&#8220;We have a chance to do what you want to do &#8211; play great in November,&#8221; Duke coach Manny Diaz said, pointing to last November&#8217;s results proving critical to the team&#8217;s success. &#8220;With all we have to play for, we know the same will be true.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, who missed the SMU game because of an ankle injury, was back at practice Monday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>Diaz said he&#8217;s anticipating seeing Klubnik in Saturday&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<p>&#8220;We always prepare for teams to be at full strength, especially coming off the bye,&#8221; Diaz said. &#8220;It&#8217;s the people around the quarterback that make the big difference. Their weaponry on the outside will be as good as anybody we&#8217;ve seen so far this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>Clemson lists Tristan Smith and Cole Turner as co-starters at receiver this week.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>Duke relies heavily on quarterback Darian Mensah, who has thrown for 17 touchdowns with two interceptions.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>There&#8217;s still a level of mystique involving the Clemson team, Diaz said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re going to have to have some real belief to go in there and knock that team off,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think we&#8217;ve got the right leadership to set the tone for our guys and how they work this week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>Swinney said the time off since the last game has put the Tigers in a better position in terms of injuries. He continues to put a positive light on the team.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-14\">\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been some disappointment this season, but there&#8217;s been a lot of good,&#8221; Swinney said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">\n<p>While a healthier team should help, Swinney pointed to a couple of areas that need upgrades.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-16\">\n<p>&#8220;If we&#8217;re going to win in November, we have to run the ball better, be better on pass defense,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-17\">\n<p>Klubnik has thrown for 1,530 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-18\">\n<p>-Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/clemson-duke-seek-to-keep-hopes-alive-in-late-season-matchup\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oct 11, 2025; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) throws a pass against the Boston College Eagles during the second half<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}