How Duke football fought its way to first win at Clemson since 1980
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke drove 94 yards in 11 plays as Mensah led a late game-winning drive.
- Duke converted a two-point play and forced the defensive stop to win 46-45.
- Win ends Duke drought at Clemson since 1980 and boosts ACC title aspirations.
With about five minutes left in the fourth quarter Saturday at Clemson, Duke coach Manny Diaz looked at quarterback Darian Mensah on the sideline.
“This is what you live for, right?” Diaz said.
Mensah smiled back, more than ready for the situation. “He’s so calm,” Diaz said.
Mensah then took the Blue Devils 94 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown and completed one last pass for a two-point conversion and a 46-45 victory over the Tigers to finally quiet Clemson’s Memorial Stadium.
After Nate Sheppard’s 3-yard scoring run pulled the Blue Devils within 45-44 with 40 seconds remaining, Diaz green-lighted the two-point play.
“Playing for extra innings in Death Valley seems like it benefits the home team,” Diaz said.
Sahmir Hagans lined up in the left slot, then cut across behind the formation into the right flat and was open for Mensah’s pass. It was a play the Blue Devils considered running earlier in the red zone, Diaz said, but decided to save for a two-pointer.
The Blue Devils still needed one more defensive stop after taking the lead, and got it. Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik completed a couple of passes, but the game soon ended as Duke won a fifth consecutive ACC road game for the first time since the early 1960’s.
Diaz was 6 years old when the Blue Devils last won at Clemson. Red Wilson was the head coach and Steve Spurrier his creative offensive coordinator when Duke took a 34-17 win at Death Valley in 1980.
Duke ‘stayed in the fight’
Diaz was Penn State’s defensive coordinator two years ago when the Blue Devils last played the Tigers. Duke won 28-7 in Durham on a Monday night game that Diaz said he watched, admiring the Devils’ effort.
What Diaz saw Saturday was his Duke football team at its efficient best in the first quarter, taking a 21-7 lead as Mensah had three touchdowns passes – the longest a 77-yard strike to a shockingly open Cooper Barkate. Then, Clemson seemingly took control. The Tigers ran and Klubnik passed and it was 28-21 late in the first half. That’s when Mensah took the offense down the field and hit Que’Sean Brown on a perfectly thrown 43-yard post-pattern pass to tie it up.
“The biggest thing is we stayed in the fight,” Diaz said. “It was like a heavyweight fight and you had to be able to take a punch. I’m proud of how we not just took a punch but were able to counter.”
One of the counter punches was Hagans scoring on a 100-yard kickoff return after Clemson took a 35-28 lead in the third quarter, zipping down the right side.
“That was a good momentum booster,” Hagans said. “When you’re on the road it’s about capturing momentum, taking the home crowd out of the game.”
A game-winning drive for the ages
The final Duke drive was the final counter. It came after Klubnik teamed up with T.J. Moore on a 75-yard catch-and-run play to push the Tigers ahead, 45-38.
Duke’s next possession picked up little yardage, but the defense did its part by forcing a Clemson punt. The problem: Jack Smith’s punt rolled to the Duke 6, the Blue Devils taking over with 5:16 left in the fourth quarter.
It was third-and-7 at the Duke 9 when Mensah went to tight end Jeremiah Hasley over the middle and Hasley rumbled 56 yards. On fourth-and-1 at the Clemson 26, Mensah again went to the sure-handed Hasley for 8 yards.
Duke faced fourth-and-18 at the Clemson 18 with 49 seconds left and Mensah, backpedaling in the pocket to buy time, tried to connect with Brown over the middle. Brown, who wasjostled by cornerback Avieon Terrell on his route, tried to fight past Terrell to get to Mensah’s pass at the 3-yard line.
A flag went down. Offensive pass interference on Brown? The Clemson crowd seemed to sense that would be the call and wanted the call. But Terrell was called for defensive pass interference.
With the crowd still booing and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney enraged, Sheppard scored on the next play. And then the 2-pointer.
And then, celebration time.
“It just shows our resilience as a team,” Hagans said. “It shows we’re taking that next step, especially in being a competitive program in this conference. We had the belief in the locker room and it was good to put it on the national stage.”
Despite a loss to Georgia Tech two weeks ago, Diaz said the Devils still could “write our own story” and could stay in the fight to reach the ACC championship game. At 4-1 in the ACC, the Devils have more to “write.”
“We have a lot to play for,” Diaz said. “Once you know you can do a thing like this, you want to protect that, meaning to keep doing the right things. If we can play with the confidence you gain when you win at a place like this, that’s a good formula going forward.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
