Duke swung first. 

Clemson punched back.

Big, bad, defending Atlantic Coast Conference champ Clemson had absorbed a pair of field goals from upstart Duke, and the Tigers had countered with a Will Shipley touchdown to take a 7-6 lead into halftime in both teams’ 2023 season opener.

The Tigers still stood.

Duke? The Blue Devils were just getting started. In their element.

Duke threw the first punch, and the last.

Exactly how second-year Duke coach Mike Elko, and, by extension, well-esteemed strength coach David Feeley had poured the sweat-equity foundation into this program rebuild.

A boxer’s mentality. Evidenced, on national television, in that 28-7 opening romp.

“I think he’s extremely tough, he’s extremely smart, he’s very empathetic when it comes to each of the players,” Feeley, who also noted his and Elko’s New Jersey roots helped them immediately bond, told FootballScoop. “(Elko) can understand where each of them is coming from, and those are things that I value tremendously. [Elko said] ‘So coming into your first workout, Dave, I want to make sure that we are tough. I want boxers. I don’t want a fancy football team as far as running around and doing God knows what, this, this and that. I want boxers. That’s what I want.’ He’s a tough guy by nature and the kids love him for it, but that was his vision.”

On the heels of 2022’s breakthrough, nine-win campaign – just the Duke program’s third season of nine or more wins in its past 80 years – Blue Devils players heard the narrative that a drop-off seemed inevitable.

Notably, Duke had lost nine games – in back-to-back seasons prior to Elko’s taking over the program.

What the outside world couldn’t know was that the Blue Devils had wrapped themselves in the visions of Elko and Feeley the way their school’s fabled hoops fans ensconced themselves in tents outside Cameron Indoor.

“Everyone said, ‘Duke has a hard schedule this year … they’re not going to be as good,’” Blue Devils quarterback Riley Leonard, a bona fide NFL Draft prospect, said after his team had dispatched Clemson. “To be honest, we love hearing that. Obviously, we had a great year last year, but we weren’t just a one-and-done caliber of a team.

“We worked our tails off this summer. If you look at our Catapult numbers, our speed is faster, and we’re moving more weight at a higher velocity. Those little things are what’s going to get you going through all four quarters, and like I said, it's just paying off. We’re going to keep this chip on our shoulder and move into next week as we have a quick turnaround.”

No. 17 Duke, now 4-0, winners of nine of its last 10 games and ready for the once-unthinkable this weekend – hosting ESPN’s College GameDay for football, not basketball, as tradition-rich, No. 11 Notre Dame comes calling -- continues to punch above its weight on the field because its players continue to push themselves, in-season, off the field and inside Feeley’s laboratory, where an Olympic lifting approach is the standard.

“The first year, the players, they just wanted a chance to be successful and they were getting put through the ringer every day,” Feeley told FootballScoop. “They almost didn’t know what was coming next. Like (saying), ‘All right, what is next week going to bring?’ Eventually, they started gaining some confidence through their work.

“The beauty about Year 2 is if they know the standard and expectation, they can move with much more intent and much more focus because they kind of know what’s coming. You never want to do the same exact thing, there’s has to be some differences or otherwise it’s being; they need somewhat of a new stimulus. But, they know what to expect, especially from the head ball coach. They know his expectations of the program, they know his expectations of the weight room and these are the best group of kids you could ever ask to coach. They are unbelievable. They come in extra all the time. They’ll come into the office to say, ‘Hey, how’s your family?’ They’ll talk about what homework they have. It’s a really neat atmosphere.”

The approach inside Duke football is similarly “neat.”

While many programs, for myriad reasons, eschew pushing players to their max-strength levels during the season, Elko and Feely lean into it.

They’re developing strong players now; they expect stronger players later.

“I think it’s pretty simple: your volume is what can either help you or hurt you,” said Feeley, whose past stops include his work atop the strength programs at Miami (Fla.), South Carolina and Temple. “I think our intensity, as long as we keep that up in the weight room year-round, we’ll have a chance to stay incredibly strong.

“We’ll have guys P.R. (personal record) in the season in the squat, bench and the clean. We’ve had multiple already since the start of camp; we’re pretty aggressive with that. That’s just how it goes here.”

The Blue Devils continue to condition after their lifts; runs include sprints on the track and 110s, Feeley shares.

They are embracing the moment; counting on a season that boasts at least 12 rounds.

“We have an incredible opponent, we have a ton of respect for them,” Feeley said of the Irish. “Freddy Hale is doing a great job there as the head strength coach, Coach Balis (who resigned in July) did a great job there getting those guys ready for a long time. So, we’ve just got to take one day at a time and not look too far ahead.

“Our guys understand when they come into that room, there’s only one way that things are going to be done and it’s just like with Coach Elko on the field. He says we’ve got one speed, that’s it. So as long as they know the expectation, and everybody’s bought in, we’re going to have a chance.”