Social Media Reaction to Clemson's Opening Loss to Duke

As you might imagine the internet was not kind to the Tigers in the wake of their week 1 loss

The Clemson Tigers have started 0-1. It's a sentence not many people thought they'd be reading. The combination of the fact that it was to a conference opponent, a team they hadn't lost to since 2004, and a program not ranked before the season only adds to the reactions across the media landscape on Labor Day night. Here's a collection of takes, both hot and understandable, that sums up the general vibe surrounding Clemson after the loss:

This is an upset, but only because of the point spread. Duke is the better team ... by far. If they play this game 10 times, the Blue Devils would probably win eight of them.

— Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 (@BarrettSallee) September 5, 2023

MeeMaw’s spirit keeping me from drawing week one conclusions about Clemson pic.twitter.com/NZfho9QJG6

— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) September 5, 2023

Mike Elko went 9-4 in year 1 at Duke and is just straight up handling Clemson tonight. He might be one of the best coaches in the country.

— Brandon Walker (@BFW) September 5, 2023

The Clemson playoff era is officially over. In week 1.

Missing back-to-back years but still winning 10 games was excusable. Whatever Dabo trotted out tonight is not. Woof.

— Kayce Smith (@KayceSmith) September 5, 2023

DJ Uiagalelei watching this Clemson offense pic.twitter.com/T8egUCO4Ph

— Cam Gaskins (@CamGaskinsTV) September 5, 2023

Riley Leonard is now Vanilla Vick pic.twitter.com/q7xzTp3ssa

— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) September 5, 2023

Duke is a football school pic.twitter.com/FnIHYKCcS4

— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) September 5, 2023

pic.twitter.com/NCQRk1sZaL

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) September 5, 2023

Clemson hired Garrett Riley to run a championship-level offense.

And technically, based off his last stop at TCU, putting up 7 points is championship level.

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 5, 2023

For all the hype over Garrett Riley coming to Clemson, he had more weapons at TCU last year than he does here. Dabo refuses to use the portal, so they still have underwhelming receivers.

The plan now seems to be "Run, Cade, run."

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 5, 2023

So are we beating Clemson too then?

— ☠️SSN - Charleston Southern☠️ (@SSNCharlestonSo) September 5, 2023

It's not good when Charleston Southern fans are starting to have hope. Not much time to turn things around before Saturday but that's also less time to read Twitter. Probably a good thing for the Tiger program.