If you didn’t know Riley Leonard before, you know him now.

The Duke quarterback and Fairhope, Alabama, native broke loose from a tackler and sprinted to the open for a 44-yard touchdown that highlighted Duke’s tough and physical performance that shocked ninth-ranked Clemson 28-7 in Monday night’s season opener for both teams.

“He’s a competitor,” Duke coach Mike Elko said right after the game of Leonard. “He’s greedy as heck. And when the game is on the line, he finds ways to make plays. He’s done it since I got here. He’s why we are in this position.”

Fans rushed the field as the Blue Devils took down a top-10 opponent for the first time in 29 tries, going back to 1989.

“I think this is Duke football,” Elko said amidst the chaos. “We got the best of both worlds. A chance to compete and do amazing things on and off the field. This is what I envisioned Duke could be when I took this job.”

Jaquez Moore added a 9-yard scoring run by beating multiple defenders to the near pylon on the right side in the fourth quarter for the Blue Devils (1-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), giving them an unexpected two-touchdown lead in a game they largely controlled in spite of numerous miscues.

That’s because Duke thrice held up after Clemson had pushed inside the 10-yard line — even to the 1 on two of those possessions — to hold the Tigers scoreless. The Blue Devils blocked two field goals and twice forced fumbles in those critical near-the-goal-line moments. And they made Clemson work to move the chains instead of moving the ball in chunks under new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley.

In short, the Blue Devils made the preseason ACC favorite look very, very ordinary en route to beating the Tigers (0-1, 0-1) for the first time since 2004.

“I think we just settled down and played our game,” Elko said. “We just fought. We didn’t play perfectly. We didn’t play great. We had a ton of turnovers. We played a great game We just kept battling. We made just enough plays to win the game.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.