DURHAM – All but two teams in college football will have played a game — and 13 FBS teams will have played twice — by the time Clemson and Duke square off next Monday night.

It’s not ideal, but it’s also not like Duke is going to shy away from the spotlight of playing what amounts to college football’s only Monday Night Football game until the College Football Playoff.

“Obviously, I think our kids will be ready when they come out of the tunnel,” coach Mike Elko said Monday afternoon. “I’d probably rather play earlier. I don’t know that you really want to sit around all weekend and let all of college football unfold before you get to go out there. …

“We’re excited to go out there and play somebody else. This group knows that a lot of people chose to come back to this program for this season.”

The ninth-ranked Tigers have won seven of the last eight ACC championships and Elko has made no secret of the high regard he holds for Dabo Swinney’s program.

“Clemson coming in, unbelievable respect for this program,” Elko said. “I’ve said this all offseason and it’s the truth, they’re the gold standard of ACC football.”

The Blue Devils are coming off a 9-4 season, Elko’s first at the helm. They return a plethora of starters on offense and defense, some of whom could have pursued professional options.

Playing Clemson in an opener that comes two days later than most other teams means Duke is off on Tuesday, and Wednesday will mark the start of a routine game week.

“It’s just trying to do the standard mental preparation to make sure that they’re coming out of that locker room confident, comfortable and ready,” Elko said.

Elko is entering his second year as a head coach but it’s not like this is his second opener in college football. He’s seen the gauntlet of start times for openers across 24 prior seasons in the industry.

“Whether you’ve watched a lot of the weekend or none of it or some of it, I don’t know, at the end of the day you’ve just gotta find your time and get your kids grooved up to come out and play and execute,” Elko said.

The real trick, it seems, comes next week.

Duke and Clemson will wrap up their game Monday night after three hours or so, and then start preparation for Saturday games essentially 48 hours later than normal. Both of them play FCS-level teams — Clemson plays Charleston Southern, Duke plays Lafayette — but there’s still more adjusting to be done.

Whether Duke has its first top-10 win since 1989 or is looking for its first win of the season.

“That’s probably the biggest challenge,” Elko said of the following week. “And we’re wrestling with some stuff now with the NCAA from a waiver standpoint to try to fix some things to give us an opportunity to do the day after the game the right way.”

The Blue Devils have one other instance of playing on a shortened schedule this season — they’ll travel to Louisville for an Oct. 28 game and play host to Wake Forest on the following Thursday night (Nov. 2).