Saturday, Aug. 31
12 p.m. Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific
ABC
The 2024 college football season has a loaded Saturday schedule, and it begins with a neutral-site game in Atlanta involving two of the non-Alabama programs to win national championships in the past eight years. Clemson was a regular College Football Playoff program through 2020, but the Tigers have fallen on hard times in the past three college football seasons, missing the playoff each year and winning zero New Year’s Six bowl games. Dabo Swinney has been very stubborn about not using the transfer portal. That lack of resource allocation has, in the eyes of many college football analysts, prevented Dabo from maintaining the standard he set from 2015 through 2020, when Clemson made the playoff each year and won two national championships.
Not getting that instant-impact player from another program who already has veteran experience and doesn’t have to be coached the way a high school recruit needs to be taught from the ground up has clearly slowed down the Tigers. While Michael Penix instantly transformed Washington into a playoff team, and while ACC rival Florida State went unbeaten in the 2023 regular season because of Mike Norvell’s use of the transfer portal, Clemson has lagged behind. Can the Tigers show that they can still slug it out with the big boys? There’s no bigger test than Georgia, the team which has won two of the last three national titles and enters this game as preseason No. 1 in both major polls.
Clemson Tigers vs Georgia Bulldogs Odds (game in Atlanta)
Spread: Clemson +13.5 (-105), Georgia -13.5 (-115)
Total: 48.5 (Over -110, Under -110)
Underdog moneyline: Clemson +425
Players to Watch
The Georgia offense took a step back last season under quarterback Carson Beck, who comes back this year with ample experience and a lot to prove. Georgia went 13-1 last year, so it’s not as though the Bulldogs were flop or a bust – they weren’t – but their offense didn’t perform up to the standard set in 2022, when Georgia needed to win a shootout against Ohio State in the Peach Bowl to defend its 2021 national championship. Georgia has room to grow on offense, and that reality – that the Dawgs fell far short of their ceiling of potential last year – gives Clemson hope as an underdog in this game.
How Does Clemson pull the upset?
For Clemson to win, it all starts with linebacker Barrett Carter and the rest of Clemson’s talented defense being able to disrupt Beck and make the Georgia quarterback overthink the game. Clemson’s defense has remained the stronger side of the ball for the Tigers in recent years, holding firm despite the program’s decline. Clemson’s offense is what has held the program back. The defense has largely done its job and figures to once again be the strength of the team this season. The Clemson defense setting the tone early and causing Georgia’s offense to wither under pressure is the direct path for the Tigers to win this game.
Hear T.J. Rives and Gary Segars breakdown Clemson-Georgia as part of our “3 Dog Thursday Podcast” by clicking play below,
Obviously, though, Clemson can’t expect to win 13-10. The Tigers will very likely need at least 24 to 27 points to get past Georgia. Their defense can’t play a perfect game, or at least, no coaching staff can expect as much.
Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, the younger brother of USC coach Lincoln Riley, struggled to put all the pieces together last season for Dabo. Given a full offseason, he now gets to try again and extract the most he can out of returning quarterback Cade Klubnik, who had his moments but ultimately did not do well in key situations.
The biggest problem for Clemson’s offense last season: red-zone turnovers. The Tigers crushed their hopes and dreams by committing large mistakes in the area of the field where missteps normally prove to be very costly. Clemson repeatedly stepped on a rake in red-zone situations. It proved to be the Tigers’ undoing in their losses to Duke and Florida State last year. The offense does need to be more consistent, and it does need splash plays so that Clemson doesn’t have to solve the red-zone puzzle all the time, but red-zone efficiency will very likely tell the tale in this game against Georgia and for the rest of Clemson’s 2024 season. That’s reality, uncomfortable thought it might be.