The Bulldogs were hotter than the Atlanta weather on Saturday. Georgia showed why they are the No. 1 team in the country and took the Clemson Tigers to the cleaners making them look like a junior varsity team.
The Bulldogs took down the No. 14 Tigers, 34-3, in the programs first meeting since 2021, when the final score was 10-3 in favor of UGA. After Georgia had a tenuous 6-0 lead at halftime, they broke the game open in the third quarter with back-to-back methodical 75-yard touchdown drives.
Georgia opened the second half with a six-play drive that ended with a pass from 5th-year quarterback Carson Beck to Colbie Young in single coverage in the end zone.
After Clemson responded with a awkward 12-play drive that ended with a field goal, Georgia went 75 yards in eight plays as true freshman running back Nate Frazier got his first career touchdown to give the Bulldogs a commanding 20-3 lead with just over three minutes to go in the third.
“I get on him all the time because he’s out of control,” Smart said. “He cuts back sometime in practice and I tell him, ‘You cut back like that in a game and they’re gonna light you up.’ But when he cut back today and ran all the way across the field, I told him it was OK.”
It was clear that Clemson needed to respond immediately after Frazier’s score or this one would turn into a laugher. But for some reason the Tigers opted to played conservatively. After second-year starter Cade Klubnik was stopped on a third-and-short run, Clemson elected to punt the ball away back to Georgia just before the end of the quarter. Clemson’s defense forced a three-and-out, but the Tigers failed to manufacture any points the rest of the game.
“To me, it feels like a playoff game,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s a great way to try to assess where you are as a team. No longer do you have to win every game (because of the expanded playoff). But you do want to be playing your best at the end of the year. One of the ways to do that is to get quality wins.”
The Bulldogs came into the contest as 13.5-point favorites and a stagnant first half felt much more like the result of a conservative offense playing in their first game of the season than Clemson going head-to-head with the Bulldogs. After Georgia managed to separate themselves in the second half, Beck played with much more confidence and started to utilize his weapons. The Heisman Trophy favorite finished the game 23-of-33 passing for 278 yards and two scores.
Georgia also relied on a creative ground and pound attack in the absence of both Trevor Etienne and Roderick Robinson. Etienne, a transfer from the University of Florida, did not see the field for a single snap after a DUI arrest this spring and Robinson is sidelined with a toe injury.
Frazier ended up being the bell cow, carrying the rock the most of any Georgia running back, and he looked outstanding with speed and elusiveness. The four-star recruit in the class of 2024 rushed 11 times for 83 yards.
Georgia’s depth on the defensive side of the ball was also tested multiple times throughout the afternoon.
Edge rusher Mykel Williams sustained an ankle injury on a low block while rushing the passer, while fellow defensive players Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse were also tended to on the field during the game.
Is Clemson now a powerhouse of the past and great in name only? It is a fair question to ask given how Georgia took control in the second half. The Tigers, under the leadership of coach Dabo Swinney, have dropped at least three games in each of the past three seasons and did not look like a true title contender on Saturday.
Embed from Getty ImagesClemson hired former TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley after the Horned Frogs made the national championship game against Georgia in 2022. And much like Georgia stifled and overmatched TCU in that title game, Riley’s offense could not do anything against the Bulldogs on Saturday. Outside of one 36-yard completion, Klubnik’s predictable menu consisted almost exclusively of short throws.
That lack of creativity and downfield passing did not open anything up for the run game and the Tigers were completely stuck in the mud.
This is a Clemson program that is still very capable of salvaging their season and making the 12-team College Football Playoff via an ACC title. If Florida State’s Week 0 loss at the hands of Georgia Tech is any indication, the conference is up for grabs. But simply making the expanded playoff is not the standard at Clemson.
Maybe it is now. It was glaring to see a transfer like London Humphreys score a fourth-quarter touchdown for the Bulldogs to put the Tigers away while Swinney’s program infamously does not dip into the transfer portal what’s so ever.
As Georgia has leaped frogged past Clemson in recent years, they have done so with stacked high school recruiting classes and key additions through the transfer portal. Right now, Clemson is only relying on players fresh out of high school to build its program. And the Tigers are getting left behind in the playoff race.
“We’re very selective in the transfer department,” Smart said. “But we needed some wideouts because we lost a lot of wideouts.”
Clemson: Goes for its first win of the season when Appalachian State visits Death Valley next Saturday night.
Georgia: Hosts FCS school Tennessee Tech at Sanford Stadium next Saturday in what figures to be little more than a glorified practice.
