Swinney: Georgia ‘Feels like a Playoff Game’

CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney says Clemson’s season opener against Georgia has the feel of a College Football Playoff Game.

Nobody knows what that feels like better than Swinney. He and the Tigers have played in 10 CFP games, more than any current coach in the game.

“This is just a situation where you have to be playoff ready. Game 1, play one,” Swinney said about Clemson’s Aug. 31 opener against the Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. “It is what it is, but it is exciting. It is a great opportunity for both teams.

“This is big-time football game right out of the gate with two really, really good programs.”

The Tigers would love nothing more than to beat the Bulldogs in Atlanta. Clemson will attempt to earn its first win against Georgia since 2013 in a matchup that has accounted for four of the last eight national champions.

Clemson has not beat the Bulldogs in the state of Georgia since David Treadwell’s 49-yard field goal as time expired for a 31-28 victory in 1986. Since 1980, the winner of the Clemson-Georgia contest went on to win the national championship three times.

It will not be easy to beat Georgia this year, either. The Bulldogs are considered to have the best team in the country heading into 2024.

“They are a team that I think in totality has clearly been the best football program in the country the last three years,” Swinney said.

Georgia is 41-2 over the last three seasons. The Bulldogs won back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022 and last year went 13-1, missing the CFP after losing to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.

Though Swinney explained how big of game the Georgia game is, he explains—win or lose—it does not make or break the season. He does not view it as a statement game for a Clemson program that has not made the CFP in each of the last three seasons.

“If you win it, it does not tell you much either. You still have to go win the next game,” he said. “Honestly, that is the way it is. I just do not look at it that way. It is a huge game. This is the best team in the country, to me, in the last three years.

“I do not think there is any question about that, and we are coming right out of the gate playing a team like that, so yeah, you find out where you are in the moment for sure. But you can’t let that moment define the rest of the season, even if you win it.”

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