By Rock Westfall
Georgia fans are basking in the glory of losing only two games in the past three seasons with the 2021 and 2022 national championships. Now, Georgia is expected to have the best chance of forming a new College Football Dynasty following Alabama coach Nick Saban ’s retirement.
The Clemson Tigers were once a regular College Football Playoff program that played in four national championship games from 2015 through 2019, winning two. But since the emergence of NIL and the transfer portal , the Tigers are down a notch. Still, Clemson is only one season removed from being a double-digit win program from 2011 through 2022.
The Colorado Buffaloes are in a completely different class than recent powerhouses such as Georgia and Clemson. The Colorado program is not based on the traditional recruiting and development that Clemson and Georgia have employed. Nor are the Buffs a historic blueblood program.
Instead, Colorado is a personality program led by the magnetic presence of head coach Deion Sanders . So far, Colorado seems to be a program with elite marketing of a seriously flawed product. Yet the Buffs have sold out Folsom Field for the second consecutive season after decades of fan apathy.
With that in mind, let’s examine which group of fans have it better or worse at these three prominent schools.
Selling Their Souls for Glory
Despite tremendous on-field success, the Georgia Bulldogs have developed a terrible off-field reputation, which I have chronicled here several times. Georgia players have been going Fast and Furious on the streets with a plethora of traffic violations that have resulted in the loss of life as part of its culture. Additionally, its graduation rates have become an abysmal abomination.
Recently, Rara Thomas was arrested for a felony count of child cruelty and two battery counts. Head coach Kirby Smart , who has been ripped as being soft on the crimes of his players, finally lowered the boom and released Thomas . Time will tell if the message was finally received.
Most disturbing is Georgia fans are accomplices to the UGA crime wave and win-at-all-costs culture. They are quick to defend the indefensible and are fine with tolerating a renegade program if it continues to produce wins. Nothing else matters. Winning at all costs “Just Means More,” everything and everyone else be damned.
Georgia always had a high opinion of itself, yet won only two national championships (1942 and 1980) before its recent success. Last year, Georgia imploded in the SEC championship game against Alabama, blowing its shot at three straight nattys.
The loss to Bama was indicative of how difficult it is to win the SEC and national titles, but it could also be a portent of what is ahead for the Bulldogs. Georgia's self-implosion against the Crimson Tide was sloppy, unfocused, and undisciplined, reflecting its off-field problems.
Smart is indeed the nation’s top recruiter. However too many of his players have not been good citizens. But it is also true that Georgia fans, like the Alabama fans during Saban’s dynasty, are not happy unless they win the national championship.
Georgia is now a transactional program with only one purpose. And its fan base is fine with cracking a few eggs to get to the top—at least, perhaps, until they lose a loved one in the process. Yet, one wonders if that would even matter.
A Throwback Program of Character
College Football fans looking for a program that boasts pride in education, citizenship, and good football would find Clemson to be a perfect fit. Head coach Dabo Swinney is all about a Dabo World culture that offers players brotherhood and a complete college experience that ends with a college degree and perhaps the NFL. Rare is the time you see Clemson players on the police blotter. Its impressive graduation rates combined with gridiron success are illustrative of what is right about the sport and should shame Georgia.
While Dabo does not use the portal and is not an NIL enthusiast, he has built a program that Clemson fans take fierce pride in and enjoy. There is also the sense that Clemson is poised for a rebound year in 2024. Dabo recruits quality players who excel on and off the field. That is something Clemson appreciates in a way Georgia fans do not.
Gameday on the Clemson Campus is hard to beat. It offers plenty of fun, fellowship, ritual, and everything that college football used to be about. Clemson fans have it good and may have it better in the season ahead.
Clemson stands a strong chance of upsetting Georgia in Week 1 in Atlanta. The Dabo World culture is superior to Georgia’s Fast and Furious way of life, and Clemson is not lacking in quality players. Conventional “wisdom” gives Clemson no chance against UGA, and that is another reason why Clemson may pull off the shocker to open the 2024 campaign.
A Time Share of Hot Air
Deion Sanders was a brilliant business hire by Colorado. Sanders has sold out Folsom Field in his two years, something that was not achieved in Colorado’s glory years of the late 1980s and early 1990s. But the entire program is a house of cards .
Last year, Colorado collapsed down the stretch after a promising start. They were outed as thin, soft, and defenseless. Deion’s son, Shedeur , was battered and bruised toward the end of the campaign with no support from a patchwork offensive line.
Coach Prime refuses to leave the luxury of home to hit the recruiting trails. Instead, his program is portal-driven. Thus, there is not the chemistry of other programs that don’t have a revolving door roster of castoff players. In particular, offensive line play requires a long time to develop. Thus, Shedeur, a senior, will be beaten down again or protected by his dad for the NFL Draft .
Colorado’s mercenary culture revolves around the Sanders Family business. Deion excused his sons Shilo and Shedeur from the first team meeting of the winter conditioning for a Louis Vuitton photo shoot in Paris.
Football players notice everything, especially favoritism and two sets of rules. CU players are quick to discover they are nothing more than hired help for the Sanders family enterprise. Thus, it is no surprise that Colorado has seen at least 41 players transfer out since the end of last season. Such a culture is unsustainable. There is no there, there.
Only those who believe in Santa Claus believe Coach Prime is in Boulder for the long run. Prime and CU are on the equivalent of a one-night stand. There is no blueprint for a viable long-term vision.
Colorado “fans” didn’t care for the program until Prime arrived. Since then, many CU supporters have been outed as late-arriving imports from foreign sports lands who previously did not know of Colorado football.
Sanders created a cult of celebrities and those who worship them. The CU fan base is more into the NBA and pop culture than college football. They are there for Sanders's brand and image, not for the sport or the University of Colorado. The CU administration puts up with this mirage because it is getting them out of debt. To put it another way, the CU leadership has sold its soul to Deion Sanders.
Folsom Field should have plenty of good tickets available in 2025, following a Prime departure to the next pot of gold. This marriage of convenience will soon end, as will the fan support, immediately when the divorce is final.
The Colorado Buffaloes are counterfeit in every way. Its fans are the incomprehensible and willing blind who are living a lie they refuse to confront.
These days, it's great to be a Clemson Tiger.
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