Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart talk Clemson-Georgia matchup in Aflac Kickoff game

ATHENS — For the first time all year, really, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney talked about their teams’ matchup in the Aflac Kickoff game.

The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs and No. 14 Clemson will face off at noon Aug. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the season opener for both teams. It was pronounced a sellout Thursday.

That it will match a pair of top-15 teams in the first full week of the 2024 college football season was a boon for organizers.

“It definitely helps you guys,” Smart said in a video conference-call interview Friday. “I know you want to have the best possible matchup you could have, and I know the title sponsor Aflac loves it. You guys do a great job of making sure this is a great event. But there’s nothing better than having two top-10 teams teeing off against each other to kick it off.”

Well, “top-10 matchup” might be stretching the truth a little. Earlier this week, Clemson did receive No. 8 distinction in something called the “USA Today Sports NCAA Re-rank,” in which all 134 FBS teams are given a ranking. But the Tigers, in their 17th season under Swinney’s leadership, were assigned a No. 14 ranking in the media and coaches preseason polls.

Of course, neither of those rankings truly matter. Only the College Football Playoff rankings, which won’t be begin until November, truly matter in the age of what this year expands to a 12-team postseason tournament. By any measure, both Georgia and Clemson are expected to field teams that will be part of that conversation.

What happens a week from Saturday will have at least some bearing on those rankings. The reality is, neither program can be certain what kind of team they’ll have until the games begin.

This first one should deliver some answers.

“There’s people that like to make projections and things like that,” Swinney said. “But in my experience, we’ve been unranked and won the league, we’ve been ranked 12th and went all the way to the national championship and we’ve been ranked high and didn’t finish well. So, it’s fun conversation and creates buzz about the upcoming season. But in college football, it’s all about where you are in November and December.”

Both coaches were making similar statements when they last met in a kickoff game. Clemson was a slight favorite and ranked No. 3 when it prepared to face No. 5 Georgia in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the Dukes’ Mayo Kickoff Classic on Sept. 4, 2021. Georgia won that game 10-3 and went on to secure the CFP championship. The Tigers finished 10-3 and missed the ACC Championship game for the first time since 2014.

Retrospectively, that 2021 game represented somewhat of a fork in the road for both programs. The Bulldogs have won two national championships and 42 of their past 44 games since that meeting. The Tigers, who won national titles in 2016 and 2018, are 20-7 the past two seasons.

With an expanded playoff, kickoff games certainly are less about postseason pursuits now. But they’re still about getting teams ready for the season and finding out what they’re made of.

And in the case of Georgia and Clemson – the rivalry. With on-campus stadiums located about 75 miles apart, these teams once played each other every year, particularly in the 1970s and ‘80s. Overall, they’ve met on the gridiron 65 times. The Bulldogs lead the series 43-18-4 and have won seven of the past eight meetings.

“You’ve still got two perennial powers facing off against each other,” Smart said. “They’re big-time rivals with both schools being so close to each other. That’s pretty cool.”

Georgia has been holding as a two-touchdown favorite — the average lines Friday had the Bulldogs favored by 13.5 points — pretty much all summer.

“It’s always exciting to get to that first game,” Swinney said. “Then you throw in the fact that you’re playing in a kickoff classic at a neutral site in a great venue like Mercedes-Benz and – oh, by the way – you’re playing the No. 1 team in the nation – you better believe that adds a little spice to it for everybody.”

For both teams, the true value – besides a $5 million check – comes in the motivation it provides to prepare with great focus during the offseason. Last year, the Bulldogs’ first two contests were home games against Tennessee-Martin and Ball State. Clemson opened against Duke last season, but then had Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic in back-to-back weeks.

There’s a different vibe when the opener features teams that have won four of the past eight national championships.

“The build-up in your offseason program, there’s truth to that,” Smart said. “We’ve had signs sitting in our locker room and our weight room with how many days it is to kickoff. Not only do you get to count it down, it’s Clemson. And that catches peoples’ eyes and gives us a little extra adrenalin rush for each and every practice and lift we have.”

Said Swinney: “It’s a big TV event. … It’s Clemson-Georgia, 80 miles apart with a lot of history and tradition, you best believe people are going to tune in to watch this one. It’s great for college football. Great stage, big-time matchup. Whoever wins will create a lot of early momentum in their season.”

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