Playing Georgia Brings an Edge to Clemson

CLEMSON — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney did not sugarcoat things when he was asked about playing top-ranked Georgia to open the 2024 football season.

“It just brings an edge that is just natural,” he said Monday on the ACCN’s Road Trip Show .

Swinney admits that playing the Bulldogs presents a different feel in the locker room compared to other season openers.

“There is only one team that gets to play the number one team,” he said.

Clemson, which is ranked No. 14, will play the Bulldogs on Aug. 31 (Noon/ABC) in the AFLAC Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

“They are truly the number one team. They have been the best team, I think, the past three years,” Swinney said. “I think they have earned that.”

It also helps that Clemson and Georgia are rivals. Though Clemson opened the last two seasons against ACC foes Georgia Tech and Duke, the rivalry with Georgia, and considering both programs have played for and won multiple national championships, is different.

Clemson and Georgia compete for a lot of the same players on the recruiting trail. Their campuses are about seventy miles apart and just a 90-minute drive. It’s one of the more natural rivalries in all of college football.

Though Georgia has won seven of the last eight meetings in the series, the games have generally been fairly close. Since 1977, 13 of the last 20 meetings have been decided by a touchdown or less, including a 16-16 tie in 1983.

“When you play an opponent like that right out of the gate, it just brings a different edge to your off-season, to your summer and to your fall camp,” Swinney said. “I think that is just human nature.”

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.