The top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs will take on the 14th ranked Clemson Tigers at noon E.T. this Saturday, August 31, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Bulldogs are coming off of a 13-1 season that saw them win the Orange Bowl and come up just short of a College Football Playoff spot, while the Tigers are following up a 9-4 campaign that saw them rebound from a poor start to the season with five straight wins.
The Bulldogs are a -13.5 point favorite over the Tigers per BetMGM, with the over/under set at 48.5. Here are five reasons that Clemson could cover that spread or outright win against the Bulldogs on Saturday.
Strong lines of scrimmage
Though Georgia’s lines of scrimmage are notably strong, Clemson returns four of five starters along the offensive line from a year ago, including third team All-ACC selection Blake Miller at right tackle. The Tigers were sixth in the ACC rushing offense a year ago and Dabo Swinney brought in former Bulldogs offensive line coach Matt Luke to further bolster the offensive line in the offseason.
On the defensive side, the Tigers do have to replace Xavier Thomas, Tyler Davis, and Ruke Orhorhoro, but have plenty of young players poised to do so. T.J. Parker was an All-ACC honorable mention a year ago after racking up 5.5 sacks, and interior lineman DeMonte Capehart returns after recording 15 tackles, two sacks, and a forced fumble in 2023. Peter Woods is expected to start opposite Parker along the line, and is a former top 100 recruit looking to improve on a freshman season in which he had 26 tackles for the Tigers in a rotational role. Vic Burley is also a former five-star looking to play a role along the line for Clemson in 2024.
Should the offensive line improve with another year of experience, and the young talent step up along the defensive line, Clemson could match up well pound-for-pound with the Bulldogs in the trenches.
Inexperienced Georgia secondary
The Bulldogs return a great deal of experience defensively, but suffered major losses in the secondary. Cornerback Kamari Lassiter, safety Javon Bullard, and STAR Tykee Smith all departed for the NFL after last season, leaving UGA seeking three new starters on the back end.
Malaki Starks returns at safety, but the spot opposite him could go to either senior safety Dan Jackson, who has some starting experience in the past, or true freshman K.J. Bolden, who is extremely talented but would be seeing his first game action against a top fifteen team in the country.
At corner, the Bulldogs are counting on Daylen Everette to improve on his work from a season ago, with the other spot being an ongoing battle between redshirt sophomore Julian Humphrey and sophomore Daniel Harris, neither of whom have started a game for the Bulldogs to this point.
Joenel Aguero seems poised to take over at STAR, yet another instance of a player with indisputable talent, but who lacks experience to back it up. These questions could set up the Bulldogs for an unpleasant surprise defensively and prime the Tigers for a major opportunity at the upset.
Improved receiving corps
If there is one position group that has held the Tigers back over the past three years, it has been wide receiver. However, that seems poised for a change heading into the 2024 season thanks in one part to returning experience and another part highly anticipated newcomers expected to bring a new dynamic at the position.
Tyler Brown returns after leading the Tigers with 52 receptions and 531 receiving yards a year ago. Brown was inconsistent at times but flexed his ability as a number one receiver, especially in the two-game stretch against Florida State and Syracuse where he had a combined 14 catches for 237 yards. Troy Stellato, Adam Randall, and Antonio Williams all return as well. Williams had a strong 2022 season where he led the Tigers in receiving yards before dealing with injury a season ago. Tight end Jake Briningstool will also be well-positioned to give the Bulldogs trouble, coming off of a third-team all-ACC season a year ago.
In terms of newcomers, Bryant Wesco Jr. has generated a lot of buzz in the lead up to the season for Clemson, and many believe he has a chance to be the top receiver for the Tigers immediately. Wesco was a four-star recruit in the class of 2024 and the 57th rated player nationally according to 247Sports. Five-star T.J. Moore is also anticipated to make an immediate impact in the receiver room for Clemson, and the pair is seen as providing potentially season-altering abilities for the Clemson offense.
The Bulldogs and their aforementioned secondary are tasked with being the first team to face this improved receiving corps, and could struggle to keep up if the newcomers live up to their potential.
Lack of running back availability for the Bulldogs
An unfamiliar sight for Bulldogs fans who have enjoyed over a decade of loaded tailback rooms, the 2024 running back room enters the season with depth concerns, especially for the opening game.
Head coach Kirby Smart has refused to provide clarity on starter Trevor Etienne’s status for the opening game, leaving it unknown whether Etienne will face any sort of suspension. Second string tailback Roderick Robinson had surgery this week for turf toe, leaving his status doubtful for the game.
This leaves Branson Robinson in line to start if Etienne and Roderick Robinson are not able to play. Branson Robinson ran for 330 yards on 68 carries with three touchdowns in 2022 for UGA, but missed all of last season with a ruptured patellar tendon, meaning this would be his first in-game action in over 19 months. Behind Robinson, junior Cash Jones, who ran for 161 yards a year ago, and four-star freshman Nate Frazier would be in line for playing time.
The Tigers could take advantage of the lack of experience at the running back position for Georgia and force the offense to become one dimensional, bringing on a more competitive matchup than anticipated.
Year 2 for Klubnik, Garrett Riley
The most likely reason for the Tigers to be able to pull off an upset rests on the playbook of Garrett Riley and the arm of Cade Klubnik.
Riley, the younger brother of Lincoln Riley, enters his second year as the offensive coordinator for the Tigers. The hiring of Riley created a great deal of buzz last offseason after he led one of the nation’s top offenses at TCU in 2022 on the way to a national title game appearance. Despite a generally disappointed response from Clemson fans, the Tigers finished with the ACC’s fifth ranked offense, and with a year to build chemistry with Klubnik and improvements to the receiver room, Riley could be well-positioned to lead a far stronger offensive output in 2024.
Klubnik enters his second year as the full-time starter for the Tigers, following a 2023 season where he passed for 2,844 yards, 19 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. Klubnik is a former five-star who despite having struggled at times has flashed a great deal of talent, including in strong performances against Florida State and Georgia Tech. Should he be able to put it all together, he has the talent to be the top signal caller in the ACC in 2024.
The combination of Klubnik and Riley could be the key to the whole season for the Tigers, starting with the opener against Georgia.
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