Just three weeks and change now until Georgia and Clemson play their titanic season opener in Charlotte. The wait is interminable, like that for the next new “Walking Dead” season – so long a break that we lose touch with all that has come before.
Seem to remember something about the Bulldogs playing Cincinnati in a bowl game, but wait, that can’t be right.
Anyway, I think we all can agree that this one game Sept. 4 is a climate-changing event, very likely determining the shape of the 2021 college season and possibly the very nature of existence.
All except the dull pragmatists among us.
“It’s a long season. The winner of the game is 1-0. You go lose the next week, they’ll forget about that quick. It’s a huge game that both teams want to win, but you’re just 1-0 or 0-1, however it is, and you got a long way to go. When the game’s over, you set your eyes on what’s next.
“I don’t think anybody’s season is defined by the opener.”
That was Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, speaking a couple of weeks back at the ACC football media gathering. Granted, he knows something about big games and the arc of championship seasons. So, well, I will put down the bullhorn and wean myself off exclamation points and proceed.
At the ACC get-together there was the chance to look at this estimable contest through more of an orange filter. A chance to see it from the other side. And the other side is, by the way, formidable. But then, you suspected as much.
True, all five Clemson players taken in the 2021 NFL draft came from the offense. The Tigers were a Jaguars feeder school – providing that faceless franchise with overall No. 1 Trevor Lawrence (QB) and No. 25 Travis Etienne (RB). Imagine that stirring recruiting pitch: “Come to Clemson – Get a Job in Jacksonville.”
Losses? What losses? That’s the official line from Clemson.
“It’s like being at a really good high school, every year you lose somebody and reload,” said Lawrence’s successor at quarterback and new Dr Pepper pitch man, DJ Uiagalelei.
“We weren’t where we needed to be on the offensive line, depth-wise. We have transformed there,” Swinney said. “This is the best group of tight ends we’ve had since I’ve been there (that goes back to 2007). Our running back (meeting) room, even though we have a couple guys who haven’t done it yet, it’s going to be a special group.”
“We’re a little more balanced and consistent across the board. And hopefully healthy across the board,” added Swinney, whose receivers were blighted by injury last season.
It all starts with the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Uiagalelei, an understudy to Lawrence last year called up to start against Boston College and Notre Dame with the famous starter out with COVID-19. He acquitted himself well, but now, can he do it against non-denominational competition, against another California-cool quarterback – Georgia’s JT Daniels – on the biggest stage he has yet to trod?
Let Uiagalelei tell you what he thinks about the stress of Sept. 4 vs. Georgia: “I really don’t feel pressure, I kind of treat it like a regular game. Football is football for me. Putting food on the table, keeping a roof over your head if you’re a parent, that’s pressure. Football to me is nothing. It’s something I love to do.”
The coach is not lacking in confidence about his quarterback either.
Said Swinney of his vowel-soup quarterback: “He has a great passion for the game. He has incredible focus. He has a great will to win. He has a great will to prepare. He has an unbelievable football IQ, great poise, great demeanor, an excellent leader. He has a great grace and humility to him that you love at that position.
“All that goes on top of beautiful arm talent and athleticism.”
No, Clemson is not exactly trembling at Georgia’s approach. For the Tigers, Charlotte’s like a home game anyway – it’s where they go every year to go through the motions and pick up another ACC championship.
The Tigers closed out the COVID-confused 2020 season with a dud, a 49-28 loss to Ohio State in their College Football Playoff semifinal. One in which, “we got our ass kicked,” so said linebacker James Skalski. Skalski didn’t finish that game, tossed after a brutal targeting shot on Justin Fields. That makes him the official spokesman, I guess, for Clemson’s desire to re-establish a certain edge on defense.
“Georgia’s reputation with Kirby Smart is we’re going to punch you in the mouth. That’s how football should be played,” Skalski said. “Thank God we’re playing a team like that because I love that. We got to prove we can throw some punches ourselves.”
No offense intended here, but Clemson’s opener hasn’t exactly been a meatgrinder the past four years: Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Furman, Kent State. The ol’ strength-of-schedule component goes up appreciably with its first game of 2021. And the Tigers are filled with anticipation, too.
“It tests your oil right up front,” guard Matt Bockhorst said. “Sometimes you can go early on in a season and get a false sense of security about how good you are. If you play a team like Georgia up front, you’re going to get a good idea.”
So, no, not a season-defining game. But certainly a season-indicating game. That’s still enough to angry up the blood.
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