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How big is the Clemson Tigers’ contest against the Georgia Bulldogs to open the 2024 college football season? Big enough that 247Sports ranked it as the top non-conference game on the 2024 schedule.
In his list of the “top 10 college football rivalry games that will define the 2024 season,” 247Sports’ Grant Hughes ranks Clemson-Georgia ahead of the Tigers’ annual matchup with Florida State, scheduled for October 5 in Tallahassee.
Clemson will be heavy underdogs when it heads to Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium to face a Georgia team that has been a consensus No. 1 or No. 2 in various way-too-early/post-spring Top 25 rankings. The Bulldogs went 12-0 in the regular season last year in their bid to become college football’s first three-peat national champion since Minnesota in 1934-36.
Georgia fell to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, 27-24, sending the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff in Nick Saban’s final season. The Bulldogs settled for the Orange Bowl, where they soundly defeated ACC champion Florida State, 63-3.
Kirby Smart’s team returns key starters this season in quarterback Carson Beck, receiver Dillon Bell, defensive back Malaki Starks, EDGE Mykel Williams and others.
Per Hughes:
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta is the setting for another exciting Week 1 matchup between the ACC and SEC. The Tigers are looking to re-establish themselves as national powers, and who better to do it against than Kirby Smart and Co.? The Bulldogs lost 20 players to the transfer portal this offseason and have a lot of roster shuffling to do before Week 1.
For Clemson, the Tigers suffered four losses for the first time since 2011 after getting off to a dismal 4-4 start last season. They rallied to win their final five games — including a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback against Kentucky in the Gator…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/clemson-vs-georgia-247sports-top-174312355.html
Author : Clemson Wire
Publish date : 2024-06-20 17:43:12
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