Georgia and Kirby Smart Stake Claim as the New Kings of College Football

ATLANTA—Nick Saban retired during the offseason. You may have heard about it. His departure, coupled with Jim Harbaugh fleeing to the NFL, leaves college football with just three active head coaches who have won national championships. Two of them—the only two who have won more than one title—faced off here Saturday.

The result underscored who is the new king of the sport. It’s two-time champion Kirby Smart, and it’s not close. The coach of the Georgia Bulldogs won his 40th straight regular-season game, routing the Clemson Tigers, 34–3, in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And his two-time champion counterpart, Dabo Swinney, looks more like a has-been than ever.

The latest iteration of the Georgia beast is much like its predecessors. The Bulldogs have dudes all over the field, a never-ending supply of dominators and playmakers just waiting for their chance to show what they can do. Nine Dogs caught passes from quarterback Carson Beck against Clemson, and 22 others made tackles. 

Star transfer running back Trevor Etienne, who came in from the Florida Gatos, didn’t play after an offseason DUI. Touted freshman Nate Frazier racked up 83 yards on 11 carries in his first college football game. Linebacker Jalon Walker, who was 11th on the team in tackles last season, was unblockable for a long stretch of the second half, racking up 1 ½ tackles for loss and 1 ½ sacks. Beck was a known commodity, but he showcased a full arsenal of talent in making a variety of throws and some timely runs.

The Bulldogs hit. They covered. They executed. They dominated.

The contrast between a very current Kirby and an outdated Dabo is jarring. Swinney has played Smart twice and is yet to score a touchdown. A guy who stood toe-to-toe with Saban for many years is lying at Smart’s feet. This was Swinney’s worst loss since 2013, before he elevated Clemson to elite status.

Swinney famously took zero transfers in the offseason, continuing his noble but anachronistic approach of building his team through high-school recruiting and internal player development. He’s also now lost three of his last four season openers, and 11 of his last 41 games after going 79–7 the previous six seasons. It’s getting away from him.

There was little to no room to explain away this beatdown, so Swinney didn’t even bother. “Tyler from Spartanburg” might well be on Line One for Swinney’s next radio show, ready to fire away again.

“You get beat like this, it’s on the head coach,” he said. “That’s on me. … When you lose like this, [the critics] have got every right to say what they want to say.”

Acknowledging that Georgia’s defense is a monster, Clemson still has to be able to do better than this offensively. The Tigers generated one play longer than 19 yards and averaged just 3.6 yards per play. 

The Tigers have become a place where hotshots go to flounder on that side of the ball, with continual offseason talk about improvement that doesn’t really happen.

Coordinator Garrett Riley, USC Trojans head coach Lincoln’s brother, was swiped from TCU at $1.75 million a year after the Horned Frogs made the College Football Playoff championship game in 2022. Riley’s last TCU offense averaged 38.8 points and 455 yards per game; last season at Clemson, Riley’s unit put up 29.8 points and 402.7 yards. Now this season’s team has slogged to 188 yards and three points, the lowest totals yet for Clemson under Riley.

Cade Klubnik was a five-star quarterback recruit—as was DJ Uiagalelei before him. Klubnik was a pedestrian first-year starter in 2023, recording a 126.35 pass efficiency rating that ranked 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference. His efficiency rating against Georgia on Saturday: 96.30. But this offensive horror show was a team effort: Klubnik’s receivers didn’t help him out early with some dropped passes, and there were a couple of crucial penalties. 

Swinney did stick up for Klubnik, saying he thought the quarterback played well. And, characteristically, the coach voiced confidence about the season ahead.

“I feel great about our team,” Swinney said. “A loss is a loss; I hate to lose. So it hurts. This one will leave a mark. This will be one I won’t forget.

“They didn’t hand out a national championship trophy tonight. We didn’t lose the ACC tonight.”

Indeed, the ACC is a bit of an early mess. Reigning champion Florida State was beaten by Georgia Tech last week. Trendy pick Virginia Tech was upset by perennial Southeastern Conference doormat Vanderbilt on Saturday. And the once-mighty Tigers were embarrassed in Atlanta.

Smart was asked after the game about the transfer portal in relation to Clemson. Smart hasn’t been a huge portal dabbler himself, choosing to simply fill a few gaps when they appear. But he acknowledges the need for it.

“If you give me every kid I sign, they stay at my program for four years and they can’t leave, I would take that every day of the week,” he said. “But if we’re going to lose kids, we’ve got to replace them. … It’s a forced situation. You have to use it.”

Swinney has been a self-made success in part due to his stubborn belief in himself and in how he builds a program. He was successful for long enough with that approach that it’s become difficult to get him to accept a need to make radical changes. Starting 4–4 last season led to the “Tyler from Spartanburg” moment and a greater level of criticism than Swinney has endured in more than a decade—but then Clemson regrouped and won its last five games, and Swinney could claim his approach is still viable.

The same thing could happen here. Losing to Georgia is no great shame—although the margin was brutal. Season-opening losses are less costly than ever with the expanded playoff looming. There is an entire season ahead.

But the days of Clemson being able to measure up with the very best programs in the country are fading like a Trevor Lawrence jersey left out in the sun. This was a yardstick game for the two most accomplished active coaches in college football, and it was an absolute beatdown of Dabo Swinney by Kirby Smart.