GEORGIA VS CLEMSON PREDICTION 2024

all right Georgia and Clemson kick things off this Saturday at noon uh week one of the 2024 college football season in one of what I think is really four sort of Marky games coming up this Saturday Georgia Clemson at noon also West Virginia hosting Penn State at 3:30 you've got Miami vers Florida and then the Prime Time game Notre Dame on the road at Texas A&M now there's a ton of great games outside of that in week one and no matter who your team is playing you're excited to watch him play with it being week one and you know for most people first opportunity to see your team play had a handful of teams play last week uh in week zero but in today's video we're going to talk about Georgia verse Clemson I'm going to try to break the game down on both sides uh give you a winner uh maybe a pick against the uh spread for you gambling degenerates uh out there but good morning it's Uncle Lou here that's right it is me Uncle Lou live on lbe for you thanks for watching I really appreciate it also and too in addition to that as well make sure you're subscribed to the channel we're just getting ready to kick the season off uh here I'm getting close to 70,000 subscribers help me get there hit the thumbs up share this video out leave a comment down below let me know your pick for this game Georgia verse Clemson Georgia a 13 and a half Point favorite uh Georgia uh and Clemson have really been going opposite direction since the last time they played these two teams kicked off the 2021 season a neutral sight game in Charlotte uh this game is being played uh in Atlanta sort of the return favor from that game or sort of the the you know round two of that uh neutral site series and look Clemson was the second best program in America from 2015 to 2020 they won two national titles they beat Bama a handful of times they I mean they were unbelievable won to ACC every single year for a bunch of years in a row and then 2021 came around and while it wasn't a great game especially offensively for either team back in that one 2021 Georgia end up winning 10 to3 zero offensive touchdowns in that game the only touchdown uh scored was a defensive touchdown by Georgia on a pick six so a defensive uh battle but since that game has been played these two teams Georgia and Clemson have gone in completely opposite directions Clemson has gotten worse every single year since that loss in terms of number of losses you know two losses three losses three losses again four losses uh last year Georgia on the other hand since that win over Clemson in week one of 2021 of course has won two national championships and has not lost a regular season game uh in three straight seasons in fact the only team to beat Georgia at all in the last three seasons is Alabama in the postseason uh the the uh twice in the SEC uh twice in the SEC uh Championship once in 2021 once last season in 2023 Clemson has struggled offensively over the last three or four years there's a handful of reasons you might point to as to why that's the case obviously they have not had the quarterback play that they had in the late 201s when they went on really a remarkable run with you know deshun Watson and and even Kelly Bryant had the one good year before then getting replaced by maybe the best of them all uh Trevor Lawrence and clearly they have not they've not had a quarterback at that level since then now that in and of itself shouldn't really be that surprising those were two all-time great quarterbacks and you know they had DJ angay for a while we we all know that story you see what happened this last weekend now they're on to Cade Club Nick now these are five-star quarterbacks I mean Clemson was getting their pick of the litter when it came to quarterbacks um really over the last 10 years and some of them have worked out some of them have not but to have two in a row now really that have not worked out at least last season with Club Nick we'll talk about maybe what that means for this year but that's sort of an obvious thing when you look at Clemson you go well they don't have the quarterbacks but really goes beyond that um the wide receiver group as a whole is really down at Clemson compared to what it was in sort of those Glory years right the T Higgins the Justin Ross the Sammy Watkins the DeAndre Hopkins they haven't had anything really close to that in the last three or four years now they again they have recruited really well at the wide receiver position they seem to get a five-star every cycle at the wide receiver position but for whatever reason they haven't really hit on one at least not like they were uh in those late late 201 years last year they had a lot of injuries at the wide receiver position so they've got a lot of like you know first second and third year players this year that have a ton of potential a ton of talent we highly recruited and rated coming out of high school and have yet to really do anything on on the college level so the talent is there we'll see if they can get the production to match the talent this year a lot of that is going to depend on cab kugn and how big of a leap or a jump he's uh able to take from last year year one as a starter uh to this year year two he had several s last year sacks were a big problem last year now part of that goes to the offensive line which is another area where if you look at Clemson over the last decade the offensive line is just substandard now to be fair to Clemson even when they were sort of dominating and winning all those games in the late 2010s I I think even Clemson fans would agree like offensive line was never their strongest unit not that it was bad but but if you were if you were if you were looking at Clemson in in the late 20s for example and you looked at all the offens position groups wide receiver running back quarterback offensive line you tried to say you know which which of these is the least talented it it was offensive line even back then but but it seems to have gotten uh it seems to have gotten worse over the last uh couple of years now defensively for Clemson they've managed to continue to perform at a high level even after losing um a great defensive coordinator in Brent vinales who of course now is the head coach uh out at Oklahoma that defense has continued to to roll on they've had a top 10 defense almost every single year really for a decade now and it's not showing any signs of slowing down again you can point to the defense maybe in a given year and say well the the the secondary wasn't as good this year as it was back in whatever year or whatever but I don't think at any point over the last even four or five years where Clemson has been losing more games every single year than the year before there's never really been a year where you could point to Clemson's defense at at any of the three levels defensive line linebacker secondary and and and really go that's bad like the secondary is bad or the linebackers are bad or whatever again maybe a year or two where they weren't as good as a previous year or something but Clemson's defense has been really good on all three levels really for a long time um maybe maybe the secondary again if you want to do the uh you know rate the position group things is the secondary as good or as talented as their front seven probably not but by no means what I consider Clemson to have a bad um a bad secondary and then the other issue of course with Clemson and every body has beat this into the ground I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it is the decisions from a sort of philosophical standpoint that dbos swiny has made regarding his program and its use of nil on the transfer portal and when I talk about nil it's not that Clemson is not using it but um and I hear this from Clemson fans so if I'm wrong you take it up with them but they're using nil more as a way to keep existing players from entering the portal more so than maybe a recruiting tool out of high school and you know look a lot of coaches are kind of struggling with how to balance that that right you don't want to lose your good players to the portal but you also have to continue to recruit at a high level how do you balance that nil deal but the transfer portal in particular I think has really hurt Clemson over the last couple of years just their refusal to use it and again it's a philosophical it's a PR a principled stand that Dao has taken and I'm not here to say that he's making the right or wrong decision um from a uh from a philosophical standpoint or or if that's his principles he should just toss his principles side I mean you know if this is the hill he wants to die on I then you I'm not saying that's wrong of him to do but I do think that it is costing Clemson in terms of its ability to keep up with some of the top tier teams from the talent perspective and and obviously I'm not talking about somebody like Colorado or really even Florida State who I think rely a little bit too heavily on the portal now in Colorado's case it's almost 100% portal almost 0% High School recruiting so that's an obvious outlier but even at a place like Florida State I in my opinion it's weighted a little bit too much towards the transfer portal now when that hits um you know when you bring in four or five guys that you're hoping can be really good and immediate contributors and all of them are and all of them play at a high level you can have a great pop year like Florida state did last year by bringing in players like Keon Coleman like Jim Bell players that were able to play play well and contribute immediately at a very high level the risk you run is that the players you bring in are not going to work out they're not going to fit in um that it detracts from sort of the the the the overall chemistry or or teamwork that has gone into building that team over a number of years and then you're sort of just inserting a handful of new players in there so it's a risk either way it worked for Florida State last year it it appears early in the season not to have worked for Florida State this year with djal just not looking good at all some of the other pieces they brought in not showing up Marvin Jones Jr where was he Saturday but if you look at Clemson and even if you're a Clemson fan and and and you hate me or you hate Georgia or or or you're you're you know you think dbo can do no wrong it's hard to deny like if you look at Clemson even just last year as an example and we'll go back to the Florida state thing they bring in Keon Coleman he ended up being one of the best wide receivers in the country do you think Clemson would have been better last year if had Keon Coleman yeah and you're going to say well there's no guarantee we would have got him maybe he wanted to go to Florida State I agree but that's not the point the point is that there are players in the portal every single year especially now who could improve Clemson immediately I don't think anybody is suggesting that dbo should go out and get 15 or 20 players from the portal a year you know but even the teams that recruit at a ridiculously high level year in and year out of which Clemson is not won by by the way they tend to recruit in the 10 to 15 range which is really really good and we we saw them win a couple of national titles while recruiting in the 10 to 15 range the problem is the teams that are consistently out recruiting Clemson on a high school level your georgas your bamas your Ohio States your michigans you're whoever go on down the list right not only are those teams now out recruiting Clemson at the high school level they're also utilizing the portal to improve what is already a top five top six roster in all the college football you look at Ohio State bringing in Caleb DS through the transfer portal and All American Safety bringing in quinon junkins at running back a guy who broke 40y old records that were set by Hershel Walker right uh bringing in quarterbacks something like four to last five Heisman winners have been transfer um players do you think Clemson would have been better with some potential transfer quarterback and K CL I mean I don't again it's not about any one particular player that Clemson has that that should be replaced through the portal or any one particular player in the portal that Clemson should have brought in it's the overall idea that could Clemson have been improved with maybe one offensive an offensive lineman or two out of the portal maybe one wide receiver and maybe One DB or something you're talking three four players maybe right to to make a huge difference over the course of a season for a team like Clemson so the combination of those things right missing on some highlevel quarterbacks the wide receiver production just not being where Clemson is used to seeing it and a Flatout refusal to use the portal I think those things have combined to sort of lead Clemson One Direction since Georgia and Clemson played opening week of 2021 and Lead Georgia another direction of course Georgia has won two national titles since they played Clemson week one of 2021 they have not lost a single regular season game since they played Clemson in 20 uh uh uh uh 21 they they they've just been on a remarkable run it's pretty clear if you study Clemson and Georgia from 2021 till now you see two teams headed in opposite directions none of that in of itself means Georgia is is going to beat Clemson or isn't or anything it's just something to consider when you're looking at this matchup you can kind of draw a line from that sort of 2021 matchup with Clemson and Georgia and and those two lines would be going in opposite direction I just think it's an interesting distinction to point out heading into this game now Georgia and Clemson while not considered a traditional rival in the true sense of the word right Clemson would consider somebody like uh South Carolina to be a rival whereas Georgia you would look at Georgia Tech or Florida or maybe Auburn these are two teams that do have a long history of playing one another they do not play each other as much in today's age of college football as maybe they did it back in the 80s but they tend to play about twice every 10 years right they played twice in the 2000s they played twice in the 2010s this will be their second time now playing in the 2020s and they've got several more games scheduled down the road both neutral site and a home and Home Series so it appears as though this Clemson Georgia matchup is is going to remain intact let's hope it does anyway with sort of you know the never- ending conference expansions and teams changing conferences and and and expanding playoffs and all these different kind of things some of these future schedules are a little bit up in the air but most Georgia and Clemson fans that I know enjoy seeing this game played they like this series they definitely wouldn't want to see it go away on on any type of permanent um basis I think playing a couple of times every 10 years is is is uh sort of a good mix there for Georgia and Clemson in terms of uh in terms of scheduling so let's talk about Georgia offensively because there are some question marks about Georgia offensively heading into not only this season but particularly this game let's start with the sort of overarching questions for the season they lose two of their biggest Playmakers off of last year's team right and wide receiver lad mcon and of course all everything tight end uh Brock Bowers now BR Bowers in particular cannot be replaced period um not only does Georgia not have a tight end that's ready to step in and and can quote unquote just replace Brock Bowers I don't think there's a tight end in the country that Georgia could bring in that could replace Brock Bowers he was one of Georgia's all-time great players I I I believe 20 years from now people will look at BR Bowers in a similar way uh to hersel Walker I don't think he'll ever be quite on that level but in other words he's just a generational Talent at Georgia in terms of what he was able to do Oscar Delp is next in line at tight end now Georgia plays multiple tight ends at a time a lot of times they run a lot of two tight end sets and even when they're running one tight end sets they rotated Brock Bowers in and out with some other guys and Oscar Delp would have been georg's clear number two tight end each to the last two seasons and he's really really good had it not been for the fact that Brock Bowers was at Georgia for the last couple of years I I think Georgia fans and a lot of other people would be looking at Oscar Delp as one of the best tight ends maybe Georgia's hadn't a long time is he going to give you what Brock Bowers did no again Brock Bowers was a very special player that's likely never to be uh duplicated or or replicated at ugj but Oscar Delp is more than capable as are the couple of guys behind him now lad makoni that's a little bit of a more difficult question to answer for a variety of reasons lad makon is not your prototypical uh wide receiver one or or or leading wide receiver really on most teams right he's an undersized sort of quick um you know uh slot receiver right he's not 6'2 63 four he's not an outside guy he's not running into the end zone and catching jump balls and things like that now georg's got a lot of wide receivers that fit the mold of a lad makoni you know in other words sort of a little bit undersized but really quick really fast really good hands can run good routes that kind of thing um typical slot receivers right you think about like Dylan Bell who had a really good year last year Dominic love it who also had a really good year last year Dominic love it by the way a transfer that Georgia picked up two cycles ago um from Missouri these are two guys with a ton of experience they had a ton of catches last year they had a ton of yards last year or either one of them individually as overall talented as lad makoni ended up being probably not but combined I definitely think I think you're going to get more from actually from those two combined from just a stats perspective than what you got from just a makoni the outside wide receiver positions is really where Georg is going to have to answer some questions this year they were you know the plan was kind of rely on ra another transfer from a couple of years ago out of Mississippi State well he's been kicked off the team um what 3 weeks ago I guess now so you're kind of going with Plan B there uh maybe it's jacobe young the the kid they brought in from Miami out of the transfer portal he's a big tall sort of prototypical outside wide receiver we'll see how quickly he can kind of acclimate to the Georgia offense I I think the bottom line really for Georgia wide receivers and most people notice because they remind me of it all the time very rarely does Georgia have some type of Min you know prototypical wide receiver one um sort of famously or infamously georg's only ever had one wide receiver go for a th yards in a season and that was over 20 years ago uh Terrence Edwards in 2002 you know AJ Green was really good in the late 2000s but he never had a th yards George Pickins was really really good he never had anywhere close to a thand yards um so for a long time Georgia has sort of looked at their wide receivers as a group you you know what sort of production can Georgia get from this group of wide receivers as opposed to okay we've got this star ex receiver how do we get him the ball that's never really been Georgia's philosophy at wide receiver even pre-dating Kirby Smart it's it's always been more of a uh you hear the term running back by committee like all the time you rarely hear the term wide receiver by committee but that's really what Georgia has been for the majority of my lifetime um really even the last couple of years where lad makoni maybe you would have considered Georgia's best wide receiver he never got anywhere close to a, yards the Georgia has always done a really good job for better or worse of spreading the ball around Georgia's going to have you know probably six or seven different wide receivers this year with between three and six or 700 yards receiving are they going to have a first round Draft pick on the outside that goes for a th000 yards no they never do but I do think georg's wide receivers are capable um of getting the job done they do need to answer the question of sort of you know who's your kind of outside sort of over-the-top jump ball in the end zone type of guy we'll see who that ends up being the offensive line is going to be one of the best in the country they get a ton back from last year this is going to be probably the best matchup of the game between Georgia and Clemson is going to be this offensive line of Georgia against the defensive front of Clemson which is clearly one of the best uh in America it was a great match match up last go round um a couple of years ago when we played and I expect it to be another great matchup uh again uh this season Georgia's running back situation another area where you're looking at some question marks here I'll get to the Travis etn thing in a second uh but let's start with uh the other guy uh rodri Robinson heading into the season a couple of weeks ago it looked like etn was going to be rb1 and rodri Robinson was going to be rb2 and then after that you had Branson Robinson a a true freshman Nate Frasier you've got a kid cash Jones who played a lot last year when people were injured maybe he ends up in the mix somewhere Dwight Phillips another true freshman that's more of a StraightLine speed guy that was sort of looking like how the running back rotation was going to go well Rodrick Robinson ended up having a half toe surgery he's out for a number of weeks we'll see it could be months uh and the etn situation is up in the air so that's technically Georgia's rb1 and rb2 now Georgia plays four or five running backs a game and they've done this for as long as I can remember really at least the last decade right you go back to 2017 when Georgia had both uh Sony Michelle and Nick chub on the same team two just alltime great college running backs um chub I think averaged 11 carries a game that Year Michelle averaged eight Georgia just rotates running backs in and out it's still going to hurt missing those two though um Branson Robinson who let's assume for a second etn doesn't play if you don't know etn was um arrested and charged with a DUI and a couple of other driving offenses earlier in the off season the DUI has been dropped um and and this is something you know I don't know I I I don't know if it turns out he wasn't DUI or if it was part of a plea negotiation that's probably what it was a plea negotiation so anyway the DUI was dropped he played guilty to I think reckless driving uh minor in possession of alcohol I believe might have been one of the other charges and he got basically you know community service pay a fine that kind of thing um and Kirby Smart has not answered one way or another yes he's going to be suspended no he's not going to be suspended if he is suspended will it be for the Clemson game or will it be for another game he just doesn't answer any of those questions and it's got nothing to do with this specific case in particular he's always been this way um I remember a game last year um I believe it was R Thomas now that I think about it but anyway um a the a game started last year and everybody's like where's r r Thomas I I think it was him and then he just never played and then at the end of the game when Kirby was asked about it and he was like yeah he he he had to sit out this game you know the whole whatever but team rules deal in other words Kirby doesn't ever announce these things ahead of time like if a player is suspended no one knows it really until the game starts and you're just like well I guess that guy's not playing um I I think he probably should be suspended nothing against him personally everybody's entitled to make a mistake and get a second chance and move on and all those kinds of things um but it's the overarching issue with Georgia involving all of these driving related charges over the last year and a half I feel like because there's just been so many of them now at this point that Kirby probably needs to take a more um aggressive and proactive approach in terms of punishment and I actually think it would do Kirby in the University a lot of good to just announce especially if if he is suspended to just say yeah look we're suspending him you know we're we're we're not playing games anymore with all these driving things if you can't do what you're supposed to do um off the football field then you're not going to get an opportunity to do what you want to do on the football like I think that would go a long way from a PR perspective if they would just like come out and say it but Kirby thinks everything's a nuclear secret when it comes to the world of college football no media is allowed it the practices he doesn't give injury reports he won't tell you what is wrong with a play or how long they're out if they're injured or when they're coming back he won't tell you if anybody's suspended he won't tell you who's starting he doesn't release depth charts the week before game like most teams do he just thinks everything's a top secret nuclear government secret um and so we won't know about etn but let's assume etn doesn't play okay well that georg's down their rb1 in theory in etn their rb2 in Roger Robinson who's out with the surgery and Branson Robinson would probably be the running back that gets the start now a really good run running back very highly talented highly rated and recruited out of high school but he's coming off of an injury too he hasn't played in almost two years um you know so you don't you know physically he's rehabbed and back to 100% but how is he going to handle that mentally coming back from an injury psych psychologically I who knows I I don't know behind him is a true freshman who was playing high school at this time last year not only that it was a true freshman who did not early enroll um Nate Frasier is who I'm talking about and he didn't early enroll so it's not like he's been at ug since January and now so you're going okay well he's been there eight months now no he's been there basically three months and it's looking like especially if etn can't play that he will be rb2 could this have any type of effect or impact on the game well it could it's hard to forecast that and know for sure right um Vegas doesn't think it's going to have an impact or an effect on the game one way or the other because the line has not moved one way or the other it's been at 13 and a half for a couple of weeks now and hasn't uh hasn't moved I think potentially the biggest problem for Georgia when it comes to the running back situation in this game and whether or not etn plays or not may not have anything to do with George's ability to run the ball uh but it could have a lot to do with passing Downs passing plays uh and things like that in other words do you want a true freshman in this case Nate Fraser who's been on the campus for three months standing next to Carson Beck in a shotgun on Third and nine having to pick up a blitzing All-American Clemson linebacker I don't think you do so what's going to end up happening is he's probably not going to be in the game in that spot you know who would etn uh etn would normally be that guy cuz etn can both catch run routes out of the back field that kind of thing and has also experienced enough and played enough major power five football you remember he came from Florida he's experienced enough to know okay this guy's coming on a blitz I got to stay in and pick him up and he and he's talented and good enough to be able to do that don't know about that with a true freshman like Nate Frasier Branson Robinson on the other hand is a big body he's the one you would want back there out of him and Frasier in terms of body size to stand in there and take on a blitzing uh uh linebacker or whatever the case but he's not going to be doing much catching and running out of the back field so if you have him in there on a third and eight chances are you're not throwing him the ball you know he's staying so anyway it may become somewhat of a of a disadvantage in that regard but I still trust George offensive line even against Clemson's uh defensive front to be able to open up some holes for talented running backs like Branson Robinson and Nate Frasier uh to be able to run the ball Clemson on the other hand offensively when they have the ball I don't trust Cade kumnick at all period is it possible he has flipped a switch from year one to year two yeah of course it is we've seen it happen before right but I'm a big I got to see it I can't have Blind Faith in a guy like Club Nick who I saw play terribly for the majority of last year an absolute turnover machine Clemson turned the ball over in every single game last year I've heard a lot of people talk about him sort of turning the corner Midway through last season cuz Clemson won I think five at our last six games or something like that um that's true but kumnick threw an interception in every one of those games he holds on to the ball too long even going back to the Bowl game and you can say what you about bowl games and how much they matter or don't matter nobody sat out nobody sat out um he was sacked eight times eight now I don't care how good the defense is that you're playing if you get sacked eight times you're holding onto the ball too long period what defense were they playing Kentucky so you make up your own mind about how Elite you think that Kentucky defense is particularly the front seven in terms of rushing the quarterback versus what Kade kumnick might see this Saturday against Georgia you can make your own determination um on that Clemson won that game uh 38 to 35 but eight sacks they turned the ball over George on the other hand beat that same Kentucky team by 40 points 50 something to 17 or whatever it whatever it it it was um so I don't I don't blindly trust Cade kumnick ability to sort of put Clemson on his shoulders and carry Clemson to a victory over over a top five ranked Georgia team number one in most polls um I have them at number two in mind they're in everyone's top three um I I don't trust Cade Kick's ability to do that again could he could some miraculous change have occurred in the offseason with Club Nick yes I've seen it happen before from year one to year two but I've got to see that before I can blindly believe it now you look at the wide receivers a lot of talent out there a lot of young inexperienced talent that has never done anything at the college level so again you're asking yourself the question is it possible that one or two of those highly rated wide receivers that that haven't played either because of injury or uh death chart or whatever and now are playing is it possible that one or two of those guys ends up being sort of uh Superstar playmaking type wide receivers yeah it it's always possible is it likely is is it likely that even if they are that Kade Kick's going to be able to get them the ball no I don't think so not in this game um it it seems like it's asking a lot of Kade kumnick to sort of drastic improvement 180 degrees type of turnaround from what he was doing last year immediately this season in game one against this particular defense that seems like a lot to ask it seems like a lot to ask these wide receivers who are either coming back from injury or who have never played before even though they're talented highly rated and recruited on it seems a lot to ask of them to go out there and show that and prove that game one against this Georgia defense and then you moveed to the offensive line it's gotten worse the last three or four years at Clemson now I love Matt Luke they brought Matt Luke in as an offensive line coach and I love Matt Luke he was at Georgia for a couple of years and then he retired I don't think we'll ever know the real story about that but he quote unquote retired at a very young age from Georgia took a year or two off now he's back offensive line coach at Clemson massive upgrade in a CO in in coaching there for Clemson with Matt Luke um is he a miracle worker is he going to turn water into wine no uh he's a great recruiter and you know Georgia had an amazing offensive line and Matt Luke made it better um we had Sam Pitman prior to Matt Luke Sam pitman's probably the best offens of line coach in the country Matt Luke was one of the best right so we lose Pitman the best offensive line coach in the country and who do we get Luke right behind him so Luke was working with what Sam Pitman had left Matt luk at Clemson is working with what was there before which wasn't very good so do I think it's a great hire yes do I think it will uh uh do I think it will we'll see improvements yes I I don't know if you're going to see enough again in week one that that's that's the thing Clemson is going to be a better team I think in in week five six seven and eight than they are in week one too much is new uh that we move to the running back position for Clemson will Shipley's gone right now all of a sudden every Clemson fan you find says well mafa is better now I heard a few Clemson fans saying that last year that that preferred mafa over Shipley or thought mafa was a better Runner than Shipley I don't necessarily agree with that but to be fair there were some Clemson fans that were saying that even last year when Shipley was there but the majority look will Shipley was great and the thing about will Shipley they're focusing on the yards per carry all right and I get it yards per carry is an important stat when it comes to looking at a running back but just think about how Ker's football has evolved at the running back position over the last few years right very rarely do you have a running back that's getting 25 30 carries a game okay you don't have you don't you rarely have that you have what you had at Clemson last year which is Will Shipley generally getting 15 carries a game and mafa getting seven or eight or or 10 or 12 and and maybe a little more one week a little less next week but you get the idea it's a tandem right it's a it's a one-two punch a every team wants it a lot of teams have it uh and Clemson had it with Shipley and mafa and the thing about that is they the two completely different styles right will Shipley could return punts he could return kicks he could line up in the slot he could catch screen passes swing routes he could run uh out and go wheel routes up the side he was kind of a do-it-all type of player and on top of being a really good runner with the ball right mafa doesn't bring all of that he's a now he's a great between the tackle kind of bowling ball type Runner he's a really good running back I'm not here I'm not talking [ __ ] about Ma I love mafa all right I just question specifically with the yards per carry thing do you think he's going to maintain that yards per carry average now that he's the primary running back and someone else is coming in as the change of pace that's that's the only question I have I've been making the same point about Old Miss this year old Miss had Quin Shan jins and uh I I forget the guy behind him's name now quinan jins was the better running back it's just a fact okay the other guy had more yards per carry so now quinon junkins leaves Old Miss and goes to Ohio State and the old Miss fans are like well the other guy is better anyway had more yards per car it's not all about yards per carry mafa is a really good running back can he be as good this year as he was last year now that he's the primary guy and not the change of pace guy that you kind of come in to pound a worn out team between the tackles which is kind of how they used mafa last year so we'll see so the the problem with Clemson offensively is is I just I think there's too many you know well if this and if that and if that against a Georgia defense that has very little if any questions at all at all um there's one corner position at Georgia that's kind of up in the air but is Clemson a team that can take advantage of that in week one I I don't think so um Georgia lost the line of scrimmage battle last year in the SEC Championship game against Alabama again Alabama is the only team to beat Georgia since covid that's not not an single other team has beat Georgia um and don't even type anything about the schedule uh in the last three years Georgia has beat Clemson Oregon Ohio State m Michigan Alabama uh TCU Florida State LSU I mean just name a top 10 team in the last three years Georgia has beat them they haven't lost anybody besides Clemson besides Bama Bama did dominate Georgia in the trenches in that game defensively that's could be a problem um for you know if Georgia's offensive line is not ready to go Clemson Clemson's defensive line versus Georgia's offensive line to me is the only possible um mismatch in Clemson's favor in this game I think um I like georg's wide receivers against their secondary uh I like I like georg's uh I like georg's uh defensive line against Clemson's offensive line I love Georgia's linebackers um if there's going to be an issue for Georgia in this game it it it could potentially be that if Georgia's off offensive line for whatever reason underperforms combined with the fact that you're going to be playing a couple of inexperienced running backs even Branson Robinson who's been at Georgia for a few years like I said hasn't played in almost two years coming off a really bad injury a couple years ago so and then and then if etn can't play the number two is going to be a true freshman Nate Frasier so that is a possibility where Clemson could take control of that game defensively shutting down georg's running game I don't think they're shutting down georg's passing game Carson Beck is the best returning quarterback in college football according to people's list not according to me forget what I think or what I say just look up list best returning college quarterback you're going to see Carson Beck Adam near the top of every list it's the favorite to win the Heisman um he had the arguably the second best season of any Georgia quarterback in history last year and that was his first year starting he threw for over 4,000 yards a ton of touchdowns very few interceptions now he's not very mobile if you're looking if you're looking for a knock on Carson Beck and maybe you don't if you're a Clemson fan especially and maybe you didn't watch you know as much Georgia last year as as some other people de uh there's a couple of areas where where you look at Carson Beck and you go I wish he was a little bit better there uh the first one would be the Deep ball he struggled to hit the Deep ball last year Georgia had very few explosive plays last year deep ball wise now you know yeah you throw the ball to Lad makoni behind the line of scrimmage and he runs for 40 yards making people Miss yes I'm talking about balls thrown in the air he did struggle with the Deep ball um and it's not a situation where he overthrew him every time or under threw him every time or threw it out of bounds every time it was all over the place um I don't know if that was a timing issue maybe something they weren't working on enough in practice um Georgia rotates wide receivers in and out on every single play it's something that is drove me up the wall for years as a Georgia fan uh you'll see that this weekend they'll play eight different receivers in a lot of cases in one drive they'll play five six seven different wide receivers and you know I I've questioned out loud a bunch of times how do you develop chemistry with any one wide receiver when you're trying to develop chemistry with 10 wide receiver so I don't know if that's what it was or if for whatever reason it's just a throw he can't make so you look for him to get better there with the Deep ball and the other thing is um he's not going to be running for 100 yards or anything like that in this game if youve watched Carson Beck play at all he's much more of a traditional pocket passer than uh sort of a a Scrambler or a dual threat like you think of like Jaden Daniels or you even Caleb Williams or shador Sanders can run better than Carson back um now he's not a statue um he can move around he's not like y'all Clemson fans know DJ OU angal right he's not that you know the DJ moves it looks like he's moving in slow motion it's like it almost looks like his feet are velcroed to the grass when he it's weird cinder block feet he's not like that you know if it's third and four third and five third and six um and maybe uh maybe the protection breaks down you know he's dodged a sack here and there and picked up five or six yards to get a first down when when Georgia needed it he he can do that when you need him to but you know there's not going to be any quarterback draws there's not going to be any naked bootlegs where he takes off running he's not steps and Bennett in that way okay if he takes off running it's because no one was open or the protection broke down and it's third and four and he thinks he can pick up five yards that's it he there's there will be no 60 70 80 yard touchdown runs from Carson Beck so in today's age of football maybe you wish he was a little bit more uh mobile so that would be the two areas you look for him to improve um the bottom line for me when I look at this game um Georgia has really dominated Clemson throughout history uh these two teams have played a ton Georgia's 43 and 18 against Clemson um all time so just a completely one-sided Series in Georgia's favor these two teams have gone in opposite directions since they played at the beginning of the season in 2021 Georgia hasn't lost a single regular season game Clemson has lost more regular season games every single year than the year before since that game in 2021 culminating with a four loss season um last year you look at opening Week Games Georgia hasn't lost an opening week game since 2013 trivia who beat Georgia in the opening week in 2013 I bet the Clemson fans remember uh Clemson on the other hand has lost two of their last three uh season openers they lost to Georgia um in 2021 they won their season opener in 2022 I think against Georgia Tech and then they lost their season opener last year against Duke if you're a betting degenerate like I am George's a 13 and a half Point favorite um Clemson is 1 and3 against the spread in their last four season opening games and in two of those games they lost as a favorite hard to believe this now but Clemson was favored to beat Georgia in that game in 2021 and Georgia beat him Clemson of course was favored to beat Duke last year in the season opener um and they lost so Clemson has not performed well in opening Week Games Georgia on the other hand has the last time Georgia had a big uh opening week game was uh not last season but the season before against Oregon and they beat him by almost 50 points the year before that was the Clemson game they beat Clemson uh last year they played a nobody in week one and didn't even cover the spread Georgia tends to play better in these opening week games when they have a big uh opponent to prepare for I really don't see a away Clemson wins this game could they keep it close could they keep it within the 13 and a half or 14 points they could especially if George is not able to run the ball for one of the reasons that we already discussed maybe the offensive line gets dominated by Clemson's front maybe the two running backs you know maybe etn can't play and you're relying on Branson Robinson who's coming back from an injury and a Nate Frasier who's a true freshman and you know maybe Nate Frasier puts the ball on the ground a time or two or make some freshman mistakes or fails to pick up a blitz when he needs to on third down and George ends up getting sacked and have to punt instead of keeping the drive alive whatever and Clemson finds a way to keep this thing closer I think what's more likely to happen happened is that Georgia just wears Clemson down over the course of this game and sort of pulls away a little bit in the second half um I'm going to take Georgia minus 13 a half here I think Georgia wins by three scores 17 to 20 points something like that I've seen a lot of score predictions in like the 38 to 17 range I think that's probably pretty accurate maybe that might be a little bit too high maybe more around the you know 30 to 13 uh 30 5 to 21 33 to 17 somewhere in there I like Georgia to win the game and I like Georgia to cover the 13 and a half appreciate you watching have a good morning