After two quarters of play on Saturday, No. 1 Georgia and No. 14 Clemson looked to be repeating their 2021 defensive dogfight, with the Dawgs entering the lockeroom up 6-0.
The reality changed on a dime after halftime, as Carson Beck and the offense got the mean machine rolling en route to a 34-3 splattering.
Insanity. The action of repeating the same things repeatedly, expecting a different result. That's the state of the Clemson program right now. In an offseason that saw the Tigers yet again take zero players via the transfer portal, it saw Georgia reload its roster with double-digit transfers whom we saw make significant plays Saturday.
The lack of portal acquisitions wasn't the end all be all, but you have to stop and think what a marquee wide receiver addition could've added to this offense. Just maybe, more than 188 yards of offense to Georgia's 447, who almost outrushed your total yardage with 169 yards on the ground.
Clemson looked the same. A wide receiver room that lacks a true alpha athlete, a quarterback that still can't make quick progressions, and an offense that has yet to evolve into an actual vertical passing game.
I was confident in Cade Klubnik's ability to evolve as a passer entering year two of this offense under Garrett Riley. I no longer have an ounce of it. How did this player and scheme somehow get worse?
The run game was nonexistent; almost every pass was near or at the line of scrimmage, and Klubnik ran for his life all afternoon.
Now I'll give the Tigers signal-caller kudos; he did complete the best throw of the game down the left sideline and over the shoulder of Antonio Williams for a 36-yard gain in the first quarter. Unfortunately, it was the only real highlight offensively for Garrett Riley's unit.
There's been an overwhelming narrative surrounding the college football landscape regarding Dabo Swinney's refusal to utilize the transfer portal to its full extent, if really at all.
While I appreciate Swinney staying true to his coaching morals and ideologies, something has to change. Clemson does not possess that distinct and elite athletic caliber it did during the mid-2010s.
But I don't believe we should use this game against Georgia as a whiteboard example of why this program needs to use the portal. Georgia still recruits better than Clemson by a country mile. Look at the tape; the athletes in orange and white do not look anything like those in red and black. Clemson was never beating this Georgia team.
Sure, maybe a transfer wide receiver opened up the offense. Is anyone going to talk about the quarterback? Cade Klubnik has cemented himself as a guy who just isn't very good, and somehow, he is worse than last season.
Klubnik was missing routine throws over and over, whether he threw the ball in the dirt, threw the ball five yards behind his receiver, or set up his teammate to get drilled by a defender.
For Dabo, it's the same story since Trevor Lawrence left; he can't get the quarterback right. Furthermore, he hasn't recruited athletes to surround his quarterbacks who bring the requisite talent to compete at the top of college football.
In what's been a downslide for the program following its 2018 National Championship run, it seems every season that things are getting darker and darker in Death Valley.
Carson Beck was as advertised: calm, decisive, and surgical. He finished the night 23/33 for 278 yards and two touchdowns. The first touchdown came on an endzone back shoulder fade to Miami WR transfer Colbie Young from seven yards out, and the second one came on a 40-yard shallow cross catch-and-run by Vanderbilt WR transfer London Humphreys.
Despite not having its top two running backs coming into the season, the Georgia backfield picked up the slack, particularly in the second half. Freshman Nate Frazier ran for 83 yards at 7.5 yards per carry with one reception for 24 yards, standing out with a cutback step that led to a 40-yard run.
"I get on him all the time because he's out of control," Smart said. "He cuts back sometime in practice and I tell him, 'You cut back like that in a game and they're gonna light you up.' But when he cut back today and ran all the way across the field, I told him it was OK."
Branson Robinson ran for 12 yards on seven carries, but he never seemed to get it going. Cash Jones totaled 29 yards on three touches with a 15-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Malaki Starks showcased once again why he's an All-American and one of the top NFL defensive prospects for the upcoming draft. He practically copied the exact interception he made in Mercedes-Benz vs Oregon in 2021
As Cade Klubnik launched a second straight pass for sophomore Tyler Brown down the right sideline, Starks catapulted into the air and intercepted the pass at the Dawgs' 22-yard line.
"Unbelievable play," Klubnik said. "Saw TB kind of had a yard on him and let it out there. The guy did a great job kind of pushing Tyler to the sideline. One of the best plays I've seen since I've been playing at Clemson. Kind of tip of the hat to that kid right there."
"I thought I knew it was coming and then I was kind of running with him and his tempo started to change so I knew the ball was coming," Starks said of the play. "I really just wanted to get in phase and look and lean and when I saw the ball coming, I kind of lost it in the light for a second, so I kind of waited to jump so I didn't jump too early, but I still think I did. It was an amazing catch, and I was happy I was in a position to do it."
Junior inside linebacker Jalon Walker called this interception better than the one at Oregon he had in 2022, where he made a near-identical play against the Ducks.
"Let me tell you about that," Walker said with a laugh, sitting up a little straighter in his seat with excitement. "I was on the field covering my guy when I saw Cade throw the ball and I'm like, 'OK this is a 50/50 ball with Malaki on the receiver.' I look and I see him twist and catch that ball and I just took off in a sprint. That's probably like my fastest GPS time (ever). That was insane.
I don't have any significant takeaways about the Dawgs'. They are who we thought they were: the best team and best program in college football. It seems the question of depth at running back is otherwise silenced; the transfer pieces outside showcased playmaking ability, and the defense is still a boa constrictor. They aren't going away anytime soon.
The Clemson Tigers will return home for a primetime matchup with App State on Saturday night.
The Georgia Bulldogs will return to Athens for a matchup with Tennessee Tech on Saturday afternoon.