Clemson vs Georgia 9/4/21 College Football Picks, Odds, Predictions

The Clemson Tigers meet the Georgia Bulldogs in a week 1 heavyweight college football matchup from Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night.

The Georgia Bulldogs will look to take the big step forward in 2021 after going 8-2 in 2020 including a 7-2 mark in SEC conference play, culminating in a 24-21 win over Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl. It’s finally JT Daniels time in Athens after recovering from a torn ACL back in 2019, but once he assumed the role of starter of the Bulldogs offense, the offense shot off and became extremely potent. There are solid options behind Daniels, including Brock Vandagriff, Carson Beck and last year’s starter for most of the year, Stetson Bennett. The running back groupof going to be solid once again, led by Zamir White and James Cook, with White logging 779 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. The key will be evolving Georgia’s receivers with George Pickens gone, but Kearis Jackson led the Dawgs with 36 grabs for 514 yards while Jermaine Burton has big play threat written all over him and Arik Gilbert transfers in from LSU to give the Bulldogs another solid option. Defensively, the pass rush up front is massive, led by Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt and Jalen Carter while Adam Anderson is back in the linebacking group after putting up 6.5 sacks while Nakobe Dean had a team-high 71 tackles. Lewis Cline returns in the Georgia secondary after putting up 52 tackles last year while Derion Kendrick ironically transfers in from Clemson and Tykee Smith is in from West Virginia to help shore things up as well. As a team, Georgia averaged 32.3 PPG and allowed 20 PPG last season.

The Clemson Tigers come into the 2021 campaign looking to build on theor 10-2 mark overall including a 9-1 record in ACC play, but they weren’t able to make much noise in the national championship playoffs as the Tigers would lose the Sugar Bowl semifinal to Ohio State by a final count of 49-28. Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne are gone, taking on of the most prominent 1-2 punches in college football last year to Jacksonville. However, DJ Ulagalelei comes in and looked pretty good in limited action in 2020, stepping in for Trevor Lawrence when he had a bout of COVID, throwing for 429 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Notre Dame and helped lead a comeback against Boston College. Lyn-J Dixon has a lot of work to do to fill Etienne’s shoes, and the concern will be whether or not Justyn Ross is healthy after dealing with a spinal issue last season that threatened the WR’s career. Braden Galloway is expected to be the main man in Clemson’s new receiving group while Frank Ladson, Joseph Ngata and EJ Williams all have the opportunity to stake their claim to playing time. Defensively, even with new pieces coming in, the Tigers led the ACC in total defense and scoring defense and were really good at stopping the run. Nine starters are expected to return from that group, including eight of the top ten Tigers in tackles for a loss and 9 of 12 top tacklers overall. Bryan Bresee, Tyler Davis and Myles Murphy make up a stout defensive line for Clemson, Baylon Spector returns at linebacker after leading Clemson with 65 tackles and 10.5 TFLs while Trenton Simpson will come in alongside Spector. Nolan Turner and Lannden Zanders solidify the safety spots while Sheridan Jones, Andrew Booth and Mario Goodrich take over the corner spots for Clemson’s secondary which remains one of the best in the country coming into the season. As a team, Clemson averaged 43.5 PPG and allowed 20.2 PPG last season.

Georgia is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games against the ACC while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 Saturday games. Clemson is 2-4 ATS in their last 6 Saturday home games while the over is 6-2 in their last 8 games overall.

It goes without saying that this is one of the marquee games for week 1 for good reason as this could end up being a national semifinal or final preview if all goes right. With that said, as talented as both offenses are in terms of potential, I think there may be some adjustment periods early on and that’s not necessarily the best scenario when both defenses are absolutely stacked. I could see it being difficult to move the rock early on for both sides, so give me the under in what should be an awesome game.