Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart is 1-0 in his career against the Clemson Tigers. Clemson is one of Georgia’ top regional rivals, but the Dawgs and Tigers don’t play against each other on an annual basis.
Georgia and Clemson have won two national championships in the College Football Playoff era and are two of the top programs in the country despite being only 70 miles apart.
Clemson and Georgia both heavily recruit Georgia and South Carolina. One of Georgia’s top defensive linemen, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, is a former five-star recruit from South Carolina.
“We don’t see them on the road recruiting as much as it seems like we used to,” said Smart. “I don’t know if it’s died down some. There’s a lot of overlap. They recruit our state hard. We recruit their state hard.”
Clemson gained a massive recruiting win over Georgia in the class of 2024. The Tigers landed five-star linebacker Sammy Brown, who attended the same high school as Georgia safety Malaki Starks. Brown is expected to play for the Tigers as a true freshman and is one of the best Peach State linebacker prospects in recent memory.
“A lot of respect for their players, their teams, their coaches, for what Dabo (Swinney)’s built there. I had a good relationship with Brent (Venables) when he was there, and he’s in our league now,” continued Smart. “They’ve been one of the premier teams in college football in terms of the last 10 years, you could say. It’s probably longer than that, but they’ve done a tremendous job.”
Clemson’s reputation has decayed a bit in recent seasons. The Tigers have not made the playoff since 2020 and don’t utilize the transfer portal as much as other top college football programs.
On the other hand, Georgia enters the 2024 college football season with tremendous momentum. The Bulldogs have not lost a regular season game since 2020 and have won both of their recent national championships since Georgia’s 10-3 season opening victory against Clemson back in 2021.
“We do see them on the road some recruiting, but I think the matchup is more about our fans. Getting that caliber of a matchup to start the season is important,” said Smart. “We’ve got issues on our hands today we’re trying to deal with over the game.”
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Smart and Georgia have been primarily working on themselves in fall camp, but the Bulldogs will turn their focus to Clemson with the Aug. 31 season opener in Atlanta rapidly approaching. Georgia fans can’t wait for Saturday, which represents another chance to have bragging rights over their South Carolina neighbors.
This article originally appeared on Bulldogs Wire: Kirby Smart on the state of the Georgia-Clemson rivalry
