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Stop me if you've heard this one before: Georgia football is the preseason No. 1 team and national title favorite once again.
Saturday did absolutely nothing to dampen the hype, and it in fact may have even done the opposite. Kirby Smart and the Dawgs dismantled No. 14 Clemson for 60 straight minutes in Atlanta, walking away with a 34-3 win. After the game, former Heisman Trophy winner and college football pundit Robert Griffin III shared his thoughts on the impressive performance.
“Georgia is just so damn DOMINANT STILL,” Griffin III wrote on X, formerly Twitter, postgame. “Carson Beck is playing high level decision maker football and they just keep winning in the trenches. My GAWD.”
On an opening Saturday where many contenders showed flaws or looked unstable — Oregon, Ohio State and Michigan, to name a few — Smart, Carson Beck and company continued to barrel through the opposition with what looks like yet another dominant group.
Georgia football establishes themselves as national title favorites in Week 1
If there was any doubt about Georgia as the cream of the crop in college football in 2024, it is all gone after Saturday's season opener. They showed that they are the complete package on both sides of the ball while dismantling a top 25 team. Clemson was competitive for the first half, at least on defense, but in the second half Georgia took over in the trenches and owned both sides of the ball.
Overall, it's hard to see who will trouble Kirby Smart and company in 2024 apart from a few teams. Georgia should have advantages at nearly every position group every time that they play. Carson Beck has a chance to give Georgia the best quarterback play since they became an elite program under Smart. Star running back Trevor Etienne should be returning soon after he was suspended for Saturday's game, and the offensive line showed that they can fuel an effective running game against a good front against Clemson.
Defensively, Georgia dominated the Clemson offense on all three levels. Their front seven consistently stuffed the run and generated pressure on Cade Klubnik, and they appear to have survived an injury scare to star pass rusher Mykel Williams. The secondary was all over the Clemson receivers throughout, with true freshman Ellis Robinson IV holding up nicely and star Malaki Starks picking up a highlight-reel interception.
The SEC will be even more difficult this season after the additions of Oklahoma and especially Texas, but there's a chance that Alabama takes a small hit now that Nick Saban is gone. As good as the Longhorns looked in their opener, Georgia has earned the benefit of the doubt as the team to beat until further notice.
