Two universities separated by 75 miles and have combined to win four of college football’s last eight national championships will collide Saturday afternoon when No. 14 Clemson and No. 1 Georgia vie inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The 66th meeting between the neighboring powers will be the first indoors.
“It’s really a great rivalry,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Monday during his weekly news conference. “It’s a rivalry that, when you look back, I didn’t realize how many years consecutively Georgia played Clemson for a long time. I just have a lot of respect for their program and what Dabo (Swinney) has done. He’s got a great culture there and a great environment.
“They do a tremendous job recruiting our state, and we go head-to-head with them quite a bit. When you look across their roster, there are a lot of kids that we were really close to, and I’m sure it’s the same way with him, so it should be an awesome environment.”
Georgia and Clemson played 15 straight seasons from 1973-87, a stretch that was highlighted by the Bulldogs winning their first Associated Press national title in 1980 and the Tigers claiming their first the following season. The Bulldogs hold a commanding 43-18-1 series edge, but the two have only met once since Smart took the Georgia reins following the Mark Richt era that ended in 2015.