Two teams that won multiple titles during the four-team College Football Playoff era do battle at the start of this college season as No. 1 Georgia takes on No. 14 Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Georgia’s hopes of a three-peat were dashed by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game last year while Clemson are coming off their worst season since 2010. Both hope to be a big part of the new 12-team College Football Playoff in 20204.
Heading into the big game, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt has given his prediction for the matchup. On the latest episode of the Joel Klatt Show, he asserted that Georgia has the better quarterback in Carson Beck and believes that they’ll even cover the 13.5-point spread in a 24-10 victory.
“Georgia is the favorite, should be the favorite, have the better quarterback. Carson Beck was No. 1 in my ratings of the top five quarterbacks in college football,” Klatt said, via On3 Sports. “They’re a 13.5-point favorite and guess what? I still like the Bulldogs. I love something in the neighborhood of like 24-10.
“Georgia’s not incredibly potent on offense because of the questions that I mentioned running the football and even trying to replace guys like Bowers and (Ladd) McConkey on the outside. OK, so they’re not going to light the world on fire. But guess what they’re not going to do? Give up many points to an offense that there’s some real question marks around. So 24-10, I like Georgia winning this game and covering the 13.5.”
Georgia is widely seen as a national championship favorite while the jury is still out on whether Clemson will even be better than they were last year.
But anything can happen in Week 1 and your ranking doesn’t matter until you’ve played a game of football.
The game will be played at 12 p.m. ET and will air on ABC.
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