Clemson football: Something has to give one way or another vs. UGA

The 2021 Clemson football season is getting to ready to set off with a bang.

In just a matter of weeks, Clemson will renew its rivalry with the Georgia Bulldogs with the eyes of the nation watching.

The two teams will square off on a neutral-site field in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC and the game is set to be featured as the ESPN College GameDay game of the week. Both teams are ranked inside the top-5 of preseason rankings and the Vegas odds for the game show Clemson football as just a slight 3.5-point favorite.

The Athletic’s Deputy Managing Editor Jason Starrett shared an interesting stat about season openers.

Something has to give between Clemson football and Georgia

Clemson hasn’t lost a season opener since that 2014 game against Georgia in Athens. Georgia hasn’t lost a season opener since that 2013 game against the Tigers in Death Valley.

That means something has to give this time around.

For the first time since 2014, we’re going to see either Clemson or Georgia come out of the first week of the season with a loss. One of these teams are going to continue their streak of winning the opener and move to 1-0 on the season and the other is going to fall behind with an 0-1 record to begin the year.

While we’ve already said that the loser of this game isn’t out of the CFB Playoff hunt by any means, this stat certainly adds a little more flare to an already majorly-hyped matchup.

One of the annual goals that Dabo Swinney has instilled in his Clemson football program over the course of his tenure has been winning the opener. He’ll have a major test this time around to keep that achieve that goal. The same can be said about Kirby Smart and Georgia.