Kirby Smart on Clemson-Georgia: 'Two perennial powers' facing off in Aflac Kickoff Game
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In anticipation of Saturday’s Aflac Kickoff Game, Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney and Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart answered questions leading up to Week One’s highest-ranked matchup. With both teams entering the 2024 season as two of college football's powerhouses, the excitement around this game is palpable.
On if preseason rankings matter to coaches:
“I think it matters you guys. I think y'all want to have the best matchup you could possibly have. I know this; the title sponsor, Aflac, loves it. I know you guys have done a tremendous job there in Atlanta and the kickoff game of making sure this is a great event, but nothing better than having, two top 10 teams teeing off against each other to kick it off.”
On the Clemson-Georgia Rivalry:
“I think if you look at the history of Clemson and Georgia, you can go all the way back to the ‘80s and the great rivalries and the games that were so epic back at that time. Then you fast forward, whatever that is, 40 years, I guess, all the way up to now, and you've still got two perennial powers facing each other in a kickoff game. They're both big-time rivalries. Both schools are pretty close to each other, so I think that's pretty cool.”
On the value of neutral-site games like this:
“I definitely believe in that. I also believe in our fan base that supports us and financially rewards us each year with tickets. They want to play in these kinds of games. They want to open with a great opponent and have a destination to go to, and where better to go than Atlanta, Georgia, and play a rivalry game.”
On how this contest helped motivate Georgia this offseason:
“I think your build-up, your offseason program, everybody says that there's truth to that when you know that sign sitting in our locker room and in our weight room about how many days are to kick off. You're able to say, okay, not only is it 20 days, 15 days, 10 days to kick off—it's Clemson. Then that catches people's eye; it gets a little extra adrenaline rush for each and every practice and each and every lift we have building up to that. So I certainly think that's true.”
On if games like this hold special memories for him since his first win came in the Georgia Dome:
“I don't think so. I think that was so long ago that, you know, had that game been in Atlanta or that game been at home, it was going to be a special game. A lot of times you forget, I forget that it was it was it was played there. I mean, that was a long time ago.”
On the significance of this matchup on the CFB Playoffs:
“Well, it's gonna be a feather in the cap of whoever wins the game is going to be going into that playoff committee talk with a strength of schedule, a major win, because both teams are going to have good seasons after that. So I think it's critical. I can't say it's more critical, because, obviously, with four teams—not winning this game could put you out. Now with 12 teams, I don't know that losing this game—I think it makes these games more popular. They're going to happen more often because people are gonna be more willing to play, you know, out-of-conference, top-notch opponents with a 12-team playoff.”
On conference schedules keeping teams from playing games like this:
“Yeah, I don't know that we're ever going to get away from those. I think the traditional rivalries of these, these out-of-conference opponents, are going to pull and tug at the hearts of fans and ADs and administrators; they want to keep those. I don't know that just because conference games may go up as conference expands, and you want to have more conference games that these are going to go down. I think it's probably going to do; it's probably going to hurt the smaller schools more because there's going to be fewer games where you go, you know, buy an opponent.”
