"The first week is gigantic."
That pretty much sums it up for the University of Georgia as they prepare to make the trip up to Charlotte, North Carolina to take on the Clemson Tigers. Radi Nabulsi of Rivals.com joined College Football Gametime to discuss the impending Week 1 matchup between the two top-5 programs.
For as important of a game as it is, it may not be the be-all-end-all that many have cracked it up to be. Nabulsi told us, "By the end of the season it may not really matter. Let's say you (UGA) go into that game and you lose, then you take on UAB and win your other 11 games. At the end of the season, you're 11-1 and having beat all the team you've faced... now you're playing in the SEC Title Game."
Assuming the Dawgs win the games they're supposed to, the season will almost certainly be decided by two major games. "It's bookended," Nabulsi says, "You have a big game to start and a big game to finish. If you lose the first one, you gotta win the second one. If you win the first one and lose the second one, you're in the same spot."
Beat Clemson and you unquestionably have a claim to be one of the four teams in the playoffs. If you lose to the perennial playoff contenders, the season's not over because the SEC Title Game is still on the table.
That said, with many more potential stumbling blocks littered across their schedule, Georgia almost assuredly needs this game more than the Tigers do. Lose, and the pressure intensifies ten-fold. Win, and maybe you get yourself some breathing room.
Clemson has opened as a -3 favorite and the matchup has all the makings of an instant classic. We're all just counting down the days.
