Greg McElroy describes what it would mean if Clemson beats Georgia in Week 1

Week 1 will begin with a belter of a matchup in Atlanta, with Clemson and Georgia renewing an underrated rivalry in college football. It’s the second meeting in three years between Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart. And if you were to ask the general public for a prediction, almost everybody would likely pick the Bulldogs.

So, what would it mean if Clemson was able to pull off the upset? ESPN’s Greg McElroy answered the question, saying Swinney would be able to clap back at his doubters. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips would be quite happy with the result as well, being a huge potential victory for the conference.

“It would be massive for Clemson in the court of public opinion,” McElroy said. “It would be enormous… That would be a massive result — not just for the ACC — but also for Dabo Swinney and quieting some of the critics with how he’s approached the portal and some other aspects of the current format in college football.”

Clemson has played some big games under Swinney’s watch but just once has the No. 1 team been lined up across them in the regular season. Florida State hosted the Tigers in 2014 and was able to hold serve in Tallahassee with a six-point win.

That time period was closer to the peak of Clemson than we are right now. Swinney has taken a lot of heat for his handling of the program — mainly refusing to use the NCAA transfer portal. When thinking of schools utilizing NIL in big ways, Clemson is usually not even in the discussion.

McElroy believes taking down Georgia would validate Swinney in a lot of ways. After all, the Bulldogs have become the standard of college football over the last three seasons.

On the flip side, Georgia is not at too big of a risk from a perception standpoint according to McElroy. An SEC schedule will be waiting for them with plenty of time to recover. Some questions might pop up if they lose but overall, McElroy will still have a ton of faith in Smart’s team.

“Regardless of what happens with Georgia Week 1, whether they win or lose, people are going to know Georgia has one of the best rosters in the sport,” McElroy said. “So, even if they lost that game, there is plenty of meat on the bone for them to get back on the good graces.”