Desmond Howard, Paul Finebaum debate whether No. 1 Georgia is on upset alert vs. Clemson

A team from Georgia was involved in a massive upset in Week 0 as Georgia Tech stunned No. 10 Florida State to open the 2024 college football season. ESPN analyst Desmond Howard warned that Georgia could be in a similar spot this weekend when it faces Clemson in Atlanta.

Howard expects the Bulldogs and Tigers to play a close game Saturday afternoon and wouldn’t be surprised at all if Dabo Swinney and company pull off the upset this weekend.

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“I’ll tell you what, last week in Dublin, everyone thought that Florida State was just going to run through Georgia Tech, and every time I did television I said, ‘Listen … I get the narrative with Florida State. But please, whatever you do, do not sleep on Georgia Tech. They’re not to be taken lightly,” Desmond Howard recalled Tuesday on Get Up. “I tell you, I feel the same way now about Clemson.”

The Tigers have been forgotten about nationally after missing out on the College Football Playoff the past three years. But Howard likes the roster Dabo Swinney has put together at Clemson.

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Swinney has been criticized for his lack of adaptability in the current college football world. However, this is a huge opportunity for Swinney and the Tigers to show that their method still works.

“They understand that Georgia’s the No. 1 team in the nation right now as far as the rankings are concerned. They understand that they’re picked to win the SEC. Most people picked them to win the CFP Championship,” Howard said. “But Dabo Swinney knows this is his opportunity to say, ‘Listen, you guys made fun of me. You guys mocked me, because I didn’t go into the portal, because I know I can develop my own talent that I recruited.’

“This is his opportunity – not only Dabo’s, but his players’ opportunity — to go out there and show we believe in who we are, we believe in our system, we believe in doing it the Dabo Swinney way. And we’re going to go out here and punch Georgia in the mouth and see how they respond. So Georgia better not take the Tigers lightly.”

Fellow ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum doesn’t necessarily believe that Georgia is on upset alert, but he does think the game will be closer than most expect.

He feels that this is a bigger game for Clemson than Georgia with the way the schedule sets up.

“I think this is going to be a closer game. This is not going to be a blowout,” Finebaum said. “Georgia’s had a rough offseason. Suspension, injuries. And quite frankly, Georgia has so many bigger games left.

“I mean they go to Alabama at the end of September, they go to Texas. This used to be a huge rivalry. A couple of years ago this was a 1 vs. 3 game. But this is a game that Georgia just simply wants to go to Atlanta and win and get out of town.”