Joel Klatt picks Georgia to win, cover spread vs. Clemson

One of the biggest matchups of opening weekend will be the showdown between Clemson and Georgia, with both programs looking to turn things around after disappointing 2023 seasons, albeit to varying degrees.

FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt made his prediction for the game and picked it against the spread, and he believes there are too many factors working in the Bulldogs’ favor.

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“Man, you talk about an offseason that just burns, burns in Athens,” Klatt explained on The Joel Klatt Show. “They didn’t win the SEC, they didn’t win the national championship. In that building, that’s complete failure. I mean ask Kirby (Smart). … That team’s going to be highly motivated. Highly motivated. And they’ve got a chance in this Week 1 game against Clemson to really go out there and announce their presence with authority.”

That said, nothing is automatic, and Clemson has plenty of talent of its own under head coach Dabo Swinney.

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Moreover, Georgia has some question marks, despite being one of the overwhelming picks to reach the College Football Playoff, potentially even as a conference champion with a first-round bye.

“Major question looming over Georgia is their run game,” Klatt outlined. “Trevor Etienne, what’s going on with him with everything that’s happened in the offseason? Arrested offseason, could be suspended, we’ll see. Roderick Robinson, he is out with turf toe which I’ve had, it’s awful. That leaves Branson Robinson. What’s he going to be like? He missed last year with a knee injury. So the run game for Georgia is going to be a little bit off a question mark.

“Trying to replace Brock Bowers is going to be a little bit of a question mark. I think they can do that. Oscar Delp is a really good player who was a former No. 1 tight end recruit in the country. But he’s not Brock Bowers. So there’s some things that I’m interested to see for Georgia. Nobody has recruited better than Georgia, nobody has a better roster from a recruiting perspective than Georgia, and you would think they can overcome some of these losses year over year, which they have proven to do over the last couple of seasons.”

Clemson also has some considerable question marks, as you’d expect of any team getting ready to play its season opener. The Tigers, though, have some serious ones to answer.

They start offensively, with the development of quarterback Cade Klubnik.

“On the Clemson side I’m really intrigued to see what happens in this Cade Klubnik, Garrett Riley relationship on offense,” Klatt said. “I thought it was going to be highly beneficial for Clemson and Klubnik last year to have Garrett Riley and I was wrong. It did not materialize. And now they go into this season and to me, my question is will it be different in Year 2 of this relationship? I’m not sure.

“They did not have much success in pushing the ball downfield last year and it’s really unclear whether they’re going to have the talent on the outside to threaten Georgia, which has been the SEC’s best defense for what, three straight years? And maybe longer.”

All of that leads Klatt to make his pick, which is for Georgia to cover the nearly two-touchdown spread against Clemson.

“Georgia is the favorite, should be the favorite, have the better quarterback. Carson Beck was No. 1 in my ratings of the top five quarterbacks in college football,” Klatt said. “They’re a 13.5-point favorite and guess what? I still like the Bulldogs. I love something in the neighborhood of like 24-10.

“Georgia’s not incredibly potent on offense because of the questions that I mentioned running the football and even trying to replace guys like Bowers and (Ladd) McConkey on the outside. OK, so they’re not going to light the world on fire. But guess what they’re not going to do? Give up many points to an offense that there’s some real question marks around. So 24-10, I like Georgia winning this game and covering the 13.5.”

Clemson and Georgia will meet on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET in Atlanta with a national broadcast on ABC.