Game day thoughts, Georgia-Clemson edition

When the conventional wisdom about a game is so consistent across the board (Steele has it Georgia by one), the contrarian in me wants so badly to predict something different, but honesty compels me to agree with Bill Connelly.

This is the most exciting matchup of week 1. Both teams are athletic on defense and ridiculous on offense, and both teams’ weaknesses will be exploited by opponent strengths. The projections and spread each favor Georgia slightly, but this one’s close enough that counting turnovers and big plays will probably tell you who won.

I feel slightly more confident in Georgia this year, but I’ll feel more confident in the Dawgs once that secondary gels. But give me Georgia by 1, I guess. For now.

Both teams are going to move the ball.  But I see Georgia, behind that running game, getting in the end zone one more time than Clemson does, which will be just enough to offset the Tigers having more total scoring drives on the night. My call:  Georgia 35, Clemson 34.

Use this as today’s game day comment thread and have at it.

C’mon, Steve.

Clowney talk is gonna be fun this week.

All the conversation surrounding Jadeveon Clowney’s fatigue level during Thursday night’s 27-10 win over North Carolina on Thursday night may be good for No. 6 South Carolina the rest of the season, head coach Steve Spurrier said Friday on the Paul Finebaum radio show.

The publicity Clowney got all summer “wears on you a little bit, and it’s hard to live up to,” Spurrier said. “Now he’s got the camera on him every play. I think maybe he learned a lot. I think maybe it was good for our team last night. Jadeveon, everybody has talked about you all summer and now that camera is going to be on you every play so let’s go do your thing. Maybe that’ll be good for us.”

Yeah, that’s it.  That’s the ticket.

I can only hope somebody asks Spurrier about the rumors this week.

They still love you in Montana.

Deadspin gives us this post about Facebook’s compiled county-by-county data on which Top 25 college football teams have the most “likes” across the nation. Take a look at this enlarged map and tell me what you think about those two outlier counties in Stewart Mandel’s state of mind.

Sure, it’s a small sample size, but we only need 100 fans, right?

(h/t Nick Lanza)

Just spike the damned ball.

Carl Pelini, perhaps auditioning for a future opening at Georgia Tech, orders his quarterback to spike the ball on fourth down in last night’s game against Miami.

The play worked just like he drew it up.

This is why you schedule cupcake openers.

Florida suspends six players for its game today against Toledo, including savior of the passing game Loucheiz Purifoy.

Of course, the downside to games like that are that sometimes the best laid plans of men go terribly awry.