ATLANTA — Amarius Mims is a mammoth human being, so when he emerged from the Georgia football locker room Saturday after the No. 1 Bulldogs trucked No. 14 Clemson 34-3, it was another reminder of a program that changes faces but produces similar results year in and year out now.
Mims was one of two NFL first round draft picks off last year’s 13-1 Georgia team. The 6-foot-8, 350-pound offensive tackle is now a member of the Cincinnati Bengals, who don’t start their season for another week.
So, what did Mims think of this Georgia team after being a part of the program the last three years?
“Defense put on a good game,” he said. “The offense got better. It was the first game, and they can only get better.”
That’s a scary thought considering how the No. 1 Bulldogs left with a 31-point victory despite the moving parts that is college football.
Coach Kirby Smart said his team had in the neighborhood of 40 newcomers on this year’s roster.
That includes three players — Miami transfer wide receiver Colbie Young, freshman running back Nate Frazier and Vanderbilt transfer wide receiver London Humphreys — who accounted for all but one of the Bulldogs’ four touchdowns.
“All I’ve got to say is we’re loaded,” junior wide receiver Dillon Bell said. “A lot of other guys didn’t play today, and they’re great as well.”
One in particular would be Florida transfer running back Trevor Etienne who sat out the game suspended after an offseason driving arrest. Georgia will add him to an offense that got 83 rushing yards on 11 carries by Frazier including a 40-yarder. He also had a 24-yard catch.
“He’s a smooth running back,” Bell said. “I told him before the game, 'Hey, you’re a freshman, show the world what you can do.'”
Freshman safety KJ Bolden, a five-star recruit from Buford, also saw plenty of snaps, finishing second on the team in tackles with four others with four.
Georgia has key returning pieces around the newcomers like safety Malaki Starks, who went airborne again and reached back to snag a twisting, spectacular fourth-quarter interception that Smart said “may be one of the best defensive football plays I've ever seen live in person.”
Carson Beck again looked like one of the nation’s best quarterbacks, throwing for 278 yards and two touchdowns. Speedster Arian Smith had six touches — five catches and one carry — for 63 yards. Linebacker Jalon Walker had 1 ½ sacks and six tackles.
“When you turn over that much, you'd better have a nucleus around them that can keep them grounded,” Smart said. “That is what we've been able to sustain at Georgia is, we're not going to change what we do based on who we play. We're going to do what we do and we're going to try to out-execute you and just do it the right way. I think a lot of people that's hard to do it the hard way all the time because everybody wants to find an easier way. There's no easy way to win these games. They're all hard.”
Humprheys led Georgia in receiving yards with 63 on two catches. Young showed he's a red zone threat with a 7-yard touchdown grab.
“You’re kind of drinking through a firehose at first, but there’s 130 guys that are your best friends that you're with for six months leading up to this,” Humphreys said. “Everyone’s got your back in success or failure.”
On his touchdown, he caught the ball on a crossing route at the 32, turned on the jets and won a collision with Clemson safety Khalil Barnes from North Oconee High and went into the end zone for the score.
Georgia outscored Clemson 28-0 after halftime.
“When you play a team like Georgia, you get exposed,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “That's what happened in the second half. …Georgia’s going to make a lot of people look bad. They made us look bad today.”
It was the most lopsided loss Clemson has been handed since 51-14 to a No. 5 Florida State in 2013. The Seminoles went on to win the national championship.
Georgia held Clemson to 188 total yards, the same number that new Tigers offensive coordinator Garrett Riley’s TCU offense produced when Georgia dusted the Horned Frogs 65-7 to win the national championship in the 2022 season.
“The standard for Georgia defense has always been the standard,” said linebacker CJ Allen, who had four tackles. “Last year, we didn’t play up to that standard.”
That 2022 national championship season began also at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with another beatdown of a top 15 team, 49-3 against Oregon.
Georgia has a lot ahead before it can think of making a run in the 12-team playoff including road games at Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss.
“We focus on each game individually,” Walker said. “We don't skip ahead in the season. We don't backtrack. We don't do anything. We be where our feet is planted.”
