Second-half surge catapults No. 1 Georgia past No. 14 Clemson

Georgia coach Kirby Smart credited offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and some halftime adjustments for the second-half surge.

“I think Mike and his staff did a good job at halftime looking at pictures, seeing what was there and capitalizing on some explosive plays,” Smart said. “We blocked well on the perimeter, and that (first) drive in the second half kind of opened things up. I think it loosened them up. It allowed us to be more explosive, and we used some tempo to help us.”

The scoring was a welcome sight for the Bulldogs against Clemson. No Georgia player had recorded a touchdown against the Tigers since Todd Gurley went 51 yards in the third quarter of Georgia’s 2014 win in Athens. In their last two meetings, Georgia and the Tigers had exchanged 33 offensive possessions without either team scoring a touchdown. Number 34 – always a good number for the Bulldogs – proved to be a breakthrough.

Leading 6-0 and receiving the second-half kickoff, the Bulldogs flew down the field. They gained 59 yards on two plays, a 32-yard catch by Arian Smith left and a 27-yard run by Dillon Bell on a jet sweep right. Bell’s play resulted in first-and-goal at the 9. On second-and-goal, Beck hooked up with wideout Colbie Young, a transfer from Miami, for a 7-yard touchdown pass on a fade route to the right boundary.

Leading 12-0, Georgia curiously lined up with the intention of attempting a 2-point conversion. But Smart thought better of it after a false-start penalty and settled for a traditional extra point. Georgia led 13-0 less than three minutes into the second half.

Smart shared that Beck assured him at halftime that the Bulldogs were going to score on that first second-half possession.

“Yeah, there might’ve been a little bit of nerves in that first quarter,” said Beck, who finished with 278 yards and two touchdowns on 23-of-33 passing. “Maybe guys just needed to get warmed up in the game. But, I mean, looking at the iPad at halftime and seeing what they were doing against us, it was everything we saw on film from last year. So we kind of deciphered which ways we wanted to attack them and tried to be a little more aggressive coming out in the second half.”

With the kinks apparently worked, Georgia’s offense mostly was in gear the rest of the way. After punting on their eighth possession of the game, the Bulldogs went the distance with their ninth. And they did it most impressively, with Beck connecting with wideout London Humphreys for a 40-yard touchdown on third-and-9. Like Young, Humphreys is a transfer, coming to UGA from Vanderbilt in the offseason.

Georgia’s fourth touchdown of the afternoon was equally electric. Pressed into duty because star running back Trevor Etienne was sidelined because of a suspension, walk-on Cash Jones took a handoff around left end and, first breaking a tackle, somehow tight-roped the sideline to get into touchdown that pushed the Bulldogs’ margin to 31 points with 6:09 to play.

Another key change was Georgia starting the second half with freshman Nate Frazier at running back. The 5-10, 210-pound product of Compton, California, ended up leading the Bulldogs with 83 of their 169 yards rushing. He had the day’s long run of 40 yards and scored on a one-yard plunge.

“He’s only been in Athens for, like, two or three months, which is crazy to me,” Beck said of Frazier, who enrolled in May. “But we have a lot of confidence in him. We’d been able to see what he could do in practice and, obviously, that translated to the game.”

Georgia’s defense also recorded some awe-inspiring moments. The greatest of those was the leaping, twisting interception by safety Malaki Starks as Clemson tried to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs all agreed that, while similar, this one was even greater than the one he recorded against Oregon in the 2022 game here at The Benz.

“That may be one of the best defensive plays I’ve ever seen in person,” Smart said.

Added teammate Jalon Walker, who sprinted 40 yards down the field to congratulate Starks on the play: “That was probably my fastest GPS time all game. That was insane, an incredible catch.”

Actually, Walker might be voted the Bulldogs’ overall defensive star of the game. With outside linebacker Mykel Williams and defensive tackle Warren Brinson getting sidelined with injuries, Walker played all over the field on Saturday. A 6-2, 245-pound junior from Salisbury, North Carolina, Walker played inside and outside linebacker and led a Georgia defense that limited Clemson to 188 total yards with six tackles and 1.5 sacks.

“We’ve had to get uncomfortable as coaches finding ways to use his skill set,” Smart said of Walker. “I think him and the defensive staff have done a great job.”

As for the Clemson Tigers, their offensive struggles behind quarterback Cade Klubnik continue. A junior and second-year starter, the former 5-star prospect was 18-of-29 passing for 142 yards and an interception. He also was sacked twice for a loss of 17 yards.

But coach Dabo Swinney pointed to other reasons for the Tigers coming up short again against the Bulldogs.

“They just freaking kicked our tails in the second half,” Clemson’s 16-year coach said. “Congrats to Georgia. They’re a great team. They’ve been a great team, and they showed in the third and fourth quarters what that looks like.”

The Tigers had only one realistic opportunity to get into the end zone. Trailing 13-0 in the third quarter, a third-down conversion coupled with a roughing-the-passer penalty on Georgia’s Damon Wilson helped Clemson drive to the Georgia 6-yard line. There the Bulldogs dug in. After Mykel Williams dropped Klubnik for a 3-yard loss, his third-down pass under heavy pressure was out of reach in the end zone for receiver Cole Turner.