'Joyless Murderball' On Full Display In Georgia's Punishing Win

ATLANTA - Georgia coach Kirby Smart earned his stripes as an assistant under Nick Saban, and he has become an expert on coaching like him, too. The Bulldogs are the 900-pound gorilla in the room, destroying everything in its sights, and Clemson was in its crosshairs on Saturday.

Head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

"Joyless murderball" was a nickname given to Saban’s Alabama teams of the 2010s due to their unrelenting, suffocating nature as they ascended to college football greatness. No. 1 Georgia’s 34-3 win over No. 14 Clemson on Saturday afternoon is further proof that "joyless murderball" has migrated one state east and is alive and well with Smart and the Bulldogs.

Georgia didn’t care that its offense looked sloppy against a good Clemson defense in the first half. It threw its punches - landed a few - and waited Clemson out until the Tigers tapped out like a fighter who took too many body blows. Twenty-eight second-half points later, the Bulldogs re-introduced themselves to the world as if they never left.

Quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Carson Beck threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns, and freshman running back Nate Frazier - who looks like he’s been cloned by a 3D running back printer hidden in some science building on campus - added 83 yards and a touchdown on the ground. At halftime, those numbers seemed about as believable as Kamala Harris in a sit-down interview.

ATHENS, Ga. - Carson Beck #15 of the Georgia Bulldogs passes during the second quarter against the Clemson Tigers in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 31, 2024.  (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

We throw the word "dynasty" around in college football too much. There doesn’t always have to be one because, by definition, a "dynasty" is a succession of rulers of the same line of descent.

Georgia didn’t get the job done last year. However, it was more due to the fact that the Bulldogs lost at the wrong time rather than a sign of their demise. Had Georgia lost a little bit earlier in the season or the College Football Playoff landscape shifted into its favor, it is possible that it would have become the first team to win three straight national titles since Minnesota from 1934-36.

Is Smart’s Georgia program at the same level as Saban’s Alabama teams of the mid-2010s? Not yet.

Give it a few months, though. If Georgia hoists the College Football Playoff National Championship trophy in January in the same building it walked out of with a win on Saturday, we could be talking about a coach who is on the fast track to be even better than the G.O.A.T.