CLEMSON, SC (FOX Carolina) – No. 14 Clemson football opens the season Saturday against No. 1 Georgia, and the Tigers hope the way last season ended carries over into this one.

The last time Clemson took the field in an official game, they set a school record with a last-second fourth-quarter victory over Kentucky in the Gator Bowl.

FOX Carolina asked their second-year offensive coordinator Garrett Riley what that performance means for the first quarter of this season.

“I just saw it as a momentum builder,” Riley said. “We didn’t do anything earth-shattering, we didn’t suddenly start calling big plays, it wasn’t magic that happened, it just clicked. I think it was a huge momentum builder to finish the way we did.”

The Tigers are capitalizing on that momentum not only for Riley’s sophomore year, but also for his second year as a starter for quarterback Cade Klubnik.

“You have a boy now who is confident because last season ended so well and he took the momentum into the summer,” Riley said of Klubnik. “Now he has game experience and he experienced a lot of close and tight games last year. I think he will take a big step forward but of course he has to do it on game day.”

Klubnik agreed, saying his motivation this year was that he saw the potential of the team, which finished last season with a five-game winning streak.

The entire camp, all the players and coaches have said that Klubnik has taken on a stronger leadership role before the start of his junior season against No. 1 Georgia.

“I just sent my message to the team: If you wake up today with a different energy than you did every single day of fall camp, then we did fall camp wrong,” Klubnik said at the start of the team’s first week of play. “We should have had that mindset all fall camp. And I think we had that mindset all fall camp.”

Almost 300 days after their last victory, a new season begins.

“Everything will be tested on Saturday,” said defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin. “There’s no escape on Saturday.”

There’s no place to hide, and the Tigers don’t want to. Throughout training camp, players and coaches have said repeatedly that they’re grateful to start the season against the top-ranked team in the country because it allows them to focus extra on their spring and summer preparations, knowing they’re about to be tested.

No. 14 Clemson is the underdog, two touchdowns behind No. 1 Georgia, and starts the season on Saturday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

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