Without hesitation, it’s easy to pick the most anticipated and best matchup to open the 2021 college football season.

It’s the matchup between Georgia and Clemson in Charlotte that is the selection of all unbiased observers.

Not only is this game a terrific matchup on paper, both teams project to be in the top five when the official preseason polls are released, but the way Kirby Smart tells it, the two programs and their fan bases view each other as rivals.

While it’s been a while since the two have met, Georgia and Clemson previously faced off in 2013 and 2014, the football programs have met 64 times dating back to 1897.

During a recent appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Smart explained that these are the types of games the Georgia fan base wants to see on an annual basis.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Smart said on the show. “You go poll your fan base, which is really the most important thing, and you look at your alumni base, and you look at your financial supporters, you’re saying, ‘What do you guys want?’ And to a tee, they want to see these kinds of games.”

The way Smart tells it, last season’s all-SEC schedule ended up being the type of schedule all fans want to see moving forward.

“The one benefit we found last year was playing the conference games only, that was so important to the fans – they love those games,” Smart continued. “And to go out and get a Clemson which, you know, most of our financial supporters and our alumni base, that’s the game they grew up watching, they want that game.

“They want that game, year in and you’re out. That’s probably the same way for Clemson. I think Dabo would tell you the same thing. It’s a great opportunity to go out and play a really good program and open your season that way.”

Here is Smart’s interview clip, courtesy of Paul Finebaum’s Twitter account: