Playing a marquee opponent in your season-openers does a lot of good for a team.  It provides a chance to earn a win against a quality opponent on a national stage.  It provides a great matchup for fans, and will translate into an electric environment.  It gives coaches a chance to know where this team is right off the bat.

But for Georgia, high-profile season-openers have not been kind to the Bulldogs.  Georgia has lost its last three marquee openers, falling to Clemson last season, Boise State in 2011 and Oklahoma State in 2009.

However, the ‘Dawgs have a golden opportunity on Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m. EST in Athens to kick their season off in the right way.  Especially after South Carolina’s loss Thursday night.

It’s also the perfect chance to gain some confidence for a young, inexperienced team.

“It’s always important to create momentum early so we won’t have to worry about that or worry about teams losing ahead of us,” senior cornerback Damian Swann told the Athens Banner-Herald.  “If we win, it really won’t matter what anybody else does.  We just want to get ourselves in position to be able to be one of those top teams at the end of the year.”

Georgia has gotten off to slow starts in recent history and has had to climb out of holes.  The Bulldogs started 0-2 in 2011 and managed to reach the SEC Championship Game, but that’s surely not a hole the ‘Dawgs want to climb out of again.

“Everybody wants to win game one, everybody wants to have a positive start to the season,” head coach Mark Richt said.

A loss hurt during the BCS era, but it will hurt more with the arrival of the College Football Playoff.  The selection committee will look at losses, determine how a team should be penalized for a loss and how a team should be rewarded for a win.  It’s a glorified beauty contest.  Good wins over good teams will really help.  Bad losses against bad teams will hurt, but a loss against a good team in a good situation may not penalize you as badly.

Worrying about your performance in much easier when you’re playing a Buffalo or Louisiana-Lafayette, the two other teams the Bulldogs have opened with since 2010.

With two strong weeks, however, Georgia can be in the driver’s seat.  A win against Clemson on Saturday would go a long way in preparing for South Carolina two weeks later.  The Bulldogs have an open date in between, and making corrections off a victory and gaining momentum would be crucial for a Georgia team that could deliver the knockout blow to a Gamecock squad that is seemingly already on the ropes.

Said outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins, “that’s definitely the hard point to the season, when you have an open date and you lose.”