ATLANTA—Nick Saban retired during the offseason. You may have heard about it. His departure, along with Jim Harbaugh’s departure to the NFL, leaves college football with just three active head coaches who have won national championships. Two of them—the only two to have won more than one title—faced each other here Saturday.

The result underscored who the sport’s new king is. It’s two-time champion Kirby Smart, and it’s not close. The Georgia Bulldogs coach won his 40th straight regular-season game, beating the Clemson Tigers 34-3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. And his fellow two-time champion, Dabo Swinney, looks more like a has-been than ever.

The latest iteration of the Georgia beast looks a lot like its predecessors. The Bulldogs have guys all over the field, an endless supply of dominators and playmakers just waiting for their chance to show what they can do. Nine Dogs caught passes from quarterback Carson Beck against Clemson, and 22 others made tackles.

Star transfer running back Trevor Etienne, who transferred from the Florida Gatos, sat out after an offseason DUI. Touted freshman Nate Frazier had 83 yards on 11 carries in his first college football game. Linebacker Jalon Walker, who was 11th on the team in tackles last season, was unblockable for long stretches in the second half, collecting 1 ½ tackles for loss and 1 ½ sacks. Beck was a known commodity, but he showed a full range of talent by making a variety of throws and some timely runs.

The Bulldogs hit. They covered. They executed. They dominated.

The contrast between a very current Kirby and an aging Dabo is jarring. Swinney has beaten Smart twice and has yet to score a touchdown. A man who went toe-to-toe with Saban for years lies at Smart’s feet. This was Swinney’s worst loss since 2013, before he elevated Clemson to elite status.

Swinney didn’t sign a single transfer during the offseason, continuing his noble but anachronistic approach to building his team through high school recruiting and in-house player development. He’s also now lost three of his last four season openers and 11 of his last 41 games after going 79-7 the previous six seasons. It’s getting away from him.

There was little to no room to explain this punishment, so Swinney didn’t even bother. “Tyler from Spartanburg” might just be on Line One for Swinney’s next radio show, ready to go again.

“When you get beat like this, it’s the head coach’s fault,” he said. “That’s my fault. … When you lose like this, (the critics) have every right to say whatever they want to say.”

While Georgia’s defense is a monster, Clemson has yet to outperform it on offense. The Tigers generated one play longer than 19 yards and averaged just 3.6 yards per play.

The Tigers have become a place where the best players in that area fail. In the off-season there is constant talk of improvement, but it doesn’t really happen.

Coordinator Garrett Riley, brother of USC Trojans head coach Lincoln, was hired away from TCU for $1.75 million a year after the Horned Frogs reached the 2022 College Football Playoff championship game. Riley’s last TCU offense averaged 38.8 points and 455 yards per game; last season at Clemson, Riley’s unit averaged 29.8 points and 402.7 yards. Now this season’s team has managed 188 yards and three points, the lowest totals yet for Clemson under Riley.

Cade Klubnik was a five-star quarterback recruit—like DJ Uiagalelei before him. Klubnik was a pedestrian freshman starter in 2023, with a 126.35 pass efficiency rating that ranked 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference. His pass efficiency rating against Georgia on Saturday: 96.30. But this offensive horror show was a team effort: Klubnik’s receivers didn’t help him early with several dropped passes, and there were some crucial penalties.

Swinney defended Klubnik, saying he thought the quarterback was playing well. And, in typical fashion, the coach expressed confidence about the upcoming season.

“I feel good about our team,” Swinney said. “A loss is a loss; I hate to lose. So it hurts. This one will leave a mark. This one will be one I won’t forget.

“They didn’t hand out a national championship trophy tonight. We didn’t lose the ACC tonight.”

The ACC is indeed a bit of an early mess. Reigning champion Florida State was defeated by Georgia Tech last week. Trendy pick Virginia Tech was surprised by perennial Southeastern Conference doormat Vanderbilt on Saturday. And the once mighty Tigers were made fools of in Atlanta.

Smart was asked after the game about the transfer portal as it relates to Clemson. Smart himself isn’t a huge portal dabbler, choosing to just fill a few holes as they appear. But he recognizes the need for it.

“If you give me every kid I sign, they stay in my program for four years and they can’t leave, I’d take that any day of the week,” he said. “But if we’re going to lose kids, we’ve got to replace them. … It’s a forced situation. You’ve got to use it.”

Swinney is a self-made success, in part because of his stubborn belief in himself and how he builds a program. He’s been successful with that approach long enough that it’s become difficult to get him to see the need for radical changes. Starting 4-4 ​​last season led to the “Tyler from Spartanburg” moment and a greater level of criticism than Swinney has had to endure in more than a decade, but then Clemson rallied to win its final five games, and Swinney could argue that his approach is still viable.

The same could happen here. Losing to Georgia is no great shame, even if the margin was brutal. Losing in the season opener is less costly than ever with the expanded playoffs looming. We have a whole season ahead of us.

But the days when Clemson could compete with the best programs in the country are fading like a Trevor Lawrence jersey left out in the sun. This was a matchup between the two most successful active coaches in college football, and it was an absolute drubbing of Dabo Swinney by Kirby Smart.