On the College GameDay Podcast, ESPN’s Rece Davis and Pete Thamel forecasted big outcomes for Week 1 of the college football season.

Davis, the host of College GameDay, weighed in on what we will learn when Clemson and LSU meet at Clemson’s Death Valley on Saturday, Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m., ABC).

“We will learn that — no matter how many times you put Clemson Tiger paws on practice hitting bags, on tackling dummies, no matter how many times you put 1-0 in your building – you don’t just waltz into Death Valley, watch ole Dabo run down the hill and stroll out with a victory,” Davis said, “and the ACC will have bragging rights and I will be able to use the stat once again that LSU has not started a season 1-0 since Joe Burrow was the quarterback.”

“That’s not to say I’m giving up on LSU,” Davis added. “LSU still might win the SEC, still might go to the playoff. But we’ll find out the ACC gets bragging rights Week 1 in Death Valley.”

Davis was referencing the recent comments from LSU head coach Brian Kelly. He detailed exactly how he has been trying to motivate his team ahead of the highly anticipated showdown against Dabo Swinney’s Tigers, saying that LSU’s facility is littered with Clemson paw prints.

“Goal-setting is something we are all very familiar with in college football. Everybody talks about goals,” Kelly said. “We have made this a specific goal, meaning it is tangible for our guys. You go through our weight room, and we have a Clemson paw print on the bags that we hit every day. It is on every monitor in the building to go 1-0.”

Kelly also said recently that he has “circled the game [against Clemson] and I’ve never done that before in openers.”

“It’s all over our weight room. It’s all over our workouts. We’re wearing shirts. We’re doing the kumbaya of ‘we’re playing Clemson, and we need to beat Clemson,” Kelly said.

“Is that too much pressure? No. I think we’ve got enough mature veteran guys on this team. We had a clear conversation about why we’re doing it, and they’re all in on that.”

Thamel touched on those comments from Kelly, who is 0-3 in season openers at LSU since taking over as the program’s head coach in 2022.

“It was interesting to see how intentional Brian Kelly was about that… He really doubled down on, like, I’ve never done this in my career, but we’re going all in – no pun intended – on Week 1,” Thamel said. “Like, they are changing the philosophy of their program to dial in on the opener even more. And I thought that was very interesting. It was very calculated, and yeah, it’s going to be really interesting.”

Clemson and LSU have met four times on the gridiron, with LSU holding a 3-1 advantage in the all-time series. The two programs have squared off twice during Swinney’s tenure, splitting the two contests. The most recent matchup came in the 2019 national title game with LSU winning 42-25.

Going into the 2025 season, Davis has Clemson as his preseason No. 1 team in the country.

“Do I think Clemson’s going to blow [LSU] out? No, of course not. I think that’ll be a great, great football game,” Davis said. “But as you know, I’m high on Clemson… I’m not sure that I’m picking them to win the national championship. Because when you do preseason, you’re like, OK, where do you anticipate these teams starting? And to start, I have Clemson preseason No. 1. If the game were in Baton Rouge, I’d probably pick LSU. The game’s at Clemson, I’m gonna pick [Clemson].”

Davis believes the Week 1 matchup could potentially be a preview of this season’s College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, Jan. 19 at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

“LSU and Clemson, I think the end takeaway is going to be, we might see those two play again in Miami,” he said.

–Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee-Imagn Images