Growing up in the Low Country of South Carolina in the 1980s was a good time, especially if you loved college football.

Like I do now, I hated the summers. Not because of the heat or anything like that, but because it was the only thing standing in the way of the college football season. I used to drive my mom crazy with wanting to buy all the preseason magazines.

I had them all. Athlon, Lindy’s, the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. I got the regional and the national ones too. If it was about the upcoming college football season, I would have wanted it.

My Mom would ask, “Willie, why do you need to read all of those magazines?” My response, “Because I might miss something.”

This was how I got myself through the summer. I loaded up on all the knowledge I could on about every team in the country, especially those that were going to play the Tigers.

One team I always went to first, and I mean always, was the Georgia Bulldogs. I wanted to know what Vince Dooley and the Bulldogs had that season.

At the time, Georgia was how Clemson measured itself. In those days, Clemson vs. Georgia was everything.

It was always the biggest game of the year for Clemson. If the Tigers beat Georgia, they had a great season. If they lose to Georgia, the season was a dud. At least that was the way I saw it as a 10-,11-, 12-, 13-, 14- and 15-year-old boy.

I lived and died by the Georgia result in those days. I hated the Bulldogs. I mean I hated them, probably more than I hated South Carolina, to be honest.

In those days, Clemson-Georgia played in some huge games. I am talking about the kind of game that changed the college football landscape in those days.

Clemson vs. Georgia was one of the biggest games in college football every year. It was a natural rivalry. It was always played in the first month of the season.

Both fan bases dislike each other. The universities are 70 miles apart. The coaches recruited the same players.

And more importantly, they were both good programs.

Clemson and Georgia were two of the winningest programs in the 1980s. The Tigers were the fifth winningest team of the decade, while the Bulldogs were ranked seventh.

They also won national championships. Georgia won the 1980 National Title, while Clemson won it all in 1981.

They also had Hall of Fame head coaches in Georgia’s Vince Dooley and Clemson’s Danny Ford.

The matchups were what you might expect from two top 10 programs. They were close. They were physical and they always delivered with the drama.

In 1983, both teams missed back-to-back 50-yard plus field goals in the finals seconds of a 16-16 tie.

Kevin Butler’s 60-yard field goal in 1984, as the Bulldogs knocked off second-ranked Clemson.

David Treadwell’s 49-yard field goal as time expired in 1986, as the Tigers stunned Georgia in Athens.

Treadwell broke the Bulldogs’ hearts again in 1987, as Clemson completed a late comeback with a 21-yard field goal with two seconds to play.

The Clemson-Georgia game was almost as good as a cold glass of sweet tea on a hot summer day.

I wonder if they will have sweet tea in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium press box next Saturday in Atlanta.