The most competitive aspect between the 5th ranked Seminoles and 6th ranked Bulldogs Saturday was the coinflip. From there, Georgia absolutely steamrolled Florida State 63-3 in a game that could have been much worse, had the Bulldogs not pulled their “starters” from the game early.
What should have been a revenge game for the undefeated ACC champions, turned into Seniors vs. Junior Varsity scrimmage as the Bulldogs scored at will, and forced FSU into 6 punts and 4 turnovers on the day.
Given the fact that Florida State was so distraught over being left out of the College Football Playoff that state lawmakers launched a lawsuit against the NCAA, one would have expected them to bring their A game in an effort to show the committee they were deserving of a top 4 ranking. Instead, the game will be remembered as much for who didn’t play as it will for anything that happened on the field.
In what will officially go down as the most lopsided score in bowl history, it can’t be overstated how depleted both rosters were on Saturday. A trend that has more than a few coaches and fans around the nation looking for change for 2024.
“People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this,” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said after the game. “It needs to be fixed. It’s very unfortunate that they have a good football team and a good football program and they’re in the position they’re in.”
When all was said and done, Florida State was without 29 scholarship players when they took the field for their Orange Bowl matchup. A total which included their top 2 quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers.
Florida State’s Missing Players:
Opt-Outs:
Trey Benson, RB, Jr.
Jared Verse, DE, Jr.
Johnny Wilson, WR, Jr.
Keon Coleman, WR, Jr.
Jaheim Bell, TE, Jr.
Fabian Lovett, DL, R-Sr.
Akeem Dent, DB, Sr.
Renardo Green, DB, Sr.
Jarrian Jones, DB, Sr.
Injury:
Jordan Travis, QB, R-Sr.
Lawrance Toafili, RB, R-Jr
Transfer Out:
CJ Campbell, RB, R-So
Preston Daniel, TE, R-Jr
Dylan Brown-Turner, LB, Fr
Markeston Douglas, TE, R-Jr
AJ Duffy, QB, R-Fr
Bless Harris, OL, R-Sr
Rodney Hill, RB, R-Fr
Tyler Keltner, K, R-Sr
DJ Lundy, LB, R-Jr
Malcolm Ray, DT, R-Jr
Daughtry Richardson, OL, Fr
Qae’shon Sapp, OL, Fr
Thomas Shrader, OL, R-Jr
Ayobami Tifase, DL, R-Fr
Tate Rodemaker, QB, R-Jr
Dwayne Wells, CB, Sr
That being said, what Seminoles fans seem to be casually overlooking is how many players the Bulldogs were missing as well in their matchup, including potential first round picks such as TE Brock Bowers and OT Amarius Mims.
For reference, here’s who didn’t suit up for Georgia when they took the field for the Orange Bowl Saturday:
With little left to play for beyond pride, coach Mike Norvell wasn’t altogether shocked to see a flood of players opt out or transfer after they weren’t selected as a top 4 team in the nation.
“Every situation is different,” Norvell said. “Ours was unique, something that’s never happened in college football. Ultimately, I think there was a lot of things that made it extremely challenging. I fully believe that if we would’ve come up short in the championship game, it might’ve been a little different.”
“It was hard choices for a lot of the young men that were on our team. We were hurt… When you do the things that our guys did throughout the year and the way that they responded, the way they fought, the way that they just pulled together, it hurt when we were not selected.”
Indeed Florida State seems to be caught attempting to “have their cake and eat it too”, claiming that missing players shouldn’t matter after being left out of the College Football Playoff (a decision made in large part due to QB Jordan Travis’ season ending injury), but then chalking up their 60 point throttling to how many players they were missing…
For all that they get wrong, if anything, this year’s Orange Bowl underscored a decision that the college football playoff selection committee got right by omitting the Seminoles. One can argue that they would have been a more competitive product than what they fielded Saturday if a National Championship was on the line, but there’s few who can honestly say they’d have expected a different result against Michigan, Alabama, Texas or Washington.
But that’s not to say that coach Smart doesn’t have a point. A common theme for this year’s slate of bowl games has been a lack of school pride and star power as players with NFL aspirations have opted out, while floods of others have hit the transfer portal in search of NIL money.
And few can blame the players. After decades of essentially acting as free labour for the NCAA, and driving billions of dollars into their school athletic departments’ coffers, one can understand why collegiate athletes are being swayed by the all-mighty dollar in their first chance at legitimate earnings.
Instead it’s the system in place that needs to be tweaked. Few will make the argument that we need to go back to the old ways before name, image and likeness deals. But even fewer still (save for agents and marketing departments) would put forth the argument that the current system is fine how it is.
There needs to be a comfortable middle ground. Something that allows athletes to continue to earn revenue for their on field performances, while incentivizing them to stay (and play) for their schools.
It’s an issue which college basketball seems to have temporarily avoided for the time being. Could you imagine if the top college basketball prospects suddenly started opting out of March Madness to prepare for the NBA draft? But that’s essentially what’s happening in football at the moment.
Whether it’s through the NCAA or schools sharing bowl revenue with players (good luck with that), or further expansion of the college football playoff, something has to give. Perhaps it’s the nature of “win or go home” single elimination competition that March Madness manages to hold onto its top talent, whereas there’s little to play for outside of a Pop-Tart on the football side of things.
While there was little that the competition committee could have done mid-stream to address the issues this year, if the nature of Bowl games & mid-season transfers isn’t at the top of the NCAA’s list of offseason items to address, then they’re doing a disservice to the sport.
If left unchecked, this will become an issue that gets worse before it gets better. And if that’s the case, then maybe the Pop-Tart mascot WILL be the best thing about Bowl season moving forward after all.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.