In the painful Orange Bowl, UGA and FSU both showed CFP why change needed to happen

MIAMI — This was a debacle, and Kirby Smart knew it. He was the one who benefited from it. His Georgia team finished the season feeling very good about itself, sending the message that if one bad game had been forgiven, it very likely would have won a third straight national championship.

But that wasn’t the point. That wasn’t the biggest takeaway from this game, a 63-3 Georgia loss in a decimated Florida state that embarrassed college football.

“People need to see what happened tonight and they need to fix this. It needs to be fixed,” Smart said.

Smart doesn’t get on a soapbox often and usually tries to avoid headlines. This was out of character. But it was clear that as happy as he was with the way his team played, he also felt sorry for what Florida State coach Mike Norvell and his remaining players had to endure. The Seminoles were down more than 20 players who finished the season with the team, including six starters who opted out to prepare for the 2024 NFL Draft.

Kirby Smart brought up the state of Florida’s opt-outs without being asked:

“People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix it. … It’s really unfortunate for the guys on the sidelines who had to play in that game when they didn’t have their full arsenal.

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) December 31, 2023

Georgia, meanwhile, didn’t have a single uninjured player behind them. Much of the difference can be attributed to the loss in Georgia. Much of it is a tribute to Georgian team culture.

Some of it will be solved next year with the expansion of the College Football Playoff. Florida State would have been a much better team if this had been a Playoff game. But because this was not the case, it ultimately became a joke of a match, two teams that no longer belonged on the same field.

“It’s very unfortunate that they, who have a good football team and a good football program, are in the position that they are in,” Smart said. “Anyone can say it’s their fault and it’s not our problem. They can say we had our boys and they didn’t have their boys. I can listen to all that. But college football has to decide what they want.

“I know things are changing, and some things will change next year. You know what, there will still be bowl games out there. People have to decide what they want and what they want to get out of it. Because it’s really too bad for those kids on the sidelines who had to play in that game that didn’t have their full arsenal. And it affected the game 100 percent.”

It affected the game in a way that shouldn’t happen in a legendary bowl game. But that’s where the sport is now.

There was Ladd McConkey, after taking a lateral for a trick pass, deciding to stop and run and passing through the hapless Seminoles for a 27-yard touchdown.

There was a Georgia defensive line blocking and Mykel Williams still charging through for the sack-strip fumble. That was one of two times Georgia got to the quarterback despite a penalty against Florida State.

Midway through the second quarter, the referee announced that Florida State had called a team-out. A slip of the tongue. But accurate.

Georgia, meanwhile, was almost herself. There were six contributors who were ineligible: Brock Bowers, Amarius Mims, Smael Mondon, Rara Thomas, Julian Humphrey and Christen Miller. Everyone but Miller was known to be dealing with injuries, and Miller is a redshirt freshman who has been practicing, so he may have suffered a late injury.

This was also a Georgia team that stayed together because of wounded pride, after the loss to Alabama and subsequent fall from the four-team Playoff field.

“We knew we were one of the top four teams in college football,” senior nose tackle Zion Logue said. “We stumbled across the finish line in the SEC Championship. But we came out and showed today that we are still the University of Georgia and we will dominate when we take the field.”

“It’s just a standard. We always want to win,” sophomore cornerback Daylen Everette said. “That’s really all you can say.”

Music then sounded in the dressing room. Players took photos together: Mondon with the two young linebackers (CJ Allen and Raylen Wilson) who started in his place. Carson Beck with McConkey, perhaps a final moment when the latter turns pro.

You don’t feel much anger or regret about it. Having those last two rings to look back on is part of it. Players who were used to winning national championships wore fine hats that said CHAMPS, with Orange Bowl in smaller letters.

GO DEEPER

Emerson: A subdued Orange Bowl shows why the 12-team Playoff should have happened a year earlier

Smart closed his press conference with a story about one of the players sitting next to him: cornerback Kamari Lassiter, a junior who was given a first- or second-round grade by the NFL.

“Kamari, you should come for the draft,” Smart told Lassiter. “You’re one of the top corners in the draft, you have to make that decision.”

And there was a second decision to be made: whether to play in the Orange Bowl. If Lassiter opted out, Smart was fine with that.

“I don’t know if you have much to prove in this bowl game, Kamari,” Smart told him. ‘But I do know who you are. And I know how you practice, and I know how you lead. And I won’t be disappointed in whatever you decide.”

A few days later, Lassiter and his mother met with Smart, and the decision was essentially made to sit out the game. But a few days later, Lassiter called Smart.

“Coach, I can’t do it,” he said, according to Smart. “I’m there coaching. I can not do it. I want to play there with my boys.’

Lassiter started Saturday and played almost the entire first half. He sat for most of the second half, as did many of the starters. Georgia got early insight into players who could have a bigger role next year, like new No. 2 quarterback Gunner Stockton, who then gave way to the walk-ons. Jackson Muschamp went in and ran 14 yards for a first down as his father, Georgia co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, beamed and laughed.

A feel-good moment. That was a lot for Georgia, which deserves a lot of credit for the way it played and how many players it had.

But for the state of Florida and college football in general, this was ridiculous. Maybe next year it will resolve naturally. Maybe the non-Playoff bowls should be able to pay players so they don’t opt ​​out. Or maybe no one cares about the other bowls as long as they get good TV ratings. (Which they do.) And maybe Georgia waxing someone 63-3 isn’t a problem when it beat TCU 65-7 in the national championship last year.

The expanded Playoff is going to be great. It means more meaningful football matches will take place in December and more fans will participate down the road and in more parts of the country. It’s good for the sport.

What we saw on Saturday was not that.

(Photo: Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty)