By Ron Johnson
The Florida State Seminoles felt disrespected by not getting selected for the College Football Playoff. They felt they earned it and refused to even take the Orange Bowl matchup with Georgia seriously. They snubbed everyone, including their own fanbase, by opting to just focus on the NFL Draft and transferring to other schools instead of focusing on what matters…which was the chance to prove they belonged.
The issue is that the only ones who believed that was the Florida State Seminoles.
Too bad Georgia did not care about their feelings or the saltiness of the Sunshine State as they took the Seminoles to the woodshed and humbled the Seminoles in a way they have never been humbled before. Carson Beck completed 13 of his 18 passes for 203 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Kendall Milton added 104 yards on nine carries as the Bulldogs got back on the winning track with a 63-3 drubbing of the once undefeated Florida State.
The Seminoles were outmatched due in large part to a majority of their team opting out of playing in the New Years Six Series, but it didn’t stop them from shooting their mouths off during the lead-up to this game. The Seminoles stated that if they win this game, they should be crowned champions. Nice sentiment, but it would’ve helped if they believed they could stop the Dawgs.
Seminoles freshman quarterback Brock Glenn did his best to try to improve on his lackluster performance from the ACC Championship Game as he threw for 139 yards on nine completions out of 26 attempts but ended up throwing two interceptions for his troubles. Georgia was up bunches as they led 42-3 at the half and subbed in their backups as well. That did not stop the onslaught as they scored twice in the third and again in the fourth.
The defense made life miserable for the Seminoles as Malaki Starks and Daylen Everette each snagged a pick from them, while Mykel Williams added a sack.
The Bulldogs never let off the gas except in the end when they had a chance to tie the Orange Bowl Record for points (70). Rather than add to the insanity, they opted to take a knee and win one of the most lopsided Orange Bowls in history.
Now that all of this has been said, we can put this in the best way possible.
The Seminoles talked a lot of trash between the selection show and the game. They made it clear that they belonged in the College Football Playoff. But when it came time to put up or shut up, they chose to opt out and continue the trash talking. While I am a fan of trash talking, this was not the time to run your mouths then run home when it’s time to step up. Florida State had all the tools and talent to make a legit run in the CFP, but the problem that is before us is wondering if they could have beaten quite possibly the most dangerous team outside of the College Football when half of its team decides that they don’t want to play anymore because they didn’t get what they wanted.
Not only does this look bad for the program as a whole, but it also looks bad on the state that lays claim to having the best schools in the country. Georgia came in with something to prove, and to be fair, they proved it in dividends. The fact that Wes Muschamp got to watch his kid pull off a monster run in the fourth quarter from the Georgia sidelines should be enough to warrant that the Bulldogs were taken this as seriously as any game they had this season.
Georgia got humbled in the SEC Championship Game against Alabama, and they felt that it was up to them to return the favor to Florida State. While I concur that a majority of that program is NFL-bound, if you got a chance to prove to the Committee that they made a mistake, you take up the chance to do just that.
No matter who you root for, you shouldn’t feel bad for Florida State. They deserved to take this loss since their focus was solely on being salty about not getting what they thought they deserved.
The trouble is…they were the only ones who saw it their way, and the others did not matter.
Florida State, consider yourselves humbled.
