Congrats to the Georgia Bulldogs who will now get to hang the “We beat Florida State’s third team really bad in a bowl game” banner. If ever a result didn’t matter it was Saturday’s Orange Bowl.
Florida State had 23 players opt out of the Orange Bowl, and that included more than 50% of their offensive production, and future NFLers on both sides of the ball.
I didn’t watch the Orange Bowl, because I didn’t have to. There was nothing proven by playing today. In fact I haven’t watched much of bowl season at all. I’ve watched two full bowl games Georgia Tech’s and Clemson’s, because those are two schools I attended. I’ve tuned into parts of the other ACC bowl games, and none of Florida State’s. I would say I’ve caught about 10-15% of the worst most meaningless bowl season in history. The games have stunk, the matchups boring, and the quality of play has been poor.
On Saturday, we already knew Georgia was good. I’m not taking anything away from them. The two-time defending champions were 3 points from going for a three-peat. They’ll have a shot to win another title next year. Predictably with the vast majority of their roster playing, they blew out a completely depleted Florida State team.
This doesn’t change the fact that Florida State was robbed of playing for a national title.
Florida State will be in the ACC next year, and from that perspective, they should be an ACC contender despite a ton of roster turnover. The schedule is sneaky difficult though. Out of Conference, they will host Florida which has their own issues, but also they have to go to Notre Dame and face a Memphis team coming off a 10-win season. Clemson is still formidable, and a game in Ireland with a much improved Georgia Tech team will be an early test in August.
Mike Norvell did an amazing job building a playoff team because that is what they were. I’m not sure the Noles can match another 13-0 season, especially with so much to replace, but in the era of the transfer portal, I wouldn’t bet against them finding themselves in the top 12 and getting into the playoffs next year as an at-large team or ACC Champion.
Today meant nothing about the 2023 season, or the future of the FSU program.
They are in good hands with Mike Norvell who has re-established Florida State as a top 15 football program.
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