Playoff-snubbed Florida State, Georgia look to end seasons on high note in Orange Bowl

The sting still remains.

Neither the Florida State Seminoles nor the Georgia Bulldogs is competing in the College Football Playoff after both were in prime position entering their respective conference championships. Instead, No. 5 FSU (13-0) and No. 6 Georgia (12-1) meet Saturday in the 90th annual Capital One Orange Bowl, with kickoff from Hard Rock Stadium set for 4 p.m. It’s a great consolation prize, but a consolation prize nonetheless for two teams that were playoff contenders all season only to be on the outside looking in.

Nearly a month after the decision was made and on the eve of their season finale, both teams outwardly accepted their fate.

And when the game kicks off, both teams have a similar goal: End the season on as high of a note as they can.

“We’re excited for our opportunity,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said, “and it does go back to controlling the things you can control. There’s plenty of times in life — and I’ve told this to our team and each of the players — there’s going to be times in life where things don’t go the right way or the way that you expected them to go or maybe even what you’ve earned. You don’t always receive the reward for that, but you do control the response and what you do with it, where you go, and the attitude which you bring. That’s what’s going to define the identity of what you have. I know we’re going to go out [Saturday] and we’re going to fight with everything that we have to go put our best on that field.”

Added Georgia coach Kirby Smart about his Bulldogs: “They want to finish together. I think finishing is important. I don’t think enough people talk about it and everybody says ‘This is what you should do. This is what you should do.’ For kids that love football, they want to play football. This is the Orange Bowl.You’ve got an opportunity to go play in the Orange Bowl, and that’s not given to everybody.”

Both Florida State and Georgia felt they were among the top four college football teams, that they were deserving of being in the College Football Playoffs.

Depending on which way you interpret the argument, both had a case. FSU was undefeated and a conference champion but without its starting quarterback. Georgia was the defending back-to-back national champions who had won 29 consecutive games before a loss in the SEC Championship Game.

The College Football Playoff committee decided otherwise.

They viewed FSU, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion that won every game it played, as a lesser team without quarterback Jordan Travis, who sustained a season-ending leg injured on Nov. 18 against North Alabama.

And Georgia fell from No. 1 to out of the playoff field when it lost in the SEC title game to Alabama.

Added Georgia wide receiver Ladd McConkey: “Do I think that we were a top-four team? Definitely, but we didn’t win the [SEC Championship] game. I mean, we win that game and we take care of business, we’re in the playoffs. So I can’t really be too mad at anyone else when when it kind of came down to what we did. ... It’s every team’s go to make the playoffs, and if you don’t, you’re gonna be heartbroken.”

Georgia enters the game as a 19-and-a-half point favorite on Saturday, an understandably high number considering the state of both teams.

While the Seminoles and Bulldogs will have at least 20 players sitting out either due to injury, the transfer portal or entering the NFL Draft, most of Georgia’s inactive players are reserves. FSU, meanwhile, is down to its third-string quarterback in freshman Brock Glenn and will be without its top two running backs (Trey Benson and Lawrance Toafili) and its top three pass catchers (receivers Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson as well as tight end Jaheim Bell) as well as several starters on defense.

“For us, we always talk about that response,” Norvell said. “We talk about the mindset of what you’re going to bring to the things that you can’t control, and ultimately it still provides opportunity, which provides choice. That’s where the thing we’ve continued to hit with our guys and continued to hammer through this journey is that whether you’re a first year or whether you’re in your last year, this could be a defining moment for you, and so go make the most of it. Give it everything that you have. Try to block out all the outside noise and just continue to focus on your improvement and just being better than what you’ve been.”

As for Georgia’s motivation on Saturday?

“They want to go out on top,” Smart said. “They don’t want their last Georgia outing to be what was the SEC Championship. They put their minds to it, and it was a little bit of almost a contagious deal. One guy did it, another guy did it, and they wanted to play. Certainly very proud of that.”