No playoff this time for Georgia football, but Bulldogs bring own urgency to Orange Bowl

The matchup screamed for a cutesy moniker from the get-go.

Georgia football vs. Florida State in the Snub Bowl, er Orange Bowl.

The teams locked out of the four-team College Football Playoff had reason to be stung.

Florida State issued strongly-worded statements aimed at the CFP committee.

Georgia took its three-point loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game more in stride and didn’t raise a stink once its fate was sealed.

Turns out many key players are themselves snubbing Saturday’s 4 p.m. Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

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Most of those appear to be on the unbeaten and No. 5 Seminoles who already were without injured star quarterback Jordan Travis and saw opt outs by backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker, its top three pass-catchers (wideouts Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson and tight end Jaheim Bell), its leading rusher (Trey Benson) and sack leader (Jared Verse).

Georgia players went home for a Christmas break without any public opt-outs, but tight end Brock Bowers and offensive tackle Amarius Mims — both projected first round picks — may sit out the game for the No. 6 Bulldogs.

“I know a couple of guys at Florida State so I know how it was for them,” Georgia defensive lineman Warren Brinson said in a “Players Lounge” interview. “One of my friends told me we’re going to be playing the third and fourth team because most of those guys aren’t going to play. It’s just hard to prep yourself up for a situation where, honestly in our eyes, we’re playing for nothing. We’re not going to get the ring. We’re going to get the $800 check.”

Bowls can provide gifts of up to $550 per player and schools can also offer gifts.

Brinson spoke before the Bulldogs got into the meat of their bowl practices.

Kirby Smart, finishing his eighth season as Georgia’s coach, didn’t sound like he was letting up in his intensity.

“We've tried to make it the same sense of urgency,” he said. “There's times you have to step back and look and take a deep breath and say, ‘We're getting these guys better, we're working really hard, we're buying in.’ The leadership on this team has been absolutely incredible because what I hear from other coaches about these type games, it's been a nightmare for them. It has not been a nightmare for us."

The players want to end the 2023 season on a high note.

"We’ve got dudes out there practicing," Smart said. "This is their last go-around. I told them, the next time about 15 or 20 you guys are practicing, you're going to be trying to make a roster. You only have 10 or 15 practices to make a roster spot in the NFL. Use these practices to help you make a roster and get better.”

Other players sounded like they had something to play for in the New Year’s Six game even though Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama are in games that matter the most in the playoff.

Georgia’s 29-game SEC winning streak came to an end and at 12-1, the Bulldogs were left out of the CFP after the loss to the Crimson Tide.

“It’s definitely not the ideal situation, but I’m looking at guys like Sedrick Van Pran, Xavier Truss, Marcus Rosemy and knowing we can send them off as the winningest class in Georgia history, that sparks a fire I’m pretty sure in everybody in this team,” left tackle Earnest Greene said.

Georgia’s current senior class would improve to 50-4 with a victory, topping the 49-5 record of the 2022 senior class.

“Definitely we have something to prove,” tight end Oscar Delp said. “They’re a great team, 13-0. This win will send our senior class out as the winningest senior class in the history of Georgia football. So I mean that’s huge, send those guys out the right way. They deserve it.”

After being the first unbeaten Power Five team to miss out on the playoff, Florida State’s falling out with the ACC hit another level when it sued the conference three days before Christmas to get out of more than $500 million in withdrawal penalties.

Going 13-0 and winning the ACC title wasn’t enough to make the playoff.

Cornerback Jarrian Jones told reporters it “left him numb,” and it was like “someone ripped your heart out of the chest,” but said there’s nothing else the team could have done.

He said he “cried for like a week straight,” after getting left out. Jones isn't listed on the Florida State depth chart released this week.

“You had to work through disappointment, frustration, anger, every bit of it,” Florida State coach Mike Norvell said after an on-campus bowl practice. “It’s hard. … We did everything that we needed to do to win 13 games this season. Now we get an opportunity to go get better.”

Georgia is playing in its first non-playoff bowl game since the Peach Bowl win over Cincinnati to end the 2020 season. Offensive tackle Xavier Truss started in that game. Six others who saw action in that game that remain: Arian Smith, Kendall Milton, Tramel Walthour, Zion Logue, Daijun Edwards and William Mote.

“We’ve been treating it just like we treat every week,” Delp said. “We’re preparing the same way we prepared for Ohio State last year. They got that whole schedule that they go for or that we go off for bowl games.”

That means physical, fast practices, Delp said.

“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they... thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.”

That was the last bowl game Georgia lost. It has won six straight postseason games since then including the two national championship wins.

“They want to finish on the top,” Smart said. “A lot of them that want to walk off that field for the last time on the winning side. There's a lot of competitive character.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football seeks strong close vs. Florida State team minus stars