What’s at stake for FSU football in the Orange Bowl? More than you think
DANIA BEACH — There’s not much juice around Saturday’s Orange Bowl between No. 4 Florida State and No. 6 Georgia thanks to immense attrition on both sides.
Injuries, opt-outs and the transfer portal have taken away nine Seminoles who started the regular-season finale. The Bulldogs are down at least 17 players who are in the portal (including three with starting experience this year) and might not have star tight end Brock Bowers or offensive lineman Amarius Mims, either.
It’s still a better matchup than the inaugural Orange Bowl in 1935. That’s when the “roly-poly boys from Bucknell,” as the Miami Herald wrote, beat the Hurricanes 26-0 while 5,000 spectators “looked on in comparative boredom.” And, perhaps, a more meaningful one than the January 1939 exhibition when Robert Neyland’s undefeated Tennessee Volunteers shut out unbeaten Oklahoma and didn’t win the national title in an era where the final Associated Press poll came out before bowls.
In that context, Saturday’s exhibition has plenty of value. You just have to dig for it.
Scan what’s left of the roster, and you see young players primed for bigger role s. After being thrown into the starting lineup against Louisville when Tate Rodemaker was a late scratch, quarterback Brock Glenn has had ample time to prepare for this game — and prove he’s capable of battling for the starting job next season.
“I love his attitude,” coach Mike Norvell said during Friday’s news conference at Le Méridien Dania Beach at Fort Lauderdale Airport. “I love his approach. I think he’s very talented. He’s got all the characteristics you look for and what you want a quarterback to be. He learned some lessons in that first game, and now it’s an opportunity to go and improve and help those guys around him to go play at the highest level that we possibly can.”
The guys around him include other inexperienced players set for larger opportunities. Finally eligible after two transfers, defensive lineman Darrell Jackson will make his FSU debut and show his value for next season. With Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman out, Hykeem Williams can flash his five-star potential against an elite opponent instead of in garbage-time against an overmatched foe.
“This ain’t North Alabama,” defensive back Shyheim Brown said.
The fact that it’s Georgia matters, too. Though the Bulldogs and Seminoles aren’t traditional rivals, they both scout Georgia and Florida heavily and chase the same prospects — like five-star athlete KJ Bolden (who flipped from FSU to Georgia on signing day) or blue-chip quarterback Luke Kromenhoek (who turned down a late Bulldogs offer to stick with FSU).
“We’ve recruited more and more against them recently as they’ve returned to prominence,” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said.
The early signing day has changed the importance of a bowl win in recruiting because almost every high school senior has already signed. But Smart said a marquee victory can be another selling point as programs compete for transfers and hit the road next month with a heavy focus on the 2025 class.
Momentum can show up another way, too. Jimbo Fisher credited FSU’s Orange Bowl win over Northern Illinois after the 2012 season as “part of the maturation of your organization” that fueled a 29-game winning streak and the next year’s national championship.
The Seminoles will have their own claim to history with a victory. They can’t win the College Football Playoff, but going 14-0 will give pollsters something to consider, especially if one-loss Alabama or Texas wins the CFP.
“If we can be one of the last teams standing undefeated,” defensive lineman Braden Fiske said, “what does that say?”
Not as much as it did in previous years and decades when this game decided national titles. But not nothing, either.
Coach of the year
Norvell earned another national honor Friday: the Dodd Trophy. It’s given annually to the coach who exemplifies “scholarship, leadership and integrity” while having on-field success. The only other FSU coach to earn the honor was Bobby Bowden in 1980.
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