Why winning mattered to Georgia football on a non-playoff stage in an era of opt-outs

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The 2023 Georgia football team ended its season by getting another trophy and for the second year in a row by annihilating an opponent by 60 or more points.

Running back Kendall Milton, in what’s expected to be his final game in a Georgia uniform, was having a blast afterwards lobbing oranges as game MVP, one by one into the crowd and to teammates after the 63-3 lashing of Florida State.

The Georgia players shared a postgame locker room together one final time, but something was notably missing from the last two years.

Cigar smoke.

Those were lit up after winning national titles in the 2021 and 2022 season.

Not for beating a decimated Florida State team in a non-playoff Orange Bowl.

More: Georgia football stomps undermanned Florida State in Orange Bowl to finish season 13-1

More: Did any part of Georgia football not get a high grade in Orange Bowl romp over Seminoles?

Sure, they played Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” after it was over but this wasn’t what Georgia wanted, of course.

That was almost an afterthought after boat racing previously unbeaten Florida State to finish the season 13-1.

Yes, Georgia will finish with a top 5 finish for the fourth time in the last five years and a top 8 finish for the seventh straight season.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was at the game, but Hard Rock Stadium seemed to be roughly about 75 percent full.

At least 28 Florida State players opted out, were injured or transferred.

Even the SEC Network gave short shrift to the game on its Friday night preview/wrap-up show with so much of the focus on Alabama playing in the Rose Bowl national semifinal game Monday.

It seemed to certainly matter for Georgia as it goes into the offseason with momentum. Music was blaring in the locker room and when it was shut off, senior center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger yelled to put it back on.

Why was this game so important to Georgia anyway?

“Just going out the right way, you feel me,” nickelback Tykee Smith said. “The last game we had we didn’t go out the right way so we wanted to finish it all going out the right way.”

Two years ago, Georgia football bounced back from an SEC championship loss to Alabama with a College Football Playoff semifinal win at Hard Rock Stadium against Michigan

That was the first of 29 straight wins for the Bulldogs that included back-to-back national championships.

Georgia would certainly love this victory over No. 5 Florida State to be the first of another string of victories.

"They balled out today," said star tight end Brock Bowers, one of only a few Georgia opt-outs although Bowers' was injury related.

Nazir Stackhouse, a senior defensive lineman, said winning mattered to Georgia because “it’s more than just cigars. Winning to us is more than moving on to the next level. Yes, we tripped at the finish line and this game was more than just proving anything to the CFP, proving we can beat an ACC team. It was just so we can leave the seniors and guys that are going out on a great note. We lost a really crucial game in the SEC championship, but we were able to move on from that and work really hard for two weeks straight, come down here to Miami and dominate against FSU.”

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck had said he pretty much knew the Bulldogs’ chances to get in the playoff died with the 27-24 loss to Alabama in Atlanta.

“That was our playoff game, two top-ranked teams in the SEC championship,” Beck said two days before the game. “Whoever wins was probably going to get in.”

Georgia will be front and center with spotlight games in 2024.

Road trips to Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss — the toughest road games Georgia has played since a trip to Tuscaloosa in 2020 — and opening with Clemson in Atlanta.

Georgia should have plenty of playoff games ahead.

The postseason tournament is expanding from four to 12 teams. Based on the final CFP rankings, four SEC teams including Georgia would have made the field this year.

Even in a 16-team league with Texas and Oklahoma, Georgia is built to be among the conference’s elite and make a run for another national title.

Smart, who will enter his ninth season, is showing no signs of let down even if his voice sounded like the last month of juggling roster comings and goings and bowl prep had gotten to him.

“I think a lot of coaches relax at the end of the year and say this game doesn't matter or this game is not important,” Smart said.

Smart is not in that camp, which may be why Georgia won 13 games and the senior class won a program record 50. Smart and his team will get ready to make another national title run with an offseason that begins now.

“As long as winning matters we're going to compete like hell at Georgia,” Smart said. “It doesn't matter who it is.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Why Georgia football 'competed like hell' in non-playoff Orange Bowl