Orange Bowl offers 'culture test' for Georgia, Florida State

It’s official. Georgia and Florida State, the first two teams out of the College Football Playoffs, will meet on December 30th in Miami Gardens for the 2023 Capital One Orange Bowl, and ESPN’s analysts are already discussing whether we’ll see motivated teams or opt outs across the board.

“This is a culture test really more than anything else,” Greg McElroy said. “Both teams are on the heels of tremendous disappointment today with the result of the top four, here’s an opportunity to say, ‘Alright, we can do what some teams have done in the past and lay an egg and not be motivated to be here and look terrible, or you can come out and look like TCU did in 2014 and absolutely destroy Ole Miss and send a message to the College Football world that we we wronged.’ It can go one or the other direction, and I think this is a tremendous matchup. I can’t wait to watch it.”

Georgia was last in this situation, not in the College Football Playoffs, in 2020. The Bulldogs, with several opt outs, beat undefeated Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl. They did the same thing the year before in 2019 with a win over Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. However, in 2018, it was a different story. Coming off of the disappointment of an SEC Championship Game loss to Alabama, Georgia showed up flat in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl matchup with Texas and lost as 11-point favorites.

“This will be interesting to me because we’re in the phase of, ‘Who plays in the game? Who is going to play?'” Joey Galloway added to the conversation about the Orange Bowl. “Florida State will be more motivated than a Georgia team that has just won two national championships and didn’t get in the Playoffs, so it’ll be interesting to see who comes to play in this game for Georgia. If everybody shows up, this is one heck of a matchup.”

Several Georgia players will have decisions to make in the coming few days and weeks in the lead-up to the Orange Bowl. Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey both played through obvious pain in the SEC Championship Game, each wearing braces on an injured ankle and leaving the field at times with noticeable limps. Nobody would blame them if they decided to sit this one out – especially if they’re off to the NFL after this season. Then there’s guys like Kamari Lassiter, Sedrick Van Pran, Smael Mondon and others with draft decisions that could impact whether or not they decide to play.

“Right or wrong, whatever you think about it, it becomes a test for people moving on,” Rece Davis said in a general conversation about bowl opt outs. “Are you going to play in this game? It’s a big thing. (LSU quarterback) Jayden Daniels, might very well win the Heisman Trophy. Whatever bowl game LSU ends up in, will he play? Is it smart for him to play? Can he get the insurance policy to make it worth playing? … I want to see them because I’m a fan, but I have no issue whatsoever if a guy in a bowl game, because these games were founded to be exhibition games and in many instances that what these are, and if a guy makes that decision to protect his future, I’ve got zero issue with it. But I sure would like to see them all play, because we enjoy watching that.”

“You go back to when Alabama had Will Anderson and Bryce Young last year, both of them decided to play in the game. I think it depends on the culture and how your coach presents it. Do you want to go out and play one more game with your brothers and try to win a meaningful game?,” Booger McFarland added. “But I also understand the fact of this: football is a team sport, but the business of football is an individual business. For guys going to the National Football League, you have to protect that investment. I’m not going to say that a guy is right or wrong, I’d just be disappointed if we don’t see the best players in College Football one more time this season.”

According to Action Network, the projected line for Georgia-Florida State sets the Bulldogs as 12-point favorites. As Galloway explained though, the Seminoles are likely to be the more motivated team, becoming the first-ever undefeated Power Five conference champion to get left out of the College Football Playoffs.

“I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the games. What is the point of playing games? Do you tell players it is okay to quit if someone goes down? Do you not play a senior on Senior Day for fear of injury? Where is the motivation to schedule challenging non-conference games? We are not only an undefeated P5 conference champion, but we also played two P5 non-conference games away from home and won both of them. I don’t understand how we are supposed to think this is an acceptable way to evaluate a team,” Florida State head coach Mike Norvell shared in a statement.

“I’m hurting for our players who have displayed a tremendous amount of resilience and response this season. What happened today goes against everything that is true and right in college football. A team that overcame tremendous adversity and found a way to win doing whatever it took on the field was cheated today. It’s a sad day for college football,” he continued. “I’m proud of the work we have put in and the players I have the privilege to coach. We have one more opportunity to define this 2023 team in the Orange Bowl, and I believe in how our team will respond.”

Both Norvell and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart are expected to meet with members of the media virtually Sunday afternoon.