Two teams who wish they were playing one another in a different bowl game square off, as two-time reigning national champion Georgia Bulldogs take on the 13-0 Atlantic Coast Conference title-winning Florida State Seminoles.
When the four College Football Playoff berths and bowl destinations were announced on December 4, both the Bulldogs and Seminoles were left out of the national semifinals, despite sparkling resumes. There were just a lot of contenders this year.
Mike Norvel has engineered a revival at Florida State. This is the Seminoles best season since 2014 when they won the ACC and went to the inaugural CFP and the Rose Bowl, where they were blown out by Oregon. Florida State opened the season with a resounding victory over LSU in Orlando, survived road scares at Clemson and Boston College, beat Miami, and then topped Florida in the regular season finale without standout quarterback Jordan Travis, who was injured a week earlier against North Alabama. The Seminoles then defeated Louisville in the ACC Championship Game to win their first conference title since 2014.
The loss of Travis is viewed as a major reason the Seminoles were bypassed for the CFP by a pair of once-beatens, Texas and Alabama, and slotted fifth in the final rankings.
Georgia became the first team in college football history to post three straight 12-0 regular seasons. In the process, the Bulldogs set a record for an SEC team with 29 straight wins, clinched with a 31-23 triumph at Tech in the regular season finale.
The 27-24 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game was just the Bulldogs second setback in the last 47 games. Despite being ranked No. 1 all season and in the top spot of a majority of the CFP polls, Georgia fell to No. 6 after the three-point loss in Atlanta.
So here they both are, instead of the Sugar Bowl in the CFP, it’s the Orange Bowl, and a rare one that will not kick off under the lights. Two great teams, one of the most storied bowl games ever, an appealing consolation prize.
This will be the Bulldogs second trip to South Florida in the last three years. Georgia beat Michigan 34-11 in the Orange Bowl two seasons ago en route to the 2021 national championship. That victory over the Wolverines started the Bulldogs conference record winning streak. Georgia’s two previous trips to the Orange were a 41-28 loss to Texas following the 1948 campaign and 14-0 victory over Missouri to cap the 1959 season.
Florida State is appearing in its 11th Orange Bowl, the most recent a 33-32 win over Michigan on December 30, 2016. This is the Seminoles first “Major Bowl” since.
Smart’s Bulldogs have extended a school record with a seventh straight berth in one of college football’s major bowl games.
This will be the first meeting between Georgia and Florida State, since the Bulldogs beat the Seminoles 26-13 in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2003 to finish 13-1 and No. 3 nationally.