FSU Vs. UGA Preview -- Orange Bowl

In what will be a very awkward matchup, Florida State and Georgia are set to play each other on Saturday in the Orange Bowl and while one might say that this must be the best matchup of the year, the reality is that this will be far from it. Both teams are going to have a combined 40 players missing this bowl game due to NFL Draft prep, surgeries, injuries, and transfer portal activity.


However, the game must still be played. In this matchup, Brock Glenn will have his second career start for the Seminoles. Glenn’s first start was in a high-stakes ACC Championship against Louisville where the Florida State defense dominated in a championship-caliber performance. However, Glenn provided minimal numbers in his debut and was not generating much momentum. The true freshman was placed in a tough situation as he had already missed a large chunk of the season trying to recover from a hand injury earlier in the year while also learning the playbook on the fly.

For the Bulldogs, both Brock Bowers and Amarius Mims, the starting Tight End and Lineman for the Bulldogs will not be playing in this bowl. However, because it is Georgia, their backups and third-stringers should be able to handle a depleted Florida State roster rather easily. Carson Beck, the star QB, will be participating in this matchup and he will still have talent surrounding him to set this game up to be a solid one for him.

 

Throughout the playoff era, we have begun to see the bowls have less and less meaning only if they were not a playoff host site. The Orange Bowl has fallen victim to this as well. However, this still has not involved me opting out of my score predictions for this game. In this game, I believe that Georgia will come out dominating the Seminoles 42-3. The offensive struggles under Glenn from a few weeks ago are going to continue and the roster for Florida State is so depleted that it is hard to see a world in which they are competitive in a game against one of the most talented rosters in the country.