Georgia Bulldogs have record-setting Orange Bowl performance in beatdown of depleted FSU

The Georgia Bulldogs entered the 90th annual Capital One Orange Bowl essentially at full strength. The Florida State Seminoles ... did not.

It was apparent from start to finish on Saturday as the No. 6 Bulldogs routed the No. 5 Seminoles 63-3 at Hard Rock Stadium behind a record-setting Orange Bowl outing.

“As long as winning matters,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said, “we’re gonna compete like hell at Georgia.”

And compete they did. Georgia (13-1) entered Saturday without any of its healthy starters opting out. The only true noticeable player who didn’t suit up was All-American tight end Brock Bowers, who has been dealing with a high ankle injury for nearly two months and did enough to return late in the regular season despite not being 100 percent.

“You want to take every game seriously,” Georgia running back Kendall Milton said. “You have to prepare the same way. At the end of the day, this is top-level college football.”

FSU (13-1), meanwhile, was a shell of the team that went undefeated in the regular season and won the ACC championship. The Seminoles played without six starters on offense (seven, if you include the first- and second-string quarterbacks) and eight on defense.

A blowout Georgia win was all but expected. The Bulldogs entered as a more than three-touchdown betting favorite.

But a blowout like this? Probably not.

Georgia’s 60-point margin of victory is the largest ever in an Orange Bowl, surpassing Alabama’s 61-6 win over Syracuse in 1953.

Georgia led 42-3 at halftime. The 39-point halftime lead was an Orange Bowl record, beating West Virginia’s 29-point lead after 30 minutes in the 2012 Orange Bowl against Clemson. The Bulldogs’ 35 points in the second quarter also tied an Orange Bowl record, set by West Virginia in that same 2012 Orange Bowl.

The Bulldogs’ 673 yards of offense broke the Florida Gators’ single-game Orange Bowl record of 659 set in 2002 against Maryland.

The 63 points and nine touchdowns were almost Orange Bowl records, too, just missing the marks of 70 points and 10 touchdowns, both in that West Virginia 2012

The Bulldogs ran for five touchdowns, just missing on the Orange Bowl record of six set by Georgia Tech in the 2014 Orange Bowl against Mississippi State.

Milton, the Orange Bowl’s Most Outstanding Player, ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries. Daijun Edwards had 62 yards and two touchdowns of his own on seven carries. Even wide receiver Ladd McConkey added a 27-yard rushing touchdown on a trick play that was supposed to be a double pass.

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck completed 13 of 18 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns — 12 yards to Arian Smith and 2 yards to Dominic Lovett — in the first half before being replaced by redshirt freshman Gunnar Stockton in the second half. How did Stockton do? He led the Georgia to touchdowns on each of his first three drives, including throwing a pair of touchdown passes to tight end Lawson Luckie in the third quarter and Anthony Evans III in the fourth quarter. Coach Kirby Smart then played two walk-on quarterbacks — Jackson Muschamp (son of Will Muschamp) and Collin Drake — on their game-sealing drive.

And then the Bulldogs defense kept an FSU offense down to its third-string quarterback and without its top two running backs and top three pass-catchers to just 209 yards while also forcing two turnovers. The Seminoles also turned the ball over on a kickoff.

“It was just kind of a perfect storm of challenge,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said.

Despite the jarring way the season ended, Norvell wasn’t going to let that shake what his Seminoles accomplished to get to this point. They won 13 games, something done just two other times in program history (2013 and 2014). They won a conference championship.

“It’s a special group,” Norvell said, “a group that will be remembered.”

The same can be said for Georgia.

The Bulldogs wanted to finish the season on a high note after losing in the SEC Championship Game to Alabama — snapping a 29-game win streak that spanned three seasons and two national championships. They also wanted to send their seniors out strong — the Orange Bowl win was the 50th for that class.

Mission accomplished for the Bulldogs.