Orange Bowl notes … This year’s Orange Bowl (4 PM ET; December 30th; ESPN) could really be called the ‘Consolation’ Bowl, although its likely hardly any consolation at all to either Georgia or Florida State, both of which figured they were pretty close to locks to make the actual 4-team CFP playoff heading into their respective championship games. And the two teams appear to have taken somewhat different approaches to the game. On the one hand, its part it is pretty much all paws on deck for the Bulldogs, although it does not appear as if either of top ten prospects TE Brock Bowers (#19, 6-4, 230) and OT Amarius Mims (#65, 6-6, 320) will not play as both missed extensive time with injuries over much of the season. LB Jumon Dumas-Johnson also won’t play as he is headed to Kentucky via the transfer portal. It may not matter, though, as the Dawgs have quality prospects at just about every position on the DT Nazir Stackhouse (#78, 6-2, 320), LB Smael Mondon (#2, 6-3, 225), CB Kamari Lassiter (#3, 6-0, 180) and safeties Javon Bullard (#22, 5-11, 105) and Tylee Smith (#23, 5-10, 205), along with DE Mykel Williams (#13, 6-5, 265) and S Malachi Starks (21, 6-1, 205), a pair of sophomores who figure to be elite prospects in 2025. Meanwhile, players to watch when Georgia has the ball include C Sedric Van Pran (#63, 6-4, 310), one of the top prospects at the position for the upcoming draft, along with OT Xavier Truss (#73, 6-6, 320) and WR Dominic Lovett (#6, 5-10, 190). And it doesn’t seem fair, but QB Carson Beck (#15, 6-3, 220) emerged as a top-flight college QB this fall as he completed 72% of his pass attempts for over 3,700 yards and 22 TDs; as a 4th year player he’s eligible to jump to the NFL this winter, but the feeling is he’ll return to school and enter the 2025 draft where he figures to be one of the top prospects at the position.
Florida State, on the other hand, will be barely recognizable as the team that went 13-0 this season and will still try and claim the national title if they can upset Georgia and somehow come out of the bowls with the nation’s only unbeaten record. Indeed, the Seminoles may need some kind of divine intervention on Saturday in Miami as none of their best players will be playing. QB Jordan Travis, of course is out for the year, while WRs Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson, RB Trey Benson, TE Jaheim Bell, DE Jared Verse, DT Fabian Lovett, and DBs Akeem Dent and Jarrion Jones have all opted out. In fact, the only real prospects FSU will have in uniform are DT Braden Fiske (#55, 6-4, 300) who is a late second-day possibility, and CB Fentrell Cypress (#23, 6-0, 190). Let us know how that goes!
