Georgia's Smart calls for change after blowing out FSU

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart expressed frustration Saturday despite his team's historic win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

The Bulldogs and Seminoles were the top-ranked teams outside the College Football Playoff and faced off in what originally was - on paper - one of this season's best bowl matchups. However, Florida State didn't have most starters available and suffered a 63-3 loss.

"People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this," Smart said postgame, criticizing the opt-outs and transfer portal entries on teams playing in non-playoff bowl games, according to ESPN's David Hale.

"It needs to be fixed. It's very unfortunate that they have a good football team and a good football program, and they're in the position they're in."

Georgia's win over FSU is the largest margin of victory in bowl history. The team finished the contest with 673 total yards against Florida State's 209.

Opt-outs, transfer moves, and injuries resulted in the Seminoles facing the Bulldogs without their top two quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers to go along with eight defensive starters, among others. Mike Norvell's outfit didn't have 29 scholarship players Saturday, notes Hale.

"You can say it's their fault, and they have to solve their own problem," Smart added. "We had our guys, and they didn't have their guys. College football has to decide what they want. I know things are changing. But there's still going to be bowl games outside of those. People need to decide what they want and what they want to get out of it because it's really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline that had to play in that game and didn't have their full arsenal. And it affected the game."

Florida State won the ACC and entered the Georgia matchup with a 13-0 record. The team became the first undefeated Power 5 conference champion ever to not make the playoffs. The committee left the Seminoles out due to Jordan Travis' injury, as the star quarterback broke his leg in November. Two one-loss teams - Alabama and Texas - jumped FSU in the final playoff rankings, joining undefeated Michigan and Washington in the top four.

"Every situation is different," Norvell said. "Ours was unique, something that's never happened in college football. Ultimately, I think there was a lot of things that made it extremely challenging. I fully believe that if we would've come up short in the (ACC) championship game, it might've been a little different."

The head coach added: "It was hard choices for a lot of the young men that were on our team. We were hurt. ... When you do the things that our guys did throughout the year and the way that they responded, the way they fought, the way that they just pulled together, it hurt when we were not selected."