INDIANAPOLIS–The only schools with more players represented at the NFL combine this week than Florida State’s 12 are the teams that played for the national championship: Michigan with 18 and Washington with 13.
That could be viewed as another slap for a Seminoles team that was unbeaten but still left out of the four-team playoff.
Georgia football walloped undermanned Florida State 63-3 in the Orange Bowl, a black eye result for a bowl system that Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said needed to be fixed to avoid such lopsided results.
How decimated was Florida State’s roster? Only one of the 12 players here this week for the combine-linebacker Kalen DeLoach-played in the game.
“I didn’t come back to play in a bowl game,” fifth-year senior defensive tackle Fabian Lovett, who opted out of the bowl, said Wednesday. “I came back to play in the playoffs. We did everything we needed to be able to do that. That was the whole decision behind that.”
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Lovett called it “really hard,” to watch the blowout, but added “at the end of the day I had to prepare myself for the next level and take the next step. I had to be prepared for now and not take a chance on risking an injury or anything for a meaningless game.”
Of Georgia’s 11 players at the NFL combine this week, only two did not play in the Orange Bowl.
Tight end Brock Bowers and offensive tackle Amarius Mims, projected first round picks, both already had missed time after TightRope ankle surgery.
Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis, defensive tackle Braden Fiske and linebacker Tatum Bethune missed the game due to injuries.
Two players in the first round mock draft of…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mixed-views-now-florida-state-193949507.html
Author : Athens Banner-Herald
Publish date : 2024-02-28 19:39:49
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