I expected our Irish viewers to make this mistake, but not a Yank.

Florida State has lost its last 2 games to teams from Georgia by combined margin of 87-24

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 24, 2024

Someone listed out in the comments what the scores were in the two contests, which people chided as “yeah that’s what he said, duh”.

Allow me to retort. What one Dawg commenter was trying to get people to realize is that there’s a difference here. One team utilized a last second field goal to pull off a 3 point victory. That was Tech. At Tech you can do that, and celebrate it as something colossal.

The other team publicly executed Florida State. The film from the Orange Bowl should be something that is outlawed, and requires connections to scholars who can utilize it only for case studies on PTSD. What transpired in Miami was so bad, even Kirby Smart, who called for the atrocity to continue into the second half of play, got in front of the press and said “people need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this”.

Sure the comment was about transfers and the effect on bowl games and competition in general, but Kirby fixed that early in his tenure after the 2018 season, so others could’ve learned…but they didn’t, apparently. The correction after the Sugar Bowl against Texas is called culture, or winning the locker room, which Norvell clearly hasn’t, and won’t, be able to accomplish with the transfer portal or the limited time he has left in Tallahassee. Kirby could’ve made the same point by letting his foot off the gas in the second half and doing nothing but running dives into the middle of the defense for the rest of the night.

Let’s be fair, though…there were several twos and threes who were the iron sharpening the iron all season long in practice, and they deserved the chance to hunt, too. They tasted blood, and as it turns out, were no less hungrier up by four touchdowns than if they were trailing by three. That’s what culture will do for you, and why a sixty point win wasn’t something that was a point of pride coming out of a bowl game, but it was a point to be made, instead. Of the many points that Kirby was trying to convey was that a late season loss to a one-loss perennial powerhouse shouldn’t have excluded his team from the CFP, either. It was a beautifully executed psy-op; now that Michigan is under fire for their shenanigans and more people are calling for the championship to be vacated, it turned up the volume that another team deserved to be there more.

And no, people aren’t saying the Seminoles should’ve been there. They can’t unsee what happened in New Years Eve in Miami. Kirby made it impossible to think 2023 Florida State without mentioning the 60 point loss in the same breath. And whether anyone will admit it or not, that death of a dream carried over into 2024, and what looked like eleven Brenton Cox imitators haplessly running around the field on defense. A QB journeyman who looked completely lost and clueless most of the game. A roster that was 45% transfers.

Florida State went from CFP and ACC contenders to the Colorado Buffaloes East, a “Prime” coaching example that all glory is fleeting, and its fleeting like shit through a goose if you can’t master roster management in the year 2024.

So, to the Dawg Twixer who called out the scores of the two games; I know exactly what you’re saying. It’s the difference between the team that is celebrating a three point win like they just earned a spot in the CFP, versus the team that beat Florida State so violently and perversely it could’ve been a Kubrick film.

THAT team was the Georgia Bulldogs. There’s a difference, and anyone with a grain of intelligence knows it. Georgia Bulldogs football is the sum result of a coach with a vision, who learns from failures, and does everything he can to adapt and avoid repeating them as the years of competition go on.

There’s only one Kirby Smart, and he’s teaching lessons. You’d be wise to watch and listen, or you could be the next Mike Norvell…unconquered, and possibly unemployed.