Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Sunday he feels his team deserved to make the College Football Playoff, and empathized with Florida State, his team's opponent in the Capital One Orange Bowl, because the Seminoles got left out, too.
During an Orange Bowl Zoom call with both coaches, Smart was asked whether his team would be facing a «hornet's nest» in a highly motivated Seminoles team, which finished 13-0 but became the first undefeated Power 5 champion to finish outside the top four. «I empathize with anybody that goes undefeated and doesn't get in,» Smart said. «I personally feel like we deserved to be in.
We've got a really good football team, and we're considered No. 1 in the country all year, then fail. We have a hornet's nest around here, too, of players that are disappointed.
That works both ways. »The good news is we got each other to go play. I know they'll be up for us and we'll be up for them. You worry a lot more when you have a matchup that they might not look forward to.