5 things to know about the Georgia-FSU Orange Bowl's player exodus

The Florida State Seminoles play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET. FSU and Georgia were disappointed to miss out on the college football playoffs, especially the Seminoles, who went 13-0 and won the ACC.

With both teams not making the playoffs, we have seen plenty of players opt out of the Orange Bowl.

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Things to know about Georgia-FSU Orange Bowl player exodus

Here are five things:

#1 Nearly 40 players opting out

The biggest storyline ahead of the Orange Bowl is the number of players between Georgia and FSU not playing on Saturday.

As of Wednesday, there are nearly 40 players who have opted out due to the transfer portal or preparing for the NFL Draft. It has been reported that star Bulldogs players Brock Bowers and Amarius Mims were not spotted in Miami, leaving their status up in the air.

#2 FSU starting third-stringer

The Florida State Seminoles were always going to be without star quarterback Jordan Travis, who broke his leg with one game left in the regular season.

FSU started Tate Rodemaker who did well enough replacing Travis. However, Rodemaker entered the transfer portal and won't be playing in the Orange Bowl, though, so third-string quarterback Brock Glenn will get the start.

#3 Kirby Smart claims Georgia players are playing

At the moment, no NFL-bound Georgia Bulldogs players have opted out of the Orange Bowl, but many expect them to not play.

However, Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart has said that anyone who's healthy will be playing for Georgia.

"Right now we've got our guys that are healthy playing," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.

"Guys that are completely healthy and cleared to play, they've all said they're going to play. They've been practicing, doing everything. We do have guys dinged up and injured that have been trying to fight their way back. We'll see if they can go or not in the game."

Whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen.

#4 Carson Beck returns

After winning back-to-back National titles with Stetson Bennett under center, the Georgia Bulldogs turned to Carson Beck this season.

Beck was solid, going 289-for-399 for 3,788 yards and 22 touchdowns, but many wondered if he would declare for the NFL Draft. But Beck decided to return to school next year and is expected to play the Orange Bowl, which is good news for Georgia.

“We felt pretty good that Carson was coming back the entire time,” coach Kirby Smart said.

“He's communicated with us. He did his research. Certainly, he had options. He's communicated that he wanted to grow and continue to get better. So, he made that choice."

#5 FSU's offense is a major question

After Jordan Travis went down with an injury, the FSU Seminoles offense had to change the way they played.

Now, in the Orange Bowl, coach Mike Novell admits that the Seminoles will need to continue to change the way they play:

“We’ve got all different plans for this game. We’re going to have a lot of versatility in where guys are going to be able to be used.”

In the Orange Bowl, FSU will start Brock Glenn while the Seminoles are expected to be without leading rusher Trey Benson and its top three pass-catchers opting out.