Orange Bowl blowout offers opportunity for viral moments, great memories, learning experiences
Georgia’s Orange Bowl victory over Florida State on Saturday offered an opportunity for a total of 56 players, just about all the available Bulldogs, to get in the game with UGA in the midst of a 60-point manhandling of the Seminoles. Among those was walk-on quarterback Jackson Muschamp, son of Georgia co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp.
Wearing the No. 16 – something Kirby Smart took notice of given it was his number during his own Bulldog playing days – Muschamp made a few late plays that sent the Georgia sideline into a frenzy.
“Yeah, the whole sideline went nuts because Jackson has been doing that,” Smart said after the game. “We had a lot of gun runs this year and we didn’t have a natural quarterback run guy, so Collin (Drake) and Jackson had to run the ball all the time.”
“I tell Coach Muschamp all the time he’s a lot better athlete than Coach Muschamp ever was. Coach Bobo called a scrap. I was like, I don’t want to punt again. I want to get this first down. And I said, ‘Coach Muschamp, you might want to step up here,’ because he was over with the defense,” he continued. “Jackson is going to sprint out and we’re going to throw a pass, and Coach Muschamp was like, ‘Oh, God. Oh, God.’ He sprinted out, they pulled it up, he stuck his foot in the ground, and he got a first down. He really looked good in that jersey number he had on, too, that 16.”
The moment has gone viral on social media, and in a way, it encapsulates the entirety of the night for Georgia. Young guys all over the place got a chance to close out the 2023 season by getting in the game, something that some – like Muschamp – had never done before ever.
“I was proud of those guys. We had a lot of guys get an opportunity to play tonight. That’s the thing that nobody talks about these bowl games. I got to play in three or four bowl games and that was the highlight of my college career. We didn’t make it to a National Championship. We didn’t make it to an SEC Championship. The highlight of my career was getting to play in opportunities like that in bowl games and got a lot of kids an opportunity to play today,” Smart said.
Georgia’s players noticed it too. While guys like Kendall Milton and Kamari Lassiter – both of whom have declared for the NFL Draft already – helped make it possible for the Bulldogs to empty the bench, they were just as locked in on the action when they were on the sideline watching the young guys as they were when they were between the lines themselves.
“You know, I can think back all the way to the first game of the season, and I remember in warmups I looked at Andrew (Paul) and Rod (Roderick Robinson) and I told them, I believe in you all because I knew there was a game they were going to get in, and I told them, ‘I believe in you all. I know y’all are young so your head is probably spinning getting to the game time, but if nobody has told you I believe in y’all,’To see them go out today and achieve success and Rod running through people, AP running through people, that made me so happy,” Milton said. “I was jumping more on the sideline for them than I was for my own touchdowns because those are my little brothers. I really look at them as little brothers. Like I took them under my wing because at the end of the day this is a family. So to see them achieve success and do the things that they’ve been working all year for even when haven’t got all the opportunities, there was games they didn’t get in, they were frustrated throughout the week in practice or whatever, they still stuck it and kept fighting all the way through. I’m proud of my boys, proud of my little brothers to see them achieve success, and I’m excited to see them achieve success next year.
“Definitely being able to see guys like Daniel (Harris), guys like Jalon (Walker), guys like Julio (Julian Humphrey), see their growth from the beginning year until now, you know, with Daniel being able to take a punch early in the game and then being able to come back, force a lot of incompletions, it’s just so happy to see,” Lassiter added. “It makes me really happy because during the season things can get hard, especially whenever you’re younger. We’ve all been there before. We’re not playing, we’re not the guy. Whenever you come in from high school you’re so used to being the guy, and then you get to a place like this and it kind of humbles you. Just being able to watch those guys just be able to grow and continue to progress and try to do everything the right way, it makes me very happy. Like Kendall said, those are my little bros. There’s not too many things in this world I wouldn’t do for them. Being able to see Daylen (Everette) get the interception, even Chris Peal being able to get in the game, it means a lot to me.”
