DANIA BEACH — The normal questions came in the normal way. Everyone played their role. Reporters. Bowl officials. And especially Florida State’s third-string quarterback and offensive coordinator, who will work the Orange Bowl without Seminoles players who produced 94.4 percent of their yards this undefeated season.
“All we got is all we need,’’ said the freshman quarterback, Brock Glenn, delivering the predictable motto of this remaining team.
“They all think they should have been playing all along,’’ offensive coordinator Alex Atkins said of the replacements.
FSU’s starting backfield? Gone. Its top receivers? Gone, too. It’s secondary? One starter left. Mighty Georgia’s roster is intact. Florida State lost 13 starters to the transfer porthole or NFL draft process, collateral damage to the broad outrage and general derision of the College Football Playoffs snubbing its 13-0 team.
Players are the real assets of college football, a reality formed in recent years with players getting paid above the table. Coaches grumble about a capitalist world. Many fans, too. And a school like Florida State plays an empty roster while preparing for a more serious game in court.
That’s its demand to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference. This move will bleed into everything and everyone in college sports, starting with the Miami team that plays a paperweight bowl game Thursday without its quarterback or several top players, too.
There’s a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo in FSU’s attempt to leave conference. Fiduciary duties. Grant of Rights. FSU’s Board of Trustees sued the ACC. The ACC sued back. But, come on, you know how this movie ends. You’ve seen it play out in other conferences.
Florida State pulled the Jenga piece that eventually will collapse the ACC. It might take a bit. It certainly will take a…
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