INDIANAPOLIS--The only schools with more players represented at the NFL combine this week than Florida State’s 12 are the teams that played for the national championship: Michigan with 18 and Washington with 13.

That could be viewed as another slap for a Seminoles team that was unbeaten but still left out of the four-team playoff.

Georgia football walloped undermanned Florida State 63-3 in the Orange Bowl, a black-eye result for a bowl system that Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said needed to be fixed to avoid such lopsided results.

How decimated was Florida State’s roster? Only one of the 12 players here this week for the combine-linebacker Kalen DeLoach-played in the game.

“I didn’t come back to play in a bowl game,” fifth-year senior defensive tackle Fabian Lovett, who opted out of the bowl, said  Wednesday. “I came back to play in the playoffs. We did everything we needed to be able to do that. That was the whole decision behind that.”

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Lovett called it “really hard,” to watch the blowout, but added “at the end of the day I had to prepare myself for the next level and take the next step. I had to be prepared for now and not take a chance on risking an injury or anything for a meaningless game.”

Of Georgia’s 11 players at the NFL combine this week, only two did not play in the Orange Bowl.

Tight end Brock Bowers and offensive tackle Amarius Mims, projected first round picks, both already had missed time after TightRope ankle surgery.

Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis, defensive tackle Braden Fiske and linebacker Tatum Bethune missed the game due to injuries.

Two players in the first round mock draft of ESPN’s Mel Kiper opted out: defensive end Jared Verse (No. 11) and wide receiver Keon Coleman (No. 26). So did running back Trey Benson, tight end Jaheim Bell, wide receiver Johnny Wilson and defensive backs Jarrian Jones and Renardo Green.

“It definitely was hard,” Verse said. “Looking back on it I wish I had put myself in a different position. You know, maybe went out there. Had a couple of the other guys come out there with me. I feel like it would have been a different ballgame at the end of the day. I chose not to play in that game. I have to stand by my decision.”

DeLoach said he tried to motivate his teammates to play in the game in a group text.

“I wish all the guys would have played,” he said. “Just to showcase who we are, another opportunity just to take advantage. I still respect their decision, no matter what decision they made.”

Former Georgia defensive lineman Zion Logue said Tuesday he talked about the Orange Bowl with Lovett, Green, and Jones during Shrine Bowl week.

He told them they were worthy of getting in the playoff as an unbeaten team, but “we still came to play at the end of the day. We know we should have been in the CFP as well, but we had something to finish. Those guys didn’t feel it was in their best interest which I completely understand. If I went 13-0, too, I probably would have wanted to be in the CFP.”

Bethune, who sat out with a knee injury, said the game was a “learning lesson,” for younger players pushed into action.

“They know they don’t want to ever feel that feeling again,” he said.

Said Fiske, who skipped the game with a foot injury: “It was really tough, especially when those are your brothers out there fighting and scratching and clawing to make the game happen. There’s not much you can do when you’re standing on the sideline.  You can try to help and coach but when the game is going the way it is, it’s terrible. It sucked.”

Logue said Florida State having more players available who opted out wouldn't have changed the outcome.

“It would have been 38-17, I feel like," he said. "It wouldn’t have been as close as they were saying.”

Georgia posted the largest margin of victory ever in a bowl game.

“Those guys went out there and played with everything they had and did everything they could," Verse said. "It was upsetting to watch them have to go through that, but I know they did what they were able to do."

“At the end of the day, it’s a business,” Lovett said. “If I get hurt, they’re going to bring somebody else in. I’ve gotta do what’s best for me.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: What Florida State opt-outs say now about UGA football Orange Bowl romp