Georgia RB Kendall Milton named Most Outstanding Player against FSU in Orange Bowl

The Most Outstanding Player in the 2023 Capital One Orange Bowl — Georgia starting running back Kendall Milton — was a young man taken out by halftime.

Pretty rare.

It’s also rare to be up by 39 points at halftime (42-3) of a New Year’s Six bowl game — the biggest halftime lead in the 90-year Orange Bowl history.

No. 6 Georgia cruised to its 63-3 victory Saturday against No. 5 Florida State at Hard Rock Stadium, the largest margin of victory ever in a bowl game. Milton, a 6-1, 220-pound fourth-year senior from Fresno, California, rushed for 104 yards and tied his career high with two touchdowns on nine carries — 11.6 yards a carry — to earn the trophy as the top player.

Milton was adamant when asked why the game, which was not one of the college football playoff games, mattered.

“It mattered because it’s a game,’’ Milton said. “You want to take every game seriously, no matter what the level is. You’ve got to prepare the same way, because at the end of the day this is top-level college football any given week. We took that very personal. Also, man, just being able to go out there with the guys.

“After this game... It’s not going to be the same next year. People are going to go the League. Some will go to the portal. Some might not play football. This team might not ever be the same. So, you have to take advantage of every opportunity. You don’t get too many opportunities.”

Milton’s two touchdowns were the first in a game where they just kept coming. Touchdown No. 1 was a 15-yard rush up the middle with 4:05 left in the opening quarter.

Touchdown No. 2 was a 5-yard rush on the first play of the second quarter — set up by a 43-yard run on the last play of the first quarter.

Milton, Georgia’s second-leading rusher this season with 686 yards and 12 touchdowns coming into the Orange Bowl, was just one of multiple players who contributed to the blowout. Georgia scored on nine consecutive drives of 12 total.

Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck, a 6-4, 220-pound fourth-year junior out of Jacksonville Mandarin High, completed 13 of 18 passes for 203 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He was strip-sacked on Georgia’s first drive, but the Bulldogs recovered. And he, too, was out of the game by halftime. Backup Gunner Stockton (6 of 10 for 96 yards and two touchdowns) played every drive but the last in the second half, in which the Bulldogs scored on three of his four drives.

The Bulldogs rushed for 372 yards and passed for 301. The Bulldogs’ 673 yards broke the Orange Bowl’s record for most yards, previously accomplished by the Florida Gators’ 659 against Maryland in 2002.

“Kendall has meant a lot to this program,’’ Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “He has given so much, been through a lot. He said that. I still remember I went all the way to California, being at his house, seeing him with his parents. He sacrificed a ton to make this program a better place. He’s worked his tail off.”

Milton said Smart told him after the game how proud he was of him.

“If anybody knows, Coach Smart knows what I’ve been through at Georgia,’’ said Milton, who has overcome several injuries throughout his career. “This not in any way has been an easy journey. It hasn’t been a smooth journey. There have been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of speed bumps along the way. But I stuck it out and ended up making it to the end and achieved success.

“I told him, ‘Thank you for believing in me,’ because at the end of the day that’s all you can ask for.

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to go out and play the game.’’