ATHENS — Georgia and Florida State haven’t been in the same college football conversations of late. While Georgia has won back-to-back national championships, the Seminoles haven’t been to their conference championship game since 2014.

Yet as we’re now halfway through the 2023 season, Georgia and Florida State are two of the nine remaining unbeaten teams in college football. The Seminoles picked up a nice home win over Duke this past weekend, while Georgia was off.

Moving forward though, ESPN’s Bill Connelly still has the same big question for the remainder of the 2023 season for the two programs. Both teams have gotten off to slow starts at various times this season and Connelly wonders how sustainable that is for both teams as they make a playoff push.

“Over the next four weeks, Georgia will play rival Florida, then face the best three teams on its 2023 schedule per SP+: Missouri (18th), Ole Miss (21st) and Tennessee (16th),” Connelly wrote. “It will likely be facing this run of opponents without all-world tight end and ultimate security blanket Brock Bowers, too. It will be comfortable favorites against each, and justifiably so -- this is still the two-time defending national champ -- but these teams are more capable of properly punishing slow starts than anyone the Dawgs have played in 2023. They aren’t going to play themselves into trouble at some point again, are they?”

To further Connelly’s comparison, Florida State trailed in the second half of its wins over LSU, Clemson and Duke. Georgia overcame second half deficits in wins against South Carolina and Auburn.

Among the Power 5 teams, Georgia and Florida State are two of the six remaining unbeaten teams. Each school is the only unbeaten team remaining in its respective conference.

The two schools also have a common opponent in Florida. The Seminoles take on the Gators on Nov. 25, while Georgia faces Florida this week.

“I know our guys are excited to play in Jacksonville,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “An incredible stadium and atmosphere. Our players love playing in this neutral site game. It’s just kind of different in terms of the start of it, the fans, the split crowd. It seems to be a momentum flow type of game because the team that has momentum is really at home for that moment, but it goes back and forth. It’s a game of momentum swings.”

While Georgia’s most difficult games are ahead of them, Florida State’s are likely behind them. That could make for an interesting comparison as the College Football Playoff becomes a bigger discussion point in the coming weeks. The first rankings drop next Tuesday. Georgia is ranked No. 1 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, while Florida State is No. 4 in both.

The Seminoles visit Wake Forest this weekend while Georgia’s game against Florida is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on CBS.