FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Georgia has been competing against Michigan football all season — they just didn’t know it.

Remember Kirby Smart’s epic locker room message after the 40-13 win over South Carolina earlier this season?

“We’re not practicing to beat somebody,” Smart said, “We’re practicing to beat everybody!”

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The Wolverines have turned out to be part of that “everybody” via the Orange Bowl CFP Semifinal that takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Bulldogs team captain Jamaree Salyer referenced the invisible opponent philosophy on a Zoom call on Wednesday when asked about his upcoming matchup with Wolverines’ projected No. 1 pick Aidan Hutchinson.

“I haven’t seen Aidan Hutchinson one time, but I have been taking reps against him every single day,” Salyer said. “So it’s just that competition, competing against people that you can’t see, it’s super important.

“Having that mindset, it’ll keep us one of the top teams and hopefully finish as one of the top teams at the end.”

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The Bulldogs’ primary motivation is and has been to win what would be the program’s first national championship since 1980.

But there’s more at stake for Salyer and at least 10 Georgia players who will be selected in the 2022 NFL Draft, as their draft stock will continue to be evaluated in the postseason.

“Obviously a lot of scouts are going to watch the match-ups,” said Salyer, who has played offensive tackle this season but projects as an offensive guard in the NFL. “For me, I’m a competitor. I like to compete. If they say a guy is the best, I want to play against the best.”

Travon Walker, who along with Nakobe Dean and Jordan Davis was recently projected as a first-round 2022 NFL Draft pick, echoed Salyer’s sentiment.

“I can’t answer for everyone else, but for me, I’m one of those guys that I want to go out and compete for whatever game that my team goes out and plays,” Walker said, asked about how some players have opted out of non-CFP games in the past.

“For me, I’m just a natural competitor and want to go out there and play, give it my all.”

Walker, like Salyer, will be competing against Hutchinson and Michigan defensive end Ojabo, too as he plays the same position.

Ojabo, like Hutchinson, is currently ranked ahead of Walker at defensive end on the NFL draft boards.

“It can be motivation, and those are two great players,” Walker said, asked about the Michigan defensive line getting more attention than Georgia’s. “But just for the guys that you named, me, Jordan Davis and Nolan (Smith), we’re just natural competitors.

“We’ve all had to go through something in life to where we had to do the opposite of what other people said or thought that we could do. So we just have to go out and prove whatever they’re saying wrong and just do our best.”