College Football
Driving The Wrong Road
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Two Georgia Bulldogs football players were arrested on driving-related charges recently, per the Athens-Clarke County jail log.
Junior linebacker Chris Cole, who was fourth on the team in tackles last season, was booked on one count of reckless driving and one count of speeding over the maximum limit.
Sophomore edge Darren Ikinnagbon was arrested and charged with three misdemeanors: reckless driving, speeding and following too closely.
It is unclear if the arrests are connected to the same incident. The police report both players were arrested for driving 105 mph on an Athens highway, 40 mph over the speed limit.
Both players were driving 2025 Mercedes SUVs. They were arrested and released at separate times, within an hour of each other. The bonds were $39 for Ikinnagbon and $26 for Cole
While misdemeanor traffic charges typically do not lead to additional jail time, the program’s history with driving arrests could lead to harsher internal punishment for Cole and Ikinnagbon.
There have now been 13 known instances of Georgia Bulldog players being arrested on driving charges since the January 2023 car crash that killed player Devin Willock and staffer Chandler LeCroy.
In recent history, last November reserve offensive lineman Nyjer Daniels was dismissed from the program after being charged with a felony following a traffic arrest.
Last year, receiver Nitro Tuggle and offensive lineman Marques Easley entered the transfer portal shortly after traffic arrests for which they were charged with misdemeanors.
While details of this week’s arrests are not yet public, the players are expected to remain on the team.
Coach Kirby Smart said he has taken different steps to fix the issues, saying two years ago the program would withhold name, image and likeness payments from players who had traffic arrests or even citations. Suspensions and, in some cases, dismissals have also been issued, especially in the last year.
“Each case is a case-by-case basis,” Smart said last November after dismissing Daniels. “And we’ll always evaluate things on a case-by-case basis, based on the student-athlete’s history and the particulars of the case.”
Cole and Ikinnagbon released statements of apology.
“I recognize the seriousness of this matter and the responsibility that comes with representing the University of Georgia and our football program,” Cole wrote. “I understand that there are high standards for how we conduct ourselves, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I deeply regret the impact and negative attention this has caused for my coaches, teammates and family.”
It continues to amaze me how people excuse the behavior just because they’re football players. I’ve spoken to Bulldog fans who state comments like “no one else cares why should we” or “Well it’s just speeding” or “The Athens Police are out of control”.
We call them kids. They are not kids. They are adults. Yes, young people do stupid stuff. I did. We all did. But it does not excuse or even begin to justify their behavior.
I am not saying kick them off the team or drop an atomic bomb. At the same time, we all should face consequences for our actions, and the behavior should not just be blown off because fans care about their football team’s results.
We might need some legal insight from an attorney or paralegal. Are these players getting preferential treatment with fines and the amount of the bond set?
New To North Avenue
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We are going to take a look at Georgia Tech’s football recruiting for 2026.
The Yellow Jackets have the 29th ranked transfer portal recruiting class. They have a total of 19 commits with 3 four-star players and 16 three-star players.
On the surface that doesn’t sound very impressive. The four schools ranked in front of them are Oregon, USC, Florida State and Florida. By comparison, they are not far off from some major programs.
Four-star junior running back Justice Haynes transfers in from Michigan. Haynes attended Buford (GA) High School and he initially went to Alabama. He transferred to Michigan in December 2024. Last season he rushed for 857 yards, 10 touchdowns and he averaged 7.1 yards per carry. This is a major addition for the offense.
Quarterback Alberto Mendoza (Indiana) has also transferred to Tech. His older brother Fernando won the Heisman Trophy last season and led the Hoosiers to the national championship. If he can play like his brother the Yellow Jackets will have a great season.
Four-star linebacker/edge rusher Noah Carter (Alabama) is also on campus. He was a top-100 player nationally in the 2024 recruiting class. In 2025 he played in 11 games for the Crimson Tide and recorded 9 tackles and a half tackle for loss. He’s 6’4, 242 pounds so he passes the eye test for being a big time LB. Hopefully he can develop into that.
Four-star WR Jaylen Mbakwe (Alabama) can play a few positions. In 2024 he was a DB for Alabama and he had 15 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 interception and 2 pass break ups. He also had two punt returns for a combined 46 yards and a 15-yard kickoff return. He switched to wide receiver before the 2024 bowl game. In 2025 he had three catches for 55 yards and one rush for a four-yard gain.
Wide receiver Isiah Fuhrmann (Elon) played great last season. He had 46 receptions, 907 yards, 9 TD’s and 19.7 yards per catch. He did play for an FCS team but we have seen players from lower divisions excel for Power Four teams.
Some of the other key players in the class include WR Jaiven Plummer (Cal), TE Spencer Mermans (Yale), DL Tim Griffin (Cincinnati), IOL Joseph Ionata (Alabama), Edge Jordan Walker (Rutgers), Edge Taje McCoy (Oklahoma State), DL Vincent Carroll-Jackson (U Conn), CB Jonas Duclona (South Florida), DL Tawfiq Thomas (Colorado), OT Favour Edwin (Auburn), P Alex Bacchetta (Rice), OT Markell Samuel (Oklahoma State), TE Gavin Harris (New Mexico State) and TE Chris Corbo (Dartmouth).
Tech has 18 outgoing transfers so they did a good job of replacing some of that talent.
The Yellow Jackets are ranked 41st in the 2026 high school recruiting rankings. They add 24 commits with 3 four-star players and 21 three-star players.
Four-star QB Cole Bergeron attended St. Thomas More in Lafayette, Louisiana. He’s 6’4, 215 lbs. and as a senior he passed for 2,346 yards and 27 scores over nine games. He was the No. 12 player in Louisiana and the No. 20 quarterback nationally. He initially committed to Virginia Tech.
Four-star CB Jaedyn Terry attended Manchester High School in Warm Springs, GA. He was ranked as the No. 21 player in the state of GA and he’s a four-sport athlete.
We will see how the new talent will mesh during the spring.
Florida Recruiting
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
While the highlight of Florida’s first offseason under new head coach Jon Sumerall has been the key talent retention, there is no doubt the program’s roster will look much different this season.
Sumrall and the new-look Florida coaching and personnel staff have accepted 30 commitments from transfers over the last month, in addition to 20 high school prospects, and two walk-ons.
Yet, the NCAA’s recent consolidation of its transfer portal windows has left Sumrall wondering if Florida has filled each of its positional needs ahead of the 2026 campaign.
“We don’t have the luxury of that second window now, so that’s a little bit more daunting, because you don’t get a chance — I’m not going to have any opportunity to watch this team practice and go correct in the second portal,” Sumrall said. “We just have to go watch them practice and try to fix it, or make somebody better or maybe move guys around. That’s a little bit more unnerving.
“I wouldn’t be upset as a first-year head coach if we had the second portal window. I used it to my benefit the last job I was at. I would be okay if they gave us an emergency second portal window.”
Florida has accepted at least one transfer commitment for every position group this offseason, from quarterback to long snapper.
But from Sumrall’s point of view, evaluating the overall quality of the class is not an easy task right now.
Florida took a handful of prospects with proven production, including 12 players with double-digit career starts, such as wide receiver Eric Singleton Jr, edge rusher Emmanuel Oyebadejo, safety DJ Coleman, offensive linemen Harrison Moore and TJ Shanahan Jr, who each project to earn first-team or significant rotational roles with UF.
On the flip side, transfer pickups like quarterback Aaron Philip, defensive tackle DK Kalyn, tight end Luke Harpring, offensive tackle Eadab Boyer and others — while expected to contribute in 2026 and potentially beyond — have yet to fully prove their worth at the college level, with limited playing experience on their résumés. Florida is, effectively, banking on their potential.
Still, Sumrall expressed appreciation for how Florida’s vast transfer class came together.
Gators’ General Manager Dave Caldwell is spearheading the effort to scout the portal market and narrow the list of quality prospects for Sumrall to evaluate and target.
In High School recruiting, the Gators are behind SEC heavyweights such as Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma programs that continue to hoard top-five classes. This sharpens how Florida’s progress should be measured.
Florida’s 2026 haul reflects targeted intention, with a class that features 13 four-star prospects among 20 total commits who cover multiple phases of the game.
Four-star wide receivers Davian Grocery and Justin Williams anchor the class at the top, offering production on the offensive side of the ball.
Key in-state additions such as cornerback C.J. Hester and safety Kaiden Hall reinforce Florida’s ability to compete for premium talent around the Sunshine State on defense.
In the new world of NIL recruiting both high school and transfer portal, the Florida Gators ranked 14th overall combined by on industry ranking. They are projected to be 26th in NIL spending for the 2026 season.
Overall, Sumrall’s first class with limited NIL money looks like a success.
SEC Shows The Money
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The SEC is college sports’ first billion-dollar conference. Or at least they’re the first to announce it.
The SEC made enough revenue this most recent fiscal year to distribute $1.03 billion to its 16 schools, the conference announced Thursday. That’s an increase from $808.4 million during the 2023-24 fiscal year.
That means SEC schools received an average payout of $72.4 million, up from $53.8 million in the previous year.
That payout also came in the last year before schools were required to share revenue with athletes, $20.6 million beginning this past fall. So,
if the current fiscal year payout ends up just a tick higher, the year-over-year increase would match what SEC teams are paying their athletes in NIL deals.
“As college athletics continues to undergo significant change, SEC universities are well-positioned to deliver new financial benefits for student-athletes while continuing to offer a transformative, life-changing college experience,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement.
The timing for the SEC’s massive increase is no surprise: 2024-25 was the SEC’s first year in its new ESPN contract, as well as the first with Oklahoma and Texas in the conference, and the year in which the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams.
The Big Ten is also expected to go above the $1 billion mark. Its total revenue was $928 million for the 2023-24 fiscal year, and while that was the first for its new television package, it then added Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington.
The vast majority of conference revenue comes from television contracts; ESPN is paying the SEC more than $900 million (the exact figure has not been revealed).
That number is expected to increase by around $5 million more per school next year with the SEC agreeing to add a ninth conference game for football.
Other revenue comes from the NCAA basketball tournament, bowl payouts, the SEC football championship game, the SEC men’s basketball tournament and NCAA championships.
The SEC generally has an equal distribution policy, but teams that make the CFP also receive direct payouts, which were included in the $1.03 billion figure. Texas, for instance, received $12.1 million just for making the CFP semifinals.
The SEC’s announcement just means More $$$$$$$.
Killer Kirby
By: Joe Delaney
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia Bulldogs have played NCAA Football for 122 years.
During that time they have won over twice as many games as the have lost. That is a very good record.
In the last 30 years the Bulldogs have had a winning record in 28 of those seasons. Not many schools have had that kind of success.
But in the last 10 seasons the Bulldogs have won 117 games. That includes multiple SEC Championships and multiple NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. They have gone from good, to great, to arguably the best college football program in the country.
How did the Dawgs accomplish this? The answer can be summed up in one word, KIRBY.
Leaving Alabama after the 2015 season, Kirby returned to his alma mater where he was an All-SEC defensive back in the 90’s.
Starting with 2016 season, Smart led Georgia to an 8-5 record and a 31-23 win in the Liberty Bowl. Humble beginnings. It was just a mere taste of what was to come.
The 2017 season was highlighted by the 54-48 double overtime win over the Oklahoma Sooners. And while the Dawgs would lose in the National Championship to Alabama that year. The dye was cast.
The Dawgs have gone on during these 10 years to more SEC championships and 2 national championships.
The first National Championship being a thrilling win over the nemesis Crimson Tide 33-18 in 2021. The Dawgs then went 15-0 and back to back in 2022 with the cap being a 65-7 crushing of TCU in the final.
In Kirby Smart the Georgia Bulldogs have the best football coach in the NCAA.
They have become in Coach Smarts words “elite”.
In 2025 the Dawgs went 12-2. The lost 2 games were by a total of 8 points.
They won another SEC championship and finished ranked in the top 5.
Ask a gazillion Georgia fans and they will say it was a good year. A good year? Yeah, that’s it. That’s how high Kirby Smart has set the bar at UGA.
His favorite saying is that “you’re elite or you’re not”. Never has a Georgia football coach expected so much from himself, his players, his team and school. That’s saying a lot when you look back at all the great Georgia coaches.
So how did Kirby Smart go from eating hamburgers at Twin Lakes and coaching linebackers at Valdosta State University to being the head honcho of college football? Two reasons with one being just as important as the other.
First, you coach for almost a decade under the best college coach ever. You coach with Nick Saban every day and you learn and learn and learn. You grow with the guy and when your time comes, you’re ready.
And the second is you bleed Red and Black. Your family bleeds red and black. Kirby isn’t a coach for hire. He’s a damn DAWG. Those two things are what have made him he is. And that is ELITE.
Champions
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As a south Florida breeze blew through the night, Miami native Fernando Mendoza and the Indiana Hoosiers ascended to the throne of college football — and entered the all-time lore of American sports.
Mendoza’s twisting, turning, bouncing-off-defenders touchdown in the fourth quarter will be replayed forever. This Indiana team broke all the molds, shed all their historical baggage and won the national championship.
Your 2025 Indiana Hoosiers. 16-0. National champions.The dream season is real.
Indiana. National champions. Of football.
The unflappable coach Curt Cignetti led a perennial bottom dweller to the College Football Playoff in 2024, boldly stated over the summer that wasn’t enough — hammering the phrase “No self-imposed limitations” — then marched his troops to a storybook season in his second year in Bloomington.
The Hoosiers are the first team in the history of any major-college sport to have the most all-time losses in a sport then go on to win a national championship.
“I don’t think there’s anything that compares to this, even if they don’t win Monday night,” longtime broadcaster Sean McDonough said during Friday’s CFP media day.
But they did win. The Hoosiers aren’t a plucky upstart or an underdog darling or any other warm and fuzzy placeholder.
The Indiana Hoosiers are the national champions of college football.
And they did so by marching through some of the biggest names in the sport.
Indiana finished the regular season unbeaten, then started their postseason march by handling No. 1 Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten title game. The Buckeyes, averaging 33.4 points per game, scored only one touchdown after an Indiana turnover deep in IU territory.
The Hoosiers postseason run is a noteworthy one: They crushed Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl, then blew Oregon’s doors off 56-22 in a CFP semifinal at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
When forced to play the Hurricanes on their home field for the national title, Indiana handled Miami 27-21.
Surviving multiple cheap shots from Miami that even rules analysts said should have been targeting, Mendoza pinballed himself into the end zone with 9:18 left in the game to give the Hoosiers a 24-14 lead.
It wasn’t any touchdown run. It was fourth-and-4 from the Miami 12, national championship on the line. Cignetti called timeout after third down, went for it on fourth down.
Mendoza bounced off at least six defenders before launching himself upward and sideways into the end zone. As he scored, television cameras shifted to his mother, who is in a wheelchair due to M.S., and Elsa’s reaction was one of joy, shock and near tears as she was hugged by family members.
Legendary play call. Legendary play. Legendary reaction.
Jamari Sharpe sealed the outcome when the Hurricanes had a chance to steal it away. Sharpe slipped inside a route by Keelan Marion and picked off Carson Beck on a first-and-10 from the Indiana 41, and. Sharpe made the smart play from Sharpe was— a poetic ending for a Curt Cignetti’s -coached team — taking a knee with 0:44 on the clock.
An excessive celebration flag was thrown on Indiana after Sharpe’s interception, but after years, decades, even generations of frustration, the world can throw an excessive celebration flag on Hoosier Nation and no one will care.
The Hoosiers have six wins over top-10 teams: No. 1 Ohio State (neutral site), No. 3 Oregon (on the road), No. 5 Oregon (neutral site), No. 9 Alabama (neutral site), No. 9 Illinois (home), No. 10 Miami (the Canes’ home stadium in the national title game).
In those six wins over top-10 teams, IU has won by a combined score of 227-86
As Mendoza stood on the field waiting to do the ESPN postgame interview, red and white confetti falling on his head, his gaze drifted upward and he seemed to mouth “Thank you” to no one in particular.
And this comes with tremendous synergy: 50 years ago, Bob Knight’s 1976 basketball team went 32-0 to win the national title. So Indiana has an unbeaten football national championship and an unbeaten basketball national championship.
The Indiana Hoosiers, national champions of college football.
Crownless SEC
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For those of us who grew up believing the SEC was not just a conference but a force of nature, the last couple of seasons have felt… unsettling.
Not catastrophic. Not embarrassing. But different.
And when you love the SEC the way some of us love it, when you’ve measured fall Saturdays by kickoff times in Athens and lived and died with the Georgia Bulldogs, “different” can feel like an existential threat.
Let’s start with the uncomfortable evidence.
Two straight national champions from the Big Ten, and possibly a third after next Monday. And now, two straight title games without an SEC logo anywhere near the field.
Alabama got pushed around by Indiana in a way that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
Bowl season numbers that don’t lie, even if we try to explain them away. Middle-of-the-pack SEC teams losing to middle-of-the-pack Big Ten and ACC teams.
That mystique Curt Cignetti dismissed before his team throttled Alabama? It wasn’t disrespect. It was reality.
And yet, if you’re asking whether the SEC is still the king of college football, the honest answer depends on how you define “king.”
If king means untouchable, inevitable, and hoisting the trophy every January like it’s preordained, then no. That era is over. Probably forever. The sport has changed too much for that kind of monopoly to exist again.
NIL, the transfer portal, revenue sharing, and an expanded playoff have done what no conference alignment or coaching carousel ever could. They’ve redistributed power.
The SEC once thrived on accumulation. Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Florida. They stacked recruiting classes so deep that second strings looked like NFL practice squads.
Kirby Smart’s two-deep defenses during Georgia’s championship run were absurd. Alabama once had four future first-round receivers on the same roster. That’s not happening again.
The four-star kid who used to wait his turn now leaves. The backup guard wants to start. The third receiver wants targets and NIL money. Depth evaporates.
That doesn’t mean the SEC is weaker. It means everyone else is stronger.
And this is where the conversation often loses nuance. The SEC hasn’t fallen. The sport has flattened.
When Illinois flips a running back from Alabama, when Indiana doesn’t flinch at the sight of crimson helmets, when Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State can all realistically believe they belong, that’s not an indictment of the SEC. It’s a reflection of a new ecosystem.
From a Georgia fan’s perspective, this is both frustrating and fascinating.
Frustrating because dominance was comforting. You knew that if the Bulldogs didn’t win it all, someone from “our side” probably would. Fascinating because now, winning actually means something again.
The margin for error is gone. The invincibility is gone. And the sport feels alive in a way it hadn’t for years.
The SEC is still loaded. The league still produces NFL talent at an absurd rate. It still commands the biggest TV audiences, the loudest stadiums, and the deepest emotional investment. Walk into a bar in Athens, Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, or Knoxville on a fall Saturday and tell me this league has lost its soul. It hasn’t.
What it has lost is its insulation.
Georgia still recruits at an elite level. Alabama still signs blue chips. Texas has arrived with resources to match anyone. LSU reloads every year. Ole Miss can still win it all. But none of them can hoard talent anymore. None of them can sleepwalk through November. None of them can assume January belongs to them.
And maybe that’s the real test of kingship.
Because the SEC isn’t being dethroned by one rival or one conference. It’s being challenged by parity. By accessibility. By a sport that no longer allows any region to lock the door behind it.
As someone who bleeds red and black, who still believes Georgia under Kirby Smart is capable of winning it all in any given year, I don’t see this as the end of SEC supremacy. I see it as the end of SEC entitlement.
The crown isn’t gone. It’s just heavier now.
And the truth is, if the SEC really is what we’ve always claimed it to be, then it will adapt.
It will evolve. It will win again. Just not automatically. Not easily. Not without earning it.
Which might be the most SEC thing of all.
Doubt If You Dare
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The final offensive play Miami ran to earn a spot in the national championship had not been called by Shannon Dawson in a game this season.
Considering Miami’s offensive coordinator called a season-high 88 plays in final four 31-27 win against Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl — and more than 1,000 throughout the season — it’s noteworthy Dawson still had something the Rebels hadn’t seen yet.
It probably helps explain why Ole Miss left the entire left side of the field open for quarterback Carson Beck to tuck the ball and waltz his way into the end zone with 18 seconds left.
“We’ve been repping it probably for the last three games in that situation — for about a 4- or 5-yard-line play,” Dawson said. “We had a little condensed set (three receivers to the left) and were throwing an option route to Malachi (Toney). They covered it well and Carson just made a play, which was awesome. Sometimes we talk about at quarterback, if you exhaust your reads, go make a damn play. That’s what he did.”
Dawson’s play calling and Beck’s decision-making haven’t always produced pleasing results for the Hurricanes. There were probably some who questioned why Dawson called a pass play 3 yards from the end zone with 24 seconds left and a timeout still in Mario Cristobal’s pocket.
Miami had pounded the ball down the Rebels’ throats all night, and an Ole Miss sack or interception would be disastrous. Yet Miami’s coordinator and head coach were on the same page. It was time to put the game in Beck’s hands.
“I was gonna throw it there, and if I didn’t get it, I was gonna run it on third down,” Dawson said. “And then we would see, right?”
Dawson never had to figure out what to call on third down. Instead of forcing the ball to Toney in tight coverage and putting the ball in harm’s way, Beck made the right decision.
He’s done that a lot over the course of Miami’s seven-game win streak. While Beck is not putting up flashy numbers and continues to struggle connecting with receivers downfield (he was 1 of 7 on throws of 15-plus yards in the Fiesta Bowl), the Georgia transfer play is not hurting his team.
That’s as big a reason as any why Miami is advancing.
Beck’s teammates came to him after his midseason struggles and told him to let his mistakes go. They urged him to play free and reassured him they had his back.
When it was his turn to lead Miami down the field for the winning drive in the Fiesta Bowl, Beck said he told his teammates he had their back, regardless of the outcome.
“He’s a perfect example of a guy who just feels supported,” Cristobal said. “He’s hungry, he’s driven, he’s a great human being and all he wants to do is want to see his teammates have success. And that’s what we witnessed tonight.”
What did Beck’s teammates see late in the game from the Fiesta Bowl’s offensive MVP? Determination.
“All he said was, ‘Let’s go score,’” said CJ Daniels, who caught an 8-yard pass from Beck on third-and-6 with 1:25 to go to keep Miami’s final drive alive.
“The first thing he told me when he got here was if you wanna go win the natty, you’ve got to believe. Everybody knows he’s been through a lot. The whole world criticizes him. I just know I wouldn’t want to play with any other quarterback.”
Beck threw his second interception since the SMU loss — a span of 195 passes — on a batted ball on his final pass of the third quarter. He closed by completing eight of his last 13 passes in the fourth quarter for 93 yards and two touchdowns.
Keelan Marion, who led the Hurricanes with seven catches for 114 yards (including a 52-yarder for a touchdown on a busted coverage), said he went to Beck on the final drive and told him to get him the ball because he was confident he could beat whoever was covering him. Beck trusted him. Marion caught three passes on the drive, including the last two for first downs.
“Everybody doubted that guy,” Marion said, “and he’s been proving them wrong game by game.”
Is Beck capable of leading Miami to one more win on the Hurricanes’ home field against Indiana?
He’s 37-5 as a starting quarterback. It would be foolish to doubt him now.
Georgia Bulldogs Philosophy Change?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia fell in heartbreaking fashion to Ole Miss.
I’ll break down the moments that decided this game and acknowledge a couple winners and losers.
FOUR MOMENTS THAT DECIDED THE GAME:
Ole Miss kicker Lucas Carneiro 55-yard and 56-yard field goals early: So many times in key Georgia games, we’ve seen an opposing kicker turtle in the big moment.
Carneiro couldn’t have been more different. His first field goal of the night? Sugar Bowl record.
His second field goal of the night? Broke his Sugar Bowl record in 10 minutes.
Those two long-distance field goals early in the game were big from a future confidence standpoint for the key game-winner, but it also wound up having major scoreboard implications at multiple points through the game.
Those two early moments would be great foreshadowing for the final moments of the game that follow.
Trinidad Chambliss’ circus act on third-and-7 to start the fourth quarter: Early in the fourth quarter, Georgia led by five facing a key third-down, which had been shortened by a previous play from Chambliss where he flicked an improvised pass to avoid lost yardage.
The next play was even more miraculous. With Quintavius Johnson and Daylen Everette both free and chasing, Chambliss looked like he might be destined for a long, long negative play.
Instead, he pulled off a moment that will go down in Ole Miss and CFP history forever, escaping both, finding Kewan Lacy who made it just past the line-to-gain to extend the drive.
It put CJ Allen and KJ Bolden out of the game briefly, too. A few plays later, after another explosive, Kewan Lacy marched in for a go-ahead score for Ole Miss.
Georgia’s failed fourth-down conversion: Kirby Smart labeled it a misfire in his postgame press conference, and that’s liable to happen when you have a backup center in a high-leverage decision-making fourth down.
Immediately after Ole Miss’ go-ahead touchdown, the Bulldogs went four plays for negative-2 yards, ending in a Gunner Stockton fumble.
The fourth-down failure? Georgia ran the punt team off, replaced it with the offense, and according to Smart, didn’t intend on snapping it.
Malachi Toliver read that the Ole Miss defender jumped, so he snapped it when others weren’t expecting him too. The play was dead on arrival, and the Rebels took a 10-point lead a few moments later.
Georgia’s third-down incompletion on final possession: Georgia tied the game, but at what cost? Georgia’s third-down play before Peyton Woodring’s game-tying field goal had major clock implications.
Georgia elected to dropback with Stockton who targeted Oscar Delp in the back of the end zone, despite running past the back line. It stopped the clock just a hair under a minute.
Hindsight is 20-20, but a run there and settling for a field goal would’ve resulted in a tie game with around than 20 seconds on the clock, something that likely would’ve caused Ole Miss coaches to kneel and play for overtime. Sometimes it’s the little things.
Winners and Losers:
Loser: The ultimate storyline–It felt like it had been written in the stars: Carson Beck vs. Georgia.
The Bulldogs just needed to hold up their end of the bargain, and they didn’t.
Georgia had too many opportunities to spoil away what would’ve gone down as one of the most climatic weeks of off-the-field chatter that there’s ever been. Beck earned his way there, something Georgia was unable to do.
Winner: Fans begging for Kirby Smart self-reflecting on philosophical changes-Every team left in the College Football Playoff has a transfer-portal quarterback running the show.
At least two of the teams remaining — Ole Miss and Indiana — would identify as programs who built their modern-day prominence in college football via a tactical use of the transfer portal.
In multiple cases, there are some aggressive spenders when it comes to certain status of recruitments.
You can fairly ask: What approach is the right approach in today’s day and age? There’s likely not a definitively correct answer to that.
But what will come of this is that Kirby Smart will be given no choice but to evaluate all available strategies to see if something needs to change to modernize Georgia’s approach.
That’s not to say anything specifically will change, but it’s the type of loss that — at the very least — makes you think.
Loser: Smart’s game-management approval rating-It stinks that’s the case because there were certain moments — like the fake punt — that could’ve added to the legacy of Kirby Smart’s crucial-moment decisions in College Football Playoff games.
Instead, most focus will lean on the third- and fourth-down calls that made Georgia’s challenge of overcoming their failures virtually impossible.
There will be questions about play-calling, or personnel decisions. It wasn’t Smart’s sharpest performance, and he was the first to admit it on Thursday night.
Final Thoughts-There will be a lot of debate in the Georgia world over the next year because of what unfolded in this game.
We’ll get into that over the weeks and months to come. There will be questions about coaches. There will be questions about roster-building plans. There will be questions about decision-making. This isn’t the space where we’re trying to tell fans to not feel or react to those types of things.
A three-year College Football playoff win drought — this isn’t a national championship drought we’re talking about here — is enough to warrant those questions.
But it’s to put that on the back burner for a second to accept something that’s sometime hard to swallow.
Trinidad Chambliss was the best football player in New Orleans on Thursday. He came up in every big moment he was asked to. He threw for 362 yards, and he made it look run-of-the-mill — because it is.
He made the difference-making highlight-reel plays. Chambliss was the best quarterback Georgia faced all year, both times.
There were no answers from the defense. This was a guy playing Division-II ball at Ferris State a year ago, and now he can flip Sugar Bowls on their head.
I know it’s trendy to criticize your own team’s shortcoming when they’re not good enough. Smart is going to do that himself, rest assured.
But this Chambliss historic performance against Georgia deserves the most serious tip-of-the-cap. He was as sensational as any player has been against Georgia in the Kirby Smart era.
It also shows that you need to play at an elite level or better to beat this Georgia program, and that’s exactly what Chambliss did.
Out Of The Swamp
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Florida quarterback DJ Lagway announced Monday that he intends to enter the transfer portal.
Lagway, the five-star recruit out of high school, signed with Florida in December 2023 as arguably the Gators’ most important recruit since Tim Tebow.
At 6’3 and 247lbs, he was Gatorade’s national high school player of the year and the No. 7 overall recruit.
Lagway battled multiple injuries during his Florida tenure. He had a leg issue during the 2024 season, a shoulder concern this spring and a tweaked calf during the preseason.
The offseason injuries hampered his development and led to a bumpy 2025: 16 touchdown passes, 14 interceptions and the second-lowest passing efficiency in the SEC (127.00).
Lagway’s lack of progress helped lead to coach Napier’s firing in October. Florida hired Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, while Napier is taking over James Madison.
Although Lagway’s turnovers made him a scapegoat in many corners of the Florida fan base, his departure — assuming he does transfer — will resonate. He was the face of the program. He had NIL deals with Gatorade and Jordan.
Over two seasons, Lagway completed 62 percent of his passes for 4,179 yards. He also rushed for 237 yards and a touchdown.
Some of Lagway’s final suitors in the high school recruiting process included Clemson, Baylor, USC and Texas A&M. Will he try to rekindle those connections?
Despite the struggles he had in Gainesville, Lagway will have no shortage of suitors. His pure physical talent, size, and arm strength makes him a prospect who can command a generous seven-figure payday from a needy team. Out the gate, Lagway will be the best QB#1 available in the portal.
The question is, what does Lagway want? Is it to return home to Texas? If so, Baylor would make a ton of sense.
His father played there, the Bears were in on his recruitment coming out of high school, and Baylor star QB Sawyer Robertson has exhausted his eligibility.
If he’s looking to stay in the SEC, LSU and Vanderbilt are both expected to be in the quarterback transfer market this cycle, with Garrett Nussmeier and Diego Pavia on their way out.
There are plenty of QB-needy teams elsewhere. Miami has had great success with transfer quarterbacks, as has Indiana, and both are likely in need of a quarterback.
Miami’s Carson Beck is out of eligibility and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza is expected to be a first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Given his rough sophomore season, Lagway’s exit shouldn’t be seen as a surprise, but as a fresh start might be best for both him and the Gators. However, it’s still a significant development.
When Lagway started to gain national attention as a recruit in Willis, Texas, Florida was on his short list even though the Gators weren’t strongly pursuing him.
A friend of the Lagway family (and diehard Gators fan), Andrea Pratt, started reaching out to Napier’s staff on social media to steer them toward Lagway.
A few months later, Lagway became a top target for Florida and a defining recruiting win for Napier. His recruitment drew major focus around Florida, with signs about Lagway popping up in front of fraternities.
Florida fans appreciated DJ Lagway’s loyalty through a rough stretch. He did not waver on his decision despite the back-to-back losing seasons before he signed and the hot-seat chatter around Napier last year. After the spring game in April — an exhibition in which he did not throw a pass — his autograph line spanned from end zone to end zone.
Losing Lagway will likely force Florida to hit the portal for an experienced passer. Four-star recruit Tramell Jones Jr. appeared in two games as a freshman this season.
This month, the Gators signed four-star recruit Will Griffin, who was one of the most prolific passers in state history at Tampa’s Jesuit High.
