College Football
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.
Better College Football Playoff
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When the first round of the expanded College Football Playoff wrapped up last season, the reaction was swift and unforgiving.
Blowouts dominated the weekend, critics scoffed, and the 12-team format was quickly labeled a failed experiment. The results seemed to back it up.
SMU was overwhelmed by Penn State 38 to 10. Tennessee never seriously threatened Ohio State in a 42 to 17 loss. Across the board, first round games were decided by an average of more than 19 points.
It was not just disappointing. It was dull.
But writing off the expanded playoff after one ugly opening weekend ignores a crucial truth about college football. Every season is different.
And in 2025, the first round of the CFP is positioned to look dramatically different for one simple reason. The bracket finally makes sense.
Last year’s issues were not inherent to expansion. They were structural.
Conference champions were guaranteed first round byes, which meant the bracket was distorted from the start. The five seed and six seed were effectively top four teams, creating mismatches that never had a chance to be competitive.
A first round matchup like Texas versus Clemson essentially pitted the number three team in the country against a true double-digit seed.
That is not drama. That’s math. This year, the math is better.
The 2025 first round slate is built on competitive balance, not artificial reward. The headliners alone tell the story.
Texas A&M hosting Miami at Kyle Field is a heavyweight clash between two teams that flashed genuine national championship upside.
Oklahoma versus Alabama is a rematch that still carries intrigue after the Sooners forced three turnovers to escape Tuscaloosa with a two-point win in November.
Those are not filler games. They’re the matchups the playoff was designed to create.
Even the games that appear lopsided on paper are more compelling than critics might assume.
James Madison will be challenged by Oregon, but advanced metrics suggest the game stays within two touchdowns. Tulane’s rematch with Ole Miss brings a fascinating layer of context.
The Green Wave are more complete, and their quarterback is far more settled than he was earlier in the season.
Ole Miss, meanwhile, is navigating transition after the departure of Lane Kiffin, which adds uncertainty on the other sideline.
That’s the point that I think critics keep missing. Teams evolve. Quarterbacks develop. Systems adjust.
Judging the entire playoff format based on one snapshot ignores how fluid the sport has become, especially in the NIL and transfer portal era. The gap between elite teams and the upper middle class has shrunk significantly.
Last season’s biggest imbalance was not caused by expansion. It came from Ohio State. The most talented roster in the country stumbled into the eight seed after an indefensible loss to Michigan, warping the bracket and creating an unavoidable mismatch. There is no comparable outlier in 2025.
College football is not broken. It is changing. The expanded playoff is neither a cure all nor a fatal flaw. It is the next evolution, complete with unintended consequences.
What expansion has revealed is that college football’s biggest issues were never about the number of teams invited. They were about power, perception, and identity.
Expansion did not remove those forces. It rearranged them.
The challenge of the playoffs has always been adjusting expectations without losing what made college football special in the first place.
The chaos did not disappear. It simply found new ways to show up, and the sport is still learning how to live with it.
King Bee Out At Southeast Bulloch
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Southeast Bulloch and the Bulloch County School system announced Monday that Jared Zito has been relieved of his duties as the Head Football Coach for Southeast Bulloch.
Zito finished his 5th season at the helm of the Jackets with an overall record of 31-24.
As of now, Zito will stay at Southeast Bulloch as a physical education teacher, but Defensive Coordinator Jason Anthony will serve as the Interim Head Coach to begin the off-season program.
Southeast Bulloch narrowly missed the GHSA State Playoffs in 2025 with a 5-5 record but made 2 appearances in the postseason in the 5 years under Zito.
In Zito’s first season in Brooklet, SEB finished 10-2 with the first playoff win for the program since 1973.
After 2 years of playing in the 4A Ranks, SEB returned to the 3A playoffs in 2024. The Jackets advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to Stephenson to finish the season with a 10-3 mark.
Zito’s SEB tenure wraps up his 22nd year as a head coach where he holds a 112-123 overall record between time in both Georgia & Florida.
Now the process to find the next head coach fall into the very capable hands of SEB Principal Dr. Julie Mizell and Athletic Director Mark Oliver.
While this process will unquestionably be scouring the state and country to search for the best leader of the program. That said, there are a couple of names that are already on staff that I’m sure will get some looks too.
Jason Anthony has been the defensive coordinator for Southeast Bulloch for the past five seasons and is remarkably respected among players and supporters.
I have said for years that “Ant” is one of the most underappreciated coaches in the country.
Anthony has been recognized multiple times by Parker Resources as one of the Defensive Coordinators of the year. I can’t overstate the impact that Anthony has on the players. The level of respect and love from players, from other coaches, and supporters/parents around the program is that which every coach across the country strives for.
The other name currently on staff that is likely to get looks is Offensive Line coach Brandon Peterson. “Pete” has been at Southeast Bulloch for nearly 15 years (spanning four previous head coaches).
Much like was mentioned about Anthony, Peterson has unbelievable respect among the team. While Peterson hasn’t been a head football coach in his career, he currently serves as the head baseball coach for Southeast Bulloch.
While the title was only O-Line coach, Peterson was integral in the offensive gameplan and was the right-hand man for Zito in the offensive execution.
Southeast Bulloch has so much potential, especially with the growing area and new school construction along the horizon, so it will be interesting to see how the process of finding the new Head Jacket unfolds.
On a personal note, I do want to say “Thank You” to Coach Zito. I’ve had the honor of being the “Voice of the Jackets” broadcasting SEB Football on radio for all 5 years he was in Brooklet.
He was exceptional with us, letting us feel like and be fully involved with the program to be able to better cover the team. I really appreciate everything he did to welcome our crew in and help us do our jobs.
Georgia Bulldogs Playoff Run?
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For the 16th time in program history, the phrase “The Georgia Bulldogs are SEC Champs” rings true in 2025.
After a dominant 28-7 victory for the Dawgs over the Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia moved to 12-1 on the season and earned the #3 seed in the College Football Playoff.
The lone blemish on the schedule for the silver britches coming in September to Alabama, but the Georgia team that avenged that loss in the SEC Title game against the Tide is night and day different from the one in late September.
Georgia has won 9 consecutive games including 3 of those against teams in the top 25 rankings and look to be playing as impressively as anyone in the country entering the College Football Playoff.
While there are numerous factors that contribute to the success down the back stretch of 2025, to me one of the most overlooked is the consistency at offensive line for the Dawgs.
In the first 6 games of the season, Georgia had to utilize 6 different offensive line combinations and left guard Micah Morris is the only O-Lineman to start all 13 games for UGA.
Since then, there has been more consistency up front. While there have still been injuries, most notably center Drew Bobo going down in the regular season finale against Georgia Tech and not playing in the SEC Championship, the other four positions have virtually found their homes and has provided the stability the offense needed.
Injuries and resiliency have been a theme for this Georgia team, especially on offense.
With injuries throughout the past few weeks to Chauncey Bowens, Colbie Young, and others, it has forced some unsung heroes to step up into big roles.
With running back Chauncey Bowens out for the past two weeks, Nate Frazier has obviously taken even more of the load, but the bruising back of Josh McCray has elevated his role for the Illinois transfer.
The wide receiving core has been touch and go the past few weeks with Colbie Young dealing with a lower body injury. Noah Thomas took an enormous step forward, especially with a couple touchdown catches against Texas. That said, Thomas missed most of the SEC Championship game with illness so it fell on the shoulders of Zachariah Branch to lead the wide outs.
Hard to believe that we’ve gotten this far without mentioning Gunner Stockton. The first-year Georgia starter at quarterback has arguably been the most consistent high-producing quarterback in the SEC.
After setting a career high 304 yards in his first true road test of the season against Tennessee, Stockton has been rock-solid steady for the Dawgs both through the air and on the ground.
While the rushing numbers aren’t Heisman-style eye-popping, it feels like every time the Dawgs need a yard or two or a pocket is collapsing, Stockton is able to get exactly what the red and black need to keep the drive alive (oh and usually taking a big hit in the process).
The offense gets a ton of praise, and rightfully so, but while it may not be littered with 1st round NFL draft picks this year, the Georgia Defense has been efficient and effective all season long.
CJ Allen and KJ Bolden have grown into enormous leadership roles and names like Daylen Everette and Jonel Aguero have been as productive as anyone in the SEC in the secondary.
Georgia will have a couple of much-needed weeks off before their Sugar Bowl appearance in New Orleans to face the winner of the first-round match-up between Ole Miss and Tulane.
It gives the #3 Dawgs a chance to lick their wounds and be as healthy as they potentially have been in a month or two going into the playoff run and try to get back to the National Championship
Honor The Deal
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia’s pass rush clearly struggled for most of this season. Georgia has the fewest sacks in the SEC in 2025, with 17 total.
The Bulldog’s defense improved as the season went on, including the pass rush. Georgia (12-1) is safely in the College Football Playoff.
Georgia’s athletic department announced they are seeking $390,000 from former defensive end Damon Wilson II, claiming his transfer to Missouri terminated his existing name, image and likeness agreement with the Bulldogs’ collective. Wilson had nine sacks for Missouri and tied for third most in the SEC.
The Bulldogs already lost their best pass rushers, Mykel Williams and Jalon Walker to the NFL Draft. That was expected, but Damon Wilson II was penciled in for a bigger role after notching three sacks last season, the most of any returning Georgia player.
Georgia’s push for damages may hinge as much on the timing of Wilson’s departure. While nine other Georgia players entered the transfer portal between the end of the regular season and the Sugar Bowl in January, Wilson stayed with the team through the bowl game.
The team expected Wilson to be a key contributor, if not a starter, but then he entered the portal Jan. 7. That made it too late in the process to find an adequate replacement, according to the team.
The dispute is spelled out in an application to compel arbitration filed by the University of Georgia Athletic Association in October.
According to a contract attached to the court filing, Georgia’s Classic City Collective agreed to pay Wilson $30,000 per month from December 2024 through January 2026. That’s $420,000 total, not including $40,000 bonus payments in February and June.
Wilson received his first payment and entered the transfer portal weeks later. According to the filing, the contract allowed the UGA collective to terminate the deal if Wilson unenrolled, left the team, or entered the portal.
The deal also spells out liquidated damages if it’s terminated. Wilson would owe whatever’s remaining on the contract in a lump-sum payment. A termination letter sent by the collective said the $390,000 payment could come from Wilson or another individual/entity on his behalf (presumably, the collective of another school).
“When the University of Georgia Athletic Association enters binding agreements with student-athletes we honor our commitments and expect student-athletes to do the same,” Georgia athletics spokesperson Steven Drummond said in a statement.
Because the collective assigned its deals to Georgia’s athletic department in July, the Bulldogs have taken the issue to court to demand arbitration.
Authorities in Missouri served Wilson with the legal summons Nov. 24. Wilson does not currently have an attorney listed in the court system.
This case is and will be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lawsuits being filed against players with substantial NIL deals who enter the transfer portal.
