Kirby Smart had never called an onside kick before Saturday night, when Peyton Woodring turned his right foot at the last second and delivered an arrow-perfect bounce to Cash Jones.

Then again, with a 114-20 record in his decade as the head coach in Athens, his Bulldogs have almost never needed something like that to pull out a victory.

In the last era of college football, the one completely dominated by Smart, Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney, the big teams were able to stockpile talent in a way that meant the bigger and faster team usually just won, eventually. These tricks only came out when the big boys played each other – to degrees of effectiveness ranging from Saban’s masterful onside call against Dabo, to Kirby’s less inspired fake punt with Justin Fields against Nick.

Now, with player movement balancing the scales – at least in some regards – the margins are coming back into play. Georgia’s defense hasn’t been able to just out-talent teams the way the legendary units like 2021 could. Kirby has to take risks in a way he just never had to, and it’s made him and Georgia so much more interesting.

Five years ago, Georgia wouldn’t have attempted two fourth down conversions on the same drive, up 14-10 in the third quarter. Kirby would have punted the ball away and let Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis hand it right back to the offense four plays later.

We saw a similar phenomenon in Tuscaloosa, where the margin between the Sooners and Tide might have been best exemplified by one team simply knowing the right rules.

The closer teams get in talent level, the more games are impacted by the little things. If that means special teams once again find prominence in the week to week of the sport, it can only be a good thing.

No. 3 Texas A&M 31, South Carolina 30

If nothing else, Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks are doing a great job of getting it out of your system. In what has long been a lost season, speedrunning new and horrific ways to lose conference games is a fantastic way to build resilience – or, at least, numbness to the pain – as you begin another program rebuild. 

The Aggies continue to find ways to win, marking a spiritual reversal of essentially the entire history of the program. I’m still not sure they have enough tools in the kit to win three playoff games, but they’ve proven me wrong for ten games already.

LSU 23, Arkansas 22 

The only notable takeaway from this game is that we’re firmly on track for Arkansas to finish one of the weirdest Pythagorean Expectation years in recent memory. The Hogs have scored 341 points and allowed 323, for a +18 differential and just two wins. Picking a random team out of the B1G for reference, Minnesota has a -9 differential and is 6-4.

Kentucky 42, Tennessee Tech 10

We might need to update our priors a bit. It’s been easy to ignore the Wildcats for pretty much the entire season, but they might not be that bad? SP+ has them pegged as the 43rd best team in the country, which certainly isn't good but also isn’t the tire fire that most writers (myself included) ran with until the ongoing win streak. Mark Stoops now has two opportunities against Vanderbilt and Lousiville to qualify for another bowl game in Lexington.

No. 12 Oklahoma 23, No. 4 Alabama 21

The Sooners have perfected a level of old school SEC West chaosball that feels so familiar in this conference, even if it’s just their second year here. Brent Venables’ defense turned up the pressure on Ty Simpson to a level we haven’t seen all year and forced three crucial turnovers to go with the maybe blocked kick discussed earlier. By all available metrics, the Tide badly outplayed Oklahoma and it just didn’t matter in the end. The Sooners now just need to beat flailing Mizzou and LSU teams to snag a playoff berth, while Alabama suddenly has a nervy Iron Bowl against an Auburn team with nothing to lose that would either put them in the SEC title game or out of the playoff completely. Fun!

No. 25 Tennessee 42, New Mexico State 9

I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending that I watched this game. 

No. 6 Ole Miss 34, Florida 24

Are we sure that Ole Miss is any better than previous iterations of what feels like the exact same roster? The Rebels score a ton, sure, but that’s always true of Lane Kiffin teams, and this year’s squad doesn’t seem to have the pass rush that last year’s unit did. A favorable schedule looks like it will produce a playoff trip, but we’re going to have to wait to find out if this setup is capable of producing anything more than that.

No. 5 Georgia 35, No. 11 Texas 10

Three wins in two seasons for Kirby Smart against Steve Sarkisian, with seemingly increasing vitriol from the Dawgs in each matchup. This game stayed close for 2.5 quarters, before Georgia blew it open behind a series of bold decisions by Smart and tremendous playcalls by the beleaguered Mike Bobo. Georgia might be doing the mid-2010s Clemson thing where they wait until November to kick into high gear, and the Bulldogs certainly have looked the part of the best team in the conference recently.

No. 22 Missouri 49, Mississippi State 27

A brief spotlight on Mizzou running back Ahmad Hardy, who transferred to Columbia after a great 2024 season at Louisiana-Monroe. Hardy, who generated some early-season Heisman buzz when the Tigers began the year undefeated, put on a dominant performance Saturday – running for 300 yards on just 25 carries, literally averaging a first down every time he touched the ball. The Tigers will rue a lot of missed opportunities throughout the year, but uncovering a gem in Hardy does spark excitement for what’s to come with a healthy Beau Pribula in 2026.

No. 16 Georgia Tech 36, Boston College 34

A murky ACC title picture almost got murkier as the Yellow Jackets went down early to what might be the worst team in the Power 4, before a ridiculous performance by Haynes King clawed back a much-needed. A win against Pitt next week likely locks the Jackets into the ACC championship, and a win the following week against Georgia might secure a bid even before Championship Saturday.

No. 18 Michigan 24, Northwestern 22

Tremendously ugly game, but one that kept playoff hopes alive for the Wolverines. Beating Ohio State is extremely unlikely, but they’ve done it four times in a row already, so maybe?

No. 17 USC 26, No. 21 Iowa 21

Another B1G team keeps the faint flicker of playoff dreams burning, as USC bullied Iowa in a way most Lincoln Riley teams wouldn't be able to. The Trojans need to beat Oregon next week to have any chance of joining the playoff picture, but that seems more realistic than ever.

Navy 41, No. 24 South Florida 38

The Midshipmen now take back control of the American Conference race, setting up an endlessly funny scenario where the Midshipmen secure the G5 playoff bid on Selection Sunday and then, because this sport is dumb and refuses to align on any sort of sensical calendar, lose the Army-Navy game the following week before going on the road for their first-round matchup.

Sam Houston 26, Delaware 23

In keeping with the opening theme, just want to note that Delaware is now 3/3 on onside kicks this year. 

FCS: No. 11 Harvard 45, Penn 43

The Crimson needed a buzzer-beating 52-yard field goal to finish off this comeback victory, which puts them at 9-0 heading into the first-ever FCS playoff tournament where Ivy League teams are eligible to compete for the national title. Could this be the team to break up more than a decade of Big Sky dominance?

Division II: Lenoir-Rhyne 48, Catawba 46

Maybe the only stranger game than A&M’s comeback over South Carolina this weekend. Just a scenic day in Hickory, North Carolina where Lenoir-Rhyne blew a 30-point third quarter lead before storming back with a last-minute touchdown drive for a ho-hum two-point win over their in-state rivals.

Fast to flat (quick throw to a shallow route on the same side as a playaction run) is a pretty well-known playcall on 3rd or 4th down – you’ve seen the Chiefs run some variation of this a million times – but fully shifting a tackle from one side of the formation to another and faking to a weakside fullback dive is an extremely mean-spirited design from Mike Bobo. This crucial play, on 4th and 1 in Georgia territory, felt like the true moment where the Bulldogs lifted and separated from Texas.