Seventy-Four Was Plenty

Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.

GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Sunday, September 20, 2026

SEC travel limits made Georgia leave thirty Bulldogs home for Fayetteville, and Arkansas surely wishes they'd left more.

ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk

The SEC has a rule now that says you may only carry 74 players on a road trip, which is the league's way of pretending it worries about excess. So Georgia left better than thirty Bulldogs back in Athens, packed light for Fayetteville, and beat Arkansas 45 to 17 anyway. Somewhere in a conference office sits a fellow convinced this proves the rule works. What it mostly proves is that Georgia's second string would be ranked in a lot of leagues, including possibly this one.

DawgNation went through the manifest and found the interesting parts. Georgia took four quarterbacks — which is either caution or a hobby — and exactly three outside linebackers, two of them freshmen, on account of Chase Linton and Amaris Williams staying home hurt. Freshman running back Nick Peal made the plane over Jae Lamar, and Thomas Blackshear came back from his wrist injury with all five of the second-year receivers aboard. That is a roster packed the way a man packs for a weekend trip: one of everything, and hope.

Georgia's second string would be ranked in a lot of leagues, including possibly this one.

The trip did cost a little. Nate Frazier gave them 75 yards on 14 carries before leaving in the third quarter with what Kirby Smart called 'a little ding,' and Isiah Canion came out with a leg injury after Georgia's first touchdown. Smart told reporters both probably could've played if he'd needed them, which is coach language for 'we were up big and I am not a fool.' Sports Illustrated reports both are expected back for Oklahoma, and the whole roster — every Bulldog who watched from a couch — will be available in Athens.

Smart, naturally, declined to call any of it a blowout. 'I don't know that I would call that a blowout,' he told reporters, after winning by 28 with a partial deck of cards. He wants Georgia to run it better, throw it better, and rush the passer better, which covers most of the known categories of football. A man who wins 45 to 17 with three outside linebackers and pronounces himself unsatisfied is either lying to you or building something. With Kirby it has generally been the latter.

Meanwhile, down in Oxford, the game everybody argued about at church this morning: Lane Kiffin took LSU back to the town he used to coach, and Ole Miss sent him home a loser, 32 to 24. The Rebels led 24 to 7 at the half, LSU clawed it even with eleven minutes and change to go, and Trinidad Chambliss answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive that shut the door. Kiffin has now learned what every man learns eventually: you can go home again, but they remember you there.

As for what's next, Oklahoma comes to Athens on Saturday, September 26 — the Sooners are 2 and 1, fresh off a 17 to 10 loss to Michigan and a 14 to 6 win over New Mexico that nobody is framing. Their defense has carried them while John Mateer and the offense sputter, and now they get Sanford Stadium with, per the recruiting folks at 247Sports, one of Georgia's biggest visitor weekends of the year in the stands. The Dawgs sit No. 2 in the new AP poll, still looking up at Texas. Full roster this time. Pack accordingly.

The Notebook

• FIRST SINCE 1952: Kentucky walked into Kyle Field and beat No. 9 Texas A&M, 31 to 21 — the Wildcats' first win over the Aggies since 1952, and A&M's first home loss to an unranked team since 2022, snapping a 19-game streak.
• TOP OF THE PILE: The new AP poll has 3-0 Texas at No. 1 with 58 first-place votes and 3-0 Georgia holding at No. 2 with 1,580 points.
• THE EARLY LINE: The Wagon Pullers visit the Red Clay Hounds Saturday at 3:30 Eastern, and the number is Georgia minus 14. The desk is leaning that way.

Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.

Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.