LOS ANGELES — No. 20 USC pulled off a remarkable fake punt against Northwestern in Friday night’s 38-17 win by sending out third-string quarterback Sam Huard in the same uniform number as the Trojans’ punter.

Wearing a No. 80 jersey, Huard came on the field with the punt team in the second quarter and completed a 10-yard pass to Tanook Hines. The first down extended the Trojans’ second drive, which ended with a TD run by Jayden Maiava.

This bit of trickery was quite legal, apparently: Huard wore No. 7 earlier this season for the Trojans, but he is listed as No. 80 on the USC roster for this week after Lincoln Riley’s team quietly made the change.

USC punter Sam Johnson also wears No. 80. College football teams frequently feature two players wearing the same number.

Huard, who is a couple of inches shorter than the 6-foot-3 Johnson, grinned widely as he high-fived teammates on the way off the field. He is a former five-star recruit who began his college career at Washington.

Bowling Green pulled off a similar stunt in last season’s 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.

Third-string Falcons quarterback Baron May switched his uniform number before the game from 8 to 18 — very similar to punter John Henderson‘s No. 19 jersey.

Late in the first quarter, May came on the field instead of Henderson and threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Johnson Jr. — although Arkansas State overcame it for a 38-31 victory.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kentucky quarterback Zach Calzada apologized Friday for sending a video to someone on social media in which he boasted about the amount of NIL money he has received from the Wildcats this season.

The video, which was posted to X by a different person, showed Calzada counting a large stack of $100 bills.

Calzada, who turns 25 on Saturday, said he sent the video to someone who had apparently criticized his play this season.

In the video, Calzada tells the fan, “Hey, what you need to do, Garrett, is your ass needs to stop hatin’ and go get you some money. But since you ain’t got nothing, you go ahead and you can count mine.”

“Let’s count,” Calzada said, as he fanned the $100 bills.

“Don’t lose count, Garrett,” Calzada continued. “Straight hundreds.”

A Kentucky spokesman told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Friday, “Zach has taken responsibility for his actions. He has done the right thing and apologized. Now, it’s time to move forward.”

Calzada, who is playing his seventh season of college football, started the first two games for the Wildcats in 2025. He was ineffective, completing 47.2% of his attempts for 234 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.

Calzada injured his throwing shoulder in the fourth quarter of a 30-23 loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 6.

Freshman Cutter Boley took over and has started the past six games, throwing for 1,376 yards with 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.

Calzada, from Buford, Georgia, started his career at Texas A&M in 2019. His best season came in 2021, when he replaced injured Haynes King and went 6-4 as the starter. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception in the Aggies’ 41-38 upset of then-No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 9, 2021.

Calzada transferred to Auburn in 2022 but never played in a game after undergoing surgery on his non-throwing shoulder.

He spent the past two seasons at FCS program Incarnate Word, where he was named the Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2024 and Player of the Year last season, when he threw for 3,744 yards with 35 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

The Wildcats (3-5, 1-5 SEC) host Florida (3-5, 2-3 SEC) on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network).

Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, the chair of the College Football Playoff board of managers, told ESPN’s Paul Finebaum on Friday that the SEC would prefer to “not have automatic bids” in future iterations of the playoff.

Keenum’s comments came just weeks before the CFP’s Dec. 1 deadline to determine whether there will be a format change for 2026 and beyond.

“I’m not a big fan of automatic qualifiers,” Keenum said on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” which was live from Mississippi State ahead of Saturday’s game against Georgia. “I think the best teams ought to play in our nation’s national tournament to determine who our national champion in college football is going to be and not have automatic bids. That’s the position of the Southeastern Conference — presidents and chancellors, our commissioner, and probably most of the conferences that are part of the CFP.”

If the playoff is going to expand beyond 12 teams, the Big Ten and SEC will have to agree on the format because they were granted the bulk of control over it during the previous contract negotiation. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey haven’t reached consensus on a model. Following SEC spring meetings in May, a 16-team model that would feature the top five conference champions and 11-at-large teams gained support from every FBS conference except the Big Ten, which has been steadfast in its support of automatic qualifiers.

In August, ESPN reported the Big Ten’s interest in an expanded field that could include 24 or 28 teams and would eliminate conference championship games. That model could include seven guaranteed spots for both the Big Ten and SEC; five each for the ACC and Big 12; two bids for leagues outside the Power 4; and two at-large teams.

Multiple sources within the CFP have been skeptical for months that Sankey and Petitti would agree on a format — which means the most likely outcome would be for the current, 12-team format to remain in place for at least another season.

“We’re still negotiating,” Keenum told Finebaum. “We have to make a decision before the end of this month if we’re going to expand to 16 next year. … I’ll be honest, I’m not very optimistic that we’ll get to that, but we’ll keep working on it.”