With another weekend of SEC action in the books, it’s time to look back at the coaching decisions that decided games for better or for worse. There were four games pitting two SEC against one another, and all four games were decided by 10 points or less, making every coaching move critical to a team’s success, or to its demise.

Here were the best and worst coaching decisions from around the SEC in Week 3:

Good Move

It took him longer than most would have liked, but Les Miles finally pulled the trigger and benched quarterback Anthony Jennings in favor of true freshman Brandon Harris in LSU’s 63-7 romp against New Mexico State over the weekend. Jennings turned the ball over on three of LSU’s first four possessions, and was removed from the game midway through the second quarter with LSU somehow leading 14-0 at the time. Harris came into the game and led an 11-play touchdown drive on his first possession, eventually lifting the offense to 63 total points, 49 of which came after Jennings’ exit. Jennings finished the game 2 of 5 passing with two interceptions and a lost fumble, while Harris finished 11 of 14 passing for 178 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Neither quarterback has very much experience at the FBS level, but Harris appears to have more raw talent at this point in time. It’s tough to imagine LSU would have lost had Miles not made the switch, but it surely wouldn’t have scored 63 points. Harris now appears to be LSU’s starter, and if the Tigers blossom during their final seven games of the year, this quarterback switch by Miles will be seen as the turning point in the season.

Bad Move

As I said last week, Steve Spurrier is a near-lock to land on this list every week, and unfortunately for Gamecocks fans this week he’s being cited for a terrible decision he made early in a 21-20 loss to Missouri. South Carolina opened the game with the ball, and moved it out to its own 42 yard line before facing a fourth and 1 less than two minutes into the action. Rather than punt the ball away early in the contest, Spurrier elected to take a risk and go for a first down by handing the ball to Brandon Wilds. Wilds was stuffed at the line for no gain, and upon taking over possession in enemy territory Mizzou marched right down the field and scored a touchdown on Russell Hansbrough’s awesome 18-yard run to daylight. The decision seemed questionable at best considering the Gamecocks entered the game with the worst defense in the SEC, and even if South Carolina had picked up a new set of downs it would have still been in its own territory with 13 minutes left in the opening quarter. Rather than make a low-risk, high-reward decision, Spurrier made a high-risk, low-reward decision and was burned for it. The Tigers wouldn’t score again until the final minutes of the fourth quarter, and in a one-point loss its obvious how badly Spurrier’s decision to go for it on fourth down hurt his team.

Good Move

Kentucky offensive coordinator Neal Brown found himself in a tricky situation as the Cats offense began its first possession of Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt on its own 1 yard line. Brown could have played it safe and run the ball three straight times to simply make room for a punt out of the end zone, but instead he rolled the dice and allowed his quarterback, Patrick Towles, the chance to throw from his own end zone on first down. Towles got rid of the ball quickly and hit wideout Demarco Robinson with a dart to move UK out to the 12 yard line, earning the team a new set of downs. From that point, Towles would lead the offense down the rest of the field on a 99-yard touchdown drive to take an early 7-0 lead in what would eventually become a 17-7 victory. Brown’s confidence in his quarterback gave Towles a sense of confidence on the field, as he completed his first 11 passes to lead Kentucky to an early advantage. It was a gutsy call to allow Towles to throw from his own end zone on his first snap of the game, but it was also a great call, and it set the tone for the Wildcats in their first SEC victory in three years.

Good Move

Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema looked like a genius when he called a fake punt late in the first half of a tie game against Texas A&M in Dallas. It seems Bielema noticed something in A&M’s punt return formations on film or during the first half of Saturday’s game, because when Razorbacks’ punter Sam Irwin-Hill caught the snap and took off down the left side of the field, there was not a player anywhere near him. Irwin-Hill showed off his skills as a former Australian rules football star in breaking a few tackles on a 51-yard touchdown run, but Arkansas would have had no trouble picking up the first down on the play even if the now-64 year old Ray Guy was the punter executing the fake. That’s how wide open Irwin-Hill’s running lane was, which is a testament to a great play design and fantastic timing on the call by Bielema. Arkansas stole a 21-14 lead and all the momentum heading into halftime, but it would eventually lose a heartbreaker in overtime.