G’s Exploration or QBs Are Falling Like Flies

Welcome back to college football rant day. Football is a violent sport. Injuries are common and sometimes brutally severe. Dozens of players are out for the season (and sometimes their career is already over). Almost every position is represented in this list. Each year, there are running backs who blow out knees, linemen who are rolled up on, wrist, ankles, head injuries, toes… A couple times a season a starting QB is lost for the season and there’s a huge impact for that team and, to some degree, to that team’s conference. Just in the FBS, there have been 5 QBs knocked out for the year. Maybe, you’re thinking, 5 isn’t so bad and maybe you’re right, but it’s week 3! At this rate, more than 20 will drop (that’s 15% of the FBS) will be dealing with this. Honestly, I haven’t been able to find any answers to what “normal” is for this odd stat, but it seems high. And since this is Tuesday and an opinion post (as opposed to data-based posts on Thursday and Sunday), I’m going with I think it’s a lot. When 3 of those 5 are in the same conference, it’s just bizarre – I don’t think many people would have made that bet preseason.

This week Felipe Franks of Florida dislocated his ankle and is out for 6 months (that’s March and close to the end of college basketball and pro hockey). He joined Terry Wilson (knee) of Kentucky and Jake Bentley (foot) of South Carolina as opening day starters out for the year. Not only are they all in the SEC, they are all in the SEC East! Florida (17 in the GCR) has relied on it’s defense to get to 3-0, but their game plan has changed. Kentucky just lost, late, to Florida but is still #56. South Carolina (135) is 1-2 (remember they “won” the preseason SOS race – check out that blog if you’d like to refresh).

The other two QBs out for the season are Northwestern’s (158) TJ Green (foot) and Southern Cal’s (91) JT Daniels (knee). I wonder what impact these injuries are going to have going forward. In some cases, the new starter may step up (Florida and South Carolina fans were both a bit disgruntled with the original starter). But I think what it brings is a bit of uncertainty.

One of the reasons I think most of us like college football is these are kids. In the NFL, there are players that have good games and bad games, but the difference is pretty small compared to the wide range in most college games. And if the NFL player is inconsistent enough, they get someone else. In college, that’s a bit harder – you can bench someone, but they are still on the team and could get back in a game…probably due to injury. But when a QB, of all positions, takes most of the snaps throughout the spring and summer (or earned the spot during those workouts) and then falls, especially early in the season, it makes fans, and I’m sure coaches, and even players a bit nervous. Southern Cal’s 2nd stringer had to step in almost immediately in the first game. They were playing Fresno State (227), who historically have been fairly strong, but this year have not started well, and beat them by a 31-23 score. Then they took on Stanford (140) in a major rivalry game and surprised a lot of pundits with a resounding 45-20 win (especially after Stanford beat Northwestern – see next paragraph). The Cardinal followed that fiasco up with a 45-27 loss to UCF (9). Then they lost to BYU (83) who had just beat Tennessee (161). BYU’s only loss this year was to Utah (13) by a 30-12 score and guess who the Trojans get to play next? At least they get to play the Utes at home.

Northwestern has a similar situation except that they lost to Stanford in week 1 while losing their QB. Then, after an early but much needed off week, they topped UNLV (200) by 16. This week they get Michigan State (38) at home. Both of these QBs will be tested.

That’s it for now – I’ll be back Thursday with some picks of the week (complete with predictions of a few games as well). Later, r