Tuesday Tailgate: Most impactful injuries of season's first half
As surely as the sun rises in the east, injuries will happen in the sport of football. While every coach says injuries aren't an excuse for unwanted results, they are certainly an explanation.
Some teams have managed to overcome such misfortune. Notre Dame, for example, remains in the playoff hunt despite losing several players early in the campaign, including quarterback Malik Zaire, defensive tackle Jarron Jones, safety Drue Tranquill and this past weekend offensive lineman Alex Bars.
Other teams haven't been as successful in the face of personnel losses. Here are the five players whose absence has been the most keenly felt by their respective teams.
Myles Jack, LB, UCLA
The Bruins' top defensive player and occasional fullback was seemingly everywhere during the team's 3-0 start, as when he made the game-sealing interception against BYU. UCLA managed to win its first game without him at Arizona, but the defense clearly hasn't been the same in consecutive losses to Arizona State and Stanford. With California, Utah and USC still on the slate, the Bruins' Pac-12 South championship hopes are slim.
Nick Chubb, RB, Georgia
As talented as Bulldogs' sophomore Sony Michel is, there's just no replacing a Heisman Trophy contender. Chubb's absence wasn't the only reason Georgia had to grind out a 9-6 win against Missouri this weekend, but it can't have helped.
Karl Joseph, SS, West Virginia
Losing your best defensive back is never good. It's even worse in the Big 12, where some of the nation's most potent aerial attacks live. The fact that Joseph's season-ending knee injury was a complete fluke, suffered during a non-contact drill in practice, makes his loss even harder to stomach for Mountaineers' fans. There are winnable games left for WVU, but their next contest against TCU probably won't be one of them.
Jonathan Williams, RB, Arkansas
Unlike the quarterback position, two heads are nearly always better than one at tailback. When Williams went down with a foot injury before the Razorbacks' season even began, the SEC's best one-two punch was robbed of half its effectiveness. Alex Collins hasn't performed badly by any means as Arkansas's featured runner, but one can't help but speculate how much fresh legs would have helped in some of those close losses.
Michael Brewer, QB, Virginia Tech
The Hokies were very much in their season opener with Ohio State until Brewer went out with a collarbone injury in the third quarter. He saw spot duty last week in Tech's loss to Miami and he's expected to start this week at Duke, but setbacks against East Carolina and Pittsburgh while he was out will have the Hokies scrambling for bowl eligibility.
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