Twas the week before rivalry week...
Injuries, near misses, and evolving trends in college football showed up in a big way this week before the final slate of regular season games in 2023.
You always have to be careful making a lot of Week 12 in college football. Much of the SEC has what’s called the “SEC bye week” where they schedule one of their four non-conference games before the big rivalry game that concludes the season.
There’s always an early “wait…is Abilene Christian going to be a problem for Texas A&M???” sort of event before you get the inevitable “A&M wins 38-10” conclusion. The difference in talent is always too extreme even with the SEC squad (or their cousin Florida State) sleep walking in the early part of the game and getting bushwhacked in the first few possessions before adjusting.
SEC-adjacent Florida State had this issue against North Alabama and while they won 58-13, the outcome of the game may have been a disaster all the same as it included quarterback Jordan Travis suffering some sort of catastrophic ankle injury. I’m not savvy enough on ankle injuries to know the diagnosis and they don’t tell you much in the college game, but I’m pretty darn sure he won’t play again this season. They still have Florida and the ACC Championship between them and the playoffs…
One of the funny things about the Big 10 and “the game” between Michigan and Ohio State is both teams routinely draw decent Big 10 squads the week before they play each other. Back in 2018 the Urban Meyer Buckeyes drew the Maryland Terrapins and were taken down to the wire, 52-51 in a totally wild game. Were they vulnerable and about to be exposed by Michigan? Nah, they beat the Wolverines 62-39 in a laugher.
This year Michigan drew Maryland and got themselves into late trouble before holding on 31-24. We’ll talk more about “the game” on Wednesday (or Friday) but I wouldn’t make as much of that one. These teams are always sandbagging whenever they can before the big matchup.
For all that, there was still a TON that happened this week.
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