Ohio State may have scored one of the biggest wins of the 2026 college football season a week ago, taking down defending national champion Indiana on the road, 19–15. But a college football season is a war of attrition, and the Buckeyes didn’t leave Bloomington, Ind., without some serious scars.
The physical Big Ten clash left Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin in a sling, putting the rest of his season in jeopardy—and the Buckeyes’ national championship aspirations with it.
As it turns out, he isn’t the only star quarterback still feeling the effects of that contest. Near-game-winning touchdown pass aside, Hoosiers signal-caller Josh Hoover didn’t look sharp during that game, and was clearly not himself a week later at Michigan, completing just 7-of-17 passes in the first half, and going 0 for 1 with his first interception of the season and a sack in the second. After the game, Curt Cignetti admitted that the coaching staff considered moving to Grant Wilson after a strong week of practice, but instead rode with the hampered Hoover, who dug deep to complete a huge pass and run in the game-winning touchdown in overtime.
“I think at the end of the day, we felt like it’s been Josh’s season,” Cignetti said. “And even though he’s not 100%, we gotta finish it out with him. And he responded.”
Time will tell what this all means for Hoover. The fact that Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan effectively took the ball out of his hands for a full half of football isn’t a ringing endorsement of his health, but when the time came, he did enough to win at Michigan. In many ways, that makes Indiana one of the lucky programs out there. Just midway through the season, many teams have been forced to start multiple quarterbacks due to injury, with some going even further down the depth chart than QB2.
Football has long been a brutal game, and even as the rules have shifted in order to protect quarterbacks, keeping one healthy for a full year—or even two full months—is no easy feat. And at the same time, college football’s schedule continues to expand for more teams, with a 24-team College Football Playoff set to begin next year, that could see a team seeded ninth or higher play five postseason games.
With every additional star quarterback sidelined, it becomes a more difficult situation to square.
Sports Illustrated surveyed box scores and injury reports from all 138 FBS programs on Saturday. At some point during the first eight full weeks of the regular season, at least 40 teams were forced to start a new quarterback explicitly due to injury—nearly 30% of the country. This list doesn’t include benchings, such as the Bryce Underwood situation at Michigan.
The number also doesn’t include Ohio State, which has not yet played a game since Sayin’s injury.
With more than a month left of regular-season college football, some programs have been pushed to the brink already. Oregon lost preseason Heisman hopeful Dante Moore to a concussion after a vicious hit during the Ducks’ win against USC. Dylan Raiola has been effective off the bench but has struggled mightily in his two starts, leading Dan Lanning to replace him against UCLA with former walk-on Brock Thomas, who started the Nebraska game. Raiola came in to lead the Ducks past the Huskers, but managed only 10 points in Saturday’s loss to a middling Illinois team.
Kamario Taylor lit the college football world aflame during the first month of the season, with both tantalizing athleticism and a highlight machine affixed to his right shoulder. Taylor led Mississippi State to a 4–0 record, but suffered a foot injury in a win over Missouri. He couldn’t finish the team’s loss to Alabama, missed the loss to LSU and left Saturday’s game—a tight loss to Oklahoma—early due to the injury. An extremely promising season now looks like it may end without a bowl bid, if Taylor can’t get back to something resembling 100%.
UCLA is shooting for a playoff berth in Year 1 under Bob Chesney, but will have to do so with former Cal Poly transfer Ty Dieffenbach, after losing Nico Iamaleava for the year to a torn ACL. Pitt quarterback Mason Heintschel looked like a bourgeoning star early in the season, until he suffered the same injury against Virginia Tech. Demond Williams Jr. was at the center of one of the offseason’s most contentious stories, as he flirted with a departure for LSU after signing a deal to remain at Washington. His Huskies are one of the sport’s most disappointing teams this year, and he missed a win over Purdue with a rib injury. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s sputtering playing time at Cal goes beyond injury, but he did miss time with a concussion. Baylor’s DJ Lagway missed time in September with an ankle injury and Aaron Philo, his replacement at Florida, hurt his shoulder against South Carolina and missed the Gators’ win at Texas.
A handful of teams have dealt with multiple quarterback injuries. After losing Steve Angeli to a torn Achilles a year ago, Syracuse spent the offseason beefing up its depth at the position, adding Kennesaw State starter Amari Odom and five-star recruit-turned-journeyman Malachi Nelson through the transfer portal. After Angeli was sidelined, both Odom and Nelson started games for the Orange, have played well ... and are now both are out with significant injuries. Odom underwent season-ending shoulder surgery while Nelson had tight-rope surgery that will cost him at least a few weeks. Fourth-stringer Danny Lauter has appeared in a pair of one-score losses for Fran Brown’s team, with Angeli returning to the offense for Cuse’s win over North Carolina.
Widespread quarterback injuries are far from a college-specific phenomenon. Nine of the 32 NFL clubs have started multiple quarterbacks already this year; the Giants are set to join the Bears with three different starters on Sunday when J.J. McCarthy gets his first start for New York against the Texans. And while the plans are more centralized and thoughtfully considered than the ever-changing world of college football, the NFL has also made clear its ambitions to grow the season, with more regular-season games, increased international travel and never-ending expansion across the calendar, with games being added to every open date imaginable.
There is no more American sport than football, and in all of its popular permutations, the powers that be want more of it. Even if it means less of the best players at the sport’s most important position—the ones that fans pay hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to see every weekend.
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