ESPN Names Last Season's Luckiest College Football Team
A key factor within college football that probably isn't talked enough is how injuries can make or break a season.
ESPN's Bill Connelly attempted to quantify how injuries impacted teams during the 2024 season, and a couple of things standout from those findings.
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Uncertainties are prevalent on the injury front in college sports. Often times, head coaches elect to keep the status of some players behind closed doors, and the information that does pass through is largely inconsistent.
Given the variability, Connelly focused on starting lineups to gage "lineup consistency."
The two factors used include: a) the number of players who either started every game or started all but one for a given team, and b) the number of players who started only one or two games.
Connelly's resulting list gives a look at which teams were lucky – in terms of injuries – and those whose starting lineups were ultimately decimated by season's end.
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By those metrics, the luckiest team in college football last season was Penn State, which posted a program-record 13 wins and the first College Football Playoff berth in school history.
Penn State Nittany Lions against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Orange Bowl.Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Head coach James Franklin and Co. came one game shy – a 30-27 loss to Notre Dame in the semifinals – from playing for a national championship.
The Indiana Hoosiers sat second in lineup consistency, and much like Penn State, thrived. First-year head coach Curt Cignetti led the program to a school-record 11 wins and the Hoosiers' first playoff appearance.
Three more playoff teams made the top 10, including Texas (No. 4), Tennessee (No. 6) and Oregon (tied 7th). National champion Ohio State tied for 28th.
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On the flip side, the unluckiest major programs on the injury front were Florida (132nd), Oklahoma (tied 128th), Arkansas (tied 115th), Florida State (tied 110th) and LSU (101st).
Georgia, which infamously lost starting quarterback Carson Beck in the SEC championship win, came in at No. 99. Head coach Kirby Smart's Bulldogs are the only playoff team that ranked beyond 44th in lineup consistency.
Related: Paul Finebaum Names Head Coach With Most Secure Job in College Football
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