The realities of a lengthy college football season hit hard in Week 9 as injuries continued to pile up for some of the top teams in the nation, and a bevy of impactful games in the College Football Playoff picture face notable absences as a result. Ohio State, Alabama and Penn State are among the highly ranked teams who lost key players to significant injuries ahead of this week’s action with Josh Simmons, Keon Sabb and KJ Winston all out for extended periods of time.
The sport also saw another wave of opt-outs this week as players utilized redshirt options and retired from football altogether. The ACC was at the forefront of those developments as Grayson McCall called it a career and Caullin Lacy hit the shelf for the remainder of the campaign.
Not all injury updates were negative this week, though, as a handful of key players are set to return ahead of the regular season’s home stretch.
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Here are the latest injury updates for college football’s biggest games and most notable players in Week 9:
