It's October 5th, 2013, and Prime time college football is in the air. It's late night in Evanston, Illinois, the rain and storms have rolled through, and Ohio State has come to town. After one half of play the Wildcats are winning 20-13 and ready to shock the nation. Ohio State turned things around in the second half, though, and bulldozed their way to a 40-30 win behind Carlos Hyde.
It's week 11 now, and the Wildcats have just lost to the Michigan Wolverines. Along with every other Big Ten team they have played. Their record sits at 3-6 (0-6) and nobody is feeling the hurt quite like the Wildcats and their fans.
So the question is: what happened?
Well, the healthiest the Wildcats have been all season was the night of the heartbreaking loss the the Buckeyes. Since then the Wildcats have been plagued by injuries of many key players all season. In fact, Teddy Greenstein, a Tribune reporter, said that Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald "could have saved time Monday by naming the healthy Wildcats." Coming in to the game against Michigan the Wildcats were out 13 key players, and seven were very limited. The list of key injuries included tailbacks Venric Mark, Stephen Buckley (indefinitely), Warren Long, Treyvon Green and Mike Trumpy, receiver Tony Jones, defensive linemen Tyler Scott, Will Hampton, Sean McEvilly and Dean Lowry, defensive backs Nick VanHoose and Jimmy Hall and linebacker Collin Ellis.
Without injuries like these plaguing the Wildcats all season it's easy to say that they would have a much more impressive resume, and it is possible they could have had another shot at the Buckeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game.We will never get the chance to find out this season, though.
Better luck to the Wildcats next year.
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| Photo Colton Byers |
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