Texas is preparing to face Washington in one of the College Football Playoff’s semifinals, but the Longhorns’ backup quarterback — who steered his team to a pair of midseason victories when starter Quinn Ewers was hurt — has already left the program.
Unbeaten Florida State was (in)famously left out of the CFP, in part because the Seminoles looked shaky without backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker in the ACC championship game against Louisville.
Rodemaker would have been healthy for an attractive Orange Bowl matchup with Georgia — except, like Texas quarterback Maalik Murphy, he decided to transfer, too.
College football’s offseason comes when its season is still decidedly on, with players’ newfound — and justified — free agency occurring while practices are ongoing and bowl games fill the TV lineup. The sport’s leaders — that term is, of course, used loosely — have chosen chaos over order. The result is confusion.
