A true conference showdown, preseason injuries and more (cont.)

Georgia suffered a huge blow when it lost its best offensive lineman, left tackle Trinton Sturdivant, for the season to a knee injury. Todd Kirkland/Icon SMI Stewart Mandel's Mailbag Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Stewart Mandel on Twitter

Stewart, at the rate we are going do you think we will even have a college football season this year? Everyone seems to be breaking bones and tearing ACLs in fall camp. How will all of these injuries affect the final standings?
-- Luke, Cary, N.C.

Indeed, the number of serious injuries to high-profile players across the country to this point has been astounding. I will address a couple others in a moment, but to me, one injury towers over the others in terms of potential national implications: Georgia starting left tackle Trinton Sturdivant's season-ending knee injury.

As you know, the Bulldogs have been tabbed the preseason No. 1 team in both the coaches poll and by Sports Illustrated. The AP poll comes out Saturday, and the Dawgs were No. 1 on the ballot I was required to turn in by Aug. 1. Had I known of this development, however, that would not be the case. Besides quarterback, there is arguably no more important position on a football team than that of the guy protecting the QB's blind side. In Georgia's case in particular, I would argue that only QB Matthew Stafford and RB Knowshon Moreno were more irreplaceable. The Dawgs are fairly stacked at every other position, but the young offensive line was arguably their biggest question mark even before Sturdivant's injury.

Obviously, Georgia is still a prime national-title contender, but I no longer consider the Dawgs the favorite. Either Ohio State or Oklahoma will move to No. 1 when I release my initial power rankings Aug. 26. I'll have to give it some serious thought.

So if USC's Mark Sanchez doesn't play in the opener against Virginia and Mitch Mustain or Aaron Corp plays very well and wins, and then Sanchez is healthy for the Ohio State game ... who do you start at QB?
-- Sam Willis, Los Angeles

Theoretically, the best part about having two Parade All-American quarterbacks on your roster is that if one dislocates his kneecap -- as Sanchez did last week -- there's another one right behind him. But boy, could things get complicated.

The fact is, there's not much separation between Sanchez and Mustain. They're both extremely talented. The main reasons USC's coaches anointed Sanchez the starter last spring was because of his two-year head start learning the Trojans' offense, and in part to take some of the pressure off of him. I happened to attend USC practice last spring on the day Sanchez was named starter. Several writers who attend practice daily were split as to whether the coaches made the right decision. (Corp, a redshirt freshman, finished the spring strong as well but is considered a long shot to unseat both Sanchez and Mustain.)

So if Sanchez does in fact miss the opener, and if Mustain does put on a show in Charlottesville, I don't think it would take the Trojans' coaches more than two seconds to stick with Mustain for the Ohio Sate game. That's not the problem. The problem is, what if he then struggles against the Buckeyes and USC loses. For that matter, what if Sanchez plays and does the same thing? There's going to be considerable pressure on Pete Carroll to go to the next guy off the bench ... but how long can he keep that up? He better tread carefully; a season-long QB derby is a sure way to muddle up a team's national-title hopes.

Stewart, I hate to see players leave early for the NFL, but after seeing what happened to Florida TE Cornelius Ingram (who tore his ACL last week and is out for the season), can you blame them? He was a likely late-first or second-round pick and now his stock is likely to tumble because, a) he is not eligible for a redshirt; and b) he will likely not have completed rehab by the time of the NFL combine. If you were a coach, at what point to you tell a kid to return to school and finish his degree or bolt for the NFL?
-- Mike Imgarten, Norman, Okla.

While it's easy to look back now and say Ingram lost a costly gamble, he would have been taking a far bigger gamble by leaving early. It's impossible to say what exactly his draft stock would have been last year, but I find it hard to believe he would have been a guaranteed late-first- or second-round pick considering he had a modest 34 catches for 508 yards last season. At 6-foot-4, 235 pounds he's certainly got an NFL body, and it's possible he would have attained that status through the combine and pro-day workouts, but the more realistic scenario is that he would have helped himself tremendously by playing an extra season.

This is not to say no player should ever leave early for the NFL, and obviously, a lot of times, there are extenuating, personal circumstances that get taken into account, but for the most part, coaches only recommend to a player to come out early if he's a no-brainer first-round pick, and the reasoning is simple: There's a vast discrepancy between the amount of money high-round picks make versus second-round picks or lower, and the chances of improving one's stock with an additional season are far greater than those of suffering a season-ending injury.

The Los Angeles Times ran an interesting article about this very subject last week in regards to USC's recent draft prospects. It pointed out that four current NFL rookies -- linebacker Keith Rivers, defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, offensive lineman Sam Baker and defensive end Lawrence Jackson -- who could very well have left USC a year earlier but chose to return for their senior seasons wound up signing five-year contracts that pay a combined $49.2 million in guaranteed money. With the exception of Baker, none were guaranteed first-rounders a year earlier.

Meanwhile, offensive lineman Chilo Rachal, who did leave school a year early, was chosen with the 39th pick. His signing bonus is likely closer to the $2 million range which, while nothing to sneeze at, pales in comparison to the others.