With the regular season winding down, the College Football Playoff picture is starting to come into focus. Plenty of things have changed and will change, and the biggest reason for those changes: injuries to several key stars across the country.

Some teams have been able to maintain their standing even after losing a key contributor. Some have had their seasons completely derailed because they lost their quarterback. And then there are some who are doing OK — but things could change in a hurry.

Here are six players whose injuries have changed the CFP picture and might change the outlook for this season.

6. Malachi Toney, WR, Miami

As Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes try to make a push to get into the College Football Playoff, they’re fresh off a stunning loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. And to be able to overcome that, Miami will need to beat the Duke Blue Devils (7-2), the Virginia Tech Hokies (6-3) and the Boston College Eagles (4-5).

And then there’s the ACC Championship Game, which will likely be against Wake Forest or SMU.

If the Hurricanes don’t have a healthy Malachi Toney to be able to hurl the ball to, it’ll be interesting to see what Miami’s offense looks like. Because for so much of this season, Miami’s offense has relied upon Toney being able to carve through secondaries. 

Darian Mensah has 2,694 yards passing. Toney has 1,074 yards receiving. Mensah has 212 completed passes. Toney has 76 receptions. Miami’s passing attack isn’t solely relying on him, but it does focus on him. And that might be a problem if he’s dinged up.

5. Josh Hoover, QB, Indiana

The Indiana Hoosiers are, at least in theory, in a pretty solid spot. The Hoosiers are among the best in the country and are 8-1 right now. But it feels like that might be a little fragile and that things could turn on them in a hurry if quarterback Josh Hoover isn’t able to play — or is limited in how well he can play — due to injury. He injured his throwing arm Oct. 17 against Ohio State, but does not appear on the injury report for this week's visit from USC.

As a whole this season, Hoover has been effective. Not great, but effective. The former TCU Horned Frog managed to complete 63.9 percent of his passes for 1,660 yards and 18 touchdowns while throwing zero picks in Indiana’s first seven games. 

In the last couple of games, since Hoover injured his arm against the Buckeyes, the Indiana quarterback has completed 16-of-37 passes for 200 yards to go with one touchdown and two interceptions. Both were narrow overtime wins. 

They still won, and that matters, but Indiana might be limited if Hoover winds up being limited. And that should be concerning for Indiana fans.

4. Dante Moore, QB, Oregon

What a weird, bizarre and somewhat underwhelming season for Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks. In what was supposed to be a year that Oregon made a run to the College Football Playoff championship game, Lanning and Oregon have lost three already and are fighting to stay relevant in the regular season.

Part of that is because Oregon’s offense missed when it tried to replace Will Stein at offensive coordinator. Part of that is because Dante Moore is out with an injury and hasn’t been able to cover up some of the flaws of this team.

Dylan Raiola has been very helpful in Moore’s absence, though he’s been imperfect. If the Ducks are going to have a shot at making a run down the stretch of this season, Raiola will need to continue playing at the level he did when the Ducks beat Ohio State. 

3. Julian Sayin, QB, Ohio State

Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes aren’t having much fun with starting quarterback Julian Sayin sidelined with an injury since the 19-15 win over Indiana. 

Since that win, the Buckeyes have suffered back-to-back losses, dropping games against the USC Trojans (a 12-point loss that gave Lincoln Riley a breath of fresh air out in Los Angeles) and a home loss against an Oregon Ducks team that was without its starting quarterback and also fired its offensive coordinator midway through the season.  

Now, some of the issues in those losses to Big Ten newcomers had to do with Ohio State’s defense somehow collapsing. Still, the fact that the Buckeyes are having to rely on their offense to bail them out and the fact that the offense can’t bail them out has to be alarming. 

2. Maddux Madsen, QB, Boise State

Maddux Madsen feels like an anomaly these days. A very solid Group of Six quarterback who has stuck with his program for the entirety of his career and has helped the Boise State Broncos compete at a national level. He has well over 8,000 passing yards in his career, and before his injury against Texas State, he was looking like one of the most effective and efficient quarterbacks in the country. 

Unfortunately for Madsen, he was dinged up when facing the Bobcats. And it’s going to be interesting to see how the Broncos continue to move forward. 

The College Football Playoff committee has Boise State at No. 24 (which is too low, to be honest) and the Broncos sit at No. 17 in the AP Poll (that’s better, but likely still not good enough). They’re 8-1 in their first season in the Pac-12 and they’ll need to keep winning if they want to earn their spot in the CFP. There’s no margin for error for really impressive G6 teams, unfortunately. 

1. Kamario Taylor, QB, Mississippi State

A once-in-a-generation talent for the folks in Starkville, Miss., Kamario Taylor propelled the Mississippi State Bulldogs to a fantastic start. They jumped out at 4-0 and were lighting defenses on fire as they punished the Minnesota Golden Gophers and then won back-to-back shootouts against South Carolina and Missouri.

Those wins aren’t nothing. A road win over a respectable Big Ten team and then beating the Gamecocks (also on the road) and Tigers showed that this team can be a legitimate threat. If their quarterback is fully healthy, that is.

The Bulldogs have crumbled since then and Mississippi State football fans aren’t happy with head coach Jeff Lebby right now. Taylor was injured late in the game against Missouri (along with running back Fluff Bothwell) and State has lost five games in a row because of that.