Numbers game: 10 stats you need to know from Week 1

Each week, On3’s Matt Zenitz takes a look at some interesting stats to know coming out of that weekend’s games. Here are 10 stats from Week 1.

0: In Mike Elko’s first game as Duke’s coach, the former Texas A&M and Notre Dame defensive coordinator led the Blue Devils to a 30-0 win over Temple. It was Duke’s first shutout of an FBS opponent since 1989.

2: With Florida beating No. 7 Utah, Billy Napier became just the second coach since R.C. Slocum in 1989 at Texas A&M to begin his tenure by leading an unranked team to a season-opening win over a top-10 opponent. Mike Leach, who led Mississippi State past LSU in 2020, is the other.

3: Arizona WR Jacob Cowing, a transfer from UTEP, had eight catches, 152 yards and three touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 38-20 win over San Diego State. Cowing became the first Power 5 player since Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree in 2007 with three touchdown catches in his first game with a team. Cowing had 69 catches for 1,354 yards and seven touchdowns at UTEP last season.

4: Iowa finished its 7-3 win over FCS South Dakota State with more points from its defense (four) than its offense (three). The Hawkeyes’ defense recorded two safeties. Iowa ended the game with as many punts (10) as it had first downs.

5: Alabama QB Bryce Young threw five touchdown passes and also ran for 100 yards and a score in a 55-0 win over Utah State. He is the first quarterback in Alabama history and the first SEC quarterback since Mississippi State’s Keytaon Thompson in 2018 to throw at least five touchdown passes and rush for at least 100 yards in the same game. (Thompson now is a wide receiver at Virginia.) Young was one of two FBS quarterbacks to accomplish that feat in Week 1. James Madison’s Todd Centeio threw six touchdown passes and ran for 110 yards in a 44-7 win over Middle Tennessee. Centeio is the first FBS quarterback since Lamar Jackson at Louisville in 2016 to throw at least six TD passes and run for at least 100 yards in the same game.

7: Appalachian State scored nine touchdowns overall, including six in a 40-point fourth quarter in its 63-61 loss to North Carolina. The Mountaineers are the seventh FBS team since 2004 to score nine touchdowns in a non-overtime game and still lose.

9: During North Carolina’s win over App State, Tar Heels redshirt freshman QB Drake Maye threw for 352 yards and four touchdowns while also adding 76 yards and a score on the ground. Through his first two career starts, Maye has nine touchdown passes and no interceptions. There hasn’t been a Power 5 quarterback (going back through at least 2000) with that many touchdown passes in the first two games of a freshman or redshirt freshman season. Philip Rivers (in 2000 at NC State), Sam Bradford (in 2007 at Oklahoma) and Spencer Rattler (in 2020 at Oklahoma) shared the previous high with eight touchdown passes.

31: Rutgers pulled out a 22-21 win over Boston College, its first win over the Eagles in 31 years. The Scarlet Knights were 0-13-1 in their previous 14 matchups against BC.

37: James Madison beat Middle Tennessee by 37 (44-7) in its first game as an FBS program. The Dukes were led by the aforementioned Centeio, a former Temple and Colorado State quarterback who transferred to James Madison this offseason.

479.5: Oklahoma State QB Spencer Sanders passed for 406 yards and four touchdowns and also ran for 57 yards and two scores in a 58-44 win over Central Michigan. Sanders, in his fourth year as a starter for the Cowboys, has averaged 479.5 yards of total offense in Oklahoma State’s past two games. Sanders had 496 yards of total offense (371 passing, 125 rushing) and four touchdowns during the Cowboys’ 37-35 Fiesta Bowl victory over Notre Dame to end last season.