Numbers game: 14 stats you need to know from Week 2

Each week, On3’s Matt Zenitz takes a look at some interesting stats to know coming out of that weekend’s games. Here are 14 from Week Two.

3: With its loss to Appalachian State, Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M have now lost three consecutive games against FBS programs. The Aggies lost their final two matchups against FBS teams last season (Ole Miss and Texas A&M). Through 50 games as A&M’s coach, Fisher is 35-15. Previous Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin was 36-14.

4a: Saturday’s game against Texas was just the fourth time since the start of the 2020 season that Alabama has trailed during the second half of a regular-season game. The Crimson Tide has won three of those four games.

4b: Sun Belt programs have secured four wins over Power 5 programs in the past two weeks, including three Saturday — Appalachian State over No. 6 A&M, Marshall over No. 8 Notre Dame and Georgia Southern over Nebraska. Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech in Week 1. There also have been two additional Sun Belt-Power 5 matchups that have ended in one-score Sun Belt losses — App State vs. North Carolina in Week 1 (a 63-61 UNC win) and Georgia State vs. UNC in Week 2 (a 35-28 North Carolina victory).

7: Bowling Green lost to FCS Eastern Kentucky 59-57 in seven overtimes. It’s tied for the second-longest game in FBS history. The longest is nine (Illinois-Penn State last season); Bowling Green-EKU is the eighth seven-overtime game.

21: Through two games with his new team, Purdue WR Charlie Jones has matched his catch total from the Past two seasons at Iowa. Jones has 21 catches, 286 yards and four touchdowns for the Boilermakers. He had 21 catches, 323 receiving yards and three receiving scores in his two seasons at Iowa. He transferred to Purdue after spring practice.

44: App State lost in Week 1 despite scoring nine touchdowns (63-61 to UNC); the Mountaineers beat Texas A&M Saturday while scoring 44 fewer points than they did against the Tar Heels (a 17-14 victory).

55.5: The nation’s current leader in scoring? Kansas. The Jayhawks, who are 2-0 for the first time since 2011, are averaging 55.5 points per game. They beat West Virginia 55-42 in overtime Saturday.

56.0: On the opposite end of the spectrum from Kansas, Hawaii is allowing an FBS-worst 56 points per game through its first three games. The Rainbow Warriors have yielded at least 49 points in each game — losses to Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and Michigan. 

59: During Air Force’s 41-10 rout of Colorado, the two quarterbacks — Colorado’s J.T. Shrout and Air Force’s Haaziq Daniels — were a combined 6-of-26 passing for 59 yards. Shrout was 5-of-21 for 51 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. Air Force ran for 435 yards and five touchdowns.

184: Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. became just the second Buckeyes wide receiver since at least 2000 with three receiving touchdowns and at least 140 receiving yards in a single game. (Jaxon Smith-Njigba did it last season.) Harrison had 184 yards and three touchdowns on seven catches during the Buckeyes’ win over Arkansas State.

213: The highest reception and receiving yardage totals of the season thus far are from a running back. Northwestern’s Evan Hull tallied 213 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown on 14 catches during the Wildcats’ 31-23 loss to Duke. He also ran for 65 yards and a score on 17 carries. It came after Hull recorded 174 scrimmage yards (119 rushing, 55 receiving) during Northwestern’s 31-28 Week Zero win over Nebraska.

304: Army passed for 304 yards during a 41-38 loss to UTSA, its highest single-game passing game total since 2007.

316: Iowa’s offense has been so subpar that the Hawkeyes have just 316 yards total through two games. Iowa is averaging an FBS-worst 2.8 yards per play. Only four other teams are averaging less than 4.0 yards per play; no one else is averaging fewer than 3.4. Five teams are averaging more than 8.0 yards per play.

496: Only four Big Ten running backs since 2007 have had more rushing yards through three games than Illinois’ Chase Brown has this year. Brown has already accumulated 496 rushing yards and an FBS-best average of 165.3 rushing yards per game. Brown has rushed for more than 145 yards in each of Illinois’ first three games, including 146 on 20 carries during the Illini’s 24-3 win over Virginia on Saturday. Brown already has 18 runs of at least 10 yards and four runs of at least 30 yards.