NCAA By The Numbers: Week 7

1:  Completed passes by Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller in the Buckeyes' 17-7 upset of the Fighting Illini in Champaign, Illinois.  Luke Fickell seems to have found the way to win.  Prevent turnovers by keeping the ball far, far away from the horrible quarterbacks on his team.  The Buckeyes ran the ball

2:  Consecutive kick return TDs scored by Oklahoma State and Texas to begin the second half.  Oklahoma State took the opening kickoff of the second half and CB Josh Gilbert returned it 94 yards for a TD.  In response, Texas RB Fozzy Whittaker took the ensuing kickoff 105 yards for a score in return.  The last time two consecutive kickoffs were returned for TDs in a game was back in 2005 between Ohio and Ball State.

3: Undefeated teams that were upset on Saturday, leaving ten in Division-I.  Michigan lost their early game in East Lansing, Illinois lost at home to a team that has yet to discover the forward pass, and Georgia Tech lost to Virginia somehow.


9: Total first downs for Ole Miss in their entire game against Alabama.  Ole Miss scored on a 5 play, 72 yard drive to open the game and take an early 7-0 lead.  Ole Miss only mustered 69 yards of offense in the remaining 58 minutes and 30 seconds of the game, and surrendered 52 unanswered points to the Crimson Tide.  Houston Nutt's fate is sealed at this point, but performances like this continue to make Ole Miss look worse.  Alabama showed again that you can score on them early, but after about the first or second quarter, they lock down on defense and allow nothing.  Another number: 1.5.  Yards per carry Alabama is allowing this season, which is .6 yards lower than any other FBS team.

11: Number of sacks for the Michigan State defense in their past two games (6 coming in this game) after only managing 5 sacks in their first four games.  While both teams had 18 first downs, the Spartans were the only passable offense in this game.  Michigan quarterbacks combined to go 12/31 for only 168 yards in East Lansing, where winds were swirling at up to 40 miles per hour.  More odd was the Michigan Wolverines playcalling, which went completely away from the offense that got them to 6-0.  Michigan drove down on the first drive, and completely went away from their offense.  Denard had very few designed QB runs compared to the last few weeks, and only managed 42 yards, as quite a few of his runs were scrambles or sacks.  MSU RB Edwin Baker ran for 169 yards and a touchdown to lead the Spartans to their fourth straight victory over Michigan.  As Mark Dantonio said in a postgame interview: "Times have changed".


39: Points Clemson scored in the second half to overcome a major upset at the hands of Maryland.  Maryland went up 35-17 with 13:41 left in the 3rd quarter, and Clemson outscored Maryland 39-10 from that point on.  RB Andre Ellington rushed 24 times for 214 yards and 2 TDs.  QB Tajh Boyd went 26/38 passing for 269 yards, 4 TDs and 1 INT.   Honorable mention goes to Maryland's do-it-all QB C.J. Brown who accounted for 341 of Maryland's 466 total yards, with 176 passing yards and 23 rushes for 165 rushing yards.  Maryland scored 45 points and lost, they can't have expected that.

241: Difference in yardage gained between Texas Tech and Kansas State, and despite Tech's major advantage on offense, Kansas State emerged victorious 41-34.  The Wildcats scored their first two touchdowns on an interception return for a TD and a kickoff return for a TD.  Seth Doege threw his typical 60+ passes, but in an atypical performance, he threw 3 interceptions along with his 68.3% completions and 461 yards.  Tech couldn't run the ball, as they had 33 rushes for a mere 119 yards.  This could be due in part to the loss of RB Eric Stephens this week to a season-ending injury.  On the other side, QB Collin Klein has carried the ball 19 times in every game thus far, and nothing changed on Saturday, as he toted the rock 23 times for 110 yards.  He also went 12/18 for 146 yards throwing the ball.  Kansas State's zone read offense did just enough to win, and in this game, that meant not turning the ball over, while the Red Raiders had 4 turnovers of their own.

326: Career receptions for Oklahoma WR Ryan Broyles, making him the NCAA all-time leader in receptions, overtaking Purdue WR Taylor Stubblefield's previous record of 316.  Broyles notched 13 receptions for 217 yards and 2 TDs in the Sooners' 47-17 win over Kansas.  

412: Combined yards in the Kent State 9-3 victory over Miami (OH).  Kent State had 244 yards, while Miami (OH) had 168, and the teams combined for a mere 7 conversions on 31 total third downs.  On 70 total rushes, both teams combined for less than 2 yards per carry (70 carries for 128 yards).  Another number: 20.  That's the number of total punts in what looked more like a soccer game than football.  MAC football, feel the mediocrity overtake you.

494: Rushing yards for Northern Illinois in their 51-22 rout of MAC foe Western Michigan.  Northern Illinois was down 15-7 after an Alex Carder TD pass with 8:20 left in the 2nd quarter.  Then in the next 28 minutes of game play, Northern Illinois scored 44 unanswered points, and led 51-15 with 10:34 left in the game.  QB Chandler Harnish accounted for 432 yards, 229 of which came on his 14 carries on the ground. Harnish is second only to Denard Robinson in rushing yards for quarterbacks, with 610 yards in the young season and a 7.4 yards per carry average.  The Huskies travel to Toledo on November 1st, for what will likely decide who represents the MAC West division in the MAC Championship game.

742: Total yards of offense that Boise State totaled on Saturday against Colorado State.  Heisman candidate Kellen Moore was flawless, going 26/30 for 338 yards and 4 TDs.  His main target was WR Tyler Shoemaker who caught 9 passes for 180 yards and 2 TDs.  RB Doug Martin rushed 20 times for 200 yards and 3 TDs in the 63-13 rout, in which Boise scored all 9 of their touchdowns in the first 40:14 of game time.