11 Most Interesting Stats at the Halfway Point of the 2014 CFB Season
Did you know that there is one power-five team that hasn’t given up a single point in the third quarter this season?
And have you heard about the running back who leads the nation in scoring, as a true freshman?
Both are statistical gems in a mine overflowing with numbers, rare jewels nestled among a stockpile of useless, repetitive digits.
Of the literally thousands of stats pumped out through seven weeks of college football, here are 11 worth knowing more about.
Hau’oli Kikaha’s Sack Total
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Washington defensive end Hau’oli Kikaha leads the nation with 10 sacks, averaging 1.66 per game this season.
How good is that?
The NCAA FBS record for sacks per game in a season is 1.71, set by Arizona State’s Terrell Suggs in 2002, when he registered 24 sacks in 14 games.
If Kikaha stays on pace through the Huskies’ seven remaining regular-season games and a bowl game, he’ll finish with 23 sacks, one shy of Suggs’ single-season record.
If he can tack on two more—and hit 25—he’ll set the record for single-season sacks and single-season sacks per game. If he can finish with 28, he’ll break Suggs’ record all-time career mark of 44 with 44.5.
The only guy to come close to Suggs’ 2002 season—since defensive records became official in 2000—was Louisville’s Elvis Dumervil, who racked up 19 in only 12 games in 2005.
Oregon State’s 3rd-Quarter Defense
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After five games, the Beavers defense is ranked No. 54 in the FBS in scoring, giving up an average of 23.5 points per game.
If all things were equal, that would mean that Oregon State has given up roughly six points per quarter this season, but reality tells a different story.
On average, the Beavers have given up 4.2 points in the first quarter, 9.8 in the second, zero in the third and 9.4 in the fourth.
Oregon State hasn’t allowed a single point in the third quarter this season.
If there were an award for the team that makes the best adjustments at halftime, Beavers defensive coordinator Mark Banker and his staff would be tough to beat.
Washington’s Turnover Total
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Washington has played six games this season and has only turned the ball over once, a fumble in its 44-19 win over Illinois in Week 3.
That means that the Huskies are averaging 0.16 turnovers per game, a far cry from New Mexico State, the program which is dead last in giveaways with 20 in seven games, or 2.8 per game.
Even if Washington were to turn the ball over once in each of its seven remaining regular-season games, it would tie the all-time NCAA FBS record for fewest turnovers in a season.
The record—eight turnovers— is co-held by Clemson’s 1940 team (two fumbles lost, six interceptions), Miami (Ohio)’s 1966 squad (four fumbles lost, four interceptions) and Notre Dame’s 2000 team (four fumbles lost, four interceptions).
Anything less than an average of one per game would mean setting a new all-time record.
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West Virginia’s Field-Goal Attempts
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Since Dana Holgorsen took over as the head coach at West Virginia in 2011, the highest number of field-goal attempts by a Mountaineer team was last season’s 23.
This year, West Virginia has already opted to kick a field goal 19 times, the most of any team in the FBS.
The number equals the total number of attempts in 2012 and is just three shy of 2011’s total of 22.
The increase in field-goal tries combined with a drop in fourth-down-conversion attempts—from 35 in 2012 to 18 in 2013 and 11 so far this season—makes you wonder, is the wild-haired Holgorsen going all conservative on us?
Utah State’s Brothers
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Two of the five touchdowns Utah State scored in its 36-24 Week 3 win over Wake Forest were generated by brothers who play defense.
Zach and Nick Vigil, both linebackers, hail from the Salt Lake City, Utah area.
Older brother Zach (a senior) got things started with a 35-yard interception return in the first quarter, and younger brother Nick (a sophomore) answered with a forced fumble that resulted in a Devin Centers’ 47-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter.
Though impressive, it’s unclear whether the feat is a NCAA record. The only mention of brothers in the NCAA FBS Record Book is “Most Yards Gained by Two Brothers,” held by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders (2,628) and Northwestern’s Byron Sanders (1,062), who combined for 3,690 yards rushing in 1988.
LSU’s Punt Total
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LSU has punted the ball 44 times through seven games this season, a number that doesn’t sound crazy until you realize that the Tigers punted 43 total times all of last year.
So where LSU averaged 3.3 punts per game in 2013, it’s averaging 6.2 this season.
This number is further explained by the Tigers’ drop in third-down-conversion rate, from 57.14 percent last season (No. 1 in the FBS) to 36.26 this season (No. 102 in the FBS).
The net effect isn’t fewer points but fewer wins, as the Tigers have lost two games before midseason for the first time since 2008, when LSU finished 8-5 and out of the final AP poll.
San Jose State’s Pass Defense
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Even though San Jose State is off to a 2-3 start, its secondary is on pace to make history.
The Spartans’ pass defense has given up a total of 448 passing yards this season, or 87.43 yards per game. The number includes holding Auburn to 135 yards through the air in Week 2, Minnesota to seven yards in Week 4 and Nevada to 64 yards in Week 5.
To put it into perspective, the best past defense since 2000 (Alabama in 2011) gave up 1,449 yards through 13 games, for an average of 111.5 yards per game.
The NCAA FBS record for fewest passing yards allowed is held by the 1938 Penn State team, which held its eight opponents to 105 yards through the air, an average of 13.1 yards per game.
Lots has changed in college football in the last 76 years.
Anu Solomon’s Pass Attempts
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Arizona finished 2013 ranked No. 99 in passing yards versus No. 11 in rushing yards, making this season’s jump to the No. 8 rank in passing seem like nothing short of a total transformation.
The primary reason is freshman quarterback Anu Solomon, who has already thrown 278 passes this season, a number that is only 105 short of the entire number of passes the Wildcats threw last season.
In 2013, Arizona averaged 29 pass attempts per game; this season, it’s at 47 through six games.
Though the change is dramatic from a single-team perspective, Solomon’s numbers are also noteworthy from a wider, historic standpoint.
Solomon went 47-of-73 in the 49-45 Week 4 win over Cal, setting the NCAA FBS record for the most passes attempted by a freshman in a game, a record previously held by Louisiana Tech’s Luke McCown, who threw 72 against Miami (Fla.) in 2000.
Solomon also tied the record for most passes completed by a freshman in a game, also held by McCown, who connected 47 times in a 2000 game against Auburn.
Jarvion Franklin’s Rushing Touchdowns
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Running back Jarvion Franklin leads the nation with 15 rushing touchdowns through six games this season.
So what?
First, he plays for Western Michigan, a team that went 1-11 in 2013 but is off to a 3-3 start this year. Next up, he’s a true freshman, a 3-star recruit from the class of 2014 whom Rivals rated as the No. 41-ranked prospect from the state of Illinois.
Franklin has scored three times in four games this season and twice in another and leads the FBS in scoring with 90 points.
This puts Franklin only five two-plus-rushing-touchdown games away (with six regular-season games left to play) from tying the NCAA FBS record for the most games scoring two or more rushing touchdowns in a season.
The mark is 11, co-held by Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State in 1988 and Montee Ball of Wisconsin in 2011.
Ole Miss’ First-Half Defense
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The most impressive thing about Ole Miss’ 6-0 start is its scoring defense, a unit that went from giving up 23.7 points per game last season to 11.8 this year, No. 2 in the FBS.
The Rebels D has been especially stifling in the first half, allowing a meager total of 26 points before halftime this season.
Breaking that down, Ole Miss has allowed just three points (a single field goal to Memphis in Week 5) in the first quarter and 23 in the second period.
Alabama’s two-touchdown second quarter in Week 6 marks the only time a Rebels opponent has found the end zone in the first half in 2014.
Gerod Holliman’s Interceptions
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In perhaps the Holy Grail of individual defensive records, Washington’s Al Worley holds the single-season mark for interceptions, nabbing 14 in 10 games in 1968.
Given the increase in both the number of games played in a season and the number of times the ball is passed, it’s shocking that no one has unseated Worley.
The closest a recent defender has come was in 2011 when North Carolina State’s David Amerson hauled in 13 interceptions in 13 games. Before that, it was Wisconsin’s Jim Leonhard, who had 11 in 14 games in 2002.
This season’s top candidate to do the impossible is Louisville defensive back Gerod Holliman (a sophomore like both Amerson and Leonhard), who has seven interceptions in seven games this season.
Holliman registered two picks in back-to-back games at Virginia and Florida International but didn’t record a single interception in games against FCS Murray State and Clemson.
To tie Worley’s mark, Holliman needs to average 1.2 interceptions in the five remaining regular-season games plus a probable bowl appearance.
Stats courtesy of CFBStats.com, records courtesy of the NCAA FBS Record Book.
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