To sum up week nine I’m stealing shamelessly from Urban Meyer, noted head coach and wordsmith, “what the heck just happened?” They were asking that question in Columbus and State College; in Ames and Fort Worth; in Evanston and East Lansing and in places like Gainesville where Jim McElwain left Florida.
The games were crazy, the results surprising, and for fans of college football it was arguably the best week of the season, but not all the “what the heck just happened” happened to the FBS schools. And because you still want more “what the heck just happened?” you’ve stumbled on this little corner of the O-Zone to explore just what the heck happened “Elsewhere in College Football”…
Biggest Blowout of the Week
As I scrolled through the scores from all the games last week looking for contenders in this category I saw UV-Wise won 65-0 only to be topped by Assumption’s 68-point win over Stone Hill, and my assumption that that might do it was completely wrong. Even a 70-point win like St. Francis’s shutout of Lindenwood wasn’t enough as Bowie State takes the title with a 72-point victory.
The Bulldogs of Bowie State celebrated homecoming in style, setting a record for points in a game by whipping Lincoln (PA) 86-14. The 86 points broke the record of 83 set back in the 1975 season. The Bulldogs struck for 34 points in the first quarter scoring on their first two possessions and then returning both a punt and a pick for touchdowns and capitalizing on a second interception to score their fifth touchdown three plays later.
Once down 34, the Lincoln (PA) Lions responded with a TD of their own and then sat back and watched Bowie State run off 42 more points before scoring again to pull within 62 at 76-14. Bowie added a field goal and their twelfth touchdown to round out the scoring.
The Bulldogs racked up 562 yards of offense and averaged 10.6 yards per play. They faced third down only four times. That’s right, only four times did Bowie faced third-and-anything. They only had the ball for a little more than 18 minutes and they scored 12 touchdowns. That’s efficiency. Or pathetic defense. And in this case, I’m leaning to the pathetic defense.
I think the Lions should change their name to the Lincoln Logs because all they do is get rolled. The Logs, um, Lions are 0-9 and in those nine games they have given up 56, 49, 48, 81, 48, 45, 56, 73 and 86 points. Their last chance for a win this year comes next week when they host 3-6 Chowan.
Bowie State, 8-1 on the season will look for win number nine at Elizabeth City State next week.
Fewest Points by a Winning Team
Two teams won with 10 points this weekend and both won by the same score. Northwestern State got a 36-yard field goal from Eric Piccione as time expired to beat Houston Baptist 10-7 and Catholic University turned back Norwich by the same score.
Piccione missed three earlier attempts—he had been perfect coming into the game—and as he lined up the game-winning kick his thoughts were less on the kick and more on making sure after he made it to not get caught at the bottom of a victory celebration. All the scoring in this game came in the final five minutes of play. NWST got a 22-yard TD run from Chris Jones at the 4:55 mark and HBU responded with a 13-play, 71-yard drive to tie the game at 7-7 with 1:05 to play, but that was plenty of time for the Demons as they returned the kickoff to the HBU 48-yard line and three plays later Piccione drilled the game winner. Northwestern State improves to 2-6 and Houston Baptist is now 1-7 on the year.
The Catholic-Norwich tilt was a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) game and there was a lot going on at Cardinal Stadium in Washington D.C. It was Senior Day, Homecoming and Cardinal Alumni Weekend, and the 2,712 fans saw their team rally to win.
After a scoreless first half, Norwich scored first on a 30-yard run by Connor Bourque midway through the third quarter and the Cardinal responded with a field goal with 2:13 in the third and then won it on Pedro Garcia’s 7-yard TD run at the 8:49 mark of the fourth quarter. Catholic evened its record at 4-4 and Norwich dropped to 1-7.
Most Points by a Losing Team
The Wildcats of Louisiana College piled up more than 500 yards of total offense and scored 6 TDs, but gave up more than 680 yards and 8 touchdowns to host Bellhaven University and lost 63-46.
Wildcats QB Wayne Griffin had a big day passing going 27-of-57 for 384 yards and 5 TDs, but he threw three interceptions and the Wildcats added three fumbles. They were not able to overcome the turnovers as Bellhaven picked up just their second win of the year.
Hunter McEachern was a one-man wrecking crew for the Blazers. The sophomore QB set a school record with 7 passing touchdowns in a game, broke the career touchdown mark with his 54th—in two seasons. And the Blazers’ 681 yards also established a new team mark. McEachern was 32-of-53 for 501 yards and the seven touchdowns. He added an eighth on the ground.
Both schools are 2-6 overall and 1-6 in the American Southwest Conference.
Simon Says No Again
Make it 31-straight losses for Simon Fraser. Canada’s NCAA team hosted #18 Humboldt State at Terry Fox Field in Burnaby, B.C. and the visitors wasted no time wrapping this one up as they scored 3 times in the first six minutes and cruised to a 47-7 victory.
Simon Fraser has two games left to end their skid, but they play Central Washington and Western Oregon, two teams they’d already played and lost to by a combined score of 144-21, so don’t hold your breath.
5 for 3
Three teams scored five points in games over the weekend. Mississippi Valley State, Middlebury and Lane each got a field goal and a safety and not surprisingly none of them won. MVSU fell to Jackson State 24-5. This was one week after the Delta Devils of MVSU beat Virginia University of Lynchburg 53-5, so they’ve played two straight games where the losing team scored five points. Back-to-back fives if you will.
Lane led Kentucky State 5-3 at the half, but things got away from the Dragons in the second half as they fell 32-5 and the Panthers of Middlebury dropped a 27-5 decision to undefeated Trinity.
Triple, Triple OT
Northwestern and Michigan State weren’t the only teams playing triple overtime football this weekend as they were joined by Jacksonville and Campbell, and Luther and Coe in needing extra, extra time to complete their games.
Jacksonville spoiled homecoming for the Campbell Camels with a 54-48 triple-overtime thriller. A record crowd of 6,691 at Barker-Lane Stadium in Buies Creek, NC saw the visiting Dolphins take the lead on the first play of the third overtime period, but Jacksonville fumbled the two-point conversion giving the Camels a chance to win with a TD and a successful two-point try, but the Dolphins D forced three-straight incompletions and then sacked QB Daniel Smith on fourth down to preserve the win.
In the Luther-Coe game, Luther rallied for two fourth quarter TDs to tie the game, and then won it in triple OT when they forced a fumble on Coe’s second play to secure a 36-28 win.
Finally, Box Scores We Love
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Total | |
| Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (4-3) | 6 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 17 |
| La Verne (2-4) | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
There are two reasons why I like this box score. First, the winning team is Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and they don’t get the publicity they deserve, and second, while 17 isn’t an unusual number to see is a box score, how the Stags of CMS did it is. Two touchdowns with missed extra points, a safety and a field goal. The old 6+2+3+6=17 approach that just isn’t popular enough in football these days.
I see a box score like that and the only question I can come up with is, “what the heck happened?”
