CAA Football

Video Game Numbers | College Football's Craziest Player Stats Of Week 3

Video Game Numbers | College Football's Craziest Player Stats Of Week 3

Here’s a look back at some of the wildest statistical performances from Week 3 of the college football season.

Sep 19, 2024 by Briar Napier
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The weather is cooling down, non-conference play is wrapping up and teams are beginning to hit their strides.

And once again in the wide world of college football, we have some crazy stats to share on this week’s edition of Video Game Numbers.

Like offense? Defense? Special teams? All three facets of the game are mentioned in this week’s edition as big games from the FCS and Divisions II and III being streamed all throughout the season on FloFootball — with more eye-popping numbers surely to come as the season progresses.

Here’s a look back at some of the wildest statistical performances from Week 3 of the college football season:

Seth Morgan, QB, New Hampshire (22-for-30 passing, 387 yards, six touchdowns vs. Stonehill)

If more than a third of your total completions in a single game went for touchdowns, chances are that you had a pretty good performance.

An offseason transfer from D-II Shepherd, Morgan had a breakout performance in his first career home game with the Wildcats in a 45-6 victory, with his six scores through the air tying the school record set by his head coach (and former Walter Payton Award winner), ex-UNH gunslinger Rick Santos.

Caleb Burke (three catches, 134 yards, two touchdowns) and Joey Corcoran (five catches, 129 yards, three touchdowns) were Morgan’s favorite targets against the Skyhawks — who are still transitioning after a move up from D-II in 2022 — as UNH’s new quarterback was cooking. Morgan’s outing also bumped him up to second place among all Coastal Athletic Association passers in passing touchdowns entering Week 4 with eight total, putting him only behind the white-hot Derek Robertson of Monmouth (11).

Morgan’s CAA debut will be back in Durham this Saturday against Bryant (streamed live and exclusively on FloFootball), and if his big day against Stonehill is anything to go off of, perhaps we could be seeing the evolution of the next great Wildcats quarterback before our eyes.


The Entire Harding Rushing Offense (73 carries, 427 yards, six touchdowns at Oklahoma Baptist)

OK, this is probably cheating a little bit, but when you have a system that works like Harding’s unique flexbone option offense, you run, run, run it until you can’t anymore. 

The Bisons, who became the first team in the history of college football to run for over 6,000 yards in a season last year en route to their first D2 national championship in program history, romped past Southern Nazarene in its season opener and did the same to Oklahoma Baptist this past weekend in a 59-7 win. 

Keep in mind, Harding’s rushing yardage total against the Bison (OBU’s nickname, not to be confused with the Bisons) was over 100 yards less than what it put up against SNU, indicating that there’s plenty more in the tank for Harding as it chases back-to-back titles.

HU’s sheer volume of run plays last Saturday was the most eye-popping part of their system as 13 different Bisons got a carry against OBU, led by 14 touches for 68 yards and two touchdowns from returning All-American Blake Delacruz. Braden Jay, Andrew Miller, Josh Strickland Jr., and Malik Young also found paydirt on the ground, with D-II’s No. 1-ranked team (in the latest AFCA Coaches Poll) looking to keep it rolling Thursday at Arkansas-Monticello.

Kha’lil Eason, ATH, New Haven (four kick returns, 231 return yards, two touchdowns at Pace)

The kickoff return touchdown is one of the most exciting plays in football by itself, but what about doing it twice in the same game?

Eason pulled off the rare feat for the defending Northeast-10 champion Chargers this past weekend (live and exclusively on FloFootball, for that matter), showing to the rest of New Haven’s opponents this season that it isn’t a good idea to kick the ball to him in his team’s 47-17 victory.

With a school-record 231 return yards against the Setters, Eason gave New Haven a special-teams spark by first breaking through for a 96-yard kickoff return to the house in the first quarter, giving the Chargers a 14-7 lead after Pace had a short-range touchdown moments before.

With the Chargers holding onto a slim 21-17 cushion at the half, Eason once again found paydirt as he took the second-half kickoff back 94 yards for six, sparking a game-ending 26-0 third-quarter run from New Haven as it emphatically bounced back from a season-opening loss at ranked Slippery Rock. 

It’s a lot easier to take multiple kickoffs back in the same performance in a video game than it is in real life, but Eason showed last Friday that with enough speed and space to get through, two return scores are indeed possible.

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Christian Drumgoole, WR, North Carolina Wesleyan (18 catches, 277 yards, two touchdowns vs. Ferrum)

Drumgoole’s single-game career high in catches entering this past weekend was eight. He more than doubled that against Ferrum.

Even with a monster 18-catch day, it didn’t result in a victory for the Battling Bishops as they lost 28-24 to the Panthers, but it did give the sophomore a new single-game school record for receptions as he terrorized Ferrum’s secondary and torched it for touchdowns of 28 and 48 yards.

Drumgoole got to work right away in the game, catching five balls on North Carolina Wesleyan’s first offensive series and on eight of the Battling Bishops’ 10 drives overall as he accounted for a substantial part of NCWU’s 354 passing yards for the evening. 

He was a frequent fixture on the highlight tape, and even though the Battling Bishops weren’t able to convert either of their two chances to win it from inside the 10-yard-line in the game’s final minute, it was still a game for the ages for Drumgoole as he and the rest of NCWU prepares for USA South Athletic Conference play. 

Keep your eyes peeled for his numbers the rest of the way and how he performs after such a big outing, such as in his first game back Saturday against Huntingdon at noon (ET) streamed live on FloFootball.


Daniel Eliasek, LB, Randolph-Macon (17 total tackles, two tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one interception vs. Hobart)

When you need overtime to win a game 14-7, you probably have some players getting things done on the defensive end.

And did the Yellow Jackets ever need a heroic performance from their senior linebacker in order to win their 28th straight regular-season game. 

On a day in which he was all over the place for Randolph-Macon, which squeezed out the narrow victory in their home opener against Hobart, Eliasek had a career high in tackles (with 13 of them solo stops) and picked off a first-quarter pass, which by itself would’ve been a great game worthy of some recognition.

However, Eliasek went above and beyond in the game’s final moments to get himself a spot on this list.

The Yellow Jackets got the ball first in overtime and scored a touchdown on a fourth down to make it 14-7 and put the pressure on the Statesmen to reach the endzone themselves and keep the game going. 

Faced with a fourth-and-1 on the 16-yard-line, Hobart quarterback Johnny Colombi attempted to punch it up the middle to get his team a fresh set of downs, but Eliasek was waiting right there. He poked the ball loose for a teammate to recover shortly after, and top 10-ranked Randolph-Macon survived as a result to stay unbeaten. 

D2Football.com Top 25 – Sept 15, 2024

Rank

Team

Record

Previous Rank

1

Harding

2-0

1

2

Grand Valley State

2-0

4

3

Valdosta State

3-0

5

4

Minnesota State

3-0

7

5

Colorado Mines

2-0

6

6

Pittsburg State

2-1

3

7

Ferris State

2-1

8

8

Kutztown

2-0

9

9

Central Washington

1-1

10

10

Slippery Rock

2-0

11

11

Central Missouri

1-1

2

12

Lenoir-Rhyne

2-0

13

13

West Florida

1-0

14

14

Western Colorado

2-0

16

15

Indianapolis

2-0

15

16

Ouachita Baptist

2-0

17

17

Henderson State

2-0

19

18

Emporia State

3-0

NR

19

Augustana

1-1

18

20

Virginia Union

1-1

22

21

Bemidji State

2-1

23

22

Charleston

2-0

24

23

Wingate

2-0

NR

24

Delta State

2-1

12

25

Central Oklahoma

2-0

NR

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