(This is a weekly article on Student Union Sports covering the most ridiculous stat lines of the week)
Well, here we are, another week of college football in the books. I can’t believe we are already going into week 7, it feels like just yesterday that Les Miles was leading a number 5 ranked LSU team into the season and Michigan State was supposed to be right up at the top of the Big Ten with Michigan and Ohio State. This week was another good one, and the pressure keeps mounting for all of the teams that are trying to jostle for position in the College Football Playoff (sorry, Houston). There were also some not so good games at the hands of Michigan and Washington. However, these blowouts produce some pretty amazing stat lines, from 400 yard passing games by a QB to a 4 sack game by a DE. Here are some of those eye-popping stat lines from this past week:
Offense: QB Jake Browning, Washington
Stats: 22-28, 304 passing yards, 6 TDs, 6 rushes, 21 yards, 2 TDs
Unfortunately for Oregon, Browning and Washington came into this game riding a whole tsunami of momentum after a drubbing of Stanford last week. Browning (who has quietly put up some of the best numbers I have seen all season) did not give Oregon any mercy, more than doubling their point output by himself. Now. Washington finds itself at 6-0 and in prime position for a Playoff bid as long as they can keep this momentum going. How Browning is not getting more national praise is beyond me, but he is more than deserving to be the owner of the #1 stat line on offense for this week of games.
Defense: LB Marquel Lee, Wake Forest
Stats: 15 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks
Raise your hand if you had Wake Forest one game behind Clemson and tied with Louisville in the ACC Atlantic Division halfway through the season. Now put your hand down because you are lying. Wake Forest is VERY quietly sitting at 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference (part of this is due to their very favorable schedule so far). Marquel Lee has been a staple in the defense that currently is in the top 20 in points allowed. He came up huge against Syracuse, tallying 15 tackles with a crazy 5.5 tackles for loss. That is more tackles for loss than any other Wake Forest player even had total tackles. Talk about carrying a defense! Next up for Lee and Wake Forest is the 23rd ranked Florida State Seminoles, so we will finally see just how good this Wake Forest team can be.
Special Teams: WR Kylen Towner, Western Kentucky
Stats: 1 blocked punt recovery, 1 TD, 4 returns, 167 yards (41.8 avg)
Kylen set the tone for his performance right at the start, taking the opening kickoff 50 yards to set up a Western Kentucky touchdown. He also had an 87 yard return that set up another Western Kentucky touchdown. After a small comeback by Western Kentucky to close the deficit in the fourth quarter from 25 to 10, Kylen returned a blocked punt for a touchdown, giving his team a 3 point deficit and a chance to win the game in the last five minutes. They were not able to pull it off, but that was in no way to the fault of Kylen, who was a special teams all star this week.
I hope to see you here next week for the players who were On the Ball for week 7!