MICHIGAN STINGY ON DEFENSE AGAIN
For the third time in nine years, Michigan has reached the halfway point of the regular season having given up the fewest points in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Wolverines have allowed just four touchdowns and 40 points, an FBS-best average of 6.7 per game, and hadn’t surrendered more than seven until their 52-10 win over Minnesota on Saturday.
Michigan also led the nation in scoring defense through six games in 2015 and ’16.
The Wolverines have allowed 17.9 points per game since 2015, which was Jim Harbaugh’s first year as coach and also the first year Sportradar had complete data available.
That ranks sixth nationally behind Georgia (16.2 ppg), Alabama (16.7), Clemson (17.0), Wisconsin (17.1) and Iowa (17.5).
The 200 club
Northern Illinois’ Antario Brown matched the national season high for rushing yards in a game, going for a careerbest 280 on just 13 carries in a 55-14 win at Akron.
Brown scored on runs of 66, 58, 46 and 50 yards and tied Kentucky’s Ray Davis for the top rushing performance of the season. Davis’ 280 yards came on 26 carries against Florida on Sept. 30.
The most recent NIU player to run for so many yards was Jordan Lynch, who went for 321 against Western Michigan in 2013. Brown’s four rushing TDs were the most by a Huskies player since Joel Bouagnon scored five against Bowling Green in 2016.
Two other players turned in 200-yard games Saturday. Troy’s Kimani Vidal carried 28 times for 245 yards against Arkansas State and Florida State’s Trey Benson had 11 runs for 200 against Virginia Tech.
Mr. Dependable
Alabama’s Will Reichard kicked a 39-yard field goal against Texas A&M to extend the FBS’ longest active streak of makes to 25.
Stanford’s Joshua Karty, the Associated Press firstteam All-America kicker in 2022, had his streak of 26 consecutive field goals end on Sept. 23 against Arizona.
The FBS record is 30 in a row by Washington’s Chuck Nelson over the 1981 and ’82 seasons.
Pick-6 party
Buffalo safety Devin Grant intercepted three passes in a 37-13 win over Central Michigan and became the second player in three weeks to return two for touchdowns.
Grant tipped a pass to himself and ran it back 29 yards for a touchdown on CMU’s third play from scrimmage. His second interception set up a TD in the second quarter, and his second Pick-6 came on the Chippewas’ opening drive of the second half and went for 58 yards.
Grant, who has four of the Bulls’ seven interceptions this season, is the first player in the program’s FBS era (since 1999) to have two Pick-6s in a game.
Kentucky’s Maxwell Hairston was the first player this season to return two interceptions for touchdowns, doing it against Vanderbilt on Sept. 23.
Run of fumbles
Mountain West rushing leader Ashton Jeanty of Boise State keeps piling up the yards but has struggled to hang onto the ball the past month.
Jeanty has lost four fumbles this season, most in the nation, and all have come in a span of 69 scrimmage touches over four games.
After fumbling once in his first college game last year, he did not cough up the ball in 230 touches over 15 games. The streak ended against North Dakota on Sept. 16. He fumbled twice against San Jose State on Saturday, and both led to touchdowns for the Spartans, but Boise State won 35-27.