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Villanova Football's Shane Hartzell & More Put Up Crazy Stats In Week 9

Villanova Football's Shane Hartzell & More Put Up Crazy Stats In Week 9

Here’s a look back at some of college football’s craziest stats of Week 9 from all across the sport:

Oct 30, 2024 by Briar Napier
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A running back ran for 324 yards and it wasn't even the most productive rushing game of the weekend across all three NCAA divisions of college football, so you know that this week’s edition of Video Game Numbers is going to be a good one.

The weekly series at FloCollege where we highlight the wildest, reality-breaking statistical performances from the wide world of college football, Video Game Numbers is back and rolling for Week 9 with some more wild numbers that will make you do double takes.

Defense gets some love in this week’s edition as three different defensive players earned their spots in the list, but a pair of record-setting running backs made their marks, too. All five nominees for the week are worth your attention regardless.

Here’s a look back at some of college football’s craziest stats of Week 9 from all across the sport:

Shane Hartzell, LB, Villanova (20 tackles, two tackles for loss vs. New Hampshire)

Villanova’s hopes to be a seeded team for the quickly approaching FCS playoffs (and therefore have a home playoff game) took a hit when Maine had an upset 35-7 win over the Wildcats on Oct. 19, so ‘Nova’s 14-6 victory back at home against New Hampshire this past Saturday was very much a get-right game for their confidence.

Hartzell, after hitting the 20-tackle mark against UNH for the second-most stops by a player in all of FCS this season, must be feeling especially confident.

‘Nova gave up its fewest amount of points to a Coastal Athletic Association opponent yet this season with Hartzell leading the charge, as the linebacker flew all over the field to stop play after play and make it a total of 75 total tackles on the year so far for the junior, which currently ranks 10th nationally.


Most importantly, however, Hartzell was especially big on two separate occasions in the game where Villanova had to make goal-line stops when the conversion of either one from UNH could’ve meant a tied ball game. A second-quarter stand by Villanova in particular saw Hartzell pick up assisted tackles on both third and fourth down, keeping UNH out of the endzone and Villanova’s chances of winning preserved.

That kind of energy was exactly what Villanova needed after a rough performance at Maine, and with plenty still on the line with four CAA games remaining, Hartzell and the Wildcats are ready to tackle whatever may come.

Jada Byers, RB, Virginia Union (35 carries, 324 yards, six touchdowns at Bowie State)

If Byers wasn’t already considered the best running back in Virginia Union history before this weekend, he officially made sure that was the case in the Panthers’ 56-28 clobbering over Bowie State last Saturday by becoming the program’s all-time leading rushing yardage leader.

That’s not why he’s on this week’s edition of Video Game Numbers, however. He’s listed for this week because he got that record in style — and he broke some more records while he was at it — off of the back of a monster performance.

Byers only needed 22 rushing yards to surpass VUU’s previous school-record career rushing threshold of 5,008 yards entering this weekend, and he broke that record on the Panthers’ first play from scrimmage as he burst free for a 75-yard touchdown. 

Far from satisfied with just that accomplishment, however, Byers then proceeded to etch his name elsewhere in the program’s record book. He upped his career rushing touchdowns total to 66 with his six-score haul, which broke VUU’s previous career record of 63. His six touchdowns also broke a 93-year-old Panthers record for rushing scores in a single game, and his yardage total broke his own single-game record of 319 yards set in 2022. 

It was the stuff of legends from an already-legendary player at Virginia Union, and with a five-game winning streak now in tow, the Panthers will look to ride their 5-foot-7 bowling ball in the backfield all the way to a potential CIAA Championship title in a few weeks.

Tanner Volk, DB, Central Washington (Three interceptions, three tackles vs. Midwestern State)

The reigning and defending Cliff Harris Award winner does, well, Cliff Harris Award-winning things. What else is new?

Volk, the anchor of the Wildcats’ defense who became the first junior ever to be D-II’s defensive player of the year last season, picked up the 20th, 21st, and 22nd interceptions of his career this past weekend in Central Washington’s 42-21 victory over Midwestern State. The Oregon native helped to make it back-to-back wins for the No. 17-ranked Wildcats as they try to keep up in the Lone Star Conference title race and beef up their resume for the fast-approaching D-II playoffs.

With just one interception in his first seven games of this season (following a nation-leading 13 picks during his award-winning 2023 season), Volk delivered a vintage performance against the Mustangs by nabbing all of his interceptions in the first half and helping to hold the MSU offense at bay in CWU’s multi-score win. 

It was Volk’s fifth multi-interception game of his career and his first game with an interception since taking a West Texas A&M pass back for a pick-six in Week 3, with his showcase against the Mustangs reminding the rest of the country to throw to D-II’s best shutdown corner at your own risk.

Luis Salgado, RB, Whitworth (25 carries, 365 yards, three touchdowns at Pacific (Oregon))

It’s one thing to put up the best rushing performance seen by any player in all of D-III this season. It’s another thing entirely to do it and be over 100 yards clear of the next-closest person.

That’s how good of a game on the ground that Salgado had in Whitworth’s 39-32 victory on the road against the Boxers this past weekend, which improved the No. 10-ranked Pirates to 7-0 and got them one step closer to the Northwest’s Conference’s automatic bid to the D-III playoffs.

Running like he was spamming a glitch play in College Football 25, Salgado outgained his counterpart and D-III’s leading rusher, Pacific’s Brody Bantolina, by over 200 yards as he averaged a ridiculous 14.6 yards per carry. His first carry, a 63-yard run that set Whitworth up for a field goal to open up the scoring, set the tone and firmly established that Salgado was going to be unstoppable Saturday.

Salgado’s longest carry of the day was a 79-yard house call early in the second quarter that tied the game up at 10-10, and he scored the Pirates’ only two touchdowns of the second half, as well, as he found paydirt from 10 and nine yards to close out his record-setting performance. 

After having only a pair of 100-yard rushing games for the year heading into this weekend, Salgado now just 76 yards away from the 1,000-yard mark in 2024 and is tied for fifth nationally in D-III for rushing yardage on the season. Not a bad day at the office.

Ben Butler, DB, North Park (Five tackles, three interceptions vs. Illinois Wesleyan)

North Park went 1-9 just two years ago and for decades prior has been stuck in a cycle of losing season after losing season, but the Vikings at 5-2 are suddenly picking up some gritty victories in a brutal College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin which features one of the most powerful forces in D-III football in North Central plus Wheaton, a frequent fixture in the playoffs.

Having found some players that have stepped up as it chases its first season over .500 since 1968 — yes, a 56-year drought — the tides of change are arriving within North Park, with Butler’s hat trick of picks coming up especially clutch as the Vikings won their fourth game of the season by a touchdown or less this past weekend.

North Park tailback Matt Eck scored from a yard out with 5:01 remaining to give the Vikings a 28-24 lead over the Titans, and that’s when Butler’s legendary close to the game began. With Illinois Wesleyan driving in Viking territory on its ensuing series, Butler got his first interception of the game with 3:21 left and crucially got NPU the ball back.

IWU forced a North Park three-and-out, however, giving the Titans the ball back with 2:16 to go. But three plays later, Butler again arrived to seemingly save the day, nabbing his second interception of the quarter to give the Vikings another chance to end it. NPU didn’t end it, though, being once again stopped and forced to punt it away with 1:18 left. 

Hurrying down the field with no timeouts, the Titans got as far as the North Park 29-yard-line and took a shot to try and win it from there with no time left, but Butler was waiting at the goal line to complete his trifecta as he finally got the game-sealing pick on his third interception to get the Vikings one win closer to history.

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