Hawkeyes forcing punts and punts and punts

Here are a handful of disconnected college football stats and notes I found interesting, at least to a small degree:

1. Iowa forced 10 punts in each of its last two games. That's the first time Hawkeyes opponents have punted 10 times in consecutive games since at least 2007, and maybe decades before that. I didn't have the inclination to dig beyond '08.

2. Iowa's passing game wasn't great this season. But the Hawkeyes do have 17 touchdown passes through 12 games. Last season, they had 17 through 14 games.

3. Riley McCarron of Iowa has seven punt returns for a total of 148 yards this year. Over his previous three seasons, he had 12 punt returns for a total of 31 yards.

4. Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard rushed for 237 yards last season. This year? Minus-24.

5. The Hawkeyes picked off 19 interceptions last year, just seven this year.

6. The Big Ten has three of the nation's bottom 10 teams in total offense with No. 119 Iowa, No. 123 Illinois, and No. 128 (and last) Rutgers.

7. The Big Ten has three of the nation's top seven teams in total defense with No. 2 Michigan, No. 4 Ohio State, and No. 7 Wisconsin.

8. Miami (Ohio) opened the season with six losses, the opener at Iowa. Then it won six in a row. Baylor opened the season with six wins. If it loses at West Virginia Saturday as it surely will, it will have lost six in a row … on its way to a bowl game.

9. No placekicker in FBS who attempted at least 10 field goals made them all. Iowa State's Cole Netten is third nationally in field goal percentage at .941, having made 16 of 17.

10. Urban Meyer is 38-2 in conference games over five seasons at Ohio State, but has won just one Big Ten championship.

11. Seven Big 12 teams average 491 yards or more per game. Ohio State leads the Big Ten at 479.5, and only four Big Ten teams top 400.

12. Colorado won just five of its 45 Pac-12 games over its first five years in the Pac-12. This year, it is the South Division champion at 8-1.

13. The Mountain West conference title game is between Wyoming and San Diego State. Wyoming lost 56-35 at New Mexico last Saturday, while San Diego State lost 63-31 at home to Colorado State.

14. Louisiana Tech will play in the Conference USA title game, fresh off a 39-24 loss to Southern Mississippi.

15. Florida is entering the SEC title game with losses of 21 and 18 points in its last three games.

16. If you bet strictly on Colorado and Colorado State this season, you did well. According to Covers.com, both were 10-2 against the spread this season, and one of the losses was when they played each other.

17. Boise State won 10 games, but covered the spread just three times.

18. Gary Andersen left Wisconsin for Oregon State. He is 6-18 there in two seasons. But he does have a two-game winning streak to take into 2017.

19. Old Dominion will play in the Bahamas Bowl.

20. Hawaii will play in the Hawaii Bowl.

21. If Maryland is pitted against Wake Forest or North Carolina State in a bowl game, it would match teams that are a combined 6-11 in conference play. If it's Maryland-Boston College, they would be a combined 5-12 in league games.

22. The Big Ten had six conference games that went to overtime (including Ohio State-Wisconsin, Nebraska-Wisconsin and Michigan-Ohio State). No other FBS league had more than three overtime games.

23. Some of Phil Steele's preseason picks to win division titles included UCLA (4-8), Cincinnati (4-8), Bowling Green (4-8), and Marshall (3-9).

24. About Colorado, Steele wrote 'I think they may be a year away from making a bowl.' The Buffaloes are 10-2.

25. About Notre Dame, Steele wrote 'The Irish clearly have the best shot of making the playoffs since they moved to the four-team playoff.' Notre Dame went 4-8.