LSU’s rally from a 28-point deficit to beat Troy on Saturday was the 3rd-biggest comeback victory since the 2005 season. Troy led 24-3 at the half and extended the lead to 31-3 with 11:13 left in the 3rd quarter. From then on, LSU scored 37 unanswered points to pull out the improbable win.

The largest comeback victories since the 2005 season:

There have been eighteen comeback victories of 21 points since 2005, most recently by Florida Atlantic against Louisiana-Monroe on 10/25/2008.

Michigan State’s 35-point comeback against Northwestern is the biggest comeback victory in FBS (Division I-A) history. Texas Tech’s 31-point comeback against Minnesota in the 2006 Insight Bowl is the biggest comeback victory in FBS (Division I-A) bowl history.

The statistics through week 12 of the 2008 season (through 11/15/2008) are now available.

This week’s look at the impact of the new 40-second clock rule is available at The Wiz Of Odds.

Be sure to check out more work by The Wiz, Jay Christensen, over at Fan Nation.

Mike Huguenin of Rivals.com has posted his latest Inside the Numbers column.

The statistics through week 11 of the 2008 season (through 11/08/2008) are now available.

In California’s 26-16 win over Oregon, two of Cal’s touchdowns were set up by turnovers that started the drives inside Oregon’s ten yard line. Given the rainy weather conditions, having such short touchdown drives was key to the Bears’ victory.

In Florida’s 49-10 rout of Georgia, one of Florida’s 3rd-quarter drives that helped blow the game open started at Georgia’s one yard line, and another started at Georgia’s ten yard line. Both drives were set up by Georgia turnovers.

So far this season, eleven teams have started two drives inside the opponent’s ten yard line during a game, and they are 10-1 in those games. On drives that start from the opponent’s ten yard line to the one yard line, teams score a touchdown 81.8% of the time, and kick a field goal 10.7% of the time.

A breakdown of drive outcomes in 2008 based on the starting field position of the drive:

The TO% column includes turnovers: interceptions and fumbles lost. The Other% column includes drives that ended on downs, by safety, and by the end of the half.

This week’s look at the impact of the new 40-second clock rule is available at The Wiz Of Odds.

Be sure to check out more work by The Wiz, Jay Christensen, over at Fan Nation.

Mike Huguenin of Rivals.com has posted his latest Inside the Numbers column.

Jarrett Lee of LSU threw an interception last Saturday that was returned for a touchdown by Tulane’s Travis Burks. That makes three Lee interceptions returned for touchdown in the last two weeks. Georgia’s Darryl Gamble returned two of Lee’s passes for touchdown the previous week.

In eight games this season, Lee has thrown ten interceptions and five of them have been returned for a touchdown, which leads the nation. Four quarterbacks are tied for second this season with three interceptions returned for touchdown.

Players with the most total interceptions returned for touchdown since 2005 (* denotes active players):

Lee has some good company on this list, including Heisman contenders Colt McCoy and Graham Harrell, and first-round NFL draft pick Matt Ryan. But those three players each have over 1000 pass attempts during this timeframe while Lee has only 189. In fact, the player on the list with the 2nd-fewest pass attempts (Enderle – 580) has over three times as many attempts as Lee. Senior Rudy Carpenter of Arizona State is the active FBS leader with six interceptions returned for touchdown.

When Mike Kafka of Northwestern rushed for 217 yards in the Wildcats’ 24-17 win against Minnesota, he became the fourth quarterback this season to rush for 200 yards in a game. That’s the most 200-yard rushing games by quarterbacks in a season since there were four in 2005, and that’s more than the 2006 and 2007 seasons combined (two).

The eleven 200-yard rushing games by a quarterback since 2004:

Pat White of West Virginia has had three 200-yard rushing games in his career, but none since 2006. Vince Young of Texas had two 200-yard rushing games in 2005, including the BCS championship game against USC on January 4, 2006. White, Young, and Brad Smith of Missouri are three of only eight players in FBS/D1-A history to both rush for 200 yards and pass for 200 yards in a game.