College football officially started Thursday, August 30th with some good games and some not so good games.  Let’s take a look at some quirky stuff…

• South Carolina has played on the first Thursday of the season six times (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012) in the Steve Spurrier era.  They have won all six.

• South Carolina is now 9-0 when Marcus Lattimore has at least 100 rushing yards.

• South Carolina turned the ball over twice in its first three plays from scrimmage. The Gamecocks only turned the ball over twice during their four-game win streak to finish the 2011 season.

• Marcus Lattimore fumbled on his first carry of the season. In his first two seasons at South Carolina, he only fumbled three times on 412 carries.

• Connor Shaw has won nine of his 10 starts for the Gamecocks.

• Akron coach Terry Bowden made his return to major college football, 19 years after his run ended at Auburn.  Unfortunately for Bowden and the Zips, UCF defeated them handily, 56-14.

• Jahwan Edwards, a sophomore, ran for a career-high 200 yards and tied a career-best three touchdowns in Ball State’s win over Eastern Michigan.  His previous high was 123 yards last year against Ohio on October 15th.

• Andre Parker, a linebacker at Kent State, made a name for himself Thursday night in the Golden Flashes win over Towson.  Parker returned a muffed punt 58 yards…in the wrong direction.  He ran it towards his own end zone, but the crazy part was instead of letting him go all the way for a safety, Towson tackled Parker out of bounds.  The ball was brought back to the place of the muff, Towson’s seven-yard line.

• Utah set a Rice-Eccles Stadium record with a 21-play, 91-yard drive that consumed 10:42 and culminated with a Jordan Wynn-to-Jake Murphy 8-yard touchdown connection.

• The Utah 41-0 win over Northern Colorado marked the Utes’ first shutout victory since beating Wyoming 50-0 in 2007.

• Connecticut’s defense dominated their game, holding UMass to just 59 yards of offense and limiting the Minutemen to three first downs. UMass did not have an offensive snap in UConn territory.  UMass never got its offense started, averaging just over 1 yard per play, and failing to get a first down until just 34 seconds before halftime.

• The game was the first between Football Bowl Subdivision programs from New England since 2004, when UConn faced Boston College.  This was UMass’ first game as a FBS member.

• Rice linebacker Cameron Nwosu blocked three extra-point attempts in the first half, breaking the NCAA single-game record for blocked PATs.

• All four of UCLA’s first-half offensive touchdowns were scored on drives that lasted less than a minute. Last year, the Bruins only had six touchdown drives that were that quick all season.

• UCLA has two 70+ yard touchdown runs in the first quarter at Rice. Last season, the Bruins only had one play of 70+ yards all season (and no runs longer than 42 yards).

• McNeese State recorded its first win against an FBS school since 2001 when it beat Middle Tennessee 27-21 Thursday.

• Eastern Washington’s 20-3 win over Idaho was their first over an FBS opponent since 2003, when it coincidentally defeated Idaho as well, 8-5.

• Despite only gaining 42 yards on their four third quarter possessions, UNLV was able to take a 10-7 lead on Minnesota into the fourth quarter.  The Rebels’ first two drives resulted in zero yards, their third nine yards and the scoring drive 33.

• After each scoring only 13 points in regulation, Minnesota and UNLV scored 17 and 14 points, respectively, in three overtimes in a Gopher 30-27 3 OT win.

• Arizona State outgained Northern Arizona  346-79 in the first half.

• In his starting debut, Taylor Kelly completed 15-of-19 passes for 247 yards

• Washington State managed -5 rushing yards against BYU

• At Texas Tech, Mike Leach’s teams averaged more than 37 points per game for 10 seasons. Washington State scored just 6 in Leach’s debut. That’s the fewest points a Mike Leach team has scored since scoring 6 in a loss at Colorado in 2006 and tied for the 3rd-fewest overall.