2020 FCS Season: Inside The Box Score for Week 7

As we inch closer to the end of October – and the fall season – we saw four games played in week seven featuring FCS teams. Below is a look back at what happened in the seventh week of the 2020 college football season.

Date	Away	Home	Score
10/17	Jacksonville State	North Alabama	24-17
10/17	Eastern Kentucky	Troy	29-31
10/17	Angelo State	Stephen F. Austin	12-31
10/17	Central Arkansas	Missouri State	33-24

FCS Versus FBS Points and Yardage

We keep track of points and yardage for each FCS versus FBS game this season. Listed below are the FCS team, points scored by each FCS team, points given up, offensive yards gained by each FCS team, and yards given up by each FCS team. Totals and averages since week one are also provided.

To date, 25 FCS versus FBS games have been played. Both charts and tables are provided to show the change throughout the season. The number of games played each week is listed in parentheses.

Please note that due to only 1 game being played in week 7, no averages will be provided for the week.

FCS Team	FCS Points	FBS Points	FCS Off. Yards	FCS Def. Yards
Eastern Kentucky	29	31	425	507
Week 7 Totals (1)	29	31	425	507
Week 6 Totals (2)	36	64	629	801
Week 6 Averages	18	32	314.5	400.5
Week 5 Totals (4)	68	190	1,304	1,955
Week 5 Averages	17	47.5	326	488.8
Week 4 Totals (3)	66	168	1,022	1,509
Week 4 Averages	22	56	340.7	503
Week 3 Totals (5)	64	188	1,509	2,183
Week 3 Averages	12.8	37.6	301.8	436.6
Week 2 Totals (6)	75	248	1,734	3,062
Week 2 Averages	12.5	41.3	289	510.3
Week 1 Totals (4)	80	185	1,258	2,171
Week 1 Averages	20	46.3	314.5	542.8
YTD Totals (25)	418	1,074	7,881	12,188
YTD Averages	16.7	43.0	315.2	487.5

The historical scoring average through 2019 for FCS versus FBS games since the Division I split in 1978 was 15 points for FCS teams and 37 points for FBS squads. In 2019, FCS teams averaged 13.9 points per game against FBS teams while FCS teams gave up 43 points per game on defense.

FCS Versus FBS Conference and Team Records

Below are the records for each conference for FCS versus FBS games. A running total will be kept throughout the season and updated weekly. Historical team records can be found here and historical conference records can be found here.

Team	2020 vs. FBS	All-Time Record	Last FBS win
Eastern Kentucky	0-3	6-35	2014

Conference	Weekly Record	2020 Record
ACC (FBS)	0-0	4-0
American Athletic (FBS)	0-0	3-0
Big 12 (FBS)	0-0	3-0
Big South (FCS)	0-0	0-5
Conference USA (FBS)	0-0	7-0
FBS Independents	0-0	3-0
MVFC (FCS)	0-0	0-1
Ohio Valley (FCS)	0-1	0-6
SoCon (FCS)	0-0	0-3
Southland (FCS)	0-0	0-10
Sun Belt (FBS)	1-0	5-0

FCS School Trends Versus FBS Teams

Eastern Kentucky lost a heartbreaking game at Troy 31-29 when the Trojans hit a last-second field goal. The Colonels had scored a TD with 21 seconds left but the comeback by Troy left them stunned.

The Colonels have struggled against FBS foes since their last win in 2014. They are 0-13 with 10 of those losses coming by double-digits. The game against Troy was EKU’s first game against a Sun Belt opponent and very nearly gave them an epic win.

Field Goal and Extra Point Trends

The kicking game has been one of the trends to improve as the season has gone on. This is unsurprising as spring and summer practices were cut short and hurt special teams’ ability to gain valuable reps.

The last two weeks have been stellar for kickers with only four missed field goals in 7 games and no missed extra points for the second week in a row. After slumping to a cumulative 45% following week one’s games, field goal percentage is up to 66% for the entire season after 11 of 13 attempts were made over the weekend.

Week	Field Goals	FG %	Extra Points	XP %
Week 0	4/4	100%	3/3	100%
Week 1	1/7	14%	11/11	100%
Week 2	5/8	63%	6/7	86%
Week 3	6/8	75%	4/5	80%
Week 4	4/6	67%	16/19	84%
Week 5	9/15	60%	25/27	93%
Week 6	5/7	71%	11/11	100%
Week 7	11/13	85%	17/17	100%
2020 Totals	45/68	66%	93/100	93%

What’s Ahead for Week Eight

As of this writing, 35 of the 57 games scheduled FCS games have been completed. The latest updated FCS schedule for 2020 can be found here. Week eight will feature five games with three against FBS competition and two all-FCS matchups.

Date	Away	Home	Time (ET)	TV
10/23	Jacksonville State	Florida International	8 PM	ESPN3
10/24	Mercer	Army	12 PM	CBSSN
10/24	Abilene Christian	Stephen F. Austin	1:30 PM	FloSports
10/24	Central Arkansas	Eastern Kentucky	3 PM	ESPN+
10/24	Chattanooga	Western Kentucky	4 PM	ESPN3

Photo courtesy of Troy Athletics.