For the Record: The American has an octopus, a 58-yard debut, and 3-year quest for one tackle

College football game notes are part scouting report, part record book, and occasionally a portal into a story too good to leave buried on page 36. I went through this week’s available packets from the American Conference, and the best discoveries range from an actual football octopus to a kicker whose first college field goal rewrote a school record. Shoutout to the SIDs and communications staffs who assemble these little treasure maps every week. This one’s for you.

1. Charlotte has an octopus. Again.

Against App State, Charlotte running back Khamani Alexander scored a one-yard touchdown and ran in the ensuing two-point conversion. That eight-point sequence is called an octopus, and according to Charlotte’s notes, Alexander is just the fourth 49er to pull one off. Somehow, Charlotte has had an octopus in three consecutive seasons. A team can be 0-3 and still lead the nation in delightfully weird trivia.

2. A Temple walk-on got the tackle he’d been chasing for three seasons.

Senior linebacker Reggie Jones has documented his quest to make one tackle for an audience of more than 172,000 Instagram followers and 65,000 TikTok followers, according to Temple’s notes. In Week 1 against Rhode Island, he finally got it, stopping a run up the middle late in the fourth quarter. One tackle might be a footnote on a stat sheet. For Jones, it was the whole story. This is the one I’d want to hear him tell on camera.

3. Tulane’s new kicker went straight for the record book.

Cooper Helmke had never attempted a college field goal or extra point before the Kansas State game. Then he hit from 58 yards, breaking Tulane’s school record of 57, set by Cairo Santos in 2012. Helmke also made a 53-yarder in the third quarter. That’s a fairly outrageous opening act. There’s another twist to this week’s Battle for the Bell: Tulane coach Will Hall was on the Southern Miss sideline for the Golden Eagles’ 2022 win over the Green Wave.

4. Tulsa waited nearly 24 years to pitch another shutout.

The Golden Hurricane beat East Texas A&M 42-0 last week, their first shutout since Oct. 26, 2002. That’s a stretch of 286 consecutive games without one. Through three games this season, Tulsa has allowed 27 points total and zero fourth-quarter points. Now 3-0, it heads to Arkansas with a much more interesting defensive story than its recent reputation might suggest. The notes also say Tulsa has no Saturday home game in October, with its two home dates falling on a Thursday and a Friday.

5. Florida Atlantic’s quarterback is putting the ball in the air a lot. And completing it.

Through three games, Caden Veltkamp leads the nation at 28.33 completions per game, according to FAU’s notes. Against Navy, he threw five touchdowns, completed 84.3% of his passes and amassed 386 passing yards. Receiver Easton Messer caught passes for 179 yards in that game, including 151 in the first quarter. FAU followed the Navy win by beating FIU, so the Owls enter their trip to ULM on a two-game winning streak.

6. North Texas produced a 492-yard passing game and still lost by 14.

Tayven Jackson threw for 492 yards against Texas State, which North Texas lists as the highest single-game passing total by an FBS quarterback so far this season. The Mean Green lost 49-35 while Texas State rushed for 337 yards. If you need a one-game argument for why football refuses to be reduced to a quarterback stat line, there it is. North Texas also reports 70 newcomers on its roster, 53 of them transfers.