For the Record: The American has a 34-year rematch, a touchdown collector, and a 28-year-old punter

College football has a funny definition of a neighbor. Apparently, you can share a city, sit 3.2 miles apart, and still go 34 years without playing each other. Elsewhere in this week’s American Conference game notes, there’s a receiver collecting touchdowns in every available form, a punter born in 1998 and a quarterback family Jeff Traylor has been coaching since the Clinton administration. Welcome back to For the Record, where the fine print gets its moment. Shoutout to the SIDs and communications staffs who keep giving us reasons to turn another page. This one’s for you.

UAB and Samford’s campuses are separated by just 3.2 miles. Their football programs, apparently, prefer a little more distance.

Saturday will be their first meeting in 34 years and just their second ever. The original came on Halloween in 1992, when Terry Bowden’s Samford team beat the Blazers 49-3. UAB was in its second season of football and still playing in Division III. The Bulldogs went on to the Division I-AA playoffs.

There’s a personal reunion tucked into this one, too. UAB head coach Alex Mortensen played quarterback at Samford in 2006, appearing in eight games after transferring from Arkansas.

Thirty-four years between games. Three-point-two miles between campuses. At some point, somebody could have just walked over and asked.

Receiving touchdown? Check. Rushing touchdown? Check. Passing touchdown? Also check.

Florida Atlantic’s Easton Messer added a 73-yard punt return touchdown in the Owls’ 45-17 win at ULM, and according to FAU’s notes, he is the only player in program history with passing, rushing, receiving, and return touchdowns on his résumé.

The return tied Lucky Whitehead for the second-longest punt return in school history, earned Messer American Special Teams Player of the Week honors, and landed at No. 3 on SportsCenter’s daily Top 10. It was FAU’s first punt return touchdown since LaJohntay Wester in 2023.

Max Tulen was born July 12, 1998. Yes, Tulsa’s punter is 28.

The Melbourne, Australia native arrived after three seasons at Bethune-Cookman, where he earned HBCU All-American and first-team All-SWAC honors in 2025. He led the SWAC with a 44.6-yard punting average and launched a 64-yarder against Jackson State.

Melbourne to Daytona Beach to Tulsa is quite a route to fourth down. And somewhere in that locker room, a freshman probably considers 1998 ancient history.

Senior cornerback Ira Oniha is the second-born of quadruplets, which is the kind of roster information I will always stop to read.

Born in Baltimore to Nigerian parents, Oniha attended elementary school and part of middle school in the United States before his family returned to Nigeria. After two years of middle school there, he came back to Maryland for high school. His two brothers graduated from UMBC in 2026 and his sister graduated from UMBC in 2025.

Navy heads to Air Force on Saturday for the opening leg of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy competition. The Mids have won the trophy the past two years, but the family logistics in Oniha’s bio deserve a little hardware of their own.

Four kids. One birthday. Somebody give those parents a trophy.

K.C. Keeler coached the 400th game of his collegiate head coaching career against Army last week, becoming just the 24th head coach in NCAA football history to reach that mark, according to Temple’s notes.

Now he heads to Tampa to face Brian Hartline, who is four games into his head coaching career at South Florida. That’s a fairly substantial experience gap on the opposite sideline.

Temple has a ground-game milestone to chase, too. The Owls have rushed for at least 176 yards in each of their first four games, including 217 against Army. Doing it again Saturday would give them five straight such games for the first time since 2011.

Keeler has seen plenty in 400 games. A win over an unbeaten team would still look pretty good in game No. 401.

Owen McCown’s quarterback lineage is impressive enough before you get to the part involving his head coach.

His father, Josh, played 18 NFL seasons. His uncle Luke played 12. Another uncle, Randy, helped Texas A&M win the 1998 Big 12 championship. His younger brother, Aiden, is the starting quarterback at Lamar.

But here’s the part buried in UTSA’s notes: Josh, Luke, and Randy all played for Jeff Traylor when he was an assistant at Jacksonville High School in the 1990s. Now Traylor coaches Owen.

That is a family tree with its own quarterback room. And Traylor has been there long enough to coach the branches.

Tayven Jackson and the Mean Green passing game have drawn plenty of attention, but Jahiem White is making a strong case for his own billing.

Through four games, White has nine total touchdowns, second-most nationally according to UNT’s notes, trailing only Florida’s Jadan Baugh. His 506 scrimmage yards, split between 363 rushing and 143 receiving, lead the American entering the week.

North Texas opens conference play at Tulsa on Thursday after beating HCU 63-14. Nine touchdowns in four games is an excellent way to make sure the opposing defensive coordinator knows your name before the introductions.

• South Florida: The Bulls improved to 4-0 by beating Bowling Green 14-6, but they didn’t take their first lead until Luke Kromenhoek’s two-yard touchdown run with 12:07 left. USF used its fourth different starting offensive line in four games, while Bowling Green’s Myles Bradley recorded 4.5 sacks, a record for a Bulls opponent. D.J. Crowther’s 143 rushing yards helped get them home.

• Army: Cale Hellums scored all three Black Knights touchdowns in the 21-17 win at Temple, rushing for 104 yards on 22 carries. His three-yard winner came with 1:41 remaining.

• Memphis: Charles Huff’s roster features 81 newcomers, including 61 transfers, and just 27 returners. Seventeen players followed him from Southern Miss, with five having played for him at both Marshall and Southern Miss.

• Rice: Jacurri Brown is the Owls’ first starting quarterback to wear No. 11 since Chad Nelson, who played from 1994-97. Brown rushed for 128 yards against Western Michigan and 141 at Fresno State.

• UTSA, one more time: Mekhi Anderson’s 100-yard kickoff return against Colorado State made him just the second player in program history to return a kickoff for a touchdown. Chris Carpenter had been the entire club, with three. Anderson also caught a touchdown in the 59-45 win, a game whose 104 combined points set a UTSA record.

South Florida: The Bulls improved to 4-0 by beating Bowling Green 14-6, but they didn’t take their first lead until Luke Kromenhoek’s two-yard touchdown run with 12:07 left. USF used its fourth different starting offensive line in four games, while Bowling Green’s Myles Bradley recorded 4.5 sacks, a record for a Bulls opponent. D.J. Crowther’s 143 rushing yards helped get them home.

Army: Cale Hellums scored all three Black Knights touchdowns in the 21-17 win at Temple, rushing for 104 yards on 22 carries. His three-yard winner came with 1:41 remaining.

Memphis: Charles Huff’s roster features 81 newcomers, including 61 transfers, and just 27 returners. Seventeen players followed him from Southern Miss, with five having played for him at both Marshall and Southern Miss.

Rice: Jacurri Brown is the Owls’ first starting quarterback to wear No. 11 since Chad Nelson, who played from 1994-97. Brown rushed for 128 yards against Western Michigan and 141 at Fresno State.

UTSA, one more time: Mekhi Anderson’s 100-yard kickoff return against Colorado State made him just the second player in program history to return a kickoff for a touchdown. Chris Carpenter had been the entire club, with three. Anderson also caught a touchdown in the 59-45 win, a game whose 104 combined points set a UTSA record.

East Carolina and Tulane are off this week.

Charlotte’s packet includes a tribute to longtime SID and associate athletic director for media relations Tom Whitestone, who died Sept. 8 after a battle with cancer.

Whitestone joined the 49ers in 1987 and spent 37 years telling the stories of their athletes and coaches, including the birth and first 11 years of Charlotte football. He helped bring the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame into existence and learned before his passing that he would be inducted alongside the 1977 Final Four men’s basketball team.

This column exists because somebody thought a detail was worth preserving. A milestone. A family story. A name that might otherwise disappear into a box score.

Whitestone spent a career doing that. For the record, those people belong in the story, too.