NCAA Division I FBS passing leaders

The NCAA Division I FBS passing leaders comprise the career, single-season, and single-game leaders in passing yards, touchdowns, passer efficiency, completions, and completion percentage.^[1] These lists are disproportionately represented by more recent players for several structural and historical reasons:

• Since 1955, the length of the regular season has expanded from 10 games to 11 and later to 12 games, with some programs now playing additional postseason games, including conference championship games, bowl games, and the College Football Playoff.
• The NCAA did not permit freshmen to compete in varsity football until 1972 (with the exception of World War II–era seasons), preventing earlier players from accumulating statistics over four full seasons.
• Bowl games were not included in single-season or career statistics until 2002.^[2] As a result, many pre-2002 players are underrepresented; for example, Ty Detmer would have 16,206 passing yards and 127 passing touchdowns if bowl statistics were included, which would improve his rank in both categories.
• Beginning with the Southeastern Conference in 1992, FBS conferences introduced championship games, which have always counted toward official single-season and career statistics.
• The NCAA ruled that the 2020 season, which was heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, would not count against a player’s athletic eligibility, effectively granting an additional year of eligibility to players active that season.
• Since 2018, players have been allowed to participate in as many as four games in a redshirt season; previously, playing in even one game "burned" the redshirt.^[3] Since 2024, postseason games have not counted against the four-game limit.^[4] These changes to redshirt rules have given very recent players several extra games to accumulate statistics.
• Only statistics accumulated while a player’s team competed in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) are included. For example, Cam Ward threw 158 combined touchdowns across Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) (71) and FBS (87) competition, but only his 87 FBS touchdowns are counted here. Several other players—including Shedeur Sanders, Taylor Heinicke, Chad Pennington, Vernon Adams, and Bailey Zappe—also spent portions of their careers at the FCS level. In some cases, excluding FCS statistics alters statistical outcomes; for example, Sanders would have a lower career completion percentage and Zappe a lower passer efficiency rating if those seasons were included.

Statistics accurate as of January 15, 2025. Career completion percentage to be updated at the conclusion of the 2024 season.

Houston's Case Keenum is the NCAA career passing yards leader and the only player to throw for over 5,000 yards in three seasons. Like Timmy Chang of Hawaii, Keenum received a fifth year of eligibility after an early-career injury, which allowed him to surpass Chang, who had also benefited from a fifth year in 2001. Chang had broken BYU's Ty Detmer record, who had previously overtaken Todd Santos of San Diego State, now outside the top 50 in career passing yards.

The single-season leader in passing yards is Bailey Zappe, who transferred to Western Kentucky for his final year of eligibility after starting his career at FCS Houston Baptist (now Houston Christian). He broke a record that had stood for 18 years from Texas Tech's B. J. Symons. Prior to Symons, the record had been held by Detmer, who edged out Houston's David Klingler in 1990.

The first player to pass for 600 yards in a single game was Illinois' Dave Wilson, whose record stood for eight years. The 700-yard barrier was first breached in 1990 by David Klingler. The current single-game record of 734 is shared by Connor Halliday and Patrick Mahomes.

In 2024, Dillon Gabriel tied Case Keenum's passing touchdowns record of 155. Gabriel played in 64 career games compared to Keenum's 57.

Bailey Zappe holds the NCAA single-season passing touchdowns record with 62, surpassing the mark set by Joe Burrow two seasons earlier.

The single-game record holder is Houston's David Klingler, who threw for 11 touchdowns in a 1990 game against Eastern Washington. Five quarterbacks (including Klingler himself) have had a 9-touchdown game, and 7 quarterbacks have had an 8-touchdown game. Many quarterbacks have passed for 7 touchdowns in a game, too many to list here.

Passing efficiency is a measure of quarterback performance based on the following formula:

${\displaystyle {\text{Passing Efficiency}}={(100\times {\text{completions}})+(8.4\times {\text{yards}})+(330\times {\text{touchdowns}})-(200\times {\text{interceptions}}) \over {\text{attempts}}}}$

Only passing statistics are included in the formula. Any yards or touchdowns gained rushing or by any other method are not a factor in the formula, and neither are fumbles. Players tend to rank highly on the list when they have a high completion percentage, high yards per completion, and many touchdowns to few interceptions.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa holds the highest career passer efficiency rating among players with at least 325 career pass completions. The career leaderboard is dominated by modern-era quarterbacks, with no players who debuted before the 21st century appearing in the top 25.^[5]

To qualify for the single-season passer efficiency leaderboard, a quarterback must average at least 15 pass attempts per game. The current record is held by Jayden Daniels of LSU, who set it in 2023. The record was frequently broken in recent years, with new leaders each year from 2016 to 2021.

The NCAA does not officially recognize a single-game passer efficiency leaderboard, so records are based on documented box scores rather than an official list. Among the highest recorded single-game performances, Cincinnati quarterback Gunner Kiel holds the top mark with a 388.6 rating after completing 15 of 15 passes for 319 yards and five touchdowns in a 2015 game against UCF,^[6] while the highest rating with at least 20 attempts was by Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray against Baylor in 2018, marking Baylor’s second appearance as an opponent on this informal list; Murray completed 17 of 21 passes for 432 yards and six touchdowns for a 348.0 rating.

The NCAA doesn't recognize a full list for single games, but top performances include:

• Minimum 12 attempts – 403.4: – Tim Clifford of 1980 Indiana (11/14, 345 yards, 5 TD)^[7]
• Minimum 15 attempts – 388.6: – Gunner Kiel of 2015 Cincinnati (15/15, 319 yards, 5 TD)^[8]
• Minimum 20 attempts – 348.0 – Kyler Murray of 2018 Oklahoma (17/21, 432 yards, 6 TD)^[9]
• Minimum 25 attempts – 317.4 – Bruce Gradkowski of 2003 Toledo (23/25, 435 yards, 6 TD)^[10]
• Minimum 50 attempts – 248.0 – Geno Smith of 2012 West Virginia (45/51, 656 yards, 8 TD)^[11]

Keenum holds the NCAA Division I FBS career record for completions, surpassing the mark previously set by Harrell.

Harrell holds the single season record. Of the top 17 players on the list, 13 played under head coach Mike Leach.

The single-game record is tied between Eastern Michigan's Andy Schmidt and Washington State's Connor Halliday.

Alabama's Mac Jones holds the NCAA record for completion percentage, with 413 completions on 556 attempts. This is over 1.5 percentage points higher than the second place on the list, Northwestern's Dan Persa. The highest completion percentage among quarterbacks with over 1,000 career attempts is the 70.39% of Hawaii's Colt Brennan.

A quarterback must have at least 500 career attempts to appear in this leaderboard.

To qualify for the single-season completion percentage leaderboard, a player must average at least 14 pass attempts per game. Mac Jones held the NCAA single-season record for completion percentage until 2023, when it was broken by Bo Nix of Oregon. At the end of the 20th century, the record was held by Daunte Culpepper; he remains ninth on the all-time list and is the only player who debuted before the 21st century to appear.^[12]

The NCAA doesn't recognize a full list for single games, but top performances include:

• Minimum 15 attempts – 100% three times: (18 of 18) – Zach Wilson of 2018 BYU, (17 of 17) – Garrett Shrader of 2022 Syracuse, (15 of 15) – Gunner Kiel of 2015 Cincinnati
• Minimum 20 attempts – 96.00% two times: (24 of 25) – Greyson Lambert of 2015 Georgia – Hudson Card of 2024 Purdue
• Minimum 30 attempts – 93.94% two times: (31 of 33) – Kyle Allen of 2017 Houston – Owen McCown of 2025 UTSA
• Minimum 40 attempts – 90.91% (40 of 44) – Seth Doege of 2017 Texas Tech
• Minimum 50 attempts – 88.24% (45 of 51) – Geno Smith of 2012 West Virginia
• Minimum 60 attempts – 80.33% (49 of 61) – Carson Strong of 2021 Nevada

This table lists the top Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) quarterbacks ranked by career wins in games they started. Only victories earned while the player was the designated starting quarterback are counted (relief appearances are excluded), with ties included where applicable.^[13] Kellen Moore is the FBS record holder in this category, surpassing Colt McCoy’s previous mark in 2011; McCoy had broken David Greene’s record of 42 career wins as a starter in 2009 with a victory over Kansas.^[14] Some sources list Moore with 50 career wins, but he did not start against Fresno State in the regular season finale of his redshirt freshman year on Senior Day; the start (and win) for that game is officially credited to Bush Hamdan.^[15] The milestone was publicly celebrated following the victory over UNLV on November 5, 2011; however, based on official starter records, Moore officially surpassed McCoy’s career wins mark two weeks later against San Diego State on November 19, 2011.^[16][17]

Although Mark Gronowski holds the NCAA all-division record for career wins as a starting quarterback with 58 victories, he is not included on this list because his total was accumulated across both the FCS and FBS levels.^[18]

Bo Nix previously held the FBS record for career starts by a quarterback until it was surpassed by Dillon Gabriel in 2024.^[19]

This table lists FBS quarterbacks with the highest number of wins in a single season as a starter. Only victories earned while the player was the designated starting quarterback are counted, with ties included where applicable. Joe Burrow was the first player to surpass 15 wins in a single season in 2019, and the current single-season record is held by Fernando Mendoza with 16 wins in 2025. Both Burrow and Mendoza won a national championship and the Heisman Trophy in their respective seasons, while Stetson Bennett (2022) and J. J. McCarthy (2023) also captured national championships.^[20] Single-season win totals are higher and more common in recent years due to expanded schedules and extended playoff formats, which give quarterbacks more opportunities to earn victories.

• FCS passing leaders