NCAA Division I FBS total offense leaders

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Case Keenum is the career record holder in total offense. Case Keenum.jpg
Case Keenum is the career record holder in total offense.
Dillon Gabriel is the career record holder in total touchdowns. MBN S24G09 ORE-1 Dillon Gabriel (cropped).jpg
Dillon Gabriel is the career record holder in total touchdowns.

The NCAA Division I FBS total offense leaders are career, single-season, and single-game leaders in total offense yards and touchdown responsibility. [1] Both of these statistics are defined as the sum of passing and rushing yards or touchdowns, and do not include any receiving or returns stats. These lists are dominated by more recent players for several reasons:

Contents

Legend
Active FBS Player
Statistics accurate as of January 15, 2025.

Total offense yards

The career leader in total offense yards is Houston's Case Keenum. Keenum was granted a fifth year of eligibility after being injured in Houston's third game in 2010 but he would still top the list by nearly 2,500 yards if 2010 were not included. The second player on the list, Hawaii's Timmy Chang, also had a fifth season after being granted a medical redshirt after being injured in 2001. Chang broke the record previously held by BYU's Ty Detmer, who is the only player in the top 30 whose entire college career was in the 20th century. Two other players in the top 30, Chang and Philip Rivers of NC State, played their first college seasons in 2000, which depending on definitions is part of either the 20th or 21st century.

The single-season leader in passing yards is Joe Burrow, who is the only player to ever top 6,000 yards of total offense in a single season. Burrow's yards came in 15 games, while second place Bailey Zappe's yards came in 14 games, and third place B. J. Symons's yards came in just 13 games. Symons held the single-season record for 16 years after breaking the record previously set by Houston's David Klingler in 1990.

The single-game record belongs to Patrick Mahomes, whose 819 yards came in a 2016 loss.

While these lists have many of the same players as the passing leaders list, the player with the most career yards without appearing on the passing yards list is Nevada's Colin Kaepernick, whose 4,112 rushing yards gets him on the list, even as his 10,098 career passing yards ranks outside the top 100. Similarly, Louisville's Lamar Jackson's 2017 season ranks outside the top 100 in passing yards, but his 1,601 rushing yards bring him into the list. Although players of any position are eligible for inclusion, all players on all three lists are quarterbacks, as the rushing leaders on the career, single-season, and single-game lists of 6,405, 2,628, and 427 yards respectively, are significantly below the 30th ranked players on the lists below.

Career

Single season

Single game

Touchdowns responsible for

In the 2024 season, Dillon Gabriel broke Keenum's total touchdowns record. The single-season record is shared by Burrow and Zappe, and Klingler holds the single game record with 11.

Similar to the yards list, every player in the career and single-season list is a quarterback. However, the single-game list does include two running backs, Howard Griffith and Jaret Patterson, who each had games with 8 rushing touchdowns.

Career

Single season

Single game

Single Game
#PlayerTDsPRDateSchool
1 David Klingler 11 11 - Nov. 17, 1990 Houston
2 Tanner Mordecai 10 9 1 Nov. 5, 2022 SMU
3 Dennis Shaw 9 9 - Nov. 15, 1969 San Diego State
David Klingler 9 9 - Aug. 31, 1991 Houston
Case Keenum 9 9 - Oct. 27, 2011 Houston
Anthony Gordon 9 9 - Sep. 21, 2019 Washington State
7 Jason Martin 8 8 - Oct. 19, 1996 Louisiana Tech
Pat Barnes 8 8 - Nov. 2, 1996 California
Howard Griffith 8 - 8 Sep. 22, 1990 Illinois
Nick Rolovich 8 8 - Dec. 8, 2001 Hawaii
B. J. Symons 8 8 - Oct. 4, 2003 Texas Tech
Chase Clement 8 6 2 Nov. 3, 2007 Rice
Giovanni Vizza8 8 - Nov. 10, 2007 North Texas
Alex Carder 8 7 1 Nov. 8, 2011 Western Michigan
Geno Smith 8 8 - Sep. 29, 2012 West Virginia
Tajh Boyd 8 5 3 Nov. 17, 2012 Clemson
Keenan Reynolds 8 1 7 Nov. 22, 2013 Navy
Brett Smith 8 7 1 Nov. 23, 2013 Wyoming
Brandon Doughty 8 8 - Nov. 28, 2014 Western Kentucky
Lamar Jackson 8 6 2 Sep. 1, 2016 Louisville
Jake Browning 8 6 2 Oct. 8, 2016 Washington
Drew Anderson 8 7 1 Oct. 7, 2017 Buffalo
Joe Burrow 8 7 1 Dec. 28, 2019 LSU
Jaret Patterson 8 - 8 Nov. 28, 2020 Buffalo
Clayton Tune 871 Nov. 5, 2022 Houston
Dillon Gabriel 853 Nov. 11, 2023 Oklahoma
Jayden Daniels 862 Nov. 18, 2023 LSU
287 – many times

References

  1. "Career Leaders and Records for Passing Yards" (PDF). NCAA . Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  2. "NCAA changes policy on football stats". ESPN.com. AP. August 28, 2002. Retrieved September 11, 2014.