8 College Football Records That Will (Probably) Never Be Broken

The phrase “never say never” is applicable to a wide variety of scenarios, and that axiom definitely applies to the wildly unpredictable pastime of college football—a sport where wild upsets and unexpected twists of fate tend to unfold on a weekly basis during the season.

As a result, I hesitate to say there are any records in college football that are definitively unbreakable, but there are still a number of achievements that seem like they’ll end up standing the test of time.

College football has a history stretching all the way back to 1869, and there are plenty of records that have been repeatedly set and broken as the game has evolved over time.

There have been a number of seemingly unsurpassable marks that have ended up falling at some point, but there are still plenty of others that will probably never be topped.

Biggest Margin Of Victory (And Most Points Scored): 222

There’s a slim chance some of the other records on this list are eventually surpassed, but that is certainly not the case with one of the most infamous games in the history of college football.

On October 7, 1916, the team then known as the Georgia Tech Engineers hosted Tennessee’s Cumberland College for a game a year after the latter had disbanded its football program.

However, the Bulldogs were contractually obligated to play and headed to Atlanta with a team largely comprised of fraternity members and law school students.

Georgia Tech coach John Heisman (yes, that Heisman) was also the manager of the school’s baseball team and headed into the contest intent on getting revenge after losing to Cumberland’s squad on the diamond by a score of 22-0 the previous year.

He managed to do that and then some, as the Engineers ultimately (and poetically) won by a score of 222-0 in a game where their opponent never converted a single first down.

Most Combined Passing Yards In A Game: 1,383

On October 22, 2016, college football fans were treated to what promised to be a hard-fought contest between Oklahoma and Texas Tech featuring two standout quarterbacks in the form of Johnny Manziel and Patrick Mahomes.

The showdown did not disappoint, as we were treated to a back-and-forth shootout where the defense was essentially a non-factor in a game where the Sooners walked away with a 66-59 victory.

Mahomes tied the FBS record for most yards in a game with 734 on 88 attempts while tossing five touchdowns, while Manziel threw for 545 while recording 7 TDs to combine for an absurd (and record-breaking) 1,383 yard in the air.

The two teams also set the record for the most overall yards with 1,708 (each finished with exactly 854), which broke the mark of 1,640 that San Jose State and Nevada set in 2001.

Longest Winning Streak: 47 Games

The Oklahoma Sooners were a force to be reckoned with in the 1950s, as the program secured three uncontested national championships during the decade under legendary coach Bud Wilkinson.

Two of those coincided with the unreal run the team went on starting in 1953. The Sooners lost their first game of the season and tied with Pitt in their second, but their win over Texas in the Red River Rivalry game marked the start of a streak of 41 consecutive wins that didn’t end until they lost to Notre Dame in 1957.

Washington had previously set the mark to beat with 40 between 1908–1914, and Toledo is the team that’s managed to come closest to that mark since it was surpassed with a 35-game winning streak.

Most Consecutive TD Passes: 6

The concept of a “human cheat code” wasn’t a thing when Brooks Dawson was the quarterback at the University of Texas-El Paso in 1967, but he definitely fit the bill.

On October 27th of that year, UTEP headed to Albuquerque to face off against New Mexico in an incredible one-sided contest where the Miners cruised to a 75-12 victory.

The incredibly porous Lobos defense was probably demoralized by what unfolded when the game kicked off, as Dawson started the game 6-for-6 in the air with every single one of those passes leading to a touchdown—a streak that remains untouched to this day.

Most Interceptions Thrown By A Single Player In One Game: 9

In this day and age, there aren’t many situations where a quarterback is going to throw more than three or four interceptions in a game without being pulled for someone else. However, that was not the case when Auburn faced off against Florida in 1969.

The Tigers cruised to a 38-12 victory in that showdown in a game Gators quarterback John Reaves would probably like to scrub from his memory, as the freshman somehow managed to throw nine interceptions before the final whistle mercifully brought the game to a close.

Things ended up working out for Reaves in the end, as he earned All-American honors in his final season in college while setting the (then) record for the most passing yards in NCAA history and went on to play in the NFL for 11 years after being drafted by the Eagles in the first round of the draft in 1972.

Most Sacks In A Season: 27

This one admittedly deserves a bit of an asterisk, as the NCAA didn’t start recording sacks as a stat until 2000 (Terrell Suggs officially holds the FBS record for sacks in a season with 24, although Ferris State’s Caleb Murphy is technically the college king with the 25.5 he recorded in 2022).

However, Derrick Thomas is still widely recognized as the all-time leader in that particular category, as the linebacker was credited with 27 sacks during the truly impressive season he had as a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide in 1988.

Fewest Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game: 17

It’s hard to imagine we’ll ever see a defense that was able to suffocate the run in the manner Penn State did in 1947, a campaign that produced some borderline unbelievable stats.

The Nittany Lions played nine games that year (ten if you include their tie in the Cotton Bowl, which was excluded from regular season stats) while giving up a grand total of 153 rushing yards the entire season—an average of 17 per game.

Opponents who were foolish enough to try to move the ball on the ground averaged .64 yards per carry, and it’s safe to assume two numbers will ever be topped.

Fewest Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game: 13.13

It turns out Penn State knows a thing or two about defense, as the team the Nittany Lions fielded in 1938 arguably outdid the aforementioned squad when it came to its ability to stop the pass.

College football was obviously a bit different back then, but Penn State still deserves credit where credit is due for what transpired over teh course of eight games where the team surrendered just 105 yards in the air—an average of 13.13 per game.

That’s just unreal.