The 15 QBs With The Most Single-Season Passing Yards In College Football History

Most college football teams rely on a fairly well-balanced offense that revolves around a calculated mix of rushing and passing to keep the defense on its toes and avoid burdening a single player with too much responsibility. With that said, there are plenty of circumstances where they’ve opted to make a quarterback the start of the show while taking advantage of their exceptional passing ability.

These are the college QBs who’ve racked up the most passing yards in a single season

No college quarterback had thrown for 5,000 yards in a single season before two different gunslingers became the first to do so in 1990, and only 15 people have managed a feat that’s been achieved just 18 times heading into the 2025 campaign.

Here’s a look at every single member of that club.

15. Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech: 5,017 Passing Yards (2002)

Nearly one-third of the quarterbacks who’ve joined The 5,000-Yard Club played at Texas Tech, and that dominance can largely be traced back to one man: Mike Leach, the coaching legend who breathed new life into the program with the Air Raid offense that became the central tenet of the team’s strategy upon his arrival in 2000.

Kliff Kingsbury essentially served as Leach’s lab rat, as he’d been recruited by Spike Dykes and played in a handful of games as a redshirt freshman in 1999 before earning the starting job heading into the first year of the new regime. The 3,418 yards he had in 2000 were good enough for third in the country, and he fell to fifth despite upping that number to 3,502 the following season.

However, he exploded for  5,017 yards as a senior and had 45 touchdowns in the air while leading the Red Raiders to a 9-5 record.

14. Bryant Moniz, Hawaii: 5,040 Passing Yards (2010)

June Jones made a name for himself at Hawaii with the run-and-shoot offense he instituted after taking over as the head coach of the Rainbow Warriors in 1999 (this isn’t the only time we’ll be mentioning the school), and Greg McMackin declined to deviate from the formula when he replaced him in 2008.

Bryant Moniz capitalized on that pass-heavy strategy during McMakin’s third season, as the man who was born and raised in Oahu ended up with 5,040 passing yards and threw 39 touchdowns as Hawaii went 10-4.

13. Patrick Mahomes, Texas Tech: 5,052 Passing Yards (2016)

There isn’t a more accomplished NFL quarterback on this list than Patrick Mahomes, who capped off his time at Texas Tech with a bang by throwing for 5,052 passing yards (averaging 421 per game).

That season was also the one where Mahomes and Baker Mayfield engaged in a QB battle for the ages, with the former throwing for 734 yards (while adding another 85 on the ground) and the latter racking up 545 while contributing to the to the 1,708 total yards of offense that remain an NCAA record in a game where Oklahoma got the 66-59 win.

It would have been even higher if Texas Tech had made a bowl, but the Red Raiders ended up on the outside looking in after finishing at 5-7.

12. Brandon Doughty, Western Kentucky: 5,055 Passing Yards (2015)

Western Kentucky is also represented multiple times on this list, and its first appearance comes courtesy of Brandon Doughty.

The QB set a school record in 2013 when he threw for 2,857 passing yards only to explode for 4,830 the following season. He managed to outdo himself yet again during his final season with the Hilltoppers thanks to the 5,055 yards he ended up with when everything was said and done.

11. Paul Smith, Tulsa: 5,065 Passing Yards (2007)

Paul Smith threw for 2,727 yards in 2006 during his second season as the starter at Tulsa, which was good enough for 27th in the country. It seemed like he had the potential to improve heading into his final season with the Golden Hurricane, and he certainly did exactly that while recording 5,065 passing yards and 47 touchdowns.

10. Derek Carr, Fresno State: 5,083 (2013)

There’s only a handful of guys on this list who went on a tear in college and made what most people would consider a “successful” transition to the NFL, and Derek Carr is one of them.

Fresno State struggled to get things clicking when Carr was an underclassman, but that changed when Tim DeRuyte replaced Pat Hill as the head coach of the Bulldogs in 2012—the same year Carr got himself a new target at wide receiver after Davante Adams was welcomed into the offensive fold.

He had 4,104 yards and 37 TDs during that campaign, and Fresno State went 9-4 after going 4-9 the previous season. However, the stars really aligned in 2013, as Carr finished with 5,083 yards and 50 TDs to help the Bulldogs finish at 11-2.

9. David Klingler, Houston: 5,140 Passing Yards (1990)

1990 was a landmark year for college quarterbacks, as it marked the first time anyone had managed to throw for over 5,000 yards in a season.

David Klingler firmly surpassed that number en route to ending up with 5,140 during his first season as the starter at Houston (he also set an NCAA record with 54 passing touchdowns), but what would have been a historic achievement was overshadowed by an even more impressive one.

8. Ty Detmer, BYU: 5,188 Passing Yards (1990)

Klingler probably would have been a shoe-in for the Heisman Trophy if not for another QB who just so happened to have an even more historic season at the worst possible time: BYU’s Ty Detmer.

While Klinger sort of came out of nowhere after spending his first two years as a backup, Detmer had already proven he was a force to be reckoned with after passing for 4,560 yards in 1989. He firmly outdid himself in 1990 with the 5,188 passing yards and 41 TDs that were good enough for college football’s most prestigious individual prize.

7. Colt Brennan, Hawaii: 5,549 Passing Yards (2006)

As I mentioned above, June Jones was an incredibly pass-happy coach at Hawaii, and Colt Brennan serves as “Exhibit A.”

Brennan started his college career at Colorado and had a one-year JUCO stint prior to heading to Hawaii. He had 4,301 yards during his first season as a Rainbow Warrior in 2005 before exploding for the 5,549 yards (along with 58 TDs) that earned him a spot on this list.

6. Anthony Gordon, Washington State: 5,579 Passing Yards (2019)

Leach had a very messy divorce with Texas Tech that saw his tenure with the program come to an end in 2009 after ten seasons at the helm, and following a three-year hiatus from coaching, he made his grand return at Washington State.

None of the QBs who played under The Pirate during the eight seasons he spent in Pullman worked better in his system than Anthony Gordon, who had 5,579 passing yards during what ended up being Leach’s final ride prior to heading to Mississippi State.

T-4. Joe Burrow, LSU: 5,671 Passing Yards (2019)

There are two QBs who threw for exactly 5,671 passing yards in a season, but Joe Burrow also benefited from the extra game he got to play while leading LSU to a national championship.

Unlike most of the people on this list, he also managed to do pretty well for himself after making the leap to the NFL, which can’t really be said for…

T-4. Case Keenum, Houston:  5,671 Passing Yards (2009)

It took close to 30 years for Houston to find another QB who could hold a torch to David Klingler, but Case Keenum was able to do that and then some while becoming the most prolific passer in college football history on the back of the 5,671 passing yards he had in 2009.

I’m only dedicating a single entry to each quarterback that made this list, but Keenum also had the sixth and 17th-most impressive single-season performance with 5,631 in 2011. Additionally, he holds the record for the most overall passing yards any NCAA QB has recorded with a grand total of 19,217.

3. Graham Harrell, Texas Tech: 5,705 Passing Yards (2007)

We’ve got yet another Texas Tech QB (but not the last one) courtesy of Graham Harrell, who had the second-most impressive season by a QB under Leach’s watch in Lubbock with the 5,705 passing yards he had during a campaign where he threw 48 touchdowns as the Red Raiders went 9-4.

He also holds the 11th spot on this list with the comparatively disappointing 5,111 passing yards he tallied the following season.

2. B.J. Symons, Texas Tech: 5,833 Passing Yards (2003)

Kliff Kingsbury was Leach’s first major proof of concept for the Air Raid strategy, and B.J. Symons essentially put any doubts about that approach to rest the following year.

Symons not only picked up where his predecessor left off but shattered the NCAA record Detmer had set 13 years prior with the 5,833 passing yards to set a new one that stood for close to two decades before it fell courtesy of…

1. Bailey Zappe, Western Kentucky: 5,967 Passing Yards (2021)

We’re capping things off with our second Hilltopper in the form of Bailey Zappe, who has not seen his NFL career pan out as he had hoped but can still cling to the single-season record he set when he passed for 5,967 yards during his first and only season at Western Kentucky following a four-year run at Houston Baptist.