TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Miami quarterback Cam Ward topped 15,000 yards passing in his career, making him the 13th player recognized by the NCAA to have reached that milestone.
Ward entered Saturday night's game against South Florida needing 89 yards to get there and went over on a 22-yard completion to Isaiah Horton in the first quarter of the eighth-ranked Hurricanes’ 50-15 victory.
The fifth-year senior joins Oregon's Dillon Gabriel as the only active college quarterbacks with more than 15,000 passing yards. Gabriel, whose career total entering Saturday was 15,779 in 53 games at three different schools, played parts of three seasons at UCF and then spent 2022 and 2023 at Oklahoma before moving on to Oregon.
Saturday’s game was the 48th of Ward’s career. He spent his first two collegiate season at FCS Incarnate Word (throwing for 6,908 yards there) and the last two years at Washington State (throwing for 6,968 yards there). He has 1,439 yards in Miami’s first four games this year, becoming the first to start his career at the school with four consecutive 300-yard passing games and pushing his total to 15,315.
Ward was 24 of 34 passing for 404 yards and three touchdowns against USF. He was intercepted once.
“He’s been great for a long time," said Miami receiver Isaiah Horton, who had a TD catch Saturday night. "As soon as he got on campus, he made his mark instantly. I love playing with him.”
In addition to Gabriel and Ward, the other quarterbacks officially recognized by the NCAA to have topped 15,000 yards passing are:
— Case Keenum, 19,217 yards at Houston from 2007-11. Keenum now plays for the Houston Texans and will miss this season because of injury.
— Timmy Chang, 17,072 yards at Hawaii from 2000-04. He's now the school’s head coach.
— Tyson Bagent: 17,034 yards at Division II’s Shepherd from 2018-22. He’s now the backup for the Chicago Bears.
— Landry Jones, 16,646 yards at Oklahoma from 2009-12. He made five starts for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2015-17.
— Bo Cordell, 16,265 yards at Division II’s Tusculum from 2009-13, before going on to play for Montreal in the CFL.
— Graham Harrell, 15,793 yards at Texas Tech from 2005-08. He’s now offensive coordinator at Purdue.
— Sam Hartman, 15,656 yards at Wake Forest and Notre Dame from 2018-23. He is a rookie with the Washington Commanders.
— Austin Reed, 15,550 yards at Division II’s West Florida and then Western Kentucky from 2020-23. He’s now on the Bears’ practice squad.
— Bo Nix, 15,351 yards at Auburn and Oregon from 2019-23. He’s the starter for the Denver Broncos.
— John Matocha, 15,102 yards at Division II’s Colorado School of Mines from 2019-23. He was in camp this year with Toronto of the CFL.
— Ty Detmer, 15,031 yards at BYU from 1988-91. He played 14 NFL seasons.
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