Miami’s Cam Ward surpasses 15,000 passing yards in his college career

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Miami quarterback Cam Ward has passed for over 15,000 yards in his career, becoming the 13th player recognized by the NCAA to reach that milestone.

Ward hit the mark Saturday night, needing 89 yards to reach his career 15,000 yards rushing early in the game and throwing a 22-yard pass to Isaiah Horton in the first quarter of the eighth-ranked Hurricanes’ game at South Florida.

The only active college quarterback with more than 15,000 passing yards is Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, whose career total through Saturday stood at 15,779 in 53 games at three different schools. He spent parts of three seasons at UCF, 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 college seasons at FCS member Incarnate Word (where he threw for 6,908 yards) and the last two years at Washington State (where he threw for 6,968 yards). In Miami’s first three games this year, he rushed for 1,035 yards — becoming the first person to start his career at the school with three consecutive 300-yard passing games — bringing his total before this game to 14,911 yards.

All-time leaderboard

In addition to Gabriel and Ward, these are the other quarterbacks officially recognized by the NCAA who have achieved more than 15,000 yards in the passing game:

— Case Keenum, 19,217 yards in Houston from 2007 to 2011. Keenum now plays for the Houston Texans and will miss this season due to injury.

— Timmy Chang, 17,072 yards at Hawaii from 2000 to 2004. He is now the school’s head coach.

— Tyson Bagent: 17,034 yards at Division II’s Shepherd from 2018-2022. He is now the Chicago Bears’ reserve player.

— Landry Jones, 16,646 yards at Oklahoma from 2009 to 2012. He played five times for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2015 to 2017.

– Bo Cordell, 16,265 yards at Tusculum in Division II from 2009 to 2013 before playing for Montreal in the CFL.

— Graham Harrell, 15,793 yards at Texas Tech from 2005 to 2008. He is now the offensive coordinator at Purdue.

— Sam Hartman, 15,656 yards at Wake Forest and Notre Dame from 2018 to 2023. He is a rookie with the Washington Commanders.

— Austin Reed, 15,550 yards at Division II West Florida and then Western Kentucky from 2020 to 2023. He is now on the Bears practice squad.

— Bo Nix, 15,351 yards at Auburn and Oregon from 2019 to 2023. He is the starter for the Denver Broncos.

— John Matocha, 15,102 yards at Division II Colorado School of Mines from 2019-2023. He was in training camp this year with Toronto of the CFL.

— Ty Detmer, 15,031 yards at BYU from 1988 to 1991. He played 14 NFL seasons.

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