College Football: The Top Passing Games Since 2005

by Chase Stuart on March 3, 2013

Griffin against the Sooners.

This week, I looked at the best college quarterback seasons in 2012 and over the last eight years. Today I’m going to do a quick data dump on the top passing performances by a college quarterback since 2005. I’ll be using the same formula as I did before, so check there if you want to read the fine print. As before, the data below is courtesy of cfbstats.com.

I’m not too surprised to see Geno Smith‘s game last year come in as the top game over the last eight years. And seeing Robert Griffin III come in with the third best passing game since 2005 isn’t too surprising, either. He threw for 479 yards and 4 touchdowns — including a memorable game-winner — on just 34 passes against the #5 team in the country. But #2 on the list is a game I doubt many remember. UCLA’s Drew Olson put together one of the craziest stat lines you’ll ever see in a 45-35 victory over Arizona State. Olson threw just 27 passes but racked up 510 passing yards and 5 touchdowns, en route to a ridiculous 21.5 ANY/A average. A future Jacksonville Jaguar had a big game for Olson, but it wasn’t Maurice Jones-Drew; Marcedes Lewis caught 7 passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns.

The full list of the top 400 games, below:

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Rank	Quarterback	Year	Team	Opponent	Att	PYd	TD	INT	Sk	Skyd	ANY/A	SOS	Value
1	Geno Smith	2012	West Virginia	Baylor	51	656	8	0	1	3	15.6	-0.56	482
2	Drew Olson	2005	UCLA	Arizona State	27	510	5	0	1	9	21.5	-0.51	424
3	Robert Griffin III	2011	Baylor	Oklahoma	34	479	4	0	1.9	12.6	15.2	1.79	402
4	Mike Teel	2008	Rutgers	Louisville	26	447	7	0	0	0	22.6	-1.41	399
5	Joe Ganz	2007	Nebraska	Kansas State	40	510	7	0	2.8	14	14.9	0.21	396
6	Case Keenum	2011	Houston	Rice	37	534	9	1	0.9	1.9	17.6	-1.52	389
7	Connor Halliday	2011	Washington State	Arizona State	36	494	4	0	0.9	3.7	15.4	0.32	368
8	Case Keenum	2011	Houston	Penn State	69	532	3	0	2	14	8.1	2.71	357
9	Brian Brohm	2007	Louisville	Utah	58	467	4	0	3	15	8.7	2.95	357
10	Trevor Vittatoe	2009	UTEP	Marshall	40	517	5	0	0	0	15.4	-0.71	356
11	Tim Tebow	2009	Florida	Cincinnati	35	482	3	0	1.9	7.8	14.5	0.89	352
12	Sam Bradford	2008	Oklahoma	TCU	34	411	4	0	4	36	12	3.11	352
13	Sam Keller	2005	Arizona State	LSU	56	461	4	0	0	0	9.7	2.4	350
14	Graham Harrell	2008	Texas Tech	Oklahoma State	50	456	6	0	0	0	11.5	1.28	349
15	Colt Brennan	2006	Hawai'i	Arizona State	42	559	5	1	4	17	13	0.41	348
16	Stephen Morris	2012	Miami (Florida)	North Carolina State	49	566	5	1	1	17	12.1	0.71	348
17	Sam Keller	2005	Arizona State	Northwestern	31	409	4	0	0	0	15.8	1.2	346
18	Mark Sanchez	2008	USC	Penn State	35	413	4	0	1	9	13.4	1.85	341
19	Christian Ponder	2009	Florida State	North Carolina	40	395	3	0	2	10	10.6	3.33	340
20	Casey Pachall	2011	TCU	Boise State	37	473	5	1	1	4	13.8	0.87	336
21	Paul Smith	2007	Tulsa	BYU	35	454	5	1	1.9	11.4	13.5	1.4	335
22	Case Keenum	2011	Houston	Marshall	28	376	6	0	0	0	17.7	0.02	334
23	C.J. Bacher	2007	Northwestern	Michigan State	48	520	5	0	1	2	12.6	-0.1	328
24	Tyler Hansen	2011	Colorado	California	49	474	3	0	0	0	10.9	1.62	328
25	Matt Barkley	2011	USC	UCLA	42	423	6	0	1	6	12.5	0.93	327
26	Steven Sheffield	2009	Texas Tech	Kansas State	41	490	7	1	1.7	7.5	13.5	-0.07	326
27	John Beck	2005	BYU	TCU	51	517	5	2	4	26	9.1	2.62	325
28	Matt Leinart	2005	USC	Arkansas	24	381	4	0	0.7	6.4	18.4	0.56	325
29	Jimmy Clausen	2008	Notre Dame	Hawai'i	26	401	5	0	1.9	7.4	17.7	-0.43	320
30	Rudy Carpenter	2005	Arizona State	Rutgers	35	467	4	0	1	6	15	-0.55	312
31	Bryan Cupito	2005	Minnesota	Ohio State	35	396	1	0	0	0	11.9	2.78	310
32	Mike Teel	2008	Rutgers	Pittsburgh	21	361	6	1	2.6	21.9	17.5	1.36	309
33	Darron Thomas	2011	Oregon	Nevada	19	295	6	0	0.7	2.9	20.9	0.52	308
34	John David Booty	2006	USC	Michigan	45	391	4	0	1	8	10.1	2.41	306
35	Reggie McNeal	2005	Texas A&M	SMU	24	349	5	0	0.9	5.3	17.8	0.26	305
36	Matt Barkley	2012	USC	Oregon	54	484	5	2	1	6	8.9	2.49	305
37	Sam Bradford	2008	Oklahoma	Texas Tech	19	304	4	0	1.7	4.1	18.4	2.12	303
38	Chase Daniel	2008	Missouri	Nevada	28	405	4	0	0	0	17.3	-0.72	302
39	Zach Collaros	2009	Cincinnati	Connecticut	37	480	1	0	0	0	13.5	0.45	301
40	David Johnson	2008	Tulsa	UTEP	27	434	5	1	0	0	18.1	-1.21	299
41	David Ash	2012	Texas	Mississippi	23	326	4	0	0	0	17.7	1.08	297
42	Luke Getsy	2005	Akron	Northern Illinois	39	406	5	0	0	0	13	0.42	295
43	Sam Bradford	2008	Oklahoma	Kansas	53	468	3	0	0	0	10	1.37	293
44	Brandon Weeden	2010	Oklahoma State	Tulsa	32	409	6	0	0.7	8.9	15.9	-1.32	286
45	Daryll Clark	2008	Penn State	Michigan State	26	341	4	0	0.8	2.5	15.6	0.89	286
46	Nick Foles	2010	Arizona	Oregon	54	448	3	1	1	7	8.3	2.73	286
47	Joe Craddock	2007	Middle Tennessee	Louisiana-Monroe	29	401	4	0	0	0	16.6	-0.92	286
48	Tyler Wilson	2012	Arkansas	Kentucky	31	372	5	0	0	0	15.2	-0.19	286
49	Landry Jones	2011	Oklahoma	Kansas State	47	505	5	2	0	0	11	0.92	285
50	Ryan Mallett	2009	Arkansas	Georgia	39	408	5	0	2	9	12.2	0.54	283

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