Single-Season and Career College Football Records That Could Be Broken in 2016
As long as college football players continue to get bigger, faster and stronger, the records established by their predecessors will keep on getting broken.
Every year, there are a handful of single-season and career records that fall by the wayside at the FBS level, the result of the latest batch of standout college football players topping the efforts of those before them. This past season we saw Stanford's Christian McCaffrey lay waste to Barry Sanders' all-purpose yardage mark, while Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds established new career marks for rushing and total touchdowns. Oh, and Wake Forest's Alex Kinal set a new standard for career punts.
Those were just a few of the records set in 2015, and another batch of benchmarks are likely to be established this fall at both the national and conference levels. We've picked out a few of the ones that are most likely to fall in 2016.
FBS Single-Season Passing Yards: Luke Falk, Washington State
1 of 10
Current record: 5,833 (B.J. Symons, Texas Tech, 2003)
The most shocking thing about Mike Leach's tenure at Washington State hasn't been that he managed to get the Cougars to nine wins last season, or that they're a strong contender to win the Pac-12 North Division this fall. It's that he's yet to produce the individual FBS leader in passing yards since arriving in Pullman, Washington, in 2012.
Back at Texas Tech, where Leach coached from 2000-09, his quarterbacks led the nation in passing five different times, including when B.J. Symons established the FBS single-season record. The closest anyone has come to that mark was in 2007, when Graham Harrell (yes, of Texas Tech) threw for 5,705 yards.
If Luke Falk can stay healthy, he'll have as good a chance as any QB in the country to break the record. WSU has led the nation in passing offense the last two years, with Falk throwing for 4,561 yards and 38 touchdowns in 2015. That came in roughly 11.5 games, as Falk suffered a head injury in the first half of a win over Colorado—in which he'd already thrown for 199 yards—that caused him to miss the next game.
With the possibility of a 14th game, if the Cougars were to play in the Pac-12 championship, Falk would need to average 416.7 yards per game. He topped that number five times last year as a sophomore, and in 2014, he threw for 601 yards in his second career start.
FBS Single-Season All-Purpose Yards: Christian McCaffrey, Stanford
2 of 10
Current record: 3,864 (Christian McCaffrey, Stanford, 2015)
Who better to break a freshly set record than the record holder himself?
McCaffrey's 2015 season was incredible, one in which it seemed like he could do no wrong. He set Stanford's single-season rushing record with 2,019 and was the Cardinal's leading receiver with 45 catches for 645 yards. He also handled the bulk of the punt and kickoff returns, scoring once in each manner, to beat Barry Sanders' 27-year-old record by 614 yards.
Yes, you can debate that McCaffrey had the benefit of getting three more games than Sanders, whose mark was based only on Oklahoma State's 11-game regular season, but there's no denying what McCaffrey did was phenomenal. And it's officially the record, at least for the time being.
The Stanford offense is mostly starting over with the exception of McCaffrey, who could end up taking on even more of the workload this fall if that's even possible. This could result in a push toward 4,000 all-purpose yards if the Cardinal play in the Pac-12 title game again, and if they were to make the College Football Playoff and reach the CFP National Championship, that would give McCaffrey a 15th game to pad his numbers.
FBS Career Punt-Return Touchdowns: Ryan Switzer, North Carolina
3 of 10
Current record: 8 (Wes Welker, Texas Tech, 2000-03; Antonio Perkins, Oklahoma, 2001-04)
Ryan Switzer exploded onto the college football scene in 2013 thanks to a fearless approach to returning punts, resulting in five touchdowns to tie the FBS single-season record. That debut made the likelihood that he'd break the mark for career punt-return TDs about as safe a bet as you could make.
Then Switzer went nearly 21 returns without finding the end zone, unable to break one off as a sophomore and averaging only 4.65 yards per attempt after posting a 20.9 average the season before. He'd become more of a weapon in North Carolina's passing game, with team highs in receptions and yards in 2014, but the skill that first got him noticed had seemingly disappeared.
And then he brought back two more punts for scores last year, pulling him within one of the career mark with one season to go.
"It would be something it would be nice to have," Switzer told 247Sports' Ross Martin. "I am sure we will get it. I am sure the 10 guys I got in front of me want it, too. It will be just about getting the right punt and getting the right look."
Switzer is also in line to be the Tar Heels' career receptions leader, needing 58 to surpass Quinshad Davis' mark of 205 set last season. He's averaged 58 catches the last two years.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
FBS Career Field Goals: Josh Lambert, West Virginia
4 of 10
Current record: 88 (Dustin Hopkins, Florida State, 2009-12)
With 68 career field goals, Josh Lambert is only four away from becoming the Big 12's all-time leader in three-pointers. That record seems like a lock, though he won't be able to pursue it until West Virginia's fourth game of the 2016 season because of an NCAA suspension.
Lambert is set to sit out the Mountaineers' first three games—against Missouri, Youngstown State and BYU—because of a violation of Big 12 eligibility rules. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported in April the suspension was due to the use of a banned substance and was supposed to be for longer, but the school won an appeal.
Set to return for West Virginia's Big 12 opener against Kansas State on Oct. 1, Lambert would need to average 2.1 field goals per game (assuming the Mountaineers make a bowl game) to set the FBS record. That shouldn't be a problem, since he has made at least three field goals in 13 games, including each of his last three appearances.
FBS Career Punting Average: Austin Rehkow, Idaho
5 of 10
Current record: 46.3 (Todd Sauerbrun, West Virginia, 1991-94)
Another year, another national punting record is set to fall. Barring a significant drop-off in his senior year, Austin Rehkow is going to end up in the NCAA annals for all of the work he's done trying to give Idaho great field position.
At 47.24 yards per punt to this point on 169 attempts, Rehkow is well ahead of the all-time pace. With 31 more punts, he'd only need to have a career average of 45.9 to hold that record, and if he were to boot it 81 or more times in 2016, his career rate would need to top 45.2 to be considered the best of all time.
Rehkow is already in the NCAA record books, having set the single-season punting-average mark as a freshman in 2013 when his 75 boots went for an average of 47.83 yards. He also led FBS as a sophomore, averaging 47.75 on 44 kicks, while last year he was seventh nationally at 45.92.
Playing in Idaho's cozy Kibbie Dome hasn't helped Rehkow as much as you'd think. He's averaging 47.63 yards on punts at home compared to 47.0 in 20 road games during his career.
ACC Career Rushing Yards: Dalvin Cook, Florida State
6 of 10
Current record: 4,602 (Ted Brown, North Carolina State, 1975-78)
Even though he missed one game because of injury and was limited to two carries in another, Dalvin Cook had little trouble setting Florida State's single-season rushing record in 2015 when he went for 1,691 yards. In doing so, he also became the first Seminole back to have consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since Warrick Dunn did it in three straight years from 1994-96.
Had Cook played a full 13 games last year, he may have come close to 2,000 yards, which is what he'll need to be the ACC's career rushing leader in just three seasons. He sits at 2,699 to this point.
First up will be the FSU career record, held by Dunn at 3,959. Shortly after, Cook would become the conference's sixth player to top 4,000 yards. If the Seminoles return to the ACC title game after a one-year absence, that will give Cook at least 14 games to amass his yardage.
Mid-American Career Passing Yards: Cooper Rush, Central Michigan
7 of 10
Current record: 12,905 (Dan Lefevour, Central Michigan, 2006-09)
For being a non-power conference, the Mid-American has produced its fair share of NFL quarterbacks. Ben Roethlisberger, Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington were all first-round picks, while the likes of Charlie Batch, Bruce Gradkowski and Gary Hogeboom spent time as starters during their careers.
Cooper Rush may not get drafted or ever play a down in the NFL, but he is on pace to become the MAC's all-time passing leader with another solid year slinging the ball.
Coming off a school-record 3,853 yards in 2015, Rush needs 3,525 yards to pass fellow Chippewa Dan Lefevour for the league mark. Lefevour threw 102 touchdown passes in his career, five fewer than Pennington had for Marshall from 1997-99, while Rush had 67 in three seasons.
Pac-12 Career Receptions: Gabe Marks, Washington State
8 of 10
Current record: 294 (Nelson Spruce, Colorado, 2015)
Earlier we went into detail as to Washington State quarterback Luke Falk's chances of setting the FBS single-season passing record. That would likely require the Cougars to play 14 games, but Gabe Marks shouldn't need such help to become the Pac-12's receiving leader.
The fifth-year senior has 227 catches for his career, coming off a junior campaign in which he caught 104 passes. That's two off the WSU season record, set in 2014 by former teammate Vince Mayle.
Marks, who had 15 touchdown catches last year, had at least five receptions in every game and had four games with at least 10 receptions. Washington State completed 500 passes in 2015, 102 more than any other school in FBS.
The Pac-12 career receiving yardage record is also a possibility for Marks, who has 2,559 and would need 1,328 to top ex-Stanford wideout Troy Walters' mark of 3,986 from 1996-99. While Marks catches a lot of balls, he is mostly a possession receiver, averaging 11.46 yards per catch in 2015 and 11.27 for his career.
LSU Career Rushing Yards: Leonard Fournette
9 of 10
Current record: 4,557 (Kevin Faulk, 1995-98)
Before he ever played a down of college football, the expectations placed on Leonard Fournette's sizable shoulders were immense. Among the expectations was that he'd end up all over LSU's record book by the time his career was over, and that's proving to be quite accurate.
Already the Tigers' record holder for rushing yards in a season (1,953) and by a freshman (1,034), Fournette now has his sights set on LSU's career mark on the ground. Another 1,571 yards will get him there, something he could accomplish before the calendar turns to November if he dominates as he did in 2015.
Fournette had 1,252 yards at the end of October last season, but that was in only seven games because of LSU's first game being canceled by weather. The Tigers play eight games in the first two months this fall, including against an Auburn team against which he gained 228 yards on 19 carries last season.
The SEC record (5,259 by Georgia's Herschel Walker from 1980-82) would be in reach for Fournette if he were to return for his senior year, but that doesn't seem likely, since Bleacher Report NFL draft expert Matt Miller projects him as the No. 6 pick in the 2017 draft.
Miami (Florida) Career Passing Yards: Brad Kaaya
10 of 10
Current record: 9,565 (Ken Dorsey, 1999-2002)
Miami has produced two Heisman-winning quarterbacks and had four others lead national championship teams. Yet the Hurricanes are one of a handful of notable programs that have never had someone throw for 10,000 yards in his career.
Brad Kaaya might change that before the 2016 season is over but at the very least should become Miami's career passing leader with a third consecutive 3,000-yard season. The junior needs 3,130 yards to pass Dorsey, the only Hurricanes quarterback to top the 9,000-yard mark.
A starter since the beginning of his true freshman year, Kaaya now has the benefit of working with a quarterback guru in new coach Mark Richt. During his time at Georgia, Richt oversaw the development of two quarterbacks who threw for at least 11,000 yards, including SEC career passing leader Aaron Murray, along with No. 1 draft pick Matthew Stafford.
All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports, unless otherwise noted. All statistics provided by CFBStats, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
