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When I noticed that Colt was moving into elite company with his 30th win, I became curious about College Football’s QB’s with the most wins. There’s no established source for this that I’m aware of. The NCAA tried a brief experiment with including winningest QB’s in their record book a few years back, but didn’t get participation from all of the member schools and dropped it.
I put together this list with the help of the interweb, so I will not vouch for its accuracy (you’re saying Wikipedia is NOT a citable source, professor?).
I began with the names of 166 QB’s who shone in some way–they’re in the NCAA record-book for career total offense, or passing, or they were in the college football hall of fame and their name looked familiar, something not true of many of the 121 QB’s in the CFHOF: Harry “the Golden Greek” Agganis had previously escaped my notice, as had Angelo “Springfield Rifle” Bertelli, among others.
For obvious reasons, this group is logically heavily weighted towards modern era QB’s:
1) Fewer games–Texas averaged about 8 per year from 1893-1917, 9 until 1939, 10 until 56, 11 until 74, 12 until 95, and this year we could hit 14.
2) There were fewer bowl games
3) Freshmen couldn’t play varsity for some time until around 1970
4) Conference championship games are relatively new
Still, I put together what I could and would love to hear suggestions for missing names or help determining others. If the win totals are off at all, it’s more likely they’re too high than too low, as I sometimes just had to assume a player started all the games in a given season.
Wins Player Years Team
42 David Greene 2001-04 Georgia
39 Peyton Manning 1994-97 Tennessee
38 Ken Dorsey 1999-02 Miami (Fla)
37 Dan Marino 1979-82 Pittsburgh
37 Matt Leinart 2002-05 Southern California
37 Ty Detmer 1988-91 BYU
36 John Rauch 1945-48 Georgia
35 Chad Pennington 1997-99 Marshall
35 Chris Leak 2003-06 Florida
35 Chuck Ealey 1969-71 Toledo
35 Chuck Long 1982-85 Iowa
35 Donovan McNabb 1995-98 Syracuse
35 Eric Crouch 1998-01 Nebraska
35 Jay Barker 1991-94 Alabama
34 Casey Clausen 2000-03 Tennessee
34 Lance McIlhenny 1980-83 Southern Methodist
34 Philip Rivers 2000-03 North Carolina St
33 Chad Henne 2004-07 Michigan
33 Corey Pullig 1992-95 Texas A&M
33 Mark Herrmann 1977-80 Purdue
33 Tommie Frazier 1992-95 Nebraska
32 Chris Weinke 1997-00 Florida St
32 Danny White 1971-73 Arizona State
32 Danny Wuerffel 1993-96 Florida
32 Paul Pinegar 2002-05 Fresno St
32 Rodney Williams 1985-88 Clemson
32 Steve Davis 1973-75 Oklahoma
31 *Patrick White 2005-08 West Virginia
31 Timmy Chang 2000-04 Hawaii
30 *Colt McCoy 2006-08 Texas
30 Brooks Bollinger 2000-03 Wisconsin
30 Cade McNown 1995-98 UCLA
30 Doug Flutie 1981-84 Boston College
30 Jamelle Holieway 1985-88 Oklahoma
30 Vince Young 2003-05 Texas
Just to give you some names I already checked:
29 Sammy Baugh
28 Turner Gill
27 Jason White, Kordell Stewart
25 Brad Smith, Matt Ryan, Troy Smith
24 Drew Brees, Eli Manning, Ell Roberson, Robbie Bosco
23 Charlie Ward, Steve Spurrier, Troy Aikman
22 Archie Manning, Bob Griese, Jim Kelly, Jim Plunkett, Kerry Collins, Tee Martin
20 Fran Tarkenton, James Street, Joe Theismann
19 Terry Bradshaw, Andre Ware, Vinny Testaverde
18 Joe Montana
15 Davey O’Brien, John Elway
14 Roger Staubach
10 Paul Hornung
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dick commented on the blog post Early NCAA Tournament Bets 2 minutes ago
I’ll post all of my first day games tonight.
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Louisville has a great chance if Jerry Smith is healthy.
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Kevin Berger commented on the blog post Final Four Prediction 4 hours, 7 minutes ago
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ghostofagroundgame commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 4 hours, 32 minutes ago
I just took Baylor going to the Elite 8. It’s a crazy mixed up world we live in.
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Art Vandelay commented on the blog post Final Four Prediction 4 hours, 35 minutes ago
By “we” I meant the Horns. Kevin, why should I take Siena over A&M?
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Kevin Berger commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 4 hours, 49 minutes ago
colorado ag, Utah State is as athletic as Nebraska. You’ll be fine as long as they don’t go 16 for 31 from three.
Siena, on the other hand, is going to beat you like you stole something. Maybe not, but the Saints should win.
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Kevin Berger commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 4 hours, 52 minutes ago
Great article Scipio. Also, thanks for the dime.
Looking at the Tournament futures market, Vegas is telling us what they think about Onuaku’s health. The Orangemen have the easiest region and road to the fianl four, yet they’re +700 to win it all, while UK and Kansas, teams with much tougher roads, are +250
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Art Vandelay commented on the blog post Final Four Prediction 4 hours, 57 minutes ago
My brackets are pretty much locked down except the South. Can’t get myself to take Baylor, and Duke doesn’t feel right. Nobody seems to be high on Nova. It’s all about the Big East and Big 12 this year.
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James commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 5 hours, 8 minutes ago
Scip, like a peaceful Indian in the 1800’s, I never trust a Mormon that can shoot. Utah State has me worried.
If we escape the first weekend, things get very interesting with a potential Sweet 16 match-up with Duke. Ugly up the game and guard like hell on the perimeter in front of a
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Scipio Tex commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 5 hours, 37 minutes ago
CJD -
Possibly. However, I’m telling you – the beauty of these intergame lines is that when you see that all-too-familiar big early game lead that you know will evaporate down the stretch as soon as the team starts regressing to their 3 point shooting mean, there’s some money to be made.
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Scipio Tex commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 5 hours, 39 minutes ago
uthookem-
I’d say you have your priorities straight.
colorado -
Anytime. How far do you think the Aggies go? A lot of people think Utah State is the most dangerous pure shooting team in the tournament.
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uthookem commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 5 hours, 50 minutes ago
Last year in Vegas, Friday morning, stumble to the line at 8:30 to make my bets, put $20 on a four-team parlay on the four 9:00 am games, nailed it! Three of the four games’ spread was determined in the final 0:30. Walked away with $220.
Yeah, so what if that is the only
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James commented on the blog post Sending Aggies to the NFL 5 hours, 51 minutes ago
Jordan, all just wild, premature conjecture. I’d hedge that only a third of that 2013 list ever makes an NFL roster. It is picking which third that is the tough part.
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James commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 5 hours, 53 minutes ago
Very interesting piece. These games can’t start soon enough. Thanks, Scip.
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Scipio Tex commented on the blog post Final Four Prediction 6 hours, 4 minutes ago
I have:
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Awesome write up.
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Scipio Tex wrote a new blog post: Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips 6 hours, 21 minutes ago
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Bob Jones commented on the blog post Math… Everyone’s favorite subject 7 hours, 12 minutes ago
As a Baylor fan I loathe math: it’s either inexorably against us or when favorable, completely inapplicable.
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Should have that up soon, ts.
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Atleast I was wearing flannel when I wrote it.
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admin commented on the blog post Math… Everyone’s favorite subject 8 hours, 38 minutes ago
Same source or just similar facts: http://fantake.com/forums/topic.php?id=876#post-5197
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“in the history of baylor basketball this has never been in discussion”
except for that pesky final four appearance we made…
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TXinDC said:
November 20th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Does the asterisk denote that he’s the only active QB with at least 30 wins? That’s pretty damn impressive.
Spawn of Cthulhu said:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
He could finish next year at the top. Would be a very hard record to break.
BrickHorn said:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
You left Major Applewhite off of your list. He started nearly infinity games at Texas, and won ‘em all.
MU_LAX said:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
29 wins for Chase Daniel at Mizzou in less than 3 years.
Mike Leach said:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
You forgot Graham Harrell at 26 with potentially 4 more wins on his record this year. If he would have played his freshman year, he would have come close to being #1.
Huckleberry said:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
If my aunt had balls…
Chuck Ealey is the man. 35-0.
TXinDC said:
November 20th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
The thing I find most impressive of this list is how many of these guys went on to the next level and still maintained success.
HenryJames said:
November 20th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Vince’s senior season is the elephant in the room.
dick said:
November 20th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
obviously, this list favors those good enough to play as freshman
srr50 said:
November 20th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I will celebrate with a fine bottle of wine the day he passes Chuck Long on that list.
HenryJames said:
November 20th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
If David Greene started four years at Austin High, how many games would he have won?
jimjar said:
November 20th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Great list !! One to add – Joe Namath. 29 wins in 3 seasons. He was suspended 2 games for breaking curfew.
98horn said:
November 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Fun fact: Corey Pullig is a JAG officer in the Marine Corps now. Real stand up guy.
dedfischer said:
November 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I hope he’s not throwing them right into the arms of the terrorist now days.
www said:
November 20th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
baaazziiing dedfischer!
Bob in Houston said:
November 20th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
“Chuck Ealey is the man. 35-0.”
Go Rockets!!
Callkevin said:
November 20th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
TXinDC, The asterisk does denote active. Both Harrell and Daniel have a chance to join the 30-win club this season, but White, Harrell, and Daniel will all be gone next year.
Spawn, if Colt manages two more wins this season, I’d be downright disappointed if he didn’t break the record next year. I think, off the top of my head, Greene had 10 losses.
HJ, I’m sure several guys could have had senior seasons and finished well over 30. The key is, they chose not to, for whatever reason, so will some, like Vince, will go down among the winningest (percentage-wise) college QB’s of all time, they won’t have the most wins.
jimjar, I think I didn’t bother to look up any Alabama QB’s once I saw that Barker had the most wins, because when I began the list I was curious who was between 35-42. Thank you for Namath–I’ll have to add him and Stabler to my larger list.
Huck & Bob, Ealey stands alone. 18-0 as a high school QB, 35-0 as a collegiate QB including 3 straight bowl wins, but he went undrafted and is not in the CFHOF because of an annoying rule regarding All-American status.
It’s not like his Toledo team was loaded, either, as between the 1970-72 drafts only 7 Toledo players got picked, none before the 4th round (4 before the 11th).
AustinYankee said:
November 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I’m no statistic-ologist, but that’s a lot of four and five letter C names:
Chad, Chris, Chuck, Casey, Chad, Corey, Cade
Looks like Colt fits well.
Huckleberry said:
November 20th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Kevin,
How many games did Monte Christo win in 1998 before Eric Crouch took over?
Callkevin said:
November 20th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Huck, Newcombe was the starter when 1998 started. He left after the first game (injury) and Crouch took over for two games, then Newcombe for five, then Christo started against Texas but was pulled for Crouch in the 2nd quarter.
In 1999, Newcombe started the first two games.
It says in Wikopedia that by “mid-November [2001], Crouch had set a school record for most career wins as a starter and became only the ninth quarterback in D-1A history to have won 35 games as a starter. ”
If that 35 stat is true, I might actually have all the 35+ QB’s.
glf69 said:
November 21st, 2008 at 6:56 am
What about those University of Houston QBs
CallKevin said:
November 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
glf69, Kolb had 26, Andre Ware 19, and David Klingler 14. Did you have another in mind?
bighornfan32 said:
November 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Think back to August 2006 and see if you thought Colt would end up having the most wins for a college QB ever
tummer said:
November 21st, 2008 at 10:47 am
John Rauch really held onto the record a long time (34 years until Dan Marino). But how did he win 36 games in the 40’s? I thought freshmen couldn’t play?
CallKevin said:
November 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am
I could certainly be missing people, tummer. This is a very incomplete list.
Wikopedia says he started as a true freshman. I assume Freshman rules started after that.
CloseToJumping said:
November 21st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Freshmen could play for some time, and then they couldn’t, and then they could again.
Great post, Kevin. I enjoyed reading it and I now will have more fun watching UT’s victories as McCoy climbs. It will also irritate Huckleberry and his hatred for the “Win” stat, which is amusing as well.
Scipio Tex said:
November 21st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
CTJ:
You’re just excited to see any list with Ken Dorsey near the top besides “Famous Rag-armed Pussies” for 1,000, Alex.
CloseToJumping said:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Ken Dorsey was not only a better college QB than Chris Simms, but he also looked a lot like Jeff Dyer. I mean, the spitting image.
Huckleberry said:
November 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
The fact that Jay Barker, Casey Clausen, and Corey Pullig are in the Top 20 of a best quarterbacks list in the stat should show you how dumb it is, of course. But I appreciate the needling.
And Ohio State appreciates Dorsey’s ultimate choke job in Tempe.
CallKevin said:
November 21st, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Jay Barker won a national championship and his Alabama teams went 35-2-1. That doesn’t suck. He’s also married to Sara Evans, who was Born to Fly.
Pullig started 40 consecutive games for A&M, going 33-6-1. He’s a Marine JAG now
Casey Clausen went 34-10. I got nothing.
While I certainly don’t think wins by a starting QB is a way to measure talent or “greatness,” it is an interesting indicator of longevity and most of the guys on the list were quality D-1A QB’s who were part of at least one great squad.
I’m going to look up another 50 or so QB’s next week to see who gets added. I’m guessing some of Heath Shuler, Jason Campbell, Jim Harbaugh, Richard Todd, Rick Mirer, & Todd Blackledge will qualify.
CallKevin said:
November 26th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Although I doubt anyone else will see this, here are a few more of note:
36 Art Schlichter
33 Jeff Rutledge
*32 Pat White (moving up)
31 Jason Campbell
31 Todd Blackledge
A few more below 30 worth mention:
*29 Chase Daniel (joining Brady Quinn, Rick Mirer, Sammy Baugh, and Steve Taylor)
28 Brett Favre, Byron Leftwich, Darian Hagan, Jim McMahon, Kenny Stabler
*27 Graham Harrell (joining Ben Roethlisberger, Bill Montgomery, Carson Palmer, Jason White)
26 Chris Simms, Gino Toretta, Johnny Lujack, Marty Akins, Pat Sullivan, Pat Trammell
25 James Brown, Joey Harrington, Kevin Murray, Peter Gardere
23 Steve Young, Y.A. Tittle
desmond hawkins said:
June 30th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
just curious in the middle of a debate where does joe namath fall?
Mark said:
December 5th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Rick Leach started 4 years for U Michigan (75-78) and won 37 or 38 games