Should a man be judge by what he might or might not able to do or should he be judged by what he did do? Should it matter against whom he did it or should it only matter that he did it?
Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Trent Richardson, Justin Blackmon, and Tyrann Mathieu. Those are the names that dominated the college football landscape this season. Most, if not all, of these players will go on to great NFL careers. However, there is something to be said for the student-athlete who chooses to stay 4 years and in the process gives his school 4 years of consistent reliable productivity. They deserve recognition for their achievements even if they don’t go on to great NFL careers. Here is a look at some record setting players without regard to their NFL potential.
All conversations involving NCAA football records this year have to start with Case Keenum. Even though his Houston Cougars lost their first game of the season and their BCS hopes Keenum became the only player in NCAA history to pass for more than 5,000 yards in a season 3 times. He has already broke the career passing yards and TDs records by throwing for more than 18,600 yds and tossing 152 TDs. He has one final game to add to those totals. Also putting up some really impressive passing marks is Boise State’s Kellen Moore. Moore has amassed more than 14,300 passing yds, 140 TD passes and has 49 career wins, most ever by a quarterback. Russell Wilson also moved into 8th place all time with 107 career passing TDs by throwing 3 in Wisconsin’s win over Michigan State in the inaugural Big Ten championship game.
Montee Ball has scored 32 times on the ground this season adding 6 receiving TDs giving him a season total of 38, one shy of Barry 
Sanders record with the Rose Bowl still to play. Two things we need to note here, one is Ball has not played in the 4th quarter of 6 of Wisconsin’s 13 games this year. The other is that Barry Sanders Bowl game stats are not included in his total of 39 total TDs. Sanders scored 5 rushing TDs giving him a 13 game (12 regular season and 1 bowl game) total of 44. This is not an attempt to minimize what Montee Ball has accomplished, I’m simply pointing out a fact that most people don’t realize that in 1988 (the year Sanders set the bar for rushing) bowl game statistics were not counted in a players statistical totals. Ball’s season is easily among the best single season rushing seasons in the history of college football.
Collin Klein who runs the offense at K-State has scored 26 times on the ground this season, one TD shy of Ricky Dobbs record by a QB of 26 set in 2009. Klein will face the #8 Arkansas Razorbacks who have struggled against mobile quarterbacks so Klein looks as though he may tie or even set a new scoring mark. The virtually unknown Bernard Pierce, a running back for the Temple Owls, has scored 25 times this season which puts him in the top 10 all time in rushing TDs in a season and he looks to increase that total when his Owls take on the Cowboys of Wyoming in the Gildon New Mexico Bowl on December 17th.
Although OU’s top receiver Ryan Broyles missed the last part of his senior season he has left a permanent mark on college football. He has made 349 career receptions during his 4 years in Norman giving him a comfortable lead over the second most of 316 (Taylor Stubblefield, Purdue, 01-04). His 4,586 receiving yards ranks 2nd only to Trevor Insley’s 5,005 (Nevada, 96-99), and his 45 career TD receptions gives him the 4th most in the history of college football.
Broyles isn’t the only receiver capping off a record setting season. Tyron Carrier of Houston has set the school record and ranks 3rd all-time in NCAA history with 311 career receptions, just 5 from tying and 6 from putting him in 2nd place all time with one final game game against Penn State in the TicketCity Bowl on January 2nd. Kendall Wright has hauled in 295 receptions over his 4 years at Baylor easily giving him the school record and placing him in the top 10 all time and will most likely be adding to his total on December 29th when he takes the field with Heisman winner Robert Griffin III in the Alamo Bowl.
There is a tackling machine in college football but because he doesn’t play in the SEC and his team was never in the national title hunt he seems to be playing in anonymity. Let me introduce you to Luke Kuechly, a linebacker who controls the middle of the defense for Boston College. Sure he’s on several All-America lists but can you honestly say when you read his name that you thought, “Good choice, he really deserves that.” Or was it more like, “Who is that?” This year he registered 191 total tackles giving him a 3 year career total of 532 total tackles in just 38 games, that’s an average of exactly 14 total tackles per game. The NCAA record for career total tackles is 545 by 4 year starter Tim McGarigle (Northwestern, 02-05). Kuechly will easily set a new NCAA record assuming he stays and remains healthy for his senior season.
One could argue that some of these records were set against great competition and some against not so great but at the end of the day a record is a record. Each individual mentioned lined up with the same intentions as everyone else who played on those fall Saturdays, to beat the man lined up against them. These men did so more often and with greater success than just about anyone else who has ever doned a college football uniform.
