Career Pass Completion Percentage, Current Record: 71.8% (Shedeur Sanders)
Shedeur Sanders spent two seasons with the Colorado Buffaloes, etching his name into the college football history books by completing 71.8% of his pass attempts. In doing so, he joined an elite and exclusive trio of passers to have completed more than 70% of their career pass attempts.
Colt Brennan (Hawaii Rainbow Warriors) ended his college career in 2007, having completed 70.4% of his passes, while Colt McCoy (Texas Longhorns) hung up his collegiate cleats in 2009 with a 70.3% completion rate.
Two players taking to the field in the 2025 college football campaign have the potential to surpass Sanders in the sport’s history book.
Carson Beck transferred from the Georgia Bulldogs to the Miami Hurricanes this offseason, having completed 68% of his pass attempts for the program. Beck would need to increase his career completion percentage by 3.9%, but that isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.
In 2022, Beck completed 74.3% of just 35 attempts as the understudy to Stetson Bennett. However, in 2023, he completed 72.4% of a much larger workload (417 pass attempts). Subsequently, he would need to complete between 76 and 81% of his passes to surpass Sanders, depending on his workload.
If he were to match his predecessor Cam Ward’s pass attempts from 2024, for example, Beck would need to complete 79.8% of his attempts. The current single-season record is 77.4% by Bo Nix in 2023.
Former Fresno State quarterback Mikey Keene transfers to the Michigan Wolverines for the 2025 college football season, completing 67.8% of his pass attempts during his four-year career. Keene has averaged 316 pass attempts per season (when playing 10 or more games) and is the presumptive starter for a Michigan offense that only threw 308 total times in 2024.
If you assume the middle ground (312) as a potential number of attempts in 2025, Keene would have to complete 87.2% of his attempts to surpass Sanders in the college football record books.
Career Total Tackles, Current Record: 577 (Carlton Martial)
Carlton Martial left his mark on the college football record book (and a lot of opponents) when his Troy Trojans career came to an end in 2022 with 577 total tackles. He averaged 115.4 tackles per season across five years and tallied more than 100 tackles in four different campaigns.
His final season saw the Trojan standout log 135 total tackles, which overtook then-tackle-leader Luke Kuechly (Boston College Eagles), who still holds two of the top-three single-season marks for total tackles (191 in 2011, 183 in 2010).
Sandwiched in between Kuechly for single-season total tackles is Old Dominion Monarchs legend, Jason Henderson whose 186 tackles in 2022 help contribute to a career total of 439 total tackles heading into the 2025 college football campaign. He could have broken the record last fall, but only played in one game after suffering a season-ending injury.
As such, he returns to the sport needing just 139 tackles to etch his name into the college football record book.
How likely is Henderson to surpass that mark? Well, he tallied 186 tackles in 2022 and 170 tackles in 2023, so he’s proven he’s more than capable of hitting triple-digit tackles with regularity. Assuming he plays a full 12-game regular season, he’d need to average 11.6 tackles per game to break Martial’s current marker.
The tough-tackling Old Dominion linebacker has ploughed through that mark in 56.8% of his career games. Furthermore, 139 tackles wouldn’t even be a Top-100 single-season mark in college football history. So, it’s arguably one of the most achievable records on this list.
Career Sacks, Current Record: 45 (Jaylon Ferguson)
Career sacks is an interesting record in the college football annals, given that the defensive metric has only been measured since 2005. Nonetheless, Jaylon Ferguson boasts a 45-sack mark that has been untouched since his college career ended in 2018.
The Louisiana Tech Bulldog had a 14.5-sack season in 2016 while his 17.5-sack tally led the nation in his final collegiate campaign. He never produced fewer than six sacks in a single season and also registered double-digit tackles for loss in all four playing seasons.
Nobody since has come close to matching his record, although Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. (34.5 sacks), Iowa State’s Will McDonald, and Troy’s Javon Solomon (both 33 sacks) are the most recent contenders. However, there is the potential for the record to come under pressure from former UTSA Roadrunner turned Texas Longhorn, Trey Moore.
Moore enters the 2025 campaign with a career total of 27.5 sacks, which would require him to have a career-high 18 sacks in his second season in Austin. That’s quite the uptick in production for a player who only tallied 5.5 sacks in his debut in the SEC.
Meanwhile, no Texas player has logged double-digit sacks in a season since Jackson Jeffcoat (13 sacks) and Cedric Reed (10 sacks) both hit the mark in 2013. An 18-sack season would also be the fourth-most since records began in 2005.
While it’s no small feat and one of the less likely records on this list to be broken, it’s worth noting that Moore is just a year removed from leading the AAC with 14 sacks and 18 tackles for loss in 2023.
With offensive coordinators more aware of the pass rush prowess of second-year Longhorn Colin Simmons, the need to prevent the sophomore sensation could open up some pass rush opportunities for Moore in 2025.
Career Forced Fumbles, Current Record: 16 (Khalil Mack)
Khalil Mack was a juggernaut for the Buffalo Bulls between 2010 and 2013 (and subsequently in the NFL), and no one since has come close to sniffing his record 16 forced fumbles.
The 2013 MAC Defensive Player of the Year had multiple forced fumbles in all four playing years, thrice leading the MAC in the measure, and twice logging five fumbles in a single season. He registered a forced fumble in 25% of his games for the Bulls while also setting the college football record for career tackles for loss (75).
Remarkably, it’s another Buffalo product who has the chance to break the career forced fumbles record in 2025. As he enters his fourth college football season, Khalil “Red” Murdock already sits tied-13th for career forced fumbles (11).
His seven bouts of ball disruption in a single season (2024) rank fifth in the FBS since 2005, surpassing Mack’s career-high of five, while he also tallied four in 2023 – his first full season of action. Murdock has tallied a forced fumble in 30% of his games, a higher hit rate than Mack.
Career Field Goal Percentage, Current Record: 90% (Brett Baer)
That’s right, kickers can be record breakers too, and there are two college football kicking records that can be surpassed in 2025. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns legend Brett Baer is the current record holder, having completed 90% of his 50 field goal attempts across three seasons of action in the Sun Belt.
He nailed 100% of his kicks in 2010, led the nation with 90% completion in 2011, and led the Sun Belt in made field goals (20), percentage (87%), and points scored (113) during his final campaign.
Several kickers have come exceedingly close to unseating Baer, most notably Wake Forest Demon Deacons standout Nick Sciba (89.8%), but Dominic Zvada enters the 2025 college football campaign with the Michigan Wolverines with a legitimate shot of taking the crown.
Across his three-year career (two at Arkansas State, one at Michigan), Zvada has completed 88.7% of his 62 field goal attempts. He’s missed just seven field goals (and two extra points) in his career.
Remarkably, five of his misses came in 2023, with a 77.3% completion that season that drags down his career average substantially. In 2022, he nailed 94.4% of his attempts and last fall he led the Big Ten with 95.5% of his field goal attempts going between the uprights.
Zvada needs to improve his completion percentage by 1.4% to break Baer’s existing record. The percentage required in 2025 varies based on the number of attempts he actually makes. However, using 22 attempts as a baseline (he tallied 22 attempts in both 2023 and 2024), the Michigan phenom would need to complete 90.41% of his kicks to etch his name into college football history.
Career Field Goals Made, Current Record: 97 (Christopher Dunn)
Forget percentages for a second; who has boomed the most field goals of all time? Well, NC State Wolfpack wonder Christopher Dunn crept past Arizona State Sun Devils kicker Zane Gonzalez in 2022 to set the record for most field goals in a career with 97.
He survived a 2024 onslaught from Boise State’s Jonah Dalmas, and in 2023, Harrison Mevis (Missouri Tigers) came up eight completions short of tying the record. In 2025, the challenge comes from Bert Auburn, who transfers from Texas to the Miami Hurricanes.
Like a 60-yarder from dahn tahn, Auburn seems like a long shot to surpass Dunn atop the college football record book. With 66 field goals in his career so far, he would need 32 completions to write his name among the greats.
Given the single-season record is 31 and has stood since Billy Bennett booted his way to greatness for the Georgia Bulldogs, it seems extremely unlikely that we’ll see a new standard set for kicking this fall.
However, Auburn already has the sixth-best single-season in college field goal kicking history, nailing 29 completions in 2023. He’s no stranger to a high-volume campaign, attempting 35 kicks that season while averaging 28.7 attempts across his three playing seasons for the Longhorns.
Although his new team only attempted 19 field goals in 2024, with Carson Beck at the helm, there could be a different outlook offensively (Georgia attempted over 20 field goals in the last two seasons with Beck as their QB).
Career Punt Average, Current Record: 47.8 (Ryan Stonehouse)
While former San Diego State Aztecs punter Matt Araiza averaged 51.1 yards per punt during two seasons, he falls short of a minimum 125 punts set as a standard by sportsreference.com. Subsequently, it’s another punter who finished his career in 2021 who is currently seen as the standard bearer for college football career punt average, Colorado State’s Ryan Stonehouse.
After averaging 47.8 yards per punt between 2017 and 2021. He’s one of just three punters (Ryan Rehkow, BYU and Michael Turk, Oklahoma) to surpass a 47-yard average while attempting over 125 punts.
KEEP READING: Projecting All 136 Starting College Football QBs
Could James Ferguson-Reynolds join that elite trio or even surpass Stonehouse himself during the 2025 season? The former Boise State punter had a career-low 43 punts in 2024 and heads to the Oregon Ducks for his final season of eligibility with a 45.0 punt average across three years.
While the Australian boasts an incredible leg, it would take an average of 56.4 yards per punt (based on Ferguson-Reynolds’ average 54 attempts per season) or 58.1 yards per punt based on Oregon’s 46 punts last year, setting a new single-season record (currently by Araiza, 51.2 yards per punt) in the process.
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college football, men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, and college baseball!
