Mahomes' Historic Night

            Patrick Mahomes did a lot on Saturday night in Lubbock, Texas against Oklahoma. He did a lot of things that nobody has ever done before in college football and he did a lot of things that very few people have done before. Mahomes amassed a whopping 819 total yards, with 734 of those being passing yards and the remaining 85 coming on the ground. That set the FBS record, per ESPN Stats and Info, previously held by Washington State’s Connor Halliday with 751 (734 of them were passing, coincidentally). Let’s use College Football Reference’s database to take a look at some of the ridiculous things Mahomes did tonight and where those accomplishments stack up in the history of college football. Keep in mind the database only goes back to the year 2000, though some of these numbers are so absurd that they probably stand alone all-time.

•  As mentioned, his 819 total yards are the most ever in a game by an FBS player. His 734 passing yards tied Halliday for the most passing yards in an FBS game since 2000. He and Halliday are the only players since 2000 to even eclipse 700 passing yards.

• He became the third player since 2000 to have over 80 pass attempts, joining Halliday and Eastern Michigan’s Andy Schmitt. His 88 fall one short of Halliday’s 89, which are the most. Only 33 have had more than 70 pass attempts. He became the 12^th player to complete 50 passes, tying Fresno State’s Derek Carr for 7^th-most. His 59.1% completion percentage is the lowest of those players by a good margin (2^nd was 65.2% by Halliday in his 89-attempt game).

• His 12 rushing attempts were the most by a player with 80 pass attempts, though that number falls to 4^th if we lower the threshold to 70 pass attempts. Racking up 85 yards puts him well ahead of the pack in terms of output, however, as nobody else who attempted 70 passes ran for even 50 yards. The previous high was 46 yards on 16 carries by Arizona’s Anu Solomon in a 73-pass-attempt game.

• With 88 pass attempts and 12 rush attempts, Mahomes had the most total touches of any player in the database. The next closest to his 100 came from Northwestern’s Mike Kafka, who had 98 (78 pass, 20 rush). Kafka totaled 562 total yards in that game. Of anyone with more than 80 touches, his 8.19 yards per touch come in well ahead of the next closest, 7.24 by Rice’s Chase Clement (601 total yards on 83 touches).

• Mahomes accounted for 95.9% of Texas Tech’s offense on the night, or 819 out of 854 yards. On the 10 other teams to pile up 800 total yards, the next highest percentage of a team’s total is Halliday’s 751-yard night making up 92.5% of the team’s total. Next after that? Geno Smith getting 687 total yards of his team’s 807 for 85.1%. (Fun side note here: Toledo is the only team to have two 800 yard games and Idaho is the only team to allow two. Both Nevada and West Virginia have gained and allowed 800 yards in separate games, once each for both teams.)

Superlatives fall short of what Mahomes managed on the Sooners’ defense. He was a one-man show, and a spectacular one at that. All of those things, though, come without any mention of the fact that Oklahoma put up 854 yards of their own and won the game. There are no other games in College Football Reference’s database with both teams racking up 800+ yards. While Mahomes did some unprecedented things, the Sooners surely had some of their own to boast. But that’s a story for another time.