ORLANDO, Fla. – Cam Ward made NCAA history in his final college game.

The Miami Hurricanes quarterback threw the record-tying 156th touchdown pass of his college career on Saturday, connecting with Jacolby George on a 4-yard score with 4:12 left in the first quarter of the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

That’s the Division I – FBS and FCS record – one more than Houston’s Case Keenum set from 2007 to 2011.

Ward may not hold the record for long. Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel – whose team could play as many as three games in the College Football Playoff – has 153 touchdown passes in his career so far, six seasons at UCF, Oklahoma and now Oregon.

Either way, Ward is confident he’ll graduate college with one of the best careers for a quarterback at any level.

He passed for 17,999 yards Saturday – 6,908 at Incarnate Word, 6,968 at Washington State and 4,123 at Miami – the third-most in NCAA history, trailing only Keenum (19,217) and Gabriel (18,423).

And when it’s all done, Ward will be on the touchdown list for a while, too.

The NCAA all-division record is 162 touchdown passes by John Matocha of Division II Colorado School of Mines from 2019 to 2023.

Division II Shepherd’s Tyson Bagent threw 159 touchdowns from 2018-2022. Braxton Plunk of Division III Mount Union threw 158 touchdowns from 2019 to 2023; North Central’s Luke Lehnen, whose team will play in the Division III national championship game next month, also has 158 in his career.

After them, Division III’s Alex Tanney of Monmouth ranks fifth with 157 touchdown passes from 2007 to 2011, and Ward’s first touchdown Saturday moved him alone into sixth place on the NCAA list.

Ward rewrote Miami’s record book in 2024, his only season with the Hurricanes. He will leave Miami as the season leader in yards, completions and touchdown passes. As of Saturday, he was on track to leave the Hurricanes as the leader in completion percentage for a season (65.8%, set in 2023 by Tyler Van Dyke) and for a career (64.3% by D’Eriq King). in 2020 and 2021). .