Houston QB joins distinguished club

Houston Cougars’ quarterback Clayton Tune is now only one of only 132 players in NCAA Division I FBS history to pass for over 10,000 yards in his college career.

Fifth-year senior Tune (seen above in 2021) joins other Cougar quarterbacks Case Keenum and Kevin Kolb as the only Cougar quarterbacks to do this. Not even Houston great and Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware is on this list.

Tune has thrown for over 1,800 yards, 17 touchdowns, and only 4 interceptions on the season. Keenum was the Houston quarterback from 2007 until 2011, while Kolb played there from 2003-2006.

Tune reached this milestone in the Cougars’ 42-27 home victory over the South Florida Bulls Saturday. Here’s how he did it:

On the day, Tune completed 31 of 37 passes (83.8 percent) for 380 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He entered the day with 9,748 passing yards, so he’s now at 10,128. That puts him at 132nd on that all-time D1 FBS yardage list, but he has plenty of games left to still move up further.

During his time as the Cougars’ QB, Keenum ended up throwing for 19,217 yards and 155 touchdowns. He is also No. 1 on the all-time D1 FBS yardage list. Current Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang, who played for the Rainbow Warriors from 2000-04, is second all-time with 17,072 passing yards.

Tune now has his name in the record books with some distinguished quarterbacks. It’s rare these days that any quarterback throws for that many yards in their career, but Houston has always had a high-flying offense. That goes back to the days of Andre Ware and coaches like Kevin Sumlin, who was Keenum’s head coach.

And now under head coach Dana Holgerson, that tradition continues. Holgerson garnered the reputation of being an offensive genius when he was the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers from 2011-18. And in his since-2019 stint with Houston, he has Tune and the Cougars’ offense clicking along nicely.

[Photo from Thomas Shea/USA Today Sports]