Colorado football: Top 10 passing leaders in Buffaloes history
By Josh Yourish
Coach Prime has brought a dynamic passing offense to Boulder with Shedeur Sanders, but this isn’t the first time that the Colorado Buffaloes have put up big numbers through the air. Even for a program known for the triple-option, Colorado has a few quarterbacks with gaudy career numbers.
You can find the entire list of all-time passers HERE, but we’ll take a journey through the top 10 in school history and remember their impact on the Colorado program.
Amazingly, Darian Hagan, who led the Buffaloes to a national championship, isn’t on this list, because his game was on the ground. Hagan is No. 11 all-time right behind Steve Vogel.
Colorado football career passing leader No. 10: Steve Vogel (1981-84)
- 3,912 passing yards
- 27 passing touchdowns
- 44.9% completion
- 5.7 yards per attempt
Bill McCartney didn’t begin his career at Colorado as a triple-option head coach, he also didn’t start off as a winning head either. It wasn’t until 1985 when the Buffaloes turned to the triple-option, which is why one of Darian Hagan’s predecessors ranks higher than him on the all-time passing list.
Vogel never completed over 50% of his passes for a season and in his two years as the full-time starter, 1983 and 1984 when he had his highest number of pass attempts, the Buffaloes went 4-7 and 1-10.