Colorado football: Top 10 passing leaders in Buffaloes history
By Josh Yourish
Colorado football career passing leader No. 5: Kordell Stewart (1991-94)
- 6,481 passing yards
- 33 passing touchdowns
- 58.1% completion
- 8.3 yards per attempt
Darian Hagan was a run-first quarterback and he led Colorado to a national championship, but when Kordell Stewart came, his dual-threat ability opened up the Colorado offense even more.
In 1992, Stewart’s first season as the starting quarterback, he was just a passer. He threw for 2,109 yards and 12 touchdowns, but only ran for -18 on 60 attempts (factoring in sack yardage). Then the next year he ran for 524 yards and six touchdowns on 102 attempts while increasing his passing yardage to 2,299 and 11 touchdowns. Still Colorado went just 8-3-1 after a 9-2-1 season in ’92.
Then, it all came together. Stewart threw for 2,071 while completing over 60% of his passes for the first time and only threw three interceptions. He also ran for 639 yards and seven touchdowns in Rashaan Salaam’s Heisman season. The Buffaloes went 11-1 and a midseason 24-7 loss to Nebraska kept them out of the national championship discussion, finishing third in the AP Poll.
Stewart led the Big 8 conference in total yardage in 1993 and 1994 and was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft.
He spent time at both quarterback and wide receiver in the NFL, but his best season was 2001 when he quarterbacked the Steelers to the top seed in the AFC and the AFC Championship game for the second time. He was named Offensive Player of the Year and a Pro Bowler.