WSU Cougars Football

Connor Halliday poised to set WSU career passing mark vs. Arizona

Let's check in on the quarterback's apparently inevitable march to rewrite WSU and the NCAA's record books.

By Jeff Nusser and Kirt Oct 21, 2014, 9:00am PDT

Even after an incredibly modest output of 292 yards and two touchdowns against Stanford, WSU quarterback Connor Halliday remains on a record pace in a number of categories.

Sometime after Arizona and WSU kick off on Saturday -- in the first half, barring a Nevada-like start to the game -- Connor Halliday will complete a pass that takes him over 138 yards, and at that moment he'll become the all-time passing yardage leader at Washington State, surpassing Alex Brink's career total of 10,913.

Halliday has put up such eye-popping numbers with such consistency that it's easy to take what he's doing in stride, but consider that he's going to do in about two and a half years of starting what it took Brink close to four years of starting to do. And that's to say nothing of the other greats who came before him -- Jack Thompson, Ryan Leaf, Drew Bledsoe, Jason Gesser -- who didn't approach these kinds of numbers.

And it's still looking like this record will just be a footnote to even bigger records. Let's check in. (And, once again, huge thanks to Kirt Onthank for his work with the graphs!)

Pac-12 career yardage record: Matt Barkley - 12,327 yards

The low yardage total against Stanford didn't throw off the forecast as much as you might think, and that's because the projection model used by Kirt reduces the impact of outlier performances, both strong and weak. Halliday still is projected to trail Sean Mannion at the end of the regular season, with the duo in a dead heat if each gets to a bowl game.

Of course, we won't really talk about that right now.

Pac-12 single-season touchdown record: Matt Barkley - 39

After briefly receiving a challenge from Jared Goff, Halliday appears firmly in control of this one again, as Goff has fallen off the pace while Halliday plugs along. On this pace, Halliday will flirt with 50 touchdowns -- even without a bowl.

Pac-12 single-season yardage record: Sean Mannion - 4,662

Again, despite the modest output against the Cardinal, Halliday remains on track to shatter Mannion's conference single season record and also challenge former Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons' national mark -- again, without the benefit of a bowl game. With a bowl game? He's on pace to become the first ever 6,000-yard passer.