ORLANDO, Fla. — Cam Ward made NCAA history in his final college game.
The Miami quarterback threw a record-setting 156th touchdown pass of his college career Saturday, connecting with Jacolby George for a 4-yard score with 4:12 left in the first quarter of the Pop-Tarts Bowl against Iowa State.
That broke the Division I — FBS and FCS — record, one more than Houston's Case Keenum threw for from 2007 through 2011.
Ward finished with three touchdown passes in the first half, pushing his total to 158. Emory Williams played the second half for Miami.
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 so far in his career, spanning six seasons at UCF, Oklahoma and now Oregon.
Either way, Ward — a first-team Associated Press All-American this season, along with the Atlantic Coast Conference's player of the year, ACC offensive player of the year and the fourth-place finisher in the Heisman Trophy voting — is assured of finishing college with one of the top careers by any quarterback at any level.
''I think Cam's DNA, his upbringing, everything that he is made of and stands for is the right kind of stuff; the stuff you want your team made of,'' Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. ''He's had a tremendous impact on our community, our team, our program, alumni.''
Ward ended the first half Saturday with 18,189 yards — 6,908 at Incarnate Word, 6,968 at Washington State and 4,313 at Miami — for the third-most in NCAA history behind only Keenum (19,217) and Gabriel (18,423).
