Gunner Kiel On Pace To Shatter UC's Single Season Passing Records

Now Gunner Kiel is no longer a myth, but he is playing in a way where he could eventually become a myth. Gunner Kiel is playing at an absolutely scintillating pace so far this year. Just a reminder of where things stand after three games.

• 108 attempts
• 71 completions
• 65.7 completion rate
• 1,041 yards
• 9.6 yards per attempt
• 14 touchdowns
• 2 interceptions
• 185.79 QB rating

He already has the single game record for passing touchdowns with 6 against Toledo,* but is the single season stuff where Kiel can really make a mark. The Bearcats have had some pretty good quarterbacks over the years. But they never had someone come along a post ridiculous numbers for an entire season. Greg Cook played in an offense that has much in common with today's modern offense's which stress the defense with a quarterback capable of running and throwing. His 1968 season was never really challenged until Gino Guidugli came along with his monster 2002 season.

*In a tie with Tony Pike for this masterpiece.

• 472 attempts
• 258 completions
• 55 completion rate
• 3,543 yards
• 22 touchdowns
• 21 interceptions
• 124.19 passer rating

Gino had better years, 2004 was his apex, but he never threw as often as he did in that 2002 season. Gunner is on pace to not just top that season from Guidugli, but to obliterate everything. If you just take his average game so far of 36 attempts, 24 completions, 347 yards, 4.5 TD's and .66 INT's and extrapolate that out to 13 games this is what Gunner's numbers would be.

• 468 attempts
• 311 completions
• 66.4 completion rate
• 4,511 yards
• 59 touchdowns
• 9 interceptions
• 185.17 passer rating

The marks for completions, yards and touchdowns wouldn't just break the current school records, they would shatter them into a million tiny pieces. The current marks for completions is 258, yards is 3,543 and touchdowns is 31. Ridiculous.

Now obviously there is a flaw with this kind of extrapolation, namely that is not reasonable to expect this exact level of production to hold for the duration of the year. Gunner will not stay this hot all year and his numbers will to tail off to some degree as the year goes on. But I still expect him to break the completions, yards and touchdown marks this year and to do so rather handily. The passer rating mark is unassailable, it was set during Zach Collaros five game run as the mutant offspring of Shiva the Destroyer in 2009. It stands at 195.53 and no one in the country has come close to that mark for an entire season. The closest anyone came was Russell Wilson in his one year in Madison when he posted a ridiculous 191.78 for the Badgers. Gunner can't get that, but everything else is in play this year.