College football: 30 best college quarterbacks of all-time

30 best college football quarterbacks of all-time: 8. Vince Young, Texas football

Career stats:

• 6,040 passing yards
• 44 TDs
• 28 INTs
• 61.8 completion percentage
• 3,127 rushing yards

It was never solely about the numbers. If that was truly the case, then Vince Young wouldn’t be on this list to begin with. But for the former Texas Longhorns signal-caller, he was so much better than what his stats say.

1,849 passing yards, 59.2 completion percentage and 12 touchdowns to go along with 11 interceptions in his second year aren’t numbers you can go home and brag about but his 1,079 rushing yards were. Although he could throw the ball a bit, running was more or less what Young relied on, at least, early on. He wasn’t Michael Vick or Robert Griffin III but he was fast enough to where defenders had a hard time keeping up with him.

Young led his team to a Rose Bowl win and ended his 2006 campaign with a record of 11-1.

Still, that isn’t the reason why he’s on this list. Young is primarily remembered for his 2005 season. He developed as a passer, throwing for over 3,000 – his accuracy improved, upping his numbers to 65.2% and he threw a lot more touchdowns with 26. Young would finish second in the Heisman voting that year but that didn’t matter. Everyone remembers the work Young put in during the National Championship game.

His opponent in USC was led by back-to-back Heisman winners and was mostly thought of as one of the best teams ever. Young shut down all of that talk, however, as he ran for 200 yards and passed for 267 including scrambling for nine yards on fourth down to win the game with just under 20 seconds left.

There are players on this list with better numbers but there are very few, if any, who had that singular iconic moment. While guys like Lamar Jackson and Sam Bradford lit up the record books, they never had an iconic moment. Young had his and because of it, he ranks ahead of them on our list.