Graham Harrell is just one of two. There have only been two quarterbacks in the history of Texas Tech Red Raiders football to throw for more than 3000 yards in a season on three different occasions. Kliff Kingsbury was the first to accomplish such a feat. Harrell is the second.
When Kingsbury was able to do that, he was setting a standard. There had never been another Texas Tech quarterback to throw for more than 3000 yards in a single season up to that point, let alone three times in back-to-back-to-back fashion.
So, Harrell accomplishing this sort of thing in 2006, 2007, and then again in 2008 was remarkable. At this point, it was more than clear that Mike Leach’s Air Raid innovation was effective. It was more than clear that quarterbacks could accomplish insane statistical feats in this system.
And still, what Harrell was able to do barely had any sort of precedent. There was just Kingsbury who had the same sort of deal in his career. Nobody else. It’s a pretty exclusive club.
Texas Tech football history: In 2008, Graham Harrell became TTU’s 2nd QB to throw for more than 3000 yards in a season 3 times
But what makes Harrell’s showing in 2007 and 2008 even more special is that Harrell became the first Red Raider to ever throw for 5000 or more yards in back-to-back seasons. That’s not something that Kingsbury was able to do.
And since then, nobody has been able to pull off that same sort of feat.
During the 2008 season, Harrell threw for 500 or more yards in just one game. But, he threw for 400 or more yards six different times. And then he threw for 300 or more yards 11 different times.
All of that adds up to the 5111 yards that Harrell threw for during the 2008 season. To go with all of those yards, Harrell completed 442 passes on 626 attempts. He managed to throw 45 touchdowns and just nine interceptions.
His career was a remarkable one and he capped it off with historic stats in one of the best seasons that Texas Tech has ever seen.