Lamar Jackson’s Louisville run was the kind of stretch that leaves a record book looking like it got hit by a wrecking ball. Three seasons.
One Heisman Trophy. And a pile of numbers that still sit all over the Cardinals’ program history.
Jackson arrived at Louisville in 2015 and left behind marks that cover every corner of the offense, from rushing touchdowns to total yards to passing production. He also became the first player from Louisville to win the Heisman Trophy, doing it on Dec. 10, 2016, at 19 years and 337 days old, which made him the youngest winner ever at the time.
The Heisman season was the centerpiece, but it was hardly the whole story. Jackson’s 2016 opener against Charlotte matched Chris Redman’s program record with six touchdown passes.
Later that season, he threw five touchdown passes against Marshall and four each against Virginia and Boston College. Against Marshall, he also posted his best day through the air, finishing with 417 passing yards and five touchdowns.
Then came the ground game, where Jackson turned quarterback runs into a weekly problem for defenses. He scored four rushing touchdowns against Syracuse on Sept. 9, 2016, the most by a Cardinal in one half. In that same game, he produced 610 total yards - 411 passing, 199 rushing - setting both the Louisville and ACC single-game records and passing Redman’s 578 total yards against East Carolina in 1998.
Jackson’s legs kept rewriting the standard from there. In 2017, he rushed for 100 yards or more in seven straight games, starting with 180 yards against Boston College on Oct.
14, 2017. He reached 100 rushing yards in 10 games that season, the most in a single year in program history, and in the other three games he finished with 34, 64 and 73 yards.
He also set the Louisville and ACC quarterback record with 1,601 rushing yards that year.
The career totals were just as loud. Jackson ran for 4,132 yards at Louisville, the program record and the ACC career mark for a quarterback.
He scored 50 rushing touchdowns, a number that later was matched by Malik Cunningham. His 23 career 100-yard rushing games are also a school record, with no other Cardinal above 15.
Through the air, Jackson finished with 9,043 passing yards and 69 touchdown passes. The passing yardage ranks fifth in Louisville history, while the touchdown total stands sixth.
His 2018 NFL Draft spot came at No. 32 overall to the Baltimore Ravens, matching Teddy Bridgewater as the highest pick for a Cardinal quarterback. Jackson and Bridgewater remain the only Louisville quarterbacks taken in the first round.
Jackson’s all-around production reached its peak in 2017, when he totaled 5,261 yards, a Louisville and ACC record for a single season. He also set school records for total yards as a freshman with 2,800 and as a sophomore with 5,114. In his three-year career, he piled up 13,175 total yards, the most in program history and more than Redman’s 12,129.
Louisville later retired Jackson’s No. 8 jersey on Nov. 13, 2021, making him just the second player in program history to receive that honor, alongside Johnny Unitas, whose number 16 also hangs retired.
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