Miami's Cam Ward sets a school record with his 30th TD pass of the season

ATLANTA (AP) — Miami quarterback and Heisman Trophy contender Cam Ward has another milestone on his resume, although it came on a day when he was not in the mood to celebrate.

Ward is now the Hurricanes' single-season record holder for touchdown passes, reaching that mark Saturday. His first scoring pass of the game — a 74-yard throw to Elijah Arroyo in the first quarter of the fourth-ranked Hurricanes' game at Georgia Tech — was his 30th of the season.

Ward finished the day with three touchdowns, giving him 32 on the season, but Miami (9-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) fell from the unbeaten ranks with a 28-23 loss to the Yellow Jackets.

Ward, the first FBS quarterback to reach the 30-touchdown mark this season, entered Saturday tied with Steve Walsh for the school single-season record. Walsh had 29 touchdown passes for the Hurricanes in 1988.

A fifth-year player who spent his first two seasons at FCS member Incarnate Word and the past two seasons at Washington State, Ward is one of five players in NCAA all-division history to top 17,000 passing yards in a career.

He began Saturday at No. 5 on that list with 17,022 yards — and the 74-yard touchdown moved him into No. 3 on the list, ahead of Tyson Bagent (17,034) and Timmy Chang (17,072). Ward now is at 17,370 in his career.

The only players on that list ahead of Ward now are No. 2 Dillon Gabriel (17,530 yards entering Oregon's home game against Maryland on Saturday) and No. 1 Case Keenum (19,217).

Ward is up to 3,494 yards this season, the third most by any Miami player in a single year. He is on pace to easily break a Hurricanes mark that has stood for 40 years — Bernie Kosar passed for a Miami record of 3,642 yards in 1984. The only other player with more yards for Miami in a season was Brad Kaaya, who passed for 3,532 in 2016.

Ward is also fifth on Miami's single-season completions list (241, 21 behind Kosar's record of 262).

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The Associated Press