In 2016, Texas Tech and Oklahoma, led by Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield, matched up for a midseason game between the number 16 overall team and an unranked opponent. In other words, a historic, all-timer of a game was not exactly expected. Thanks to legendary performances by Mahomes and Mayfield, that's exactly what it was. It set records, too, that one college football insider thinks will stand the test of time.
Baker Mayfield, Patrick Mahomes' offensive outburst an unbreakable record, insider says
Perhaps what Kliff Kingsbury, the head coach for Texas Tech, said that year sums it up best. "To have both those guys play the way they did ... We'll never see it again, I don't think," he said via ESPN. Long before either were the prominent NFL quarterbacks, which in Mahomes' case means a future Hall of Famer, they were college players putting in one of the best games ever.
The final score was 66-59, an unfathomable number that speaks to how incredible the offense was. 125 points and an FBS record 1,708 yards of total offense is not going to happen again. "Playing through a separated throwing shoulder and fractured left wrist he suffered in the first half, Mahomes set an FBS record with 819 yards of total offense," insider Chris Low said. Mahomes was an impossible 52 of 88 for 734 yards with five passing touchdowns. He also had 85 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Mayfield had a significantly less prolific day, which is almost incomprehensible when looking at his stat line: 545 yards and seven touchdowns. Perhaps most importantly, the future number one overall pick won the game. At the time, Mayfield was likely to end up an NFL quarterback, but the jury was a little more out on Mahomes. While one game never makes or breaks a player's NFL candidacy, this one certainly didn't hurt the Texas Tech star.
Even with some offenses getting even better in 2025 as the sport evolves and gets smarter, it's highly unlikely that fans will ever get to witness something like that ever again. For Low's money, it's more unbreakable of a record than Nick Saban's impressive record of 100 straight wins over unranked opponents as a ranked team.